2612: IMBY: In My Back Yard

LifeBlood: Everybody knows what they don't want. But have you ever stopped to ask what you actually DO want? This episode explores the idea of IMBY; In My Backyard. Using the familiar idea of NIMBY ("Not In My Backyard"), it challenges us to think less about what we're trying to avoid and more about what we're intentionally cultivating. Your body, your mind, your relationships, your finances, your family, and your community are all gardens. Whatever you neglect will eventually fill itself. The question is: What are you planting? What are you protecting? And what kind of life are you growing? If you want a better future, it starts by becoming a better gardener. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeblood George’s newest book is available! Get your copy of You’re Money Isn’t the Problem- You Are here: https://amzn.to/4uDYFRz Feeling busy but unfulfilled? The Meaningful Few helps you identify what truly matters, eliminate distractions, and live with intention and clarity. Learn more here: https://www.mymeaningfulfew.com/ Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here: ​​https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcast You can learn more about us at LifeBlood. Live http://lifeblood.live/, Twitter https://twitter.com/ourlifeblood, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifebloodlive, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeblood.live/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQ9Gc4mMwCHZKUHjbt0-qA and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lifebloodlive or you’d like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood. Live. Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates https://george-grombacher.aweb.page. Copyright LifeBlood 2026.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:44Speaker 01

  Not in my backyard. Not in my backyard. We all know that one, right? NIMBY. NIMBY, NIMBY, NIMBY, not in my backyard. I had the opportunity to sit on a committee in, for the city that I live in, and I try to be a civically minded person and active in the communities that I live in with things that are important to me. And I got the opportunity, or I got invited to sit on this committee that would approve rezoning, redistricting of things. So if somebody wanted to build a second level onto their house, or a commercial project

• 1:28Speaker 01

  wanted to change the way that it was zoned because something else wanted to go in, the process was that it started with a local hearing, and then eventually the city council votes on it ultimately. But I thought, yeah, that'll be interesting. It'd be kind of cool to learn about, to learn about different projects going on. But buddy, that was a mistake because NIMBY, phew, that's a powerful thing. So you got people showing up, and I'm sitting 10 feet away from these people and potentially going to be telling them that, no, you can't add on to your house, or it's some neighbor saying that they don't want Steve next door to add on to his or her house. And it's just, it was the most uncomfortable thing in the world.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  It's like, well, there's no way I'm doing this because I don't want to be the object of these people's ire when I'm telling them that something is going to go in their backyard, that they cannot change what's going on in the backyard. See, you know. It's a powerful thing. I guess that's the moral of the story, but people don't want a landfill in their neighborhood. They don't want a prison. They don't want a power plant. They don't want data centers. They don't want a noisy neighbor. We don't want crime. We don't want traffic. We don't want pollution. Those are all really understandable things. It's easy to know, buddy, I don't want that at all. No, thank you. Opt out.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  But here's a different question. What do you want in your backyard? What do you want? Not literally, but metaphorically. With the backyard being your life, the backyard being your body, your mind, your relationships, your bank account, your 401k balance, your calendar, your family, your neighborhood, your community. Because most of us have become incredibly skilled at identifying that stuff that we don't want. I don't want debt. I don't want stress. Don't want any drama. I don't want unhealthy food. Don't want conflict. Don't want to be around dishonest, disingenuous people.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  I don't want to work in a dead-end job. I don't want any anxiety. Great, fine. But that leaves one very important question still unanswered. What are you trying to grow? Because every backyard is going to become something. If you ignore it, especially if you ignore it, if you leave your yard unattended for long enough, nature certainly doesn't wait. Weeds arrive immediately. Like, I think that weeds just popped up in my backyard in the last minute. Pests arrive. Things decay. Your life, that works almost exactly the same way. Because your bodies do not accidentally become stronger. Your relationships do not accidentally

• 4:14Speaker 01

  become deeper. Your finances do not ultimately, or accidentally, become stronger. And communities do not accidentally become safer. Everything that's worth having must be planted, it must be protected, and it must be maintained.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  That's stewardship. It's understanding that this is of value. And if it is of value, it requires attention. It requires people touching it, doing the things that are required to keep the thing moving. So the question isn't simply, what are you keeping out? It's what are you intentionally bringing and inviting in?

