2020 Goals-ELY099

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What’s up I’m Ben Hale and this is the easy living yards podcast? Creating Beautiful Yard should be easy. Let’s jump in in create the Dream Yard. You deserve so you can enjoy more time doing what you love Welcome to episode ninety nine of the easy living yards. PODCAST CAST Happy New Year guys. I’m super excited to be in here. In Twenty Twenty January of twenty twenty new decade New Year Episode Ninety nine nine. These are fun numbers right and I’m super excited to come at you today with a fun show about of course a little bit cliche but goal setting eating today. We’re GONNA talk about. I’m going to spend this is just kind of giving you guys a window into what’s going on at the Hale household right now and a little bit about our goals for the year Especially because intertwines with life in the landscape life outdoors outdoor living at home. And so what to give you guys a little bit of a window into what my plans are both for the business as well as for our yard and with just kind of family living living as well and Just a bit of insight there so so today I’m going to be talking about these goals for us and I also want to spin that for. What will you focus on this year? So that’s kind of where we’re going to come full circle with the episode and really I want to talk about As a theme for today’s show embracing the life you have. That’s what I’m really trying to focus on this year’s to embrace the life I have the way it is right now but at the same time focus on positive change change in small ways so still you know look for improving life making life better but also to accept where you are right now to be happy with it to embraced the moments that you have right now. Otherwise life slips away right. We’re always striving for positive goals and moving forward but I feel like personally. I’m sometimes missing missing out on the moments that I have right now. So that’s some of my goals for this year In kind of a mindset thing right there and I want to share that with you too. Oh so how can you know how. How can you focus on your life outdoors In your own landscape your life with your family as well as Embracing if if we have right now while also focusing on that small positive incremental change that we wanna make in our lives so I want to be able to help you. Of course I always try to make myself accessible to you guys through this show And so what highlight there is. You can always go over to easy. It living yards dot com slash. Ask and right there you just ask your question send it to me. It’s a super simple. We’ll get you know a nice little email conversation version started to really help you make that positive change in whatever way you’re looking at to do right now so gone over super easy. It’s free easy living yards dot com slash. Ask to get in touch with me directly Their view of you that have reached out to me recently. I’m just getting back into the gear of things here in early January. So if you’ve reached out to me within the past few weeks I’ve really tried to Make some personal time with my family so I apologize for the delay. I I will get back to you shortly. I have not forgotten about you guys. So if you guys want to get in touch with me easy living yards dot com slash ask is a great way to do so all right. So what’s going on with me right for with Ben Hale and with easy living yards so if you have if you guys have listened listen to the past few shows. I’ve done a couple rewind shows and really toward Thanksgiving time. I started to do some just personal reflection on how things were going for me For our family as well And what I decided is to take a step back a little bit from the the the go go You know and you know really pushing. I’ve been really pushing this year to really make some positive changes is Through easy living yards to really try and make some differences for you guys Through my business and What I’m realising is you know I wanNa make sure I’m focusing enough on me in my family as well and I feel like maybe I haven’t given enough energy and focus on on a especially with my family but also for myself you know taking care of myself and so I decided for for the month of December to play some rewrite shows. There’s some really good shows that we’ve you know have aired in quite back quite a ways back and I wanted to bring those back to the service so the great shows great value if you hadn’t heard from also worth re listen if you’ve already heard him in the first time so that was December and as it came up up to the end of December I was actually planning on doing episodes ninety nine in one hundred Regularly scheduled.

