Uncommon Freedom
Ready to join the movement of people choosing to build a life of Uncommon Freedom™?
Join hosts, Bekah and Kevin Tinter, to maximize your potential, skyrocket your impact, and live a great life while you make the world a better place.
Learn from inspiring guests who have made the decision to lead the life they want, instead of accepting the life they were given. Discover how to embrace the prosperity with a purpose, making an eternal impact to change your corner of the world. It’s time to design a life where you have the options to do what you want, when you want, and with who you want. That's Uncommon Freedom™.
Join us on this journey and unleash your full potential today!
Uncommon Freedom
Lifestyle Design: Creating the Life You Want Through Intentional Living
Are you ready to take control of your life and create the future you've always dreamed of? In this inspiring episode, Kevin and Bekah Tinter explore the powerful concept of lifestyle design and how it applies to entrepreneurs and employees alike.
Drawing from their personal experiences and insights, they discuss:
Why lifestyle design is a continuous practice, not a one-time plan
The importance of making intentional daily decisions
How to create systems that support your long-term goals
Balancing faith and action in your lifestyle design
Developing an "extreme ownership" mindset for success
Kevin and Bekah offer practical advice on aligning your daily choices with your values and goals. They share personal anecdotes about their own journey in lifestyle design, including how they've navigated challenges and made intentional decisions in their family life and business.
Whether you're just starting to think about designing your ideal life or looking to refine your current approach, this episode provides actionable steps to help you create a life of purpose, freedom, and fulfillment. Join us for a conversation that will inspire you to take charge of your future and live life on your own terms.
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Hey friends, welcome to the Uncommon Freedom podcast, where we explore the intersection of entrepreneurship and intentional living.
Speaker 2:Today's episode focuses on lifestyle design and how it applies to your daily routines and decisions as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:We'll discuss why lifestyle design isn't a one-time project but a continuous practice that shapes your success and fulfillment, and real quick. I think it's important to point out that when we talk about entrepreneur, it's really more of a lifestyle. It doesn't necessarily mean that you own a business. We know that probably the vast majority of Americans are going to be employees, but you have employees with an employee mindset and you have employees with an entrepreneur mindset. I know we have several employees and we don't want people who just show up just to earn a paycheck. We want them and we're actually blessed. We have some employees that actually really care and they're as vested in their job as we are our business, and so that's the mindset we really want to encourage all of you.
Speaker 2:That extreme ownership mindset is really what we're talking about today, and I think it's a big deal, for maybe you are someone with a J-O-B but you have some other, bigger dreams and your J-O-B may or may not support that, so you might also be looking for something else to add to your life or replace that with down the road, and so we want to talk about what it means to really design our life versus just accepting the life that we were given.
Speaker 1:That's great. So first thing we're going to talk about is lifestyle design as an ongoing process. Lifestyle design is really choosing to create the life you want instead of accepting the life you were given. We really want to encourage you to understand that it's not just a one-time effort where you plan everything out and then everything just falls into place.
Speaker 2:If you've been around, that would be really nice. It would be awesome.
Speaker 1:But if you've been around a while, you realize that things happen right. Projects take longer than they're supposed to. So kind of the phrase we want you to keep in mind is aim, fire and adjust. So, having been in the Marine Corps, we'd go to the rifle range to sight in our M16s and you know there was kind of a standard setting for the sights and you would sight it in at 200, 300, 500. And then you kind of get an idea of okay, if I'm at 200, this is where my sights go, 300, this is where my sights go, and 500. And so you could understand that.
Speaker 1:But then there's always additional factors. You know a bullet travels different, whether it's hot or cold, whether there's a lot of wind and which direction the wind is coming from. And so the reality is the winds of life will hit you, and it's important for you to understand that. What we want to do is help you create a plan, but also not freak out when it doesn't go as exactly as planned.
