0:00

Hey y'all, I am so excited for today's episode. I would like you to welcome

0:04

warmly Allison Ward, a former IBM executive turned best-selling author and Tony

0:09

Robbins senior trainer. Allison has reshaped her life to focus on helping others achieve balance and purpose.

0:16

She has a gripping book called Please Don't Come Home Except for a Visit,

0:19

a field guide to raising independent young adults, and we're going to chat about that a little bit.

0:24

And she draws from all sorts of her rich life experiences, including a challenging

0:29

divorce and a dynamic career shift. Allison's journey is nothing short of inspirational.

0:34

Y'all, this episode's so juicy. She shares her secrets to living intentionally

0:38

and planning meaningfully. And she really is aiming to empower busy moms and professionals to embrace mindful productivity.

0:46

So if this sounds like your jam, tune in because Allison is a mother,

0:50

a mentor, and an innovator. and she's going to share how she uses her challenges

0:55

as a catalyst for personal and professional growth and how you can do the same too.

0:59

This is so invigorating. I can't wait to share this with you. Let's do this.

1:03

Do you want to feel less scattered and more focused, but the idea of goal setting

1:08

sounds like adding more pressure to your already pressure-filled life?

1:11

If so, welcome to the Plan Goal Plan podcast. I'm Danielle McGue.

1:16

I'm a professor, mom, planner addict and recovering overachiever.

1:20

After years of hustle and grind, I was tired of trying harder.

1:24

I was ready to try easier. At the intersection of research, practice, and play, I found a purposeful path

1:32

to planning and goal setting that is fun, simple, and sustainable.

1:37

If you're ready to try easier, if you're ready to make memories and do meaningful work, grab a pen.

1:43

I will equip you with tools and practices to clarify purpose,

1:47

reclaim time, and achieve goals playfully and lightly. Let's get started.

1:53

Today we are joined with Allison Ward, a dynamic life and business strategist

1:59

with a passion towards guiding individuals towards more fulfilling and efficient lives.

2:04

I love that fulfilling and efficient. Give me, give me, give me that.

2:07

So Allison has been through some pretty significant life transitions,

2:11

including a challenging divorce and a transformative career shift.

2:15

So I'm so excited to have this mother mentor innovator, Allison with us.

2:19

She really embodies the spirit of intentional living and meaningful planning.

2:23

She's going to share all sorts of insights, all sorts of strategies with you

2:26

all to help you navigate your path towards a balanced and purposeful life.

2:30

Full Life. So welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here, Allison.

2:33

Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here today. You bet.

2:37

So tell me your story. I know that you have been through some significant transitions over the years.

2:43

So, you know, tell me a little bit about those transitions and how did that,

2:46

you know, how did that inspire you to start helping busy moms and professionals

2:50

practice what you call mindful productivity?

2:53

Yeah, I'll start the story with when my girls were little, like really little,

2:58

like one and a half and three years old, you know, three and a half years old.

3:01

And I remember one day I was in the kitchen rushing around like a Saturday morning,

3:06

like I always was getting everything together for the girls and a very challenging starter husband.

3:11

And I remember I literally, my back seized up and I ended up on the floor,

3:17

like literally lying on the tile floor with my girls, like kind of dancing around me.

3:21

Like they think I'm playing a game, but my back was in so much pain and I didn't

3:24

have back pain, which was not common for me.

3:27

It was just, I think, the stress of everything that was going on. I had a big career at IBM.

3:31

I have these two daughters, a challenging situation in marriage.

3:34

And it was like, you ever hear that when they say if your back hurts because you don't have support?

3:39

And that is truly how I felt. And I wish I could say that was the catapult for

3:43

me to leave the marriage, but it wasn't. It was definitely a big symbol that maybe things were not going the way I wanted

3:49

to in life. But then my mom died shortly thereafter.

3:52

And my mom was only 59 when she passed away. And I remember thinking to myself.

3:58

What if I only have another 22 years? Is this how I want to live them?

4:02

Am I showing up in life the way that I want to model for my daughters?

4:06

And the answer was clearly and definitely no. And that is what caused me to

4:10

decide to leave my marriage. And so then here I am living downtown Chicago with two kids in private school.