00:05:17 – 00:10:27

It was really an awesome coincidence since that episode one hundred would have aired on January first. But what I realized is okay that that would be really cool. Just for the number and the coincidence since but maybe what’s most important is for one to take a break from the show for you guys because really what’s most important. On December twenty twenty fifth and January first is to be spending time with family spending time with self were. Your friends would ever not focusing on easy Z.. Living yards or thinking about your landscape or You know thinking about how to make positive it’s just time for being. That’s what I feel right now. At least okay. I’ve always aired shows during that time in the past but this time Both for me and for you my listener. I’ve decided that you know what it’s it’s actually should take a break especially because those shows The you know. Normally my shows come out on Wednesday mornings eastern time and those shows. It was exactly coincided with with Christmas and New Year’s Day and so I decided you know what I’m just going to take a break from those shows instead of spending energy to produce those shows rose and to get them out on time which would have taken away from some some valuable family time. I decided to focus on that valuable and it was really wonderful spending some time with with my family’s past couple of weeks so thank you guys. If you were expecting your show I apologize for for not having those shows come out and also for not playing ahead enough to let you know beforehand so That was the decision I made. I think it was a great decision. Both for you and for me. So now. We’re coming into January of twenty twenty last last time I left you guys we talked about. DIY landscaping mistakes was the last show aired which was a rebroadcast from earlier? In the year I believe it was this this year Yes it was. It was right at the launch of the membership which was earlier in March of this past year Twenty nineteen so now here here. We are bright in the beginning of twenty twenty and you know toward the end of two thousand nineteen. If I’m honest guys I’ve been a little bit out of energy Just kind of running out of steam to be honest and I don’t mean that in a bad way for you know this podcast or anything like that but just feeling like I’ve really invested it a lot of energy into the podcast that business. My own personal Career at at my nine to five work life as well as you. You know. A lot of Focus on trying to be a good dad and husband and take care of house and all that stuff and so it really left me just kind of out of steam toward at the end of the year and that’s why part of why decided to reenergize and so during this focus time this re energy time would have really thought thought about is. What do I want this business? This podcast this brand to mean for me into also to mean for you You know those people you guys who care about this show And and what value you bring from it and also the positive change it can make in your life to create your own easy living yard and so what I’ve really trying to focus on for this year is to due to refocus this Bene- focus but really to help help me reemphasize A focus on making positive differences differences so living in working with purpose and intent. I’ve talked about that. In previous episodes of living with purpose living with intent. What that that means and so really for this year what I want to focus on his being purposeful being Choice F-full in what we do with our time our energy and our thoughts and how we focused that time energy and thought and then really try and keep it on a An even keeled positive Tiv- basis. And so what I mean is Personally at least I’ve really pressure I tend to just pressure myself a lot always. He’s trying to make things better. Think about all the things that aren’t done that should be done Whether it’s with my landscape with our family with our house with my business here all the things you know I would love it to be right and instead we can re shift that focus and to say you know to focus on the positive things. We’ve done the positive change. We’ve made the wonderful things we have right now. And that’s what I’d really love to for for myself and also for you you to potentially think about is how can we shift that focus to be thankful to have gratitude for what we have to you know not to make us complacent but to make us positively thankful for what we have what we’ve done what we’ve been able to accomplish to acknowledge that accomplishment and to continue to positively move forward with positive encouragement as opposed to a feeling of goods and and need to in that sort of thing.

00:10:28 – 00:15:03

So that’s what I they want to focus on with easy living yards for this year in November. If you guys were listening I’m also wanting to shift our focus a little little bit more Intensely on environmentally friendly landscapes so landscapes that are environmentally friendly. That are beautiful beautiful. That we’re proud of that are wonderful places for our family growing so places that are wonderful for kids and that’s actually a a big focus for me this year so if I shift gears now to give you a little bit of update on what I WANNA do with our yard in our family life this is a great segue so for our family life. There are a couple of bucks of things I want to do this year with our family life. One is focused on things to to to help engage our children better into educate them better. So that’s one bucket. Another bucket is to start tackling or start positive. There we go start right. Positively reforming our landscape around our home to be beneficial for us in in a couple certain ways which I’ll get into and third third just to calm down and and chill out a little bit right so to start living that focus on positive difference differences differences embracing the now into living with purpose and intent so realizing that all these things Stri- for I can live them now in the space in the life that I have now and continue to build toward that long term goal of what my vision is for that you know that goal so hopefully that makes says basically to embrace the feeling that went to have when I reach whatever goal I have. So let’s talk about kids first rate so If you’re not familiar I have three guys in our house and so my wife and I we have a six year old a four year old and a two year old awesome kids a lot of fun lot of a lot of energy And and also a lot of work you know like kids are a lot of work right And so one of the things. I really want for our children is always have a space of To feel like a feeling of sense of wonder especially at the young age they’re at a sense of adventure spaces that are safe but You know invigorating and exciting and enchanting and You know for imaginations help with developed with learning with creativity All those things and so I’m really big on. I’m trying to have elements of free. Open play for kids And I’m trying to figure out how to have that in our home and in our landscape as well and the challenge challenge here is that my wife and I. We both have a tendency to be a little bit high strung Parents Always focused on what could happen right. And so we’re always concerned that we might have some sort of safety issue with things or or whatever and so it leaves us a little bit High Strung a little bit Hovering at times when I’d rather not be and so we’re trying to for one how to read and learn how to readjust our parenting styles and to be calm Tom and comfortable with our kids being able to somewhat you know manage their own safety and their own wellbeing while being close by in present at the same time but to give them the freedom to be children and likewise how to provide opportunities for free play for them where we can just let them be to be in their own element to be in their own world and to create their own well world as well And also at the same time to help develop learning experiences for them in in those spaces. So that’s Kinda some summarizes a little bit of my goals or you know summarizes the loose term there right of course but you know it’s it’s kind of like the sharing of what’s in my brain for. I’d like to have with our kids so there were couple ideas that I came up with on how I’d like to do this this year. and this is one of the things we’re actually feel positively accomplished already which is awesome rate. It’s only January six that the time of this recording I think this shows coming out on on January. Eighth so Yeah so we’re doing pretty good rate so One of the things I thought about was inside things. Get a little crazy easy in the winter months so in southwest Ohio.

