One Seed Podcast

Crafting a Balanced Life: Introducing The 100% Energy Theory

• One Seed Collective • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Welcome to today's episode where I delve into the first part of an enlightening series about the 100% Energy Theory. This concept was developed from a personal journey of transformation after a life-altering event side-swiped me off the relentless hamster wheel. 

Imagine your life as a garden, overgrown with weeds and cluttered with things you don't need. The idea of cleaning it up can seem daunting. I found myself in this exact situation, overwhelmed by the task at hand. To tackle this, I needed a structured approach, which led to the creation of the 100% Energy Theory.

This theory is grounded in the notion that each of us has a finite amount of energy to expend each day—100%, to be precise. Some days, we might wake up feeling less than 100%, and that’s okay. The crucial part is understanding where our energy goes and ensuring we don't squander it on things that don't matter or allocate more energy than necessary to any given task.

Join me as we embark on this journey to reclaim our energy and live more balanced, fulfilling lives. This is just the beginning of our series on the 100% Energy Theory, where I'll continue to build on these foundational concepts in future episodes.

Thank you for tuning in, and I hope you find this episode both inspiring and practical. Remember, managing your energy wisely is the key to a more joyful and stable life. Let's start cultivating that garden together!

Text me your thoughts xo

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the One Seed Podcast, aka that weekly voice note from your bestie where an idea, thought or concept could become a seed of inspiration in your life garden. In each episode, I'll break down real, raw feelings designed to get you thinking, reflecting and growing, from personal development and mindfulness to societal trends and thoughtful reflections. No topic is off limits. The hope is to provide you with the right dose of contemplation for your day. Join me as we cultivate a richer, more meaningful life, one seed planting, episode at a time. Welcome to the garden. Oh, my goodness, I am so happy that this is finally the time that I am going to, because I've talked about it a lot. If you've been with me since day one, you have heard me drop the term my a hundred percent energy theory, and I just I know that I've said it was going to come and it was a come. Well, guess what it is here I am really excited to talk about it Again. I go with feeling and I go with. You know what's on my mind and every single day I think about my 100% energy theory and part of me feels very. Anytime I do talk about it, like outside my inner circle, I get a little like Ooh, like, are people gonna think? What are people going to think? You know, I still have a little bit of that because it's, it's kind of out there and it's, you know, it's not for everybody, which is totally fine, that would never deter me from talking about it. But again, I just needed to feel it was right. I needed to build the platform of my episodes to make this really hit home. And if you're just tuning in for the first time, hey, hi, I'm Terry 2.0. I'm going to probably explain a little bit of that again in this episode. But I encourage you to kind of go back and listen to some of the episodes to kind of get a feel of what I'm going to be throwing down today.

Speaker 1:

But this is, I want to say, like my bread and butter, and one of the reasons why I feel like the tiniest little bit hesitant to talk about it is because I haven't really put it out there in the world. I have done a couple workshops on it, I've talked a little bit about it in front of smaller crowds of people, which is my stepping stone, is my baby steps to get to the place where I feel like I'm going. But I feel hesitant sometimes to talk about it because I don't have, like, not a number one bestseller in the book. I'm not, you know, throwing it out there on social media that people know me for this. I'm still in my baby stages of figuring out how I can get this information out to the world. And you know, if you know, you know this podcast is my way of doing that. It's getting my feet wet, it is my baby stepping process, it is my figuring out process. So if you are here and you are listening and you are supporting me, you have no idea how much that means to me.