4:16

And like I said, a big demanding job. And it was like,

4:20

things were better because I didn't have that stressor in my life,

4:22

but I had a whole bunch of other stressors in my life, right?

4:25

Work was only getting more demanding and I'm like, something has to change.

4:30

Something has to change because I feel like I'm just kind of going along swept

4:34

up in life without really having any real joy in it.

4:38

Not unhappy, but not really happy, not really feeling like empowered to live the best life.

4:44

And my goal, my driver was always these two girls, right?

4:49

I I wanted to make sure that they had every opportunity that they could.

4:53

And like I said, I knew what I was doing wasn't going to work.

4:56

And so I started looking for other resources.

4:58

And that's actually when I first found Tony Robbins and started doing some coursework

5:02

myself and really started to seeing some changes.

5:05

And the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn to share the work,

5:08

right? All of that while I'm doing the two-kin thing, trying to figure out everything else.

5:12

But it's like when you find something that really speaks to your soul,

5:15

it makes it easy to do those additional things. That was one of the first things

5:19

I observed was when you're really passionate about something and you're really

5:22

excited about something, you can lean into it more. And that's definitely been a theme in my life.

5:27

Even though it looked like on the one hand, I was leaving to go away to improve myself.

5:31

You're like, oh, how can I leave my kids? Right? How can I take time from work?

5:35

You know, I have so little, you know, free time. How could I go away for a week

5:39

and do like an intensive program? program.

5:41

But I really realized very quickly, I am going to be better off to serve my

5:45

kids. I'm going to be a better manager. I'm going to just show up as a better friend, a better daughter.

5:50

Right? From my dad, better sibling to my brother and sister.

5:53

And so I really did know that that was going to help me.

5:56

So some people are like, oh, I can't do anything else because I have my kids, I have work.

6:00

But it's really when you make those investments in yourself and what brings

6:03

you joy, you show a better life. So that was one of the very early kind of biggest transitions that I made.

6:09

Yeah. I think that what you're sort of describing this feeling of,

6:13

I'm not really unhappy, but there isn't just delight or joy in the way that

6:18

you know is possible, like in the way that you yearn for there to be in your life.

6:23

And also this idea that, oh, I don't I don't know how much time I do have.

6:27

So how do I is this how I want to live if if my time is limited?

6:31

So it sounds like pretty early on, you realized that you needed to make a shift.

6:36

Did it take a little bit of searching and exploration to figure out what to shift to?

6:42

Yes and no. I knew something had to change. A lot of people,

6:45

like you said before, it's hard to take action when you're basically physically happy, right?

6:50

That's the thing. Like, I think that was the thing that was a little unusual

6:52

for me because when you're kind of complacent, right? Things aren't really bad.

6:57

Like things are really bad. That's why I got divorced, right?

6:59

My mom died. But when things weren't really bad now, I was taking my kids on

7:03

vacation with my family. You know, like I love James Bond, right? So like the night before James Bond,

7:08

and then I get up early in the morning to finish the packing to go away with my kids.

7:13

And I turn the TV on, it was like TNT or TBS, and Tony was sharing his CDs there. And I was like...

7:20

Wow, that really speaks to me, right? So it was really somewhat serendipitous

7:23

that he was the first person. And I had done other things. I've always been somebody who values education.

7:29

Right? Both formal education and informal education.

7:32

And so that just really spoke to me. So that's the thing that made me take action at that time.

7:37

That's awesome. It's such a relief when we kind of have those moments and then

7:41

we open our eyes to pay attention for opportunities.

7:44

And when the right guide comes along, can really make a huge difference.

7:49

So can you tell me a little bit about mindful productivity and what is that

7:54

to you and how do you practice it?

7:57

Yeah, it's interesting. When I was thinking about the podcast,

7:59

your show this morning, I am somebody who for years and years and years,

8:03

I used a Franklin planner, right? I love a good system, right? I love my A's, B's and C's.