00:15:03 – 00:20:00

You know. It’s a little chilly for sending the kids out at you know. Usually it’s just the two older kids or six year old and four year old We let them roam about outside usually a little bit more than we used to At least in the backyard they kind of have free free roaming the area now with us being feeling comfortable to be inside still But in the winter months it’s a little tough you know you’ve got cold fingers runny noses cold feet If there it happens to be water around it changes things very quickly. Once they get a little wet And so it’s a little tougher to let them just be outside for some time. A. and and be happy and so inside things get a little crazy a little. You know little Pent up a little bit cabin feverish sometimes especially in the the colder months. That are coming up ahead so had a few ideas. One thought was To turn our living room and two eight four building conducive SUV area. And so. That’s what I did. That was one of the Christmas presents to our children was to Basically what I did. Is I marked. A bunch of studs across the room room in a is symmetrical as possible manner. And I installed a bunch of Eyeballs are ice cruise into the studs to be able to serve as Hook mounting places and so as a gift they got all these All these I is crews installed around the living room And then a bunch of ropes with hooks on them that are easy to cinched tight and A bunch of sheets as well so they had a bunch of clamps little clamps that they can cook the sheets on with so now they basically have an opportunity to build a bunch of massive massive forts across our living room and the intent. I haven’t completed yet fully but any intent is how I installed these ice cruise was was. There’s one at about three feet height and wondering about five foot. And so in between I intend to string up these little plant hangers with little little little tiny succulents and some pots. So at least looks. Like a decorative a decorative installation when the fort’s not built so that way it doesn’t doesn’t look like these just a bunch of random Ice Cruise screwed into the studs all over the room so You know what if I can. I’ll try to provide a photo of of the finished product. Coming up soon Maybe on our facebook page the guys if you’re not on facebook or instagram. Make sure you follow us there. You can find both just slash josh living yards so facebook dot com slash easy living yards and instagram dot com slash. Easy living yards so we. That’s probably the two social places where most active on You can go check it out there. I don’t know if by the time. The show’s out that I’ll Have have information on the succulents because we’re in the middle of a bathroom remodel as well. So that’s another exciting thing story for a different time but we’re excited to be done with most of Var Interior projects and to start focusing on exterior projects. So kids living room for check got that built they seem to like it a couple of glitches here in their learning process for me to figure out how to make it something that they can build themselves and take down themselves. But that’s the intent the thing and go hide in the living room make a bunch of noise if they need to but string up whatever they need to to build fort be able to take it down put away by themselves as well so my wife’s not pulling out her hair. I’m not pulling out my hair when we go in there and see just a mess everywhere that we have to clean up every day. So that’s the plan We’ll see if it happens the next next idea with You know being a bit freer as parents and allowing them just to have a sense of adventure in wonder and excitement and just you know just feeling free right not constrained is for us. Bedtime is actually a rather difficult time and so Trying to allow our kids to be you know a little bit not still At bedtime is tougher us Especially because sometimes that means climbing on windowsills or running around the room yelling or whatever It it’s a little tough for us to feel comfortable with that and also to encourage the children to who stay calm and so one of the things. We’ve decided as you know to embrace embrace a little bit of the crazy right now to allow them to be children and so one thing we’re trying try it right now. Is We happen at as a Christmas gift. My wife and I we got a new mattress and so the old mattress. We decided to put in their room sandwiched up with their their two little twin beds. And we’re calling it mega bed so we’re allowing this communal sleep environment right now.

