Episode 1

Life, Managed Podcast Notes

Presented by The Life Experience Collective LLC

Hey, and welcome to Life Managed. I'm your host, Kendra Threed, founder and CEO of The Life Experience Collective, LLC, a lifestyle management and personal development company dedicated to helping people live with greater intention. I'm also a wife, mama, Christian, vegan, introvert, and lifelong student of human behavior.

After seven years in education, I earned my master's degree in marriage and family therapy, and I'm currently pursuing my doctoral degree in psychology. Here, we'll explore the psychology behind intentional living, which is how our thoughts, emotions, beliefs, habits, and behaviors influence the way we experience everyday life. It examines why we make the choices we do and how greater self-awareness can help us align our daily actions with our values, goals, and the life we want to create.

I'm so glad you're here. Let's get into it.

All right, what's up, friends? Come on in. I am so excited to be sitting here today with my headphones on, my microphone on, and to just have a break, to deliver this message to you all, which will be formally known as the first episode of the Life Managed podcast.

So make yourself nice and comfy. I'm sitting here on this beautiful sunny Monday afternoon, very close to 4th of July weekend here in Atlanta. And there is currently a heat advisory out there.

So to all of my Atlanta folks, be careful while you are out and about. And I do know that hopefully, things should be cooling down soon weather wise, because it normally always rains for some reason, here in the south around 4th of July weekend. And so with that said, I want to get right into it.

And today's episode is all about what is intentional living, which for those who have searched through the Life Experience Collective website, those who have been following us on social media, those who know me personally, you know that my mission through this entire platform is to simply convey the message of how important intentional living is. The truth is, is that we only get one life to live. And my message that I have to share with the world through this platform of living your life intentionally is very important.

It was a very important wake up call for me personally, which I'm gonna share some backstory with you all today. And I know that it is just very important, especially with certain people who I come in contact with and in passing with certain conversations that I've had, it is a message that can be very relatable to all. And so let's go ahead and let's get started.

I wanna start with my first year in education as an elementary school teacher. I had spent four years working on obtaining my bachelor in science degree, my undergrad degree in elementary education. And I was actually really excited, you guys.

I felt like this was what I was supposed to do. I had worked very hard for that degree, passing all of the state exams, getting my licensure, graduating on time and just feeling like I was on top of the world when I graduated. However, things started to shift very quickly after that first year in the field of education.

As a teacher, I worked very hard. I was very proud of myself, you know, on salary, living in what I thought was my purpose at the time, and really just doing the thing, doing the thing. And as you know, teachers, we work 180 days throughout the school year and then the infamous summer break, right?

Well, I realized that I had been in such a rhythm and routine throughout the school year that once my first summer break had come, I didn't know what to do with myself. I had two months to myself with absolutely nothing to do. And while it was nice getting paid during that time, I just, I, man, I don't know how to explain it really, but I felt empty inside because while yes, I had worked really hard during that first year of teaching, as I reflected on that first summer break, I realized that teaching wasn't, it didn't feel like what I thought it would feel like.

I still felt a little empty during that first summer break. And so I spent most of my time in my bed, just trying to find things to do from day to day. At the time I was not married, had no kids, and yeah, family was out of town.

So I just had so much time on my hands and nothing to do. And that is where my business was birthed. It was in that first summer break of teaching.

And I realized that through creating my business, what I was doing was I was ultimately disrupting that rat race. Now, if you could see me just now, I put some air quotes, that rat race. And a lot of you all can relate and can attest to going through what feels like a robotic motion of just doing what you have to do to get through the day, right?

Your job, your commute to and from work, your meals throughout the day, bills that need to be paid, right? Whatever may be involved in your day to day routine, you're just sort of going through the motions. But what happens when you're handed an opportunity to disrupt that rhythm in that routine and to say, instead of doing what I think I'm supposed to be doing, right?

A lot of millennials probably could relate to that. As far as feeling like we're sort of in this space of following in our parents' footsteps with going the traditional route, working hard in college, landing in some sort of a career in traditional workforce, right? And being in this middle space of also wanting to not go the traditional route and to work from home, to challenge the norm.

We've got a lot of content creators now, a lot of work from home folks. What I'm saying is I realized that teaching was not my ceiling, right? Now, my grandmother was in the education field, my mom was in the education field, so I definitely was following in footsteps of what felt comfortable to me.

And those who are children of teachers, you realize through watching your parents stand at the front of a classroom and to command a room, right? To see these groups of kids who truly look up to and admire your parent in a way that is different from your point of view as their child. It can be very inspirational, right?

But then in my experience, I was hit with a lot of harsh realities of teaching that made me realize that for me, personally, it was just not my ceiling. It was not the most of what I was capable of. Matter of fact, what I realized is naturally I am a teacher, but I don't enjoy teaching the traditional subjects, classroom subjects of math, language arts, social studies, science.

I didn't enjoy that and I felt very trapped in the classroom. And so during that summer break, I realized that what I wanted to do is I wanted to somehow capture what I was very passionate about and to teach it in an untraditional way outside of the classroom. I hope you're following along with me because I'm trying to make it make sense for you.

