Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Why Most Families Feel Stuck and How to Fix It
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Today on the Happy Families Podcast, the thing that moves
- 0:09Speaker 1: the needle for us most when it comes to making
- 0:11Speaker 1: family life work. We've talked about it before, but every
- 0:15Speaker 1: time we discuss it on the pod, we get people saying, oh,
- 0:18Speaker 1: my goodness, I've got to try this. This is going
- 0:20Speaker 1: to be a game changer, and it is if you
- 0:23Speaker 1: have a family. If you want your family to function better,
- 0:26Speaker 1: you want to hear what we do every twelve weeks
- 0:28Speaker 1: to make sure that ours is I was going to say,
- 0:32Speaker 1: humming in tune, firing on all four or six. I
- 0:35Speaker 1: have many cylinders. You've got, My goodness, we have eight cylinders.
- 0:38Speaker 1: We've got eight people in our family. Stay with us,
- 0:41Speaker 1: because next we will tell you exactly what it is
- 0:43Speaker 1: that makes our family function best and how you can
- 0:46Speaker 1: do it too. It's the Happy Families Podcast. Next. Hello,
- 0:52Speaker 1: Welcome to the Happy Families podcast, where you get real
- 0:54Speaker 1: parenting solutions every single day. This is Australia's most downloaded
- 0:58Speaker 1: parenting podcast where Justin and Kylie calls today it's twenty
- 1:00Speaker 1: eight years, honey, twenty eight years of marriage. Obviously you
- 1:03Speaker 1: forgot yesterday that it was today, but.
- 1:05Speaker 2: You're so hard on me.
- 1:06Speaker 1: I did not forget when we said into the podcast.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Misunderstood that we weren't recording our anniversary podcast.
- 1:16Speaker 1: Episode before on the day.
- 1:19Speaker 2: Of our anniversary. You have milked this.
- 1:21Speaker 1: For all and it has been worth a great deal.
- 1:24Speaker 1: It has been so much fun Kylie. Today, we're going
- 1:27Speaker 1: to have a pretty short podcast.
- 1:29Speaker 2: Well, I'm just going to throw you under the bus,
- 1:31Speaker 2: because we went away this past weekend, just gone, and
- 1:34Speaker 2: that was to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, And when we
- 1:37Speaker 2: got to the counter, the lady said, so are you
- 1:40Speaker 2: celebrating anything special? And you said, oh, no, you're just
- 1:43Speaker 2: getting away. I think that is worse just.
- 1:47Speaker 1: Saying well, well it was several days before our anniversary,
- 1:51Speaker 1: so we were not actually celebrating.
- 1:53Speaker 2: All right.
- 1:53Speaker 1: So here's the thing.
- 1:54Speaker 2: We love each other.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Right in the start of this pod, in the introduction,
- 1:57Speaker 1: I've said the one thing, maybe the one thing, one
- 2:00Speaker 1: of the biggest things that we do to make sure
- 2:01Speaker 1: that we're on the same page, that our families functioning well,
- 2:04Speaker 1: that we're firing on all eight cylinders. Because we've got
- 2:06Speaker 1: six kids plus you and I makes eight. What are
- 2:09Speaker 1: we doing? What's happening here? We talk about this from
- 2:11Speaker 1: time to time, and yet every single time we talk
- 2:14Speaker 1: about it, people go, oh, that's a great idea of
- 2:16Speaker 1: Oh that's I remember you talking about that, and I
- 2:18Speaker 1: said I was going to do something and I didn't.
- 2:20Speaker 1: And while we were doing this particular thing just over
- 2:24Speaker 1: the last few days, somebody asked us what we're up to.
- 2:27Speaker 1: We explained what it was, and they were like, oh,
- 2:29Speaker 1: my goodness, I have got to start doing this. In fact,
- 2:32Speaker 1: let me go further. It was a breakfast presenter for
- 2:35Speaker 1: one of the biggest radio stations in the country.
- 2:37Speaker 2: Well, her comment was actually the best. How she says,
- 2:40Speaker 2: I'm not telling him it's quarterly. I'm telling him it's monthly.
- 2:44Speaker 2: I want this in my life. She also did suggest
- 2:48Speaker 2: that when they go out to dinner, she pulls out the.
- 2:51Speaker 1: Notebook and he goes, of course, here we go.
- 2:53Speaker 2: There's an agenda.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so let's get into it. We call
- 2:57Speaker 1: this our quarterly getaway or a quarterly immersion. And the
- 3:00Speaker 1: background is really really simple. Years ago, when I did
- 3:03Speaker 1: a lot more corporate work, I would often talk about
- 3:06Speaker 1: what is the most important thing in your life? And
- 3:08Speaker 1: people would say my family, and I'd say, well, we're
- 3:10Speaker 1: here talking about business. But when was the last time
- 3:11Speaker 1: you went away to a seminar to work out how
- 3:14Speaker 1: to do things better with your family, and everyone will
- 3:16Speaker 1: I don't know, so I said to them, when you
- 3:18Speaker 1: are working in your business, how often do you sit
- 3:21Speaker 1: down and put together your year or your quarter or
- 3:23Speaker 1: your week? Like, what's your rhythm for that? And most
- 3:26Speaker 1: people who are running moderately to highly successful businesses will
- 3:30Speaker 1: tell you that they have quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals,
- 3:33Speaker 1: and they've got their annual big picture. But they tend
- 3:36Speaker 1: to work in quarters. It's quarter one, quarter two, quarter three,
- 3:39Speaker 1: quarter four. Everything's based on quarters, and it's either upscaled
- 3:42Speaker 1: or broken down from there. And they do these quarterly
- 3:47Speaker 1: business meetings, these quarterly strategy sessions. And I said, well,
- 3:50Speaker 1: if your family is the most important thing in your life,
- 3:52Speaker 1: when was the last time you had a quarterly strategy
- 3:54Speaker 1: session for your family? And everyone in this conference just
- 3:57Speaker 1: looked at me like I had eaten a bad burrito.