Speaker 1:We've done construction projects. Just about everyone probably has done a construction project, and I don't know that I've ever met anyone who's had a construction project end quicker than expected. They typically take longer and cost more, and so that is the winds of life that we're talking about. So without the plan, you know, there's also a saying that says you know, no battle plan survives makes it past first contact. So the idea is you create the perfect plan, but you know the enemy is out there. They're going to do things different than maybe what you expected them to do and it's going to cause your plan to go to poop. But we're going to adjust from there. But you're better off having a plan.
Speaker 2:Well said.
Speaker 1:All right. So the next thing is we want to talk about uncommon freedom, and just to help you understand what uncommon freedom is, we want you to imagine being able to do what you want when you want, with whom you want. But we're not just talking about a hedonistic lifestyle here where you're a rich billionaire living on a yacht with dozens of supermodels on your yacht with you, while your wife and kids are back in the States no idea what's going on. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about really being able to enjoy your life with your family, which is a good thing I think God wants us to do that but also being able to live out the kingdom of God here on earth, but still have choices and freedom.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly so being able to choose More proactive than reactive.
Speaker 1:Instead of just only being able to go on missions trips that maybe your church does once a year. If there's really a passion project that you have, can you seek out a ministry and go with them. Can you bring your family with you? Can you bring extended family with you? Can you bring employees with them? Can you bring your family with you? Can you bring extended family with you? Can you bring employees with you? Things like that, which we've actually been able to do on multiple occasions, if you get an invitation to do something, you know like.
Speaker 1:We got back in December, our friend Will was doing some ministry in Mexico and I was able to go with two of the boys. You know that was lifestyle design. It was. You know it was. The design was actually having the time freedom to be able to make spur of the moment decisions, cause it was kind of like found out on Sunday and I think we left on Wednesday, something like that. But that's what we're talking about being able to do what you want when you want, with whom you want. And there's also some amazing, you know, recreational ways to do that.
Speaker 1:We've been able to take some amazing trips with friends that we could not take prior to having our own business and really prior to starting to experience lifestyle design in our life. You know, last four years, just with the pandemic is just realizing I mean it just became abundantly apparent, especially to us super grateful that we had put in the work to really design our life and to have freedom during the pandemic. Because there were so many people who they were stuck, you know, their kids couldn't attend school. We were able to invest in what we had already had our kids in private education but so many people were grateful that they had their kids in private education or they had the option to homeschool. Once they saw really just some of the crazy agendas being pushed in public schools and just the fact that they weren't taking kids back at school. Our kids played sports.
Speaker 2:Went to birthday parties like regular kids and guess what?
Speaker 1:No outbreaks. Our kids were healthy.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And so just the pandemic really drove home the point that even if you think you have a secure job, a government job, I mean, there was people in the government sector losing their jobs during the pandemic. And you know, security is what we call the S word and we've seen a lot of people with those types of jobs get laid off and it can be very disappointing because they don't have a backup plan.
Speaker 2:Well said. The next thing we want to talk about is that lifestyle design still requires kind of the moment to moment decision. So what we mean is we talked about the fact you don't just create the plan and then execute the plan for the rest of your life and everything goes amazing. That would be wonderful, but that's not how life works, of course. And so lifestyle design means having a clear vision of what your values are and we're going to talk about that more in the next podcast that we do but having a good vision of your values, where you want to go, what kind of life you want to create and what you want to be known for.
Speaker 2:I mean, we made some of those decisions, probably unconsciously, early in our marriage. We wanted to be known for like a bulletproof marriage. We couldn't define it back then, but you know, divorce wasn't an option. We were committed to each other. We were going to do what it took. Um, we wanted to parent intentionally. So not just, you know, let our kids kind of flow through life, but like be very directed in how we were guiding and directing them. And we had intentions. We have intentions for how they're going to enter the world as young adults which we can't control every part of, but we are certainly influencing it.
Speaker 2:And, like anything in life, you can have a great plan but, as you mentioned, it takes regular and consistent pivots and adjustments. So you have to have some overarching vision initially, but then you also need to make those decisions in the moments that move you towards or closer to the outcome that you want. And I think having that really clear vision and also sharing it with each other like if you had a lifestyle design and I had a lifestyle design that were not aligned it would be very difficult for us to make our decisions from day to day. But because we're mostly rowing the same direction and have the same shared dreams and visions, it's a lot easier for us. Even when we're maybe out of alignment in small ways, our big vision is in alignment.
