this is the easy living yards podcast

I’m your host that loves a good dad joke

Ben Hale let’s jump in and learn how to

have a healthy beautiful yard with less

work so you can enjoy more time doing

what you love what’s up and welcome to

episode 30 of the easy living yards

podcast today we are going to talk about

living with passion and purpose I’m sure

what you’re thinking or if you’re not

thinking about this now you’re gonna be

thinking about it is what the heck does

living with passion and purpose have to

do with taking care of your yard well

taking care of your yard doesn’t

necessarily have to do anything about

living with passion and purpose but if

you live with passion and purpose how

you take care of your yard is incredibly

important because it allows you to live

with passion and purpose based on how

you take care of your yard and how you

perceive your yard in your landscape in

the world around you and so that’s what

we’re talking about today now today’s

gonna be a little bit of a different

episode if you haven’t guessed that

already we’re not gonna be talking about

specific things to do with your yard I’m

not gonna be talking about specific

plants or anything like that

instead I’m talking about how you

perceive the world and what the world

means to you what your life means to you

and that’s really deep stuff it might

seem kind of woowoo or whatever but it’s

really really important that we all

figure out to us individually what is

our purpose or what what’s our passions

in life and and how do we live toward

those passions and to me that’s very

very important and I want to share some

of that with you today

now I don’t know how the audio is going

to turn out today I actually chose a

really nice outdoor spot to record this

podcast the wind’s blowing through the

trees above me right now I’m not too far

from an interstate so you might hear

some semi trucks going on in the

background hopefully it turns out okay

but as I look above me I have

three beautiful shade trees rustling in

the wind above me and it’s it’s very

nice and relaxing so today I don’t

really have much of an outline to go off

of or anything so it’s gonna kind of

just be like a freewheeling podcast

episode and and with that I also wanted

to just really be from the heart for you

guys as well and and so that’s kind of

where it might be a little spotty I

might sound like rambling but trust me I

never ramble it’s always for a purpose

that’s a little tongue in cheek of

course and so hopefully I come full

circle enough with things for you to

really resound with you and to help you

just kind of take a step back and

consider what things in your life mean

to you and and what sort of passions you

may have in your life

what sort of legacy you might want to

leave behind and how that all ties

together and how it affects how you deal

with certain day-to-day things such as

taking care of your yard and also how

you design your yard to enable you to

live more passionately more fully and

with more purpose and and there are

certain ways we can do that of course so

before that in the intro I also

mentioned that I love a good dad joke

and man it’s driving me crazy because I

had one that popped into my head

yesterday that I just kind of made up

and it it was awesome and I didn’t get

to share it with anybody and now I

forget it and it’s driving me crazy but

I do have this wonderful one that my my

cousin brought up to me the other day

because we took my boys to go see a herd

of buffalo that’s local to us and and

they had a blast just looking through

their little binoculars at this tiny

herd of buffalo roaming through some

remnants of Midwestern Prairie that’s

been kind of reconstructed for these

Buffalo so anyway with all that context

the wonderful dad joke I have for you

today is what did the dad buffalo say to

his son when he was leaving for college

bye son

alright alright with that out of my

system let’s get back to it so why am I

talking about this today why am I

talking about purpose and talking about

living with passion and identifying your

passions today well quite honestly I was

actually supposed to record this podcast

episode yesterday or a podcast episode

yesterday and I was just kind of bummed

out to be honest I was having kind of a

rough day and I really just couldn’t

figure out what to sit behind the

microphone and talk to talk about so I’m

just being brutally honest here and I I

was just sitting down trying to think

about you know what was really going on

in my head and why was I not feeling

very excited or pumped or jazzed and why

was I having trouble coming up with some

topics as well so as background for you

newbie folks out there

I generally pre record these podcasts

and what I talk about here is how to

design your yard in your life to be

beautiful and healthy with less work so

you can enjoy a lot more time doing the

things you love and so we’re talking

about that piece today doing the things

you love I mean and that’s how this all

ties together and and this is really

important to me so in reflection as to

why I was maybe a little bummed out

yesterday’s I was just kind of having it

was a Monday yesterday and I was kind of

having a case of the Mondays I guess if

anybody gets that office space reference

and you know it just drives me crazy

coming into an office so I do have again

some more background here I have a

full-time job so this podcast is

actually kind of my side hustle and my

design work and my consultation is my

side hustle right now and and so I love

doing what I do aside from my main job

and you know that’s on top of you know

trying to be a good father a good home

owner and everything like that – and a

good husband of course and and so of

course you know there’s a very small

amount of time I’m able to dedicate

towards each thing and so I was that my

full-time job yesterday

and at least three or four times it’s

something that felt like so many times

people came in saying like oh you know

how’s your day today and I heard the

response oh you know it’s Monday but I’m

here and and that just really gets me

down right here that because it means so