8:09

This has to get done. This should get done or it could get done,

8:11

right? And I prioritize. And I always with somebody who lived by a planter because

8:14

I had so much to do, right? And that was great because it did make me feel like, okay, I am being intentional

8:20

because I'm really focused on those.

8:22

For your listeners who don't know that system, I really, I still advocate for

8:25

it because it's really sitting down, making a list before you take any action,

8:29

right? What are the things you need to get done today? And then prioritizing those. So those things get done.

8:34

So at the end of the day, the whole list didn't get done, but at least it was

8:37

the A's, the things that are the most important that at least you feel like,

8:40

right, I've got something accomplished. And that worked for me for a long time.

8:43

But the thing that shifted over time is really tapping into the, why am I doing this?

8:49

Not just getting it done, but at the end of the day, what is most important

8:52

to me? What is going to make Allison the happiest?

8:55

And it could be bringing some joy to the lives of my children.

8:59

It could be, you know, having a stellar meeting or showing up for my clients

9:02

in a particular way, right, at IBM. Like, that could be the thing. And so it ebbs and flows.

9:07

It's not always one thing, but kind of sitting down and when you're making your

9:11

list, not a daily list, what I do is I sit down and think about.

9:15

What was great last year? What was great? What would I like more of?

9:17

So I can make sure I replicate that. What didn't work so well?

9:20

So I can make some changes to that. And I think about that. My actions are very intentional.

9:24

And then I use little things to, you know, the things that have to get done

9:27

that are important that I call them the stable.

9:29

Like when my kids were little, I wanted to make sure obviously that they were

9:32

well-fed. My older daughter is a type one diabetic.

9:35

And so we had certain meal considerations and health considerations.

9:39

So I made a menu. I got my children's input. I said, great girls,

9:42

what do you want to have for breakfast every day? And we set it out.

9:44

We pre-decided what we were going to eat.

9:47

And then in the morning, it was like, oh, it's Monday. We're having X.

9:50

So I did a lot of those things, like having the kids pick out their clothes

9:53

for the week. Right. Because again, I don't want to wear this. This isn't clean.

9:57

Oh, we decided all that in the weekend. And I had a little thing in the closet

10:00

that had like for all the different shelves to put the clothes in.

10:03

Great. Put the clothes in there. So just a little hack that just, it was so much easier to think about all the

10:07

outfits on at one time for the week, you know, getting the dance clothes together

10:11

that they needed. You were prepared, right?

10:14

And really being intentional about that. That is one of the ways that I did

10:17

it. Yes. It's sort of like principle, decide once. Yes.

10:20

And it will take the mental load, all of these decisions. We have enough decisions

10:25

to make. So how can you really limit that?

10:28

And also, as you were talking, it reminds me of in Cal Newport's book.

10:33

Slow Productivity, he makes a little bit of a critique of David Allen's get things done method.

10:39

And it's not that he doesn't think that it is useful or helpful,

10:43

but what can happen sometimes is when we get in this process of making list

10:47

after list after list and then just doing the next task and the next task is

10:51

we can separate ourselves from the task and like the purpose and the task and our purpose.

10:58

And so I really love the way that you start out and say, okay,

11:02

well, what is meaningful And I do think that for so many women,

11:07

if we have been in busy culture.

11:10

Busy, busy, busy, going after our career goals, starting and raising a family,

11:14

you know, doing all of the things, it can be really hard to even figure out

11:18

what it is that we enjoy and what makes us happy.

11:22

And so I love just go, OK, well, I have a past.

11:25

I can utilize that as a resource to say, all right, what did I really like about last year?

11:32

And can I just start by give me more of that?

11:35

Yes. Makes a big difference. Makes a huge difference.

11:38

And then anytime I sit down with a new goal, it's like I write down the goal.

11:42

Right. And then why is this important? What's the purpose of this?

11:45

How's it going to impact me? How's it going to be impacting the people in my

11:48

life? For me, contribution is a really big thing. How's it going to impact people

11:51

that I might not even know, right? So like your podcast, what you're not talking to every person from your podcast,

11:56

you can't, but you know that you're putting something really great out there.

11:59

And so that's, that is, that is huge. That could be knowing that you're impacting

12:03

the lives of other women who are juggling motherhood.