Speaker 2:When you think about some of those everyday decisions, I want you to think about things that you do that might seem very small, but that they have a significant outcome. Right, I think about you, know, as the person who does most of the grocery shopping, and I don't actually physically go into the store very often, I actually delegate that task to other people, but I order online groceries and I make the decisions about what comes into our pantry, what comes into our refrigerator, and because I choose to keep things really healthy, it makes it so much easier for all of us to eat well, I choose not to bring things in that are, you know, big temptations or we don't have them in large quantities. The same thing with you know eating decisions.
Speaker 2:Are you eating out all the time or do you make a decision you're going to? You know cook at home, even if it's a little bit less convenient, because you have goals of consuming high quality food and also family time sitting down for dinners and meals, which we know influence how kids are raised. And then the third thing is, of course it can. It contributes to your budget. Generally speaking, it's cheaper to eat at home.
Speaker 2:Maybe things like impulse purchases or watching TV, anything you want to add to that one. And then next is to really encourage all of us to be mindful about our daily choices and how they contribute to that larger daily life. I think you know so often because we can live in just what's in front of us. At times we say to ourselves well, I ate a salad today, so I'm a healthy person. Or you know, if I eat a hamburger today, it makes me an unhealthy person.
Speaker 2:But the truth is, those decisions are just votes for the type of people that we're becoming. And so if you want a little bit more resources on what I just shared right there, go to Atomic Habits, james Clear great book. But he says you can't just have goals, you have to have systems that support your goals, and that's what we're talking about in our decision making. And then, of course, uncommon freedom. It stresses the importance of making intentional decisions that align with those values values and goals. And so we want you to think through things versus just going along with the crowd, and I know that one way that we consider that is we look at the influences that are on our lives and we think about whether those are the type of people we want to trade lives with or move towards, or whether that's a life that we. It just is not appealing to us and that sort of helps us make those decisions with societal pressures.
Speaker 1:All right. The next thing we want to talk about, friends, is the quality of your decisions. So those who achieve the most definitely make the highest quality decisions consistently. Let's talk about athletes. Right, we have one athlete in our house right now that is getting up 5 o'clock in the morning. No, he's getting up about 5.30 in the morning to work out at 6 o'clock. He rolls out of bed pretty fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's getting about 5.30 in the morning to work out. At six o'clock. He rolls out of bed pretty fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he does, but he's out but still, he's getting to the gym with you three days a week Before school, before school, and he's a high schooler. And we have other kids that are choosing not to do that Correct, and then we have others that are choosing to work out with me. The bottom line is quality decisions like that will pay off. And do they pay off right away? No, but do they pay off over time?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and he's actually seen the muscle mass growth the body fat reduction.
Speaker 1:Not that he wasn't healthy when he started, but he's seeing the results and it's going to be pretty awesome for him.
Speaker 1:But even better than that and we keep talking about James Clear, but even more important than the decisions is having the system that doesn't require as many decisions, because what we know is that decisions require energy yes, and when we have to make every single food choice like, it's a lot easier to create some kind of go-to meal options even if it's for your family for dinner, instead of having to decide every day what's for dinner. Have some go-to healthy options that are that either you plan out your menu ahead of time or just that you have a list or cookbook handy so that when you come home, it's time for eating, it's time for dinner. You can, you just have this list and you go to it, instead of having to decide oh, you know what we'll just do take out for you know some type of unhealthy food. Um, you know, if your goal is, as an individual, to get healthy really kind of figuring out what are.
Speaker 1:Um. You know if, especially if you're not trying to lose weight and following a specific plan, um, you know what are the macros you're shooting for and how, how does that break down into breakfast, lunch and dinner and those healthy snacks you're going to have in between? And then figure out, like, what are the meals that are going to do that? Because if you have to calculate everything every single time, you might sustain that for a week or two, but having to do that over and, over and over is going to get difficult. So just having a better system so that you don't have to make as many decisions is really important.