many people aren’t really working toward

a purpose or their passions and they’re

just kind of like letting life lead them

and to you know somebody else’s goals

and I don’t want that to be you I don’t

want that to be me and and when I hear

that you know it kind of makes me feel

the same way as is how am i working

toward my vision in life and my passions

and so at the same time I feel like we

all have this tendency toward minutia

and complexity and also just the

day-to-day and and we really have a hard

time stepping back and looking at kind

of the big picture or the vision and

this is with you know the projects I was

working on yesterday in my team and and

but life is the same way you know we

think about Johnny’s soccer practice and

and Susy’s you know baseball game or

whatever you soon as you can play

baseball you know and and and we get so

caught up in the day-to-day stuff and we

we don’t think about okay which you know

some of that so it’s very important but

we don’t step back and think about okay

in between those busy pieces what are we

doing to steer our life in the direction

we feel called to steer it and and so I

want to turn around that you know that

feeling that I had yesterday I’ve kind

of being bummed out a little a little

down I guess into something that’s

constructive and something that’s

helpful for all of us and and so yeah

let’s just kind of jump in and and talk

about that some more so for me

personally I kind of have this belief of

what we do matters and I hope you share

that belief somewhat and maybe maybe

that’s something kind of in the back of

your head but I really want to bring

that out to the forefront and saying

that at the end of our life what we do

does matter and hopefully we’ve done

enough with our life to make it matter

– either someone or something or some

greater purpose and I don’t want to

necessarily get spiritual with this

episode because you know we each have

our different spiritual beliefs but I

think altogether there’s still something

to be said about leaving behind a legacy

and and leaving behind something

positive as opposed to something that’s

necessarily just kind of lost in the

wash water or forgotten quickly and and

so for me that’s really what drives me

to to have started the easy living yards

brand and and to really work toward

making a positive impact on all of our

landscapes and all of our lives through

that so to me that that is a core

purpose of what I’m doing with this show

and with my company as a whole so I

guess kind of what I’m reflecting on

here is is that I want to at least give

us all a moment to to think about what

is our our life vision or our purpose or

our passions and those are all kind of a

little bit intertwined somewhat but

they’re also teased out from each other

and the way I perceive it is passions or

passion are the thing or things that

really make us just get up with

excitement and with energy to do

something and and passions are those

things that those activities or

engagements that we engage in that we

can get totally lost into and lose track

of time and feel just have that internal

positive like warm whole feeling those

to me are what passions are and so

they’re generally speaking for me their

activities or types of things to do

that resound with us and so for me

example of a few of my passions I feel

like I have many passions but a few of

my big ones are being outside being in

the outdoors and and physically doing

something outdoors so that could be

anything from hiking to just gardening

or working outside and just to kind of

something that puts me in touch with

nature that’s one of my passions if it’s

not already apparent so that’s an

example and so those to me are what

passions are purpose is a greater goal

and to me it’s a much harder for me to

tease out purpose and vision so I’ll

kind of just leave them together and for

me vision is kind of like an overall or

a few overall in inspiring or

aspirational goals to strive toward with

life and to me these are kind of

longer-term things so so passions are

activities that may help me work toward

my my aspirational goals which are my

vision and and so to me a vision is

something that you strive toward making

a change or a difference or some sort of

legacy or impact so this is where it’s

what do you want to leave behind is your

legacy what do you want to be remembered

for and so it’s kind of like taking a

step forward to when we are no longer

here and looking backward at our life

you know taking a look backward from the

future and and what’s our impact and to

me that’s very important and so I have a

few versions of kind of what I’ve teased

out as my life vision but just as an

example from for me one thing is to

leave a positive impact on the world

through helping build better food

systems in the world with local food

movements as well as leaving a positive

impact in the world environmentally and

so you’re saying it you probably

sitting there thinking well what’s that

have to do with your yard well not

directly anything but indirectly a lot

of what I teach here not only saves you

time and saves you energy to pursue your

own light vision which to me is very

important but it also is more

environmentally sound and so it does

work toward my life vision as well as

yours at the same time and that to me is

very important and fundamental into why

I have built easy living yards the way I

have so I really hope that you take some

moments if you haven’t gotten clarity on

your life vision and some of your

passions in life that you do so and this

isn’t something where you can just kind

of flip a switch and figure this stuff

out this is a lifelong effort because

your passions and your vision will most

likely change over life and I actually

would put more certainty in more

certainty that they will because as

individuals we change and we develop and

we grow throughout our lives especially

if we’re living an awake life and what I

mean by that is being awake enough to to

be aware and to learn what is our vision

what are our passions and to work toward

this so if you’re being active in that

regard then most likely this will change