12:07

Like when I wrote my book, like that was the thing. It's like,

12:09

oh my gosh, if this could help other parents to raise children who are more

12:13

independent, We just kept seeing children who were going off to college and

12:17

really struggling with depression. They'd never failed in their lives before. They'd never had an opportunity to

12:22

fail before, which led me to read the book. But it was my purpose, right?

12:26

Because I had a big job. I had the kids. I had whatever.

12:29

And I'm writing this book in between in my spare time, right?

12:34

But when I was so clear on what my purpose was, it was easy. Yeah.

12:37

And those things that just give us energy instead of take energy from us.

12:42

When you're doing the work that you really feel called to do,

12:45

that you feel like that you've been yearning to do, I do think that it just

12:48

fills you with energy instead of takes it from you.

12:51

And that doesn't mean that it's easy, but I do think that it's easier than maybe

12:55

like falling through something that you don't really want to be doing.

12:58

There's just like so much that I'm excited about

13:01

chatting with you because I think that as you're

13:04

kind of talking about thinking through okay well what is the purpose of this

13:07

one thing that I've really noticed is that when women are goal-setting too we

13:11

want goals that serve beyond ourselves like we want goals that are relationally

13:16

impactful I want to geek out a little bit about technology with you so when

13:21

we think about technology a lot of times we think about how it distracts us in In fact,

13:26

I was just doing a listening panel the other day for the Global Listening Center,

13:31

and we were talking about what gets in the way of people listening well.

13:34

And we were like, technology. So I'm really curious, how do you find creative ways to use technology to invite

13:43

mindfulness as opposed to interrupt it?

13:47

Great question. I would say two things. One, I mean, obviously there's things

13:51

like apps out there that can help you be mindful, right?

13:54

To center your day. I love the Miracle Morning as an example.

13:57

I love that app. Great book. Very simple book.

14:00

It's like so simply put, it's like a fifth grader could read that book,

14:03

which is great because it can really appeal to everybody. It's very simple.

14:06

I love that. And so I love apps like that. One of the reasons that I love being

14:11

as proficient as I am in using ChatGPT is that from a productivity perspective,

14:17

there are so many things that I can do that I can take those that's kind of

14:22

like when I used to make the menu for my kids.

14:24

This is something that has to get done. We have to have breakfast every day, right?

14:27

We have to eat lunch. We have to have dinner every day. So by coming up with

14:31

that menu and getting their input, which empowered them, right,

14:34

I was able to go ahead and just get it taken care of.

14:38

Now, it's not that it wasn't important and it wasn't that I had to put my intention

14:41

on it, but I don't want to spend a ton of time on it.

14:44

So what I love for ChatGPT and Claude and some others is that I can take those

14:49

tasks that I have to repeat that I can do, but I can do faster with this.

14:54

So there are things that are important, but they're not things I'm going to

14:57

spend a lot of time on. So when I hear people like, there's all these promises

15:00

with ChatGPT, you can write a book in an hour.

15:03

And I'm like, you could, but it wouldn't be very good. And it probably wouldn't be very fulfilling.

15:07

No, exactly. It wouldn't be. And I hate those promises. That's a good point.

15:11

I hadn't even thought about that, the fulfilling part. What's a good example

15:13

of one of the things I do? I was on vacation.

15:16

I have a house and another location and we're on this kind of dirt road.

15:20

It's not a town approved road. So what happens is when it rains, there's divots. It's just,

15:26

it's a big mess. And my neighbor, who's there year round, is always like fighting

15:30

with the town to get taken care of. I came up and I looked at it and I was like, I don't even know how my neighbor

15:35

can get out from her house. Like the road, the divots were so bad.

15:38

I mean, her car getting out must be a mess. And I said, I'm going to help.

15:40

I'm going to like, who should I contact? She's like, oh, well, you need to call a town and here's who you need to reach

15:44

out to. It's like, great. So I called the town and again, they reminded me,

15:48

well, you're not really, you know, whatever. And I'm like thinking to myself, well, I pay taxes, don't I?