Speaker 2:And James Clear talks about. You know, when you're trying to implement a good habit that you want to have, it's make it obvious and make it easy. I think were the two things.
Speaker 2:There's a couple ways that he talks about it and it's really brilliant. It's just like when you're trying to get rid of a habit, you want to make it less obvious, you want to, you know, put it in a less obvious place, you want to make it harder to make that decision, and the opposite is true when you're trying to build a good habit. So so often you know, we say that we want, we have uphill dreams and we have downhill habits and it's because we haven't set up a system for ourselves to succeed. You know, we have some people in our family who are, who need and want and desire to be on time, but they have not set up a system for themselves yet to become a person who shows up on time for things. So we're hoping that that becomes a habit at some point in the near future.
Speaker 1:The important thing is to make your decisions on the front end when you're setting up your systems. You know because, like James Clear, we're talking about him a lot today but your systems are perfectly designed to give you the life that you currently have, and so, if you're overweight, your systems are set up to give you for you to be overweight. If you're wealthy, you've got systems that are set up to help you become wealthy and likely. It's not winning the lottery. If you're in debt, your systems are set up for you to be in debt. The bottom line is we are a product of our system, so the key is to make our decisions on the front end, implement systems that support our long-term goal, and then we have to make fewer daily decisions.
Speaker 2:All right. Lastly, we want to talk about trusting in God's design, and this is important as Christians, because we believe that God has a very clear vision for our lives. Now. He gives us a ton of decision-making ability within that.
Speaker 2:We read a really good book I think it was by James Orberg years ago, and it was interesting. It's like does God care who we choose to marry? Well, he cares about, probably, the quality of the person or what job we get. Does he care about that? No, he probably cares that we reflect Jesus in the job that we do.
Speaker 2:So there are things that God gives us a lot of freedom in, and I know, when it comes to lifestyle design, I think that, again, god gives us a lot of freedom, but if we design a life that's purely selfish or is outside of his will, then there's going to be dissonance and it's not going to be a life that's going to be worth living or a life that's going to be rewarding. And so what we look for is how can we make an impact on people, how can we steward the relationships that we've been given within our own family as well as in our community? How can we steward our finances and things? And we know that if we're doing those types of behaviors, our life is something that we believe would be honoring to God.
Speaker 1:And actually along those lines, when you think about the parable of the three servants, the truth is, god isn't okay with us not being intentional, not okay with us not stewarding and multiplying. Right, you know what the master says about the servant who got one and did nothing with it. Only you know, finished with one is, like you, wicked servant. So the point is, we are supposed to design, we're supposed to be intentional, we're supposed to multiply.
Speaker 2:Correct. And I do think if we view our life as a precious gift from God, knowing that he died for us and we have one life to live, just one, then it's also about what kind of impact can we make? We don't want to just slide into heaven someday and say like well, we survived. No, we want to thrive and make as big of an impact as we can, and we also know that we, the things that we're doing now, the decisions we're making. I'm trying to reflect on this more and more.
Speaker 2:We're very young I feel very young, but I'm reminded, thank you. I'm reminded that the things that we're doing now, we are intentionally parenting these kids that are going to, you know, become adults and lead their own lives and I will never meet, likely, my great grandchildren or my great-great-grandchildren. So, a hundred years from now, if God hasn't come back, there will be, you know, our offspring will be on this earth and the way that they behave and act, I'm hoping, is going to still be honoring God because of the fruit of our labor, because of the prayers that we've laid, because of the characteristics we've built in, and that somewhere along the way they're going to know that they had praying grandparents and that they had faithful grandparents and they had responsible grandparents, and so those are the types of things that we're leading our family with now in hopes that it makes a long-term, lasting impact. So we would encourage you, seek God's guidance in your daily decisions and your lifestyle design.