I'm definitely trying to make it make sense. We are still in that summer break and I'm just giving you that backstory in context to my personal story of this whole message of intentional living. I realized yes to teaching but no to the classroom.

If not the classroom, then what was my question? What I realized is my favorite part of the school year is parent-teacher conferences where I get to sit down with the families and the parents and I get to connect the dots of what I already spent so much time observing and experiencing in the classroom with those kids. So for example, once the parents come in, you realize, wow, you guys look just like or you sound just like or I'm seeing similar behaviors, right?

And so I enjoyed having the conversations that were more so the whys. Why is your child acting this way? Why is your child so accelerated or below academically?

The whys behind what I was given each day in the classroom. They're looking beyond what I was given. And that is ultimately what led me into marriage and family therapy, which was my next degree.

I now have my master's in marriage and family therapy and I'm currently doing work as a therapist with individuals, couples, and families, which I absolutely love. It was such a nice transition. And to further that, I decided to continue with my education in pursuing my doctoral degree in psychology, because that is the cherry on top of it all, with this big question of why.

And so I now want you to take that question and to turn it to yourself, redirect it to yourself. And I don't know about you all, but I'm a very visual learner. I would literally want you to imagine a big word of why pointing back at you.

Why do you work the job that you work? Why do you have the family that you have? Why are you possibly unhappy in certain areas of your life?

Right? Why, why, why, why? You know, the list goes on and on.

And that is how we have the Life Experience Collective. All of these life experiences, the collection, if you will, of life experiences that lead back to the question of why. And so, the foundation of my business is actually centered on intentional living.

And the five focus areas that I'm very passionate about exploring, the very foundation is personal identity, money management, time management, culinary consciousness and environment. These are the five areas of your life that I personally believe that if you pay more attention to the why in these areas, why do you feel like your day is coming and going so fast? Why do you feel like you don't have enough money to live the life that you would like to be living?

Why do you feel so misunderstood by others? Why do you feel like you're always hungry but never feel like cooking? Why do you feel unhappy in the home that you live in?

This would be a translation of those pillars into why questions. So now to dive into today's episode, which is all about intentional living. Now that you understand the backstory and where I'm coming from, and my message for you through the business, the podcast, everything.

I now want to jump into the psychology of it all. Hi listeners, we paused for a quick message because if you've been thinking, I know I want more from my life, but I don't know where to start. This is for you.

The Life Experience Collective presents The Life by Design Tour, a speaking and facilitation experience built to help people stop living on autopilot and start living with intention. The keynote experience is a listening format that helps people clearly understand intentional living and what it looks like in real life. The workshop experience, yes, this is a hands-on interactive experience focused on helping people identify patterns and start changing how they actually live.

The signature experience combines both of the two. It is clarity plus application. So participants don't just learn it, but they start building it immediately.

And finally, the retreat experience is a deeper reset and getaway designed for groups ready to step away, realign, and redesign their lives with intention. Every experience is about one thing, turning awareness into action. To learn more or to book the Life by Design Tour, visit www.thelifeexperiencecollective.com.

And now, back to the show.

So when people typically hear the phrase intentional living, they often picture perfectly organized planners, maybe aesthetic morning routines, spotless homes, or even people who somehow have every aspect of their life figured out. I bet if we were all in a room together, absolutely no one would have their hand raised, right? Because it sounds nice, but it's not realistic.

And so the truth is, is that social media has turned intentional living into an image, right? And in reality, intentional living has very little to do with appearances. It is absolutely not about perfection, productivity, or creating this life that looks good from the outside.

That is actually what we want to stay very far away from. Because what that would do is it would create this shell that is quite literally empty inside. And instead, we actually want intentional living to be all about the awareness.

It is the practice of making conscious decisions about how you think, how you behave, how you spend your time, use your resources, and even experience your everyday life. It is choosing to live in alignment with your values rather than simply responding to whatever demands your attention at the time. Hmm, values.

Intentional living ask a simple but very profound question. And that question is, am I living the life I actually want to live or am I simply living the life that happened to me? Now, because this is my actual passion and purpose, I don't know about you all, but that question, it gave me chills.

It gave me chills. At the end of my time here on Earth, if I can impact as many people as possible through this question alone and change and transform and inspire lives through this question alone, I will feel satisfied of how I spent my time here. I'm going to repeat it for you all.

It is, am I living the life I actually want to live, or am I simply living the life that happened to me? Now, the reality is that most of us don't intentionally choose how we live each day. We inherit routine, possibly from your childhood.

We inherit habits, possibly from, I don't know, your friends. We inhabit expectations, possibly from teachers, and we inhabit responsibilities until our lives begin to operate on autopilot. It becomes this mass production of robot-like adults who are simply functioning instead of living.

We wake up because the alarm goes off. We check our phones because that's what we've always done. We rush from one obligation to the next, responding to emails, completing tasks, paying bills, taking care of our families, and trying to keep up with life.