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We’re testing it out. We’re GONNA see how it goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work. But we’re testing it out. And so so mega bed is a queen bed plus two twins that they can just choose to sleep on wherever they want however they want as close to each other as they want. I mean this is just our two older guys right now That are involved. volved in the mega bed excitement And actually surprisingly most nights. They have done pretty well with going to bed. Not to say that. That’s a cause-effect relationship but So far you know it’s at least survived the first couple of weeks of trial. So mega bed is a way for us to to allow our kids to be more free at nighttime to reduce our stress level with Trying to police them at nighttime as well. So it’s in the testing phase. We’ll try to the last thing I want to have with developing free play free experiences imagination and wonder within. Our children is an outdoor or kitchen. So we kind of what I did was I started something where I just got. A bunch of outdoor supplies like outdoor kitchen supplies so in my My son adamant I we raided the the goodwill nearby. I think this was this past year and For about like fifteen bucks. We got a ton of pots and pans and cutting boards and All sorts of utensils In bowls and cups and all sorts of stuff left durable stuff that could withstand the treachery of children especially outdoors. And they’ve loved it. They’ve used it a lot been very interactive for them to you. You know. Make dirt soup in all sorts of concoctions with all their supplies and so they’ve really enjoyed it and what I WANNA do is further enhance that experienced by actually building this interactive play space. And so I have plans. We’ll see how well it goes with finding the time to do this is but I’m really intent on designing this outdoor kitchen on the side of our shed and so are the site of our shed is a twelve foot wide space and I’ve Kinda concocted acted this little rain catchment. Contraption that takes the the water from the gutters stores it in a certain spot. has a water pump that they can Well so from the storage space they can dispense it into a a sink And then the drain catches it. They can pump it back up to the reservoir again There’s a water wall where they can put pipes in certain spots and let it flow through and interact with it and such So it’s pretty elaborate. How intended right now but I sure hope it’s fun. I sure hope I can at least Manifest some of it into happening thing and We’ll see how it goes so I’ll keep you updated on that But it’s one of my intended projects to continue to invest in our children to so help them have a fun time all right so moving on one of the additional things. My second goal is to enhance the enjoyable livable and productive space. That is our yard and so right now I would say our yard is livable. But I don’t know if in and sometimes enjoyable but I wouldn’t call it productive. I wouldn’t call it something. I’m proud of it’s part of that is a personal development issue. uh-huh of just becoming proud of what have embracing our space. Also it’s okay to have goals it’s okay to have ambitions and it’s okay to focus on some form of positive change and so far yard. That’s what I’d like to do. I’m not really sure where to start with this yet. Because my first goal is to Do some form of a comprehensive design. And so actually if you go to the The webpage for today’s show which is easy living yards dot com slash episode. Ninety nine on that cover photo. You’ll see a sketch of what this might look like for me. So this basically I was in on a flight and thinking I couldn’t stop thinking while I was supposed to be focusing on something else. Of course I couldn’t stop thinking about our yard and what I wanted to do with it and mapping out some concepts for it so that’s what I did on a piece of notebook paper and and so that’s what the cover photo for. Today’s show is is my mental regurgitation of my initial thoughts. Which I’ve done this this process for seven years now because of wanted to work on our yard for basically the you know before we close in our house and so really this year? I’d really I’d like to start. Focusing on a comprehensive picture of what our yard might look like that incorporates our goals for our children incorporates goals that I have have for a food productive landscape and incorporates goals for beautification that both I and my wife have as as well as just An enjoyable space for all all of us and entertaining space That we can really be proud of and really love so The first goal of course there is to create that whole comprehensive Branson design You know practice in exactly the way we talk about On this show and in the membership as well and and then once we do that select where we’re going to start first so we’ve already done a front yard Just front foundation landscape which was really a fun success to have Really something that makes us proud with our space In really really greatly enhanced the beauty of our house from the street So now I’d like to further other enhanced our home Not only from a beautification standpoint with those other goals and so the figure out what that first project is in really really Beasts do start doing something this year that helps Further the food production of our landscape.