Speaker 1:

But yes, I'm going to be talking about my 100% energy theory and, because I want to stick to my voice note from a friend format, I know this is probably going to be more than one part, so I'm going to kind of collect my thoughts and get that this part one. I'm just going to describe what the 100% energy theory is and how I kind of got here. So you've heard me talk, if you've been around, that I call myself Terry 2.0. And I've talked about how I was like sideswiped off of my hamster wheel. I was on a trajectory to have the healthy paychecks, to having the accolades, to like winning awards in my corporate world, to like doing it all and being it all and having people from the outside look in, being like, oh my gosh, she's so accomplished, you know all the things that you kind of strive towards. And then when I got sideswiped off of my hamster wheel and I felt like I had to kind of start over or not really start over, but just like dig deep within my soul to figure out what I actually wanted to be, who I wanted to be, what I wanted to do with my life, how I wanted to live my life, I essentially developed what I'm now talking about as my 100% energy theory. I talk a lot about, which, again, this podcast is named the One Seed Podcast and I talk about the life garden. I did a five-part series. So if you haven't listened to that, go back and listen to that. This might make a little bit more sense for you about the garden analogy little bit more sense for you about the garden analogy.

Speaker 1:

So when I really honed in on wanting to, in my own opinion, dig deep, be a better person, live a happier life, have things to be more manageable in my life and not always feel that exhaustion because I felt a lot of exhaustion, I felt a lot of strain on my nervous system. I felt a lot of strain on my relationships like externally and internally with myself, that I was just kind of like ignoring all the signs that my body was telling me to like slow down and just reconfigure yourself. And so when I came up with my garden analogy, I wanted to or it was kind of like a byproduct of that I was like, well, it just looks so daunting, I can't. This overgrown garden with things in it that I don't want and weeds and weird plants and all the things, like every time I looked at it I was like I can't, I can't, I can't do it, I can't. Where do I start in reconfiguring my life? Garden. And that's where I sort of developed this 100% energy theory and so essentially what it is nothing can be over 100%. And so that's where the 100% comes from. I know, and I used to say a lot like oh, 110%, because you wanted to really hit home that it was like exactly right.

Speaker 1:

But in reality, from like a scientific background, which I do have I don't know if many of you know that, but I do have a biochem degree which, yeah, I don't really use, obviously, but it's where my analytical brain comes from. It is a part of me, is the way I'm wired, so I do very much embrace that. But yeah, I don't. I don't do anything with my biochem degree, but that's where the a hundred percent part comes from. So in my mind, in the way that I worked this, every day you wake up with a hundred percent and sometimes like a hundred percent energy, and sometimes we wake up with less, but we're never going to wake up with more. So if we go off the basis of a hundred percent, we wake up, we literally open our eyes, we see the light or maybe darkness if you're getting up very early, but regardless, you wake up in the morning, whenever that is, and you get to start your day with 100%. How are you going to spend that 100% throughout the day? And there's a lot of things that are fired at us. There's a lot of things that come into our path that we have to deal with, that we have to give energy to. So instead of spending or or instead of going through our day and reaching our a hundred percent energy allocation before the day is done, we have to realize where we're spending that energy. So let's just run with that, let's run with. We are given a hundred percent. Each day. We have had the best sleep, Everything is great. We're waking up positive, we are good to go, we're ready to tackle the day.

Speaker 1:

Where is some of your energy? Or where is your energy going, not some of it? We kind of your energy, or where is your energy going, not some of it? We kind of the baby.

Speaker 1:

Stepping through this, the acknowledgement and embracing of this theory, we really have to look at it from a bird's eye view. Where is all of our energy going? How many days out of the week are we reaching our 100% energy before the day is done? Are you reaching your a hundred percent energy at lunchtime? So when you're sitting there eating lunch, you are like I am spent. How am I going to get through the rest of the day? Or is that at you at dinnertime? Is that you at your 3 PM, hitting the wall? That used to be me. Yeah, 3 pm, I'm like I cannot do this. I've spent all my energy. I didn't used to use those terms, but you know that feeling where you're like, okay, I need to pick me up. I need something to get me through the rest of the day.