15:52

How does that work exactly? But she said, here's who you want to contact. And you want to kind of use some

15:57

words about the danger. I'm like, great. I went over to Claude AI,

16:01

which is a competitor to ChatGPT. And I said, here's the situation. I want you to write something about,

16:06

you know, the fact that it's danger. I want you to write it to this person. I want a subject line that's going to catch their attention.

16:13

Now, this was important to me, right? I am a good writer. I feel that I could

16:17

write a compelling letter. What I could not do was do it in 30 seconds. And it was so effective that within

16:23

48 hours, they were coming to repair the road.

16:26

Right? And so it's, again, that's a great example of one of those things where

16:29

could I do it? Sure, I could do it. I'm confident I could write a compelling letter.

16:33

But it's one of those things, how much time do I want to spend doing it?

16:36

Not much. So by putting all the data in there and knowing how to craft a good prompt, also done.

16:42

I didn't even need to edit it. It was literally perfectly written.

16:44

So finding ways that you can find tasks that you do that are repetitive.

16:49

That wasn't a repetitive task, but it was just something that it could do faster

16:52

than I could do. Absolutely. It reminds me, Gay Hendricks in the book, The Big Leap, talks a lot about,

16:58

you know, the difference between your zone of excellence and your zone of genius.

17:03

And counter to what I think we, you know, we might think of like,

17:07

oh, these places where I'm competent, those are the places that maybe get in

17:11

the way or I'm not. Sorry, I should rephrase that.

17:13

We often think that the places where we're incompetent are the ones that are going to get in our way.

17:19

But Gay Hendricks is really like, hey, look, actually, your zone of excellence

17:23

is sometimes the biggest distraction from you working in your zone of genius.

17:28

And so while this is important to you, and you even have the skills and the

17:33

competencies there to do it, it's still not your life's purpose.

17:38

And so how do you just be efficient there? Right, exactly. fact that it is important,

17:42

right? It's definitely, definitely important to me. I'll give you another example too. I run a group coaching and training program

17:49

for women, and I also run a mastermind for women who have graduated out of that,

17:53

but want to continue to do work with me. And the other night, a couple of weeks ago, I did a thing called seven levels

17:58

deep exercise with the group, which really helps people connect with their why,

18:02

right? They all have goals. I wasn't seeing much activity in the goals. So I'm like, okay,

18:07

let's do this exercise ladies. So we can really drill rolled down,

18:10

and it was life-changing for the women. They were like, oh my gosh, I didn't really realize that this was the thing that was driving it.

18:15

So it's basically the exercise where you ask, why is that important?

18:18

Why is that important? Why is that important? Seven times, right? And so we did that, and then I thought.

18:23

What are we going to do as a follow-up? So I have a custom GPT.

18:27

I don't know why everybody doesn't know this stuff. So I don't want to get too

18:30

advanced in that chat GPT, but I've made a custom GPT that is all about this

18:34

group of women that I work with and what I do.

18:37

So if I want some brainstorming, which is one of the greatest reasons you can

18:42

use chat GPT, just to think of what am I not seeing?

18:44

What are some, almost like coaching, right? Like, what do I not see?

18:47

But just kind of quick and prompt do what I said, what would be a really great

18:50

follow-on exercise? exercise. And ChatGPT is like, oh, well, you could do a meditation and a visualization.

18:56

I'm like, oh, that's a really good idea. So it gave me that little bit idea of what I wanted to do.

19:01

So again, I'm using that back and forth. It meets my objectives. I know my why.

19:06

I know my outcome, which is the two most important things to know.

19:09

But then I'm using ChatGPT to kind of help me brainstorm with it. I love that.

19:14

Yeah. I think that people that are real visionaries, which I I think a lot of my listeners are,

19:20

they might have all these amazing ideas, but trying to map out the path from

19:25

the idea to implementation can sometimes be really challenging.

19:30

And I love that ChatGPT can be that partner and, hey, I have this vision,

19:36

put these ideas together. Now, what map out the path for me? And you still have to do the work.

19:42

You not only have to do the work, but you have to also be able to read it and go, oh, is this right?

