Alan and Bre start with a quick catch up on their day. Opening with a few breaths together and moments of gratitude. Offering gratitude to all of our listeners from our launch of Episode One: The Paradox. Before diving into resolutions, we acknowledge the differences we have in our approaches and that in itself represents our podcast. We hope that everyone can take time to listen to people who think differently than them with an open heart. And in those times we don’t, recognizing it and revisiting it.
Alan shares his idea of theming his years. This year’s theme is “act like a child”. Why? They are awesome, curious, ego-less, persistent, relentless, and they have fun. They dive deeper into this idea of curiosity and the importance of it as an adult, how learning based on others’ label of us can be limiting, and learning is different for everyone. Coming back to honoring everyone’s differences and everyone’s choice of how to use those differences. They talk about superpowers! The conversation circles back to how Alan chooses his themes and the past few years of themes.
As Bre dives into why she stopped doing new years’ resolutions, they get sidetracked talking about putting energy into what you want instead of what you don’t want. Her shift away from resolutions moved towards reflecting on what she’s proud of and carries those things with her into the new year. Why wait until the new year to do something? They tap into the significance of the natural cycles of season, the seasonality of individual lives and living accordingly. She shares thinking about who you want to be everyday and how Alan’s theme concept is similar to this idea, which diverges them into talking about fixed mindsets.
Bre discusses why goals can be limiting and why she changed her focus into a direction, using a sankalpa or intention instead of goals. Using a vision how she wants to live her life to make decisions and guide her, leaving how it shows up to be open ended. This leads them into romanticizing life and the magic circling back to a child’s ability to laugh or cry. Alan shares an incredible lesson about being present to what shows up and being ok with the moments of “failures” and the emotions that come with it while antelope hunting.
As Alan shares his passion for his long list of goals, he expands on the importance of enjoying the journey with these goals and that his goals have open-ended deadlines instead of rushing to get there. His goals fall into a range of categories and also considers how they all fit together in the big picture to create balance, as well as managing resources. When it comes to goals, go out and get it. Live like you’ll live until you’re 80 and that you’ll die tomorrow. Time is finite, how do you want to show up? The episode wraps with the history of Alan’s mantra “Work for what you want and then go get it.” #workforwhatyouwant #andthengogetit
Journal prompt: Write about your thoughts from the episode. Write your goals. If you did resolutions and failed them, write about that. Write what you’re grateful for, find something. Write what you would do today if you knew you were going to die tomorrow.
HUGE THANK YOU to the Allyson Band www.allysonband.com for the podcast’s music and Brianna Cote www.briannacote.com for photography and cover design.
Books referenced: Being conscious about what we consume, how we consume and where we consume, please support your local bookstore, they can typically order most books for you if they don’t have it in the store. A must cultural read is the first of a trilogy by Kent Nerburn: Neither Wolf Nor Dog. The second, The Wolf at Twilight shares some heavy history of boarding school and whitewashing traditional Indian culture. Finally, The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo. Sandra Ingerman book: Medicine for the Earth, here is an abstract on shamanism and Alberto Villoldo book: The Four Insights