over time as you grow you could develop

you experience new things or new parts

of life or you experience different

parts of the world that all changes you

and and so those are the things where it

really helps tease out what is your

vision in life and also adjusts that as

you go so if this is something that’s

totally foreign to you and it just seems

kind of crazy that I’m talking about it

I do have something that I can that can

hopefully help you help you and about

living with passion so there’s a short

article I wrote a little bit ago

about living with passion and it has a

short exercise at the end of it to help

you kind of understand what are your

passions and what’s your life vision and

this is a very short exercise that

really you could spend weeks and weeks

kind of reflecting and building this and

still maybe never figure it out so this

is a short exercise to help you get

started on this path and I’m not

guaranteeing you that you figure things

out but what I do guarantee is that if

you open yourself up and start

reflecting and thinking about some of

this that you will grow and that’s what

we all want to be doing is continually

growing and developing and striving to

be better and so you can check that out

if you want at Bly dot how that’s e ly h

o w / passion PA SS IO n and that will

take you right to this article I’m

talking about where it has that exercise

of course I’ll also have a link in the

show notes if you just want to check out

the show notes now the winds blowing

quite a bit here so hopefully the audio

is coming out okay but man I am quite

comfortable sitting under these

beautiful shade trees is such a

beautiful day and I hope you guys are

having a beautiful day as well so let me

just kind of talk about a few things

that did jot down that may help you in

your reflection for one I am you know

I’m sitting up here kind of preaching a

little bit but that’s not how I mean it

to come off and and by no means am I an

expert in this area you know of

identifying passion and vision and life

purpose you know this is very deep stuff

and like I said earlier it’s kind of you

know it sounds kind of little

wishy-washy or woowoo but it’s not it

just makes us uncomfortable a little bit

to think about this or to talk about

this because it’s not something that’s

generally brought up and it’s something

that’s fundamentally important to our

lives and so I really recommend if if

this just seems kind of weird to you

just to kind of open your mind up and

to think about some of this because this

may be most impactful to you so while I

don’t claim to be an expert you know I

don’t even claim to be an expert at

being myself but you know what I’m the

best person in the world at being myself

and you are the best person in the world

at being yourself and why do I say I’m

not an expert at being me well because

to me when I hear the word expert I hear

somebody that stopped growing and

developing as fast as they used to you

know you have to learn an awful lot to

become an expert at something and I

don’t want to ever be an expert because

I want to be continually learning and so

when it comes to myself I don’t want to

be an expert at being myself because I

always want to be learning and growing

and developing and I hope you strive for

the same so that’s what I’m helping

hoping this episode helps you to do is

to to exponentially propel us forward to

grow and develop into living with more

purpose and to growing and making a

greater impact now I kind of mentioned

that this isn’t really like flipping a

switch instead this is something I mean

you can make drastic changes to to live

more passionately or live with more

vision and if that’s something that’s

right for you I strongly recommend you

do that however for most of us this is

something we’re taking small measures

every day to move toward a more

passionate and meaningful life is

something that is more in tune with what

we’re capable of doing so for example

right now

I’m married I have three children three

wonderful children right I can’t just up

and decide that because of my life

vision I’m called to you know sail a

boat around the world and reflect on the

world and what the ocean means to me you

know I can’t really just up and do

something like that so that’s what I

mean instead what I can do and don’t

worry that’s not my intent right now I

was just trying to think of some example

instead what I can do is every single

day wake up and think about how I can

move myself in my family forward to live

more passionately and with better

clarity of vision and move toward our

life vision so you know we as a family

have a collective life vision as well as

each of us individually has our own

light vision to work toward as well so

the best for our family is to figure out

how we can all move closer to our each

individual visions in a way that’s

helpful for all of us and so that’s what

we try to do every single day and just

in the smallest measures taking a little

bit of time spending a little bit of

effort or even just creating a little

bit of space to reflect those are all

ways to live more passionately in your

day to day life so again I want to

reiterate what are your passions and

again if this is something that you need

help with

check out the article I wrote of ready

ly how slash passion

and you know I again I don’t claim to be

the best resource on this so if you just

kind of start searching around for for

living more passionately living a better

life you’ll find all sorts of resources

and unfortunately a lot of them are you

know not the greatest and also a lot of

them are trying to sell you a bunch of

stuff and so I’m not gonna you know list

any specific resources because I don’t

think there’s just one set resource or

guru for any you know for everybody you

know you have to find out what person

seems right with you what person seems

honest to you and to to give a good

message in a way that resonates with you

well and so that’s why I kind of just

created my own little resource here to

to at least get you started and give you

a first little step and it’s something

you don’t have to worry about me selling