00:26:06 – 00:30:20

Because that’s something really important to me is to have a food producing landscape that’s low maintenance Beautiful and Really gives back us as much as we put into it so okay. So That’s the synopsis of the Yard Yard the last piece For as an update for for what’s going on with Ben Hale in in our family is to chill out So this says something I’ll speak personally to is just I do put a lot of pressure on myself to Of what I envisioned success to look look like both from a business for myself for my family And also how much time is is utilized. And what I’m realizing is is. It’s okay to they have that vision but I put so much pressure on it that I’m missing out on on so much to so many wonderful things both here in easy living yards. You know we have an awesome podcast. Next episode is going to be episode one hundred that that’s amazing right and And so focusing on those successes focusing on the progress that bit by bit progress that we’ve made together and to really embrace that and to be happy with it and thankful for it just taking a deep breath there so it you know breathe into that right. That’s what I’m doing and and to to just chill out into to not put so much pressure on myself to make it to the next step. Make it to the next level while still focusing on progress toward the next step. Enjoy the now. And it’s that whole concept of it’s not only the destination it’s also the journey right and so of course there’s some fancy quote way to say that but Really focusing on the beauty of the journey as well as the destination. It’s so For me I’m working on enjoying the now embracing life. We have and at the same time making the world better and making my life better one step at a time so as far as making the world better Easy living yards is a huge part of that. You guys are a huge part of that of course in tandem with that and and also you you know making my own life better one step at a time goes not only through easy living yards but also just in in my personal life in in every aspect. One one step at a time so enough about me. What will you focus on this year right so this is so popular popular for January right? It’s just such a good transition time. All that family stuff is done. All the holidays stuff is wrapped up. You know such a busy time where where we you know. It’s kind of a more of an extroversion type focus You know a lot of people a lot of events a lot of things going on a lot of business everywhere And then after that you know it’s time to slow down into reflect suit kind of kind of pairs you know. It’s now more of an introversion type time right to pull inwards to focus inwards to think more deeply to take some breaths just to slow down after all that business right and so it just works out while it is cliche. This is a perfect time to think about goals to think about Change to think about positive progress Congress to look forward into you know set new intent or think with intention and so what will you focus on not only in your landscape landscape but in your life maybe thinking about you yard not as yard but a place for outdoor life a place where your life happens right. How can you create the setting for your life right so so our home is situated on this piece of land and this piece of land became King King envelope so many experiences as I’m reading this book right now called the one straw revolution? It’s this Book written by a Japanese farmer named Masanobu Fukuoka and in it he talks about the productivity possible salon.

00:30:20 – 00:33:50

Just a quarter Acre. It’s crazy how much race he’s able to produce on a quarter Acre and I can’t even remember the number but it’s a lot right and so we have this beautiful chunk of land that surrounds her home. And what we decide to do with it is up to us and how he decided to. Experience transit is up to us how we decide to Focus positively or negatively on that space is up to us to and so for were you. I hope you can begin to embrace the life. You have embraced the space you have. It’s hard for me to say this because I look at my yard so much with judgment sometimes instead how can we look at your yard or space and be thankful to put some positive energy out into our space great to put that positive vibe ahead Amanda Gates on a while back right and and she talked about how our energy our own personal energy is reflected on our landscapes as well so so bring being that positively beacon right. We can’t always be you know this isn’t this is like don’t worry be happy. It’s okay to be sad to right. Sometimes it’s okay to into focus on you know to to want to change right And to be a little bit disappointed or dissatisfied with the status quo. That’s what helps positive hazard progress but to be able to focus on the positive elements at the same time important. Okay so let’s focus on that positive change in small bits. Take it one bite at a time and before you know it will be making progress and as we know it will be enjoying the progress along the way too. That’s that’s the key right to enjoy the process so let’s work on enjoying the process this year. I’d love to hear what you will be focusing on this year. You’re so going over share on facebook right What we’ll be doing On this episode Go ahead and comment in the episode webpage. There’s multiple ways get in touch guys so Always happy to start a dialogue. So if you go over to the episode web page at easy living yards dot com slash episode. Ninety nine. You can leave a comment in the comments section You can go over t to facebook dot com slash easy living yards and there. You’ll see we. We always share the episode there. You a Lotta Times. My my wife is the one sharing the episode updates instagram on facebook But I’m there to when she reminds me So Yeah Great. Ways to get in. Touch guys is And of course if you have a question going over to easy living yards dot com slash. Ask Super Easy Way to get in touch with me directly. Not Okay so this is an awesome time guys for refocus and planning as we before we get into the growing season. You know. Holidays or quieted down Dan. So what are you going to do to make that positive. Change this year for your family for your yard for your life for your kids. What’s that look like for you? Let’s think about that. Take time to reflect on that if you have any questions going to ask me all right. Easy living yards dot com slash slash. As I hope you have an awesome. Twenty twenty here’s to a wonderful positive twenty thousand for all of us guys. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure you live with passion and make tomorrow better than today