None of these things are necessarily wrong, but over time, we stop asking why we're doing them. There goes that why question again, my personal favorite question word. We become experts at managing responsibilities while becoming strangers to ourselves.

After the busyness of the day has come to an end, and you are sitting in a space with just yourself, you don't even recognize what you're left with at the end of it all. Now, before we know it, months or even years have passed, and we realize that we've been struggling, and we realize that we've been surviving life instead of experiencing it. Now, from a psychological perspective, this could make perfect sense.

The human brain is designed to conserve energy by creating habits. Every repeated behavior gradually becomes more automatic, which then requires less conscious thought. This process is incredibly helpful because it allows us to perform daily tasks efficiently, right?

But it also means that we can spend years repeating behaviors we've never intentionally chosen. In our environments, routines, relationships, emotions and past experiences, they all influence our decisions, often without us even realizing. So we're now talking about the subconscious, which I personally am very fascinated by.

We like to think we make rational, deliberate choices, right? But much of our behavior is shaped by patterns that have become automatic. That cruise control, right?

Intentional living, this is what interrupts those patterns. It invites us to slow down long enough to ask whether our daily behaviors actually reflect the person we want to become, not the person who you were told to become. Because remember, not only do we only live life once, but you get to choose what kind of a life you want to live once.

This is why awareness is the foundation of intentional living. It is the starting point, if you will. Before you change anything, you have to understand what currently exists.

We often rush to solutions before we've taken time to observe the problem. We create new planners before understanding why our schedules even feel overwhelming. We make new budgets before examining our spending habits.

We commit to healthier lifestyles before noticing routines that quite literally leave us exhausted. But lasting change rarely begins with action. It actually begins with observation.

Another one of my favorite words. Awareness gives us information. Information gives us clarity.

And clarity allows us to make intentional decisions rather than emotional reactions. One of the biggest misconceptions about intentional living is that it requires complete control over life. And it doesn't.

Life will always include unexpected circumstances, even interruptions and disappointments and seasons that don't go according to the plan. For all my Type A people out there, the plan. Intentional living isn't about controlling every outcome.

It's about controlling your response. It's learning to pause before reacting. It's recognizing when you're making decisions from fear instead of purpose.

It's choosing values over convenience, presence over distraction, and alignment over comparison. This is hard for me to even say out loud, but the goal is not perfection. Coming from a perfectionist herself, the goal is not perfection.

The goal is consistency in returning to what matters most, even when life becomes complicated, as it does. Something I often remind myself is that our lives are not built during extraordinary moments. They're actually built during ordinary ones.

And we spend so much time preparing for vacations, celebrations, graduations, promotions, weddings, and other milestones that we actually forget. Most of our lives are lived on Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoons, quiet Sunday evenings. The quality of our life is shaped by how we experience those ordinary moments.

It's how we spend an hour waiting in line. It's how we talk to our children after a long day. It's whether we eat dinner, distracted by our phones or fully present at the table.

It's how we organize our finances, care for our health, steward our time and cultivate our relationships. Those seemingly insignificant moments become our life story because they are repeated far more often than the milestones we celebrate. This is one of the reasons I created this platform and this business.

I wanted to create a space where intentional living wasn't just an inspiring concept, but a practical way of approaching every day life. Whether we're talking about managing time, building healthier habits, improving financial wellness, strengthening relationships, creating meaningful environments, or simply becoming more aware of ourselves. The goal is always the same, which is to help people become active participants in designing the lives they experience every day.

Now, as we start to come to a close for today's conversation, I want to leave with you this week's experience challenge, which for those who are not aware, you can sign up for our newsletter that goes out weekly. And in that newsletter, you will receive that challenge for the week on how to be intentional, how to disrupt the norm. It may sound incredibly simple, but I believe it's one of the most revealing exercises that you can do.

And this week's experiment is to track your real daily time use for seven days with no changes. Now, notice I didn't say to become more productive or organize your calendar. I simply want you to observe.

Write down how you actually spend your time each day, not how you planned to spend it or how you wish you would spend it. Record everything honestly. For example, how much time do you spend working, scrolling on your phone, driving, watching television, talking with family, cleaning, resting, waiting, even rushing.

Now, be easy. Don't judge yourself and don't try to improve anything this week. The purpose of this experiment is awareness, because awareness always comes before change.

Now, at the end of this week, I want you to look back over your notes and ask yourself one question. Does the way I spend my time reflect the life I'm trying to create? Sometimes the greatest transformation doesn't begin with changing your schedule.

Sometimes it begins with simply seeing it clearly for the first time. That is all that I have for you all for today, even though I could go on and on about this topic. Let's go ahead and end here.

Thanks for spending time with me on Life Managed. If today's conversation helped you see something differently or think a little deeper about how you're living, I hope you carry that with you into your everyday life. Until then, be sure to visit www.thelifeexperiencecollective.com to learn more about our Life by Design Tour, Lifestyle Management Consulting, Experience Maker Society, and to keep up with all things TLEC.

If you like today's episode, please be sure to leave a positive comment, like, and download this podcast so we can reach others just like you. I'll see you in the next episode.