Speaker 1:

So some of the things that I realized that I would use my 100% energy to, just generally speaking, would be work, would be family, kids, household, friendships, so relationships in general. Some of those things are out of my control, right? I can't just wake up one day with the state that I'm in right now. I can't just wake up and be like you know what kids? I'm not going to take care of you today, I'm not allocating any energy to you today. So I always know that there's going to be a chunk of my energy spent on my kids, on my family, because I love that. I love that I get to be that person for them. I love all of our interactions. I love that we can take them to sports and do all the things. But I don't want those things to burn me out and I don't want those things to lead to me being short to the kids. I don't want those things to lead to like, oh, I have to take you to dance tonight. Like, oh, I don't want to. No, I want to have enough energy to be able to want to do that, want to have enough energy to be able to want to do that and part of the aha seed planting.

Speaker 1:

Light bulb moment for me was when I reflected back on when I was running, when I was running full tilt on my hamster wheel. I would get home from my nine to five. My kids would be home, my husband would be home and I would walk through that door and every word, every breath, every noise in my house that I encountered as I walked through the door after my work day would be like painful. It would like it would be like a hundred arrows were being shot at me and I'm like, oh my God, I cannot take this. Like what?

Speaker 1:

And you know how happy people are to see you at the end of the day, or whatever your you know next interaction is at. You know, once you've spent your energy for the day, you still have things to do. Right, and maybe it's you, you know, worked all day and you've made plans to go out with your friends for dinner and you are like I don't have the energy to do that, but you do because you don't want to cancel on them and you're hungry and you don't have enough energy to make dinner. So you might as well just go out for dinner and spend that time with your friends. You know they're happy to see you and they're asking you questions and they're wanting to know the updates on your plans and all the things, and so that's sort of the same analogy.

Speaker 1:

And when I realized that I was coming home and I couldn't handle, you know, those types of conversations or interactions, that's when I was like whoa, like why is that? And that's again one of the like seed planting moments for me where I was like, okay, I just my energy is spent. I'm coming home with no energy and as much as I say, you can only have 100% energy in a day, yes, that's all you can have. But can you go over that? Can you kind of go into the minus? Can you kind of go Over capacity? Yes, you can, and the more often you do that, the more often you're hitting, or likely to hit, burnout. And so that's the cycle that I feel like a lot of people are on. I feel like burnout is a buzzword. You kind of have to feel it to know it. A lot of people talk about you know ways to get through it and ways to avoid it, and this is just my take on all of that and ways to avoid it. And this is just my take on all of that.

Speaker 1:

So, again, when that seed was planted, I took a hard look and literally like when I draw out my life garden, it's the same idea with my energy make a pie chart, make a square, make some sort of chart, make some sort of something that can help you realize where your energy is going. So I realized, when I took a look, I realized, out of my 100% energy, I was giving I don't know 80 to 90% of my energy to my work and like, how unbalanced is that? How unbalanced is that? How unfair to the rest of my life is that? When I looked at that I was like, oh my goodness, for what? For what? For my paycheck, of course, for my benefits, of course, for all of the things.

Speaker 1:

But I was giving way too much of my energy to something that didn't need all of my energy. And part of that it wasn't necessarily my physical work, it was the emotional, the thoughts that came along with it about oh, you know, I have to do this and this. So my boss, you know, sees that and I have to write this email on time so that they know that I'm working and I have to. You know, just those types of strange ruminating sometimes most times unnecessary thoughts, and once I started to realize how much I was spending my energy that was given to me on things that didn't matter, I was able to level out and balance a little bit better so I could come home from work at whatever time 5 pm, and I wouldn't have to take that 20 minute lie down in my bed, regroup time to gather any ounce of energy I could find. I could walk through the door and I would still have energy left and say hey kids, how is your day? Show me all the drawings. Did you eat your lunch? Do you have your stuff packed and ready to go for hockey? You know, I wasn't screaming at them. I wasn't frustrated. They weren't ready on time. I wasn't frustrated. I had to help with dinner. I had energy to do those things and those were priorities to me.

Speaker 1:

Everybody's priorities are different. There's your pie chart. I'm just going to use pie chart because that's how I like to look at my energy. Your pie chart is going to be different from mine, different from your partners, different from your coworkers, different from your best friends, and that's okay. That's one of the things you have to realize. You can't. You're going to allocate your energy much differently than everybody else. So don't care. So don't worry about anybody else, just worry about yourself. And also, it's going to change every day, so not every day.