19:47

It's like, not like, is it right? Like, because chat TV does elucidate and it

19:52

does, but I mean, you're right from, does it connect with me?

19:55

I have to tie it back to what's my outcome? What's my why? Does this meet that objective?

19:59

Right? So it's just a tool. You know, I hear some people say,

20:02

oh, they're nervous about it. They're nervous about it. I mean,

20:05

first of all, AI has been here. What do you think Siri and Alexa and all those things are, right?

20:10

AI has been here and I'm going anywhere. And this is just a way of you harnessing the power of it.

20:15

And you can always use it for a blog, but you hear that all the time.

20:19

But I think the real power is the consultancy. I agree.

20:23

Right and and knowing how to really to

20:27

help people to really leverage the consultancy of

20:30

it i think is really powerful i have i'm gonna i'm gonna definitely create a

20:33

course now because i get that question so many times from individuals i do help

20:37

businesses with it how to harness it but i actually am getting more questions

20:40

just people who in my life how can i leverage it more absolutely love that i

20:45

mean the other day i was i was getting so many art projects back home for my kids.

20:50

And and I know so you know, this is something that's really interesting to me

20:54

is like organization and how do we just manage all of our stuff,

20:58

you know, but I was like, Hey, I'm going to ask, you know, chat GPT for some

21:01

ideas on how to, you know, how I could cultivate and curate my kids artwork,

21:07

and it had some really great suggestions. And so I do think that using it as this like a partner in brainstorming solutions

21:15

is really, really helpful.

21:18

So you kind of mentioned this earlier that you work with people in in designing

21:23

their lives and designing their years.

21:26

And, you know, I wanted to ask you, what are some challenges that you find that

21:31

particularly women have when they're trying to map out their year, think about their year?

21:37

I think the first thing that is very common, first of all, is that women,

21:41

and we kind of alluded to this before, they don't feel, not that they're not deserving,

21:45

but they think it's that, no, I've got to do this for my kids,

21:50

my spouse, my parents, perhaps if they have elderly parents,

21:53

I've got to do this for this other person, right?

21:56

It's my job to take care of them. And it's an important job.

21:59

Or that whole, well, if I'm spending time with my kids, I'm not doing my job.

22:03

If I'm doing my job, I'm not spending time with my kids.

22:06

So it's going to kind of stop and reminding them that when they take care of themselves.

22:11

They're A, going to be feeling better and feeling more energy and power and

22:17

focus on the things that are important to them, like taking care of their kids

22:20

and being effective in their work. And then the second thing is, again, connecting with the why,

22:26

which is why I did that seven levels deep exercise with the women,

22:30

because you often think it's one thing and it's not that.

22:32

And until you can really get down to the why, the true why, you won't be as effective.

22:37

So it's like really kind of connecting that with that. You know,

22:40

the goal setting process that I take people through is very different.

22:44

Because again, it's like we want to build on what was positive.

22:46

We want to make changes that things that don't work and then think about like, who do I need to be?

22:51

How do I need to show up? so that I can get all the things, like the person

22:55

who can accomplish all these things, right?

22:57

I think it's a thing that people don't often think of, like that,

23:01

well, what's my identity? Like, who's the person that I am that can easily handle all this?

23:06

Yeah, and that's so often because it is us that somewhere inside of us,

23:10

we already have that skill, that capacity.

23:14

And so how do we tap into it or how do we bring it out in a way that we can

23:18

cultivate it even more and make that part of us that was already there,

23:23

even more presenced and visible and doing the thing.

23:27

And that is your unique superpower.

23:30

The way that you look at the world, your passions, your values,

23:35

all of those things makes you different than it makes me.

23:38

And so there's no one way to do it. There's not a, here's the way you have to do it.

23:42

I hope that you and I share some ideas that your listeners will say, hey, that's a good idea.

23:46

I think we'll try it. And then put your own twist on it, right? Absolutely.

23:49

What what it's not there's not one way to do things and that's

23:52

the thing i always you know like what i said like the franklin covey thing i

23:55

learned that for years that really served me and i kind of put my own flourishes

23:59

on it but you know i took that as a baseline to start and then you know modified

24:04

it to serve me and to like i said so my kids are getting the best of me my husband's

24:09

getting the best of me my clients are getting the best of me i love that you know i find so So,

24:14

so often we get too committed to the system, right?