you a bunch of stuff or anything like

that because you know this is kind of a

just a very important thing to me I

think it ties in to how you live on your

property and with your yard every day

but this isn’t you know this isn’t my my

single focus of business instead this is

the thing that is enabled

by taking care of your yard properly

okay so again what are your passions and

do you have a vision for your life do

you have kind of a message that

resonates with you of of what sort of

legacy you want to leave behind and if

not I strongly encourage you to try and

articulate those things to start to

become clearer on those things because

those things really make you or help

enable you to live with much more

purpose in this world and to make a

greater impact positively on this world

and so I’m just gonna kind of wrap up

with my preaching with just a kind of a

couple questions and then I also want to

share with you something about my

business and how it helps me work toward

my vision mmm excuse me so for you

what do you want your life to mean and

what legacy do you want to leave behind

start there start figuring out what is

your life vision what are your passions

when do you seem to feel whole when when

do you feel complete one of those

moments where you get lost

where are you but in a good way what are

those moments where you feel like

everything is perfect

those are great indicators of figuring

out what your passions are and those

passions point toward your life vision

so for me I haven’t really talked much

about this with easy living yards but

for easy living yards in order to help

me work toward my vision and what I feel

like my impact on the world is I’ve

learned a design style

the stuff I’ve been teaching you guys

that has a positive environmental impact

on the world

it reduces our chemical use that damages

our planet has very widespread effects

it reduces the amount of work we need to

do so it frees up each of our individual

times that we have available we have

very limited time available in this busy

busy life right so any little bit of

time I can free up for you is a positive

impact I’ve made in the world so first

and foremost I want to thank you for

being here too being opened to help me

improve the world little by little so we

are improving the world by making a

positive change on the environment and

making a positive change on each of our

individual lives by saving time that we

can put towards something more

meaningful and more important in this

world whether that’s your family whether

that’s your life vision whether it’s the

chance to just breathe and reflect on

the world every one of those things is

very important and I’m very thankful

that you’re working to change the world

for the positive through your small

actions and trust me your little impact

that you feel like however small it

seems on your own landscape however its

small it seems on my landscape it does

matter because when we collectively do

this and work toward building a positive

change our small collective actions add

up to making a big big change and so

likewise I’ve made a commitment it’s

only been on my about page now so if you

want to check out more about me you can

go over to e ly dot how / about and

you’ll learn more about me and also what

I’m just about to talk about here and

that is I donate 10% of my total revenue

for people and planet causes so that’s

not 10% of profit but 10% of sales so

everything that comes in the door that I

earn through easy living yards 10% of it

I donate to causes that I feel make a

positive impact on people and on the

environment so again some of the things

that I look to donate to are things that

provide food independence through local

and healthy food movements I look to

make a positive impact on social welfare

and healthy families through grassroots

efforts I also look to help provide a

healthy childhood for all children

including physically cognitively and

very importantly to me emotionally so I

look for various causes various people

that are working to make a positive

impact through their own life vision

that resonates with my personal life

vision as well and so I thank you if you

look to working with this that with easy

living yards that

positive impacts and to me that is

incredibly important so likewise I want

to ask you what’s the positive impact

you can make in your life or that you

strive to make in your life

and it doesn’t have to be monetarily it

could be money this could be time this

could be effort or even thought that you

put towards something and it could be

action so what are you doing

to make a positive impact I really want

you to reflect on that and consider and

to come full circle how are you going to

be able to do that whether it’s time

whether it’s money or effort well this

is where what I teach here at easy

living yards becomes incredibly

important instead of being out mowing

the lawn or pulling weeds you could be

doing something more important and that

to me is everything so I want to help

you better design your landscape in a

way where you don’t have to be slave to

your landscape instead it can be a

positive space where you and your family

can escape to to learn and grow and

develop and that to me is everything

about easy living yards and so guys if

this resonates with you I want you to

check out all the the awesome resources

I’ve provided through the various

podcast episodes through all the stuff

on the website over at easy living yards

calm or e ly dot Hal and if you feel

like you need some help making a a

quantum leap forward with your landscape

I also offer consultation so you can

check out e ly

dot how slash consulting in there you

can look for ways to connect with me

likewise if you just have some questions

to get started something easy that you

need help with or something difficult

that you need to help with you can

always ask a question over at e ly l /

pod p OD and right at the top there

you’ll see a button to get in touch with

me and with that guys I want to say a

special thanks today for tuning in and

make sure you live with passion and make

tomorrow better than today

[Music]