Bloom Your Mind

Ep 107: Design a Regenerative Year

• Marie McDonald

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Before the end of the year, we usually spend this time to make up a list of things that we want to do or change. We call that our New Year's resolution. Today we're going to be more specific on that. 

In this episode, we're going to talk more about designing your life for the coming year and making your choices based on a regenerative reasoning. That means that you're going to choose to put your time and your energy into things that give energy back to you.

We'll talk about setting goals for the next 90 days and that includes saying no to the things that you don't want to do and yes to the things that you do want to do.

You get to decide what you want out of this experience. Express your ideas and live the life that only you can, putting your incredible contribution into the world.

What you'll learn in this episode:

  • Regenerative design as a reflection and design tool for your coming year
  • Strategies for intentional living by setting boundaries to preserve energy
  • Practicing nostalgia for the present to cherish the uniqueness of each moment
  • Setting 90-day goals to approach your reflection for the year in a way that really focuses in on what is generating energy for you

Mentioned in this episode: 

How to connect with Marie:

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We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!

Welcome to the Bloom Your Mind podcast, where we take all of your ideas for what you want, and we turn them into real things. I'm your host, certified coach Marie McDonald. Let's get into it.

Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 107 of the Bloom Your Mind podcast. Lucky number 107, right, am I right? I think so. This episode is getting released just a few days before the end of the year, and so, because at the end of the year we have all kinds of celebrations with loved ones or alone, all kinds of reflections that come up today we are going to be focused on regenerative design as a reflection tool and a design tool for your coming year. 

I love any kind of arbitrary excuse to reflect, redesign, goal set. I love New Year's, but I also love every single season for that reason. Like, yeah, the spring is generative and it's full of energy, but the summer is a time to run around and get things done and have big goals. 

But you know, actually the fall is another time to be really and get things done and have big goals, but actually the fall is another time to be really productive. I think we can use any reason, any season, any New Year's, any birthday, any type of cyclical sort of marker to reflect and generate new goals and new ideas. So that's what we're going to do today. 

I'm going to tell you a little bit about 90-day goals and how I recommend approaching your reflection for the year in a way that really focuses on looking at what is generating energy for you your energy flow out and your energy flow back in. Reciprocal energy spend and regenerative living techniques. So that's what we're going to really focus on today. 

But before that, I'd like to just say two things, my top two reminders to us. I'd like to be reminded of things that I know over and over again, to pull it to the front of my mind at the specific moments in time when those things are most relevant. 

So, at the end of the year, when we're surrounded by loved ones, we're celebrating, maybe we're by ourselves, we're reflecting, we're celebrating, we're walking around the world and lots of gatherings are happening. And lots of gatherings are happening. 

There are two main things I want to remind us. Number one, do what the hell you want to do. You don't want to go to something that you're invited to? You do not have to give an excuse. You don't have to give an explanation, absolutely not. It's nobody's business. 

You can say today's an end day for me. Thank you for the invite. I hope you have a great time. 

Okay, deciding to celebrate separately from others, deciding to be you know, celebrate your introversion, or give that a little bit of space to breathe, be by yourself, be by your own self all of that, when it's what you want, will allow you. 

When you do show up with the people that you love and the people around you and out in the world, you will have clear, clean energy instead of resentment or frustration that you were somewhere you didn't want to be, or that you were given energy that you don't think you deserved, or that you were, you know, in the middle of a lot of experiences that you didn't want to have. 

If you say no to those, then you will free yourself of resentment and when you do see the people that you are in relationships with, you will be able to openly and freely love them. So, here's a big plug for doing what you want to do and setting boundaries. That includes saying no to the things that you don't want to do and yes to the things that you do. 

The second thing is, for every one of those moments, whether they're by yourself or with others. It is the only time that event will happen. You hear me say this in a million iterations on this podcast. That is the one time that you and that person and those people will be in that space and at that time with that set of circumstances. 

Most of the time we look back on things and we appreciate them later and we think, man, I wish I had slowed down and been a little bit more present for that then. 

I invite you to practice nostalgia for now. Give yourself that feeling of nostalgia now, while you're still in the moment. I think about children and how important their gifts are to them. Too soon they won't really care that much, right? How can I just really get excited with them about all the little things? How can I be with the adults in my life at this moment? 

Because, who knows where we'll all be next year. So, two things set your boundaries, do what you want and experience the miracle of the moments that you're in, because you won't be in them again. 

Practice nostalgia for now. 

All right, my friends, here's what I want to say to you. I'm going to remind you here the combination of your face, your lived experience and the time and space that you take up in the world means you take up in the world, means that the things that you can think, do, say, create, are only possible because you are you. 

They've never been possible before y'all, there hasn't been another set of the qualities that made you on this earth before, and they'll never be possible again. 

So if you're listening to this, some part of you, I hope, recognizes that you are a totally unique phenomenon that is happening once, ever, right now, and when we recognize that we also know that you are a precious resource to protect, you need to be able to say no to everything that doesn't nurture the conditions that you need to thrive, and those conditions, the conditions that you need to thrive, and those conditions are going to be specific to you. 

In order to nurture those conditions, in order to do that, you can learn to live a life that is regenerative. 

Design your life, make your choices based on a regenerative reasoning. That means that you're going to choose to put your time and your energy into things that give energy back to you, not just any energy, the type of energy that you value the most. 