24:17

So you have like the, you know, Franklin Covey planner and you're like, this is the system.

24:21

And I think that sometimes we're hesitant to put our own flair on things because

24:25

we think that to adapt it to ourselves is to fail at the system as opposed to

24:32

I'm utilizing a skill of adaptation.

24:35

And I also sort of think about it in terms of, you know, like your family like

24:41

loves you and they want you. And like your value is you.

24:45

So, you know, if there's one thing that you would recommend to people so that

24:49

they could be more bold at work and present at home, what would it be?

24:52

More bold at work and present at home.

24:54

I think, you know, again, first taking a moment for yourself.

24:57

I love that idea of kind of having some centering time in the morning,

25:00

whether it's prayer, whether it's meditation, a walk, you know, whatever it is, you know, that morning cup of tea or coffee,

25:06

just like taking a moment for yourself and not taking action until you've thought

25:10

about what matters most, right?

25:13

Like what is it that matters most to you and also to that project you're trying

25:17

to advance at work, right? Or, you know, with your kids, the other thing I would say too,

25:23

that would help is that helps people. It's not as much about the doing as it is about the being, right?

25:28

It's like, how do I show up? If I show up with my kids and come on,

25:32

we gotta, gotta, gotta, you know, that, that kind of frenetic energy,

25:34

that's what you're going to get back. Right. And so you want to bring, and what's nice to like, just take a moment for yourself

25:39

in the morning and just like center yourself because you're just bringing a

25:42

totally different energy to everything that you do.

25:45

I love that. And to recognize that oftentimes in our homes too,

25:49

our energy does set the tone and we have so much influence.

25:55

We have so much influence. It's absolutely amazing.

25:59

So Allison, if my listeners wanted to connect with you, how could they do that?

26:03

Well, let's say a couple of places. One, I'm on Instagram and often dancing

26:08

with my daughters on Instagram. There's a lot of advice and things that I do there, but so definitely Instagram,

26:14

a lot of fun stuff there. And then go to my website.

26:17

I actually, in the topic of planning, I have a little course that I created

26:20

because like so many of my clients were using it like, oh my God, this process works.

26:24

I just put something very simple together there on planning the next 12 months.

26:29

And so I think kind of a unique approach to doing that.

26:32

And I would actually even give your listeners $20 off. It's very inexpensive

26:36

to begin with, but just to. To encourage them to take action on it. And if they just use the word podcast

26:42

when they go on, and it's A-L-L-Y-S-O-N-W-A-R-D.com,

26:47

and then just work with Allison when planning your year, your ideal year,

26:51

and they can use the word podcast, like I said, for $20 off.

26:54

And it is really impactful because I also talk about who you spend your time

26:59

with. That's the other thing too, right? Not just what's important and why it's important, but who do you spend your

27:04

time with? if we drill down into a not exercise.

27:07

So that's definitely a good way to catch up with me. Yay, Allison,

27:10

this has been such an honor. And I'm so excited that you're sharing those things with my audience,

27:15

because I know that's something that they'll wanna dive into and it sounds absolutely amazing.

27:20

I know I can't wait to click and check it out myself.

27:23

So thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate you and your energy and all your

27:27

wisdom that you've brought to this conversation. Oh my gosh, thank you. And thank you so much, because I don't know if the podcast

27:32

didn't exist when I was raising my kids, But I think this is just so helpful.

27:36

And so I really just want to thank you and honor you for taking this task on

27:40

when you already have a busy life. It's delightful. It's my passion. Well, that comes through.

27:45

If this podcast has inspired you, guided you, or just made you laugh,

27:49

the number one way that you can thank me is by leaving a written review for

27:52

the show over on Apple Podcast. I'm seriously tickled every time that I hear from you all. So pop onto Instagram

27:58

and follow Plan Go Plan and digital message me.

28:02

I want to say hello. I want to geek out about all things planning and goal setting.

28:07

Keep sensing the possibilities y'all.