- 4:00Speaker 1: What is this guy going on about? Where is this
- 4:01Speaker 1: coming from? And I said, no, seriously, what would that
- 4:03Speaker 1: look like? And they had no idea anyway. You and
- 4:06Speaker 1: I had been talking about it, we had been doing
- 4:07Speaker 1: it for a while. This quarterly immersion. I've got a
- 4:10Speaker 1: friend who is very, very highly placed in the finance industry.
- 4:13Speaker 1: When I talked to him about it, he started doing
- 4:14Speaker 1: it with his wife. He got back to me about
- 4:16Speaker 1: a year later and said, we've done four of them.
- 4:18Speaker 1: It's changed our lives. And it's literally as follows, based
- 4:22Speaker 1: on your circumstances, because everyone's going to be in a
- 4:24Speaker 1: different situation. You and your partner disappear for two nights.
- 4:29Speaker 1: If you care well, the kids disappear the kids, the
- 4:32Speaker 1: kids go to the grandparents whatever. It depends on who
- 4:35Speaker 1: you've got to support you and how that will work,
- 4:37Speaker 1: and it depends on the age of your children and
- 4:38Speaker 1: so on and so forth. We didn't do it for
- 4:41Speaker 1: a couple of years because it was just too hard.
- 4:43Speaker 1: But you go away or the kids go away.
- 4:46Speaker 2: And maybe you can't do two nights. I mean that's
- 4:48Speaker 2: the dream, right, two nights. I can't. If you can't
- 4:51Speaker 2: do the nights, just give us up a day. Yeah,
- 4:54Speaker 2: but kids are at school and from nine to three
- 4:56Speaker 2: you were just immersed in this.
- 4:58Speaker 1: You take a day of annual leave, or you do
- 5:00Speaker 1: it on a Saturday when the kids are organizing playdates
- 5:02Speaker 1: and you lock in a number of hours, and you
- 5:05Speaker 1: get focused on your family. If the family is the
- 5:07Speaker 1: most important thing in your life, then you get focused
- 5:09Speaker 1: on the family. So you and I our rules are
- 5:11Speaker 1: as follows. We go away for two nights. We try
- 5:14Speaker 1: to get to wherever we're going early afternoon so that
- 5:16Speaker 1: we've got the afternoon in the evening, then all of
- 5:18Speaker 1: the next day because we're going to be checking out
- 5:20Speaker 1: at like ten o'clock the morning of the final day.
- 5:23Speaker 1: Number two, we stay within about an hour of home ish,
- 5:26Speaker 1: and the reason for that is we don't want to
- 5:28Speaker 1: waste a whole lot of time traveling. This is about
- 5:29Speaker 1: getting high quality time together and being focused on what's
- 5:32Speaker 1: going on. Number three, we've got a very clear agenda.
- 5:36Speaker 1: While we want to have a lot of fun, we
- 5:37Speaker 1: want to really enjoy spending time together. We've got stuff
- 5:40Speaker 1: that we've got to talk about. But we also run
- 5:43Speaker 1: Number four want to have some fun. We want to
- 5:45Speaker 1: be able to enjoy it. It's not all business, because
- 5:48Speaker 1: otherwise that'd be less fun. So we want to make
- 5:51Speaker 1: sure we have fun. Have I missed any rules or
- 5:53Speaker 1: is that about it?
- 5:54Speaker 2: No?
- 5:54Speaker 1: That's good, okay, cool, But.
- 5:56Speaker 2: The reality is that it can be hard to find
- 5:59Speaker 2: the balance. Sometimes. Sometimes we've had getaways where it's been
- 6:04Speaker 2: too much fun and we haven't done.
- 6:05Speaker 1: A lot of talking, and I've come home annoyed at
- 6:07Speaker 1: you because you always want to have fun and I
- 6:09Speaker 1: want to be serious and we didn't get the stop
- 6:11Speaker 1: and any.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Other times, and there's I've been other times where it's
- 6:13Speaker 2: been all serious and not enough fun and I.
- 6:15Speaker 1: Come home cranky at me because you didn't get to
- 6:17Speaker 1: have any fun and that was all about the agenda.
- 6:21Speaker 2: So it does take. It takes time to kind of work.
- 6:24Speaker 1: It out, but the balance.
- 6:25Speaker 2: Finding the balance is really important. It's such a huge
- 6:31Speaker 2: touch point in our relationship to be able to have
- 6:35Speaker 2: two nights. It's not worry about the days, just two
- 6:38Speaker 2: nights of uninterrupted time conversations can be