Speaker 1:

Did I allocate 85% to my work. Sometimes work was easier and I didn't have all those ruminating thoughts and I didn't let all the other you know, yeah, ruminating thoughts kind of. And that's how I sort of developed and sort of leveled out and it was my way of not hitting burnout, because I had hit burnout and I kept hitting it over and over again and I'm like I'm doing all the things Like, why am I still here? So this is what worked for me. This is what worked for me. So, again, I think as much as I would love for everybody because I think it works so well to adopt this analogy and to adopt this theory and to adopt this seed into your garden, I want it planted and I want it to be front and center and I want it to be this beautiful thing. I know that it might not be for everybody, but you might take something away from it that really works for you. So, however, it is that you interpret what I'm saying just, really, you know, work on it.

Speaker 1:

It's not going to happen overnight. It is not going to. You know you're not going to find the answers from me. You're not going to find the answers from you know reading the show notes You're not going to find the answers from you know you're not going to find the answers from me. You're not going to find the answers from you know reading the show notes You're not going to find the answers from you know kind of explaining this concept to to a partner or best friend. But it's, it's worth a try to attempt to just slightly look at where your energy is coming from.

Speaker 1:

And the one thing that I kind of want to bring up that will kind of lead into like a part two, would be that we're not always waking up with a hundred percent. So I don't want you to live in this idea where every day you have a hundred percent and I'm going to give a hundred percent and then I'm going to be great. No, there are times where you're waking up at 90%. There's times you're waking up at 80%. Whatever it is, there are days where you're going to wake up with lower percentage and you're going to have less to allocate, whether that your kids were sick and up in the middle of the night, whether you were sick, whether you had a bad sleep, whether you know there were things on your mind and you couldn't quite do it, whether you're dealing with chronic pain.

Speaker 1:

I've dealt with this chronic back pain for probably about six months now. I don't know where it's coming from. I'm doing everything to get rid of it, but I wake up anxious every morning to be like okay, how bad is the pain going to be today? And that automatically depletes my energy. That automatically is allocating energy to like oh my goodness. And sometimes I don't get good sleeps, which, if you know, you know. If you know me, you know that my sleep is like number one. It has been for most of my life. I cannot function if I don't get a good night's sleep, and so I do a lot of things to make sure that I get a good night's sleep, because I want to have as much energy to be able to give throughout the day, and so there's many reasons why you might not have the 100% to give every day. So that's why, in my opinion, it's way more important to make sure that you're allocating it in a way that makes sense for you and that it's manageable. All right, so I'm going to leave you with that.

Speaker 1:

This is part one. I'm excited to kind of dive a little bit more deeper. I am. I do have strategy behind how to sort of work through this and really adopt this theory, if that's, if that's what you want to do. So thank you for being here. Oh God, it feels so good to talk about. You have no idea. I would just wish like I could just snap my fingers, which I know is not possible, but I really do wish it was just like I don't know, there was just like more people talking about it and it was adopted more, because the piece that it's brought me and the. You know I've used this theory on a lot of my mentorship clients and a lot of my friends, just like genuinely talking about it and, and you know, planting the seeds and just you know, and everyone's just like wow, and not that I'm doing it for any of those reasons, but I, I don't know, I just like having giving some tools. I love, you know talking about this type of stuff. So thank you for being here and stay tuned for part two.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you Before you go. I wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you for being a part of this community. Your support honestly means the world to me, and if you found any value in what you heard today, please just take a moment to rate and review this podcast on your favorite platform. Your feedback really helps grow and reach more listeners for me. As you go about your day, I hope that something from this episode resonated with you me as you go about your day. I hope that something from this episode resonated with you, sparking a new idea, insight or inspiration. Think of it as a seed planted in your life garden, ready to bloom into something beautiful. So until next time, keep cultivating your life garden and thank you for listening.