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Maybe it's more honesty. Some more disciplines, curiosity, some patience, some grace to other people, generosity, strength, faith, friendship, a little bit of financial margin, some physical vitality and more energy, a home where people feel safe, a neighborhood where kids can play, family that eats dinner together, even if it's once a week, bank account that provides freedom and peace of mind instead of stress and anxiety, a body capable of reaching down and picking up a grandchild or a child, a mind that isn't completely directed by an algorithm, a spirit that's grounded in purpose.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Those are all things that are of value and do not happen by accident. They are and must be cultivated and cultivation that requires choice. What are you going to water? What are you going to prune? What are you going to fertilize? What are you going to yank up by the root before it spreads? Because the truth is this. Every time you say yes, you are planting something. Every time you say no, you are protecting something. Every habit, well, that's big kind of, that's going to become your tomorrow's landscape.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  So spend less time thinking about what you shouldn't, what shouldn't be in your backyard and maybe a little bit more time on deciding what absolutely must be in your backyard. Because eventually your life becomes whatever you've been cultivating. You are what you eat. You are what you think. You are how you spend your money, how you invest your money. Got to be intentional. We have to plant wisely. We have to tend to it daily. Does this seem obvious?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  It's fairly obvious, but we need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed. Not in my backyard, it is easier to think about and identify stuff that I don't want versus stuff that I do want. Hmm.

• 7:11Speaker 02

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• 8:10Speaker 01

  Yet we find ourselves saying yes to more things than we say no to. Think that that's right? Do you think that you say yes to more things or no to more things? As I'm so fond of talking about, there's no solutions, there's only trade-offs, and every time you say yes to one thing, you're saying no to everything else. Saying no to one thing leaves the universe of options available to you, but we just have to make decisions on what it is that you do want in your backyard. Of course, certain stuff you gotta keep out of your backyard, but what do we do? What do we want in our backyard? And as I say that, it's such an interesting thing.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Because I don't think that we're being honest actors, or certainly there are people within our country and within each city, and probably within each one of us, who's being dishonest with ourselves about what it is that we really do want and what we don't want. Because I just can't imagine, I can't imagine that anybody would really want to not enforce the rule of law, yet here we are with lots of bad things going on in cities and schools not being very good and just our kids in many cities in America, if not every city in America, it's not safe to have them walk home from school.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  So I can't imagine that we want that, yet here we are, we have that.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  So I do want clean streets. I don't want criminal elements running amok. I do want safe schools. I don't want to have to worry about my kids while they're at school. That seems obvious.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yet, we're not necessarily making choices based on what seems very obvious, what seems very common sense. And maybe that's a stupid term also.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  So that's what the opportunity is, to really sit down and think this all the way through, to think deeply about it.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  And to say that you want clean streets and safe streets and the rule of law, that doesn't make you a non-compassionate, a non-compassionate person. It doesn't make you a bad person. Because the reality is that you get what you tolerate. And when we're tolerating bad, inappropriate behavior, when we're tolerating abuse, when we're tolerating people stealing, people abusing us, that's what we're gonna get. We're gonna get more of it.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  See how many cliches I can fit in here. And then the chickens come home to roost.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  And then all of a sudden, you're like, whoa.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  This got pretty bad, pretty quick. But then you realize that, no. It got pretty bad, really slowly over time.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Because regular human beings like you and I.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Decided to not. Be good stewards of what we want in our backyard. We have not been intentional about.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Enforcing. Maybe the first step is just understanding what is it that I want in my backyard?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  And then ensuring and making sure that we are advocating for that. And that we're demanding. But that's what happens and we're holding people accountable. When it doesn't happen.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  What do you think?

• 12:12Speaker 01

  I think that. It's pretty obvious.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  But hard.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  And I know how busy everybody is.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  And I think that we're at a point where. If we do not grab a hold of the wheel. That will keep. Getting strained further away from where it is that we really want to go. And we don't want to lose the script anymore than we already have.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  So what do you want in your backyard?

• 12:43Speaker 01

  What do you want for your, your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health? What do you want for your personal finances in your career? What do you want for your relationships? What do you want for your actual backyard, for your community? For your friends, for your network?

• 13:02Speaker 01

  What would a great life look like?

• 13:05Speaker 01

  Decide, figure out what must be done in service of that great life. And then get to work executing on a daily basis. I guess what I'm talking about is do your part by doing your best.

• 13:21Speaker 04

  GLP-1s are changing weight loss.

• 13:22Speaker 03

  My sister had amazing.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  The ideal treatment is.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  Seems like everyone's a GLP-1 expert these days. But when it comes to your health, it pays to listen to someone who actually is. Orderly Med's makes it easy to get started with personalized support along the way. And with your first month's order, we're giving you the second month free. Visit OrderlyMed's.com. Bringing orders to the chaos of GLP-1s. Individual results may vary. Eligibility and prescription required. Not medical advice. Visit OrderlyMed's.com for details. Compound medications are not FDA approved.

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