When you do this, this will allow you all the energy you need to express your ideas, create those ideas and live the life that only you can, making your incredible contribution into the world. Because you are the architect of your life. You get to decide what you want out of this experience. 

You're the lead actor you are. You're not a supporting actor. You are the lead actor in your life and you, when you design your life by choosing reciprocal energy spends, putting your energy into things that are regenerative and give energy back to you, you're going to live as an actor in that world, not a recipient of what's going down, what's happening to you. 

So, if you want to be that architect, what do we do right? Well, you need two things you need truth, and you need boundaries. You got to develop the skillset to prioritize what you care about and what you want to create in your life and in the world, and to say no to anything that doesn't nurture that vision. So, in order to figure that out, decipher what to say yes to and what to say no to, we got to check out the balance of the areas of your life. 

You can kick back over to Regenerative Design, the podcast. You can also listen to Nostalgia. For now, those are two podcasts that I've referenced the concepts from in this one. So, I'm not going to go back through this whole concept that I've created around regenerative ideas and regenerative living, except for to say that we are here to put energy into things. 

When we put energy into an idea that we have for our life or the world, we bloom that idea. That idea interacts with people in the world or the world itself, and it blooms the world and then it gives us energy back in some form, whether that's money or whether that's time, or whether that's a feeling of fulfillment, or whether that's connection or laughter, whatever it is. 

So, we want to look at the things in our life and make sure that that energy cycle is flowing, that we're getting as much energy back from everything as what we're putting into it. 

So I'd like you to, in the end of this year, consider I'll suggest that you consider reflecting, reflecting on all the categories of your life and how balanced they are, how regenerative are they On a scale of one to 10, let's say, how much energy are you getting back? 

How healthy is this cycle on a scale of one to 10? How regenerative is each area of your life? So, you can list all these areas. Let's say we'll take relationships, career and work, money, physical health, mental health, spiritual health, the environment that you spend time in and your contribution to the world. Those are my favorite categories. 

We've done something like this on the podcast before, but this is a different version. This is all about regenerative design and regenerative living. So take each one of those and, on a scale of one to 10, decide how much of the energy that you're putting into them are you getting back? 

So, for me, relationships is like an eight or a nine I put a lot of energy in, I get a lot of energy out. My contribution is a nine put a lot of energy in and out. My mental health is like a nine or a 10, super stable. Then there's a couple of other things that are lower. My physical health right now is like a three or a four. My spiritual health is like a five. Whether it's circumstantial or by choice, I haven't been putting as much energy into those things. 

So, I look at my list and I see where the balance is. I rate all of those things, and I recommend that you do this at the end of the year as a reflection tool. Each one of these categories what's your score for them on a scale of 1 to 10? How much energy are you getting back from them? How happy are you, how satisfied are you with these areas? 

And then, once you look at all of those areas and you see the high numbers, are those high numbers in the areas where you want them to be? Can you sustain that energy that you're putting into those things? Would you rather have you know? Would I rather, for instance, have my mental health be at a seven and have my physical health be at a seven too? Maybe Not really. I really like my mental health being high. I like my relationships being high. 

But I look at my list and I want to choose one or two for the new year that I'm going to focus on and I'm going to put them into the regenerative design cycle, which you can listen to on that episode regenerative design, regenerative living and I'm going to think about how can I prioritize, for the first 90 days of my year, my physical health. 

I'm going to do my physical health and I'm going to do my career. I'm going to do my physical health and I'm going to do my career and my bloom room. So I've been focusing a lot on family and volunteerism and I'd like to prioritize right now physical health and the bloom room. So, for the first 90 days of my year next year, I'm going to choose those two. Which two will you choose? 

Once you do this reflection on the areas of your life that you're putting your energy into and whether they're giving you that energy back, choose one or two to prioritize and then, in your first 90 days of the year, put those two at the top of your priority list. 

In the Bloom Room, what we do is we go, take those two and then we turn them into goals, we set milestones, working backwards from those 90 days, and then we coach, and we use the innovators process, the design thinking process of envisioning and creating and prototyping and went well and what didn't doing retros, celebrating, measuring by how far we've come, end of that 90 days. 

You can do the whole cycle again and you'll notice the two areas that you focused on. Those numbers are higher and maybe there's another area. While those areas of your life have waxed, maybe there are other areas that have waned and that's what you focus on next. That is the process of constantly balancing and putting energy into the parts of your life that you most want to put energy into. 

Because when we do that and we always have a focus and we always have an idea we give our mind something beautiful, generative and in line with our values and our desires to focus on. 

And what that does is it keeps our mind from wasting a bunch of time, getting pissed off about things, taking things personally, being demotivated, being down on ourselves Because we have a North Star to focus on all the time and we shift it every 90 days. All right, my loves, that is what I've got for you for the end of the year. 

If you do this exercise and you have a couple of priorities and you want to make these ideas real, come into the Bloom Room with us. It's a very low-cost group. We have so much fun together and we are about to dive into a beautiful year. 

You can join anytime, but I recommend January. It's a fabulous time to join. Come, join us and, whether you do or not, have a wonderful turnover to your year. That's what I've got for you, and I will see you next week and next year. 

If you like what you’re hearing on the podcast, you've got to come and join us in the Bloom Room. This is a year-round membership where we take all of these concepts, and we apply them to real life. In a community where we have each other's backs, and we bring out the best in each other. We're all there to make our ideas real, one idea at a time. 

I'll see you in the Bloom Room.