Speaker 2:Don't just do it on your own. Everything needs to run through the filter of like God. Is this for me, if it is open, the doors that no man can shut, and if it's not for me, close the doors that no man can open, and just be clear about those kinds of things as well as seeking godly wisdom. We've done that a ton through our own parents, through friends and counseling Just when we're up against decisions we don't know how to handle, and that's been really powerful. And then, when it comes to uncommon freedom, as far as making sure that we don't let outside forces control our life, and really trusting God's plan, a big part is spending time in prayer, both individually, as a cop and as a couple, as well as getting that good counsel and choosing to run with lions. You know, if we can, if we put ourselves around donkeys, uh, we're not going to be making a lot of lion type decisions.
Speaker 1:Well there's. There's that really cool story about the bald eagle egg that rolls out of the nest all the way down the hill into a chicken farm and the eagle ends up hatching the chickens take care of the eagle, and the eagle ends up growing up with a bunch of chickens and acts like chickens. And then one day it sees eagles and realizes wait a minute, those birds up in the air, they, they look like me. Why am I not flying? And the reason is you're not flying because you're hanging around with chickens and it's so just it's a great little illustration of you know you can take.
Speaker 1:We all have greatness within us. We all have that you know. You know there's like we want to soar with eagles, but a lot of times our environment you know who we're spending time with. You know we're hanging around in the chicken coop and so we're behaving like chickens and so it's just a great reminder that it's difficult to steward what you have when you're hanging around with in the chicken coop.
Speaker 2:And God does expect us to have extreme ownership for the things that we have control over, and so I think it's even Christ-like to say I can't always control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it and is life happening to me or for me?
Speaker 2:Those are some common sayings but truly they do help.
Speaker 2:You have that ownership mindset and when you're designing a life that you can be proud of, you can be excited about, you can navigate even the really hard things.
Speaker 2:It's trusting that there is a good father that loves us unconditionally and even when things in this world go poorly which they absolutely will, because we live in a fallen world that he's still on the throne, that he still has the outcome in the end and that he loves us so deeply that he'll walk us through anything. That's difficult, and I can tell you just in the last you know, six months of navigating some difficult parenting stuff, I have felt God in those moments in such a different and profound way, and it's even allowed us to make some of those decisions that were really uncomfortable for me personally, because we knew what we were designing and we knew we could trust God, and between those two things we were able to walk some things out that were I mean honestly, I hope we never have to do it again. It didn't kill us, didn't ruin us, but it was very painful in the moment and, because of God's faithfulness and our commitment, we navigated those, I would say, as best as we could.
Speaker 1:All right, friends. That wraps up today's episode, but we definitely want you to tune in next week when we continue the second part of this discussion. We're going to talk about core values and intentional living. We're going to talk about managing your time and energy, which is really important, and we're also going to talk about embracing abundance something that we had a radical shift in about 13 years ago.
Speaker 1:So please subscribe to our podcast for more insights on blending entrepreneurship and that entrepreneurial mindset with intentional living. Follow us on social media for daily tips and inspiration. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook and.
Speaker 1:YouTube and then leave us a review and share this episode, please. And if you're going to leave a review, please make sure it's a five-star review. Otherwise, just don't waste your time and don't do that to us. Okay, Like Dave Ramsey says, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So if we're not for you, we get it. Go find something else. But we really do appreciate you, those of you who are finding value. We appreciate you supporting us. We appreciate you sharing and reviewing this podcast. It really helps other people find us and this way, fellow entrepreneurs who are passionate about designing a life can find something else that will help them.
Speaker 2:So thank you for tuning in, and we're going to leave you with this saying we all experience pain. It's either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. So the fruit of regret is bitter, but the fruit of discipline is sweet.
Speaker 1:See you next time, friends. Bye, all right, friends. Please subscribe to the podcast for more insights on blending entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset with intentional living. You can follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, primarily, and Facebook, and you're going to find daily tips and inspiration from us there. You'll also find us on YouTube lots of shorts as well as our video podcast. And then please, if you enjoy this podcast, please leave us a five-star review and share us, and remember to subscribe on YouTube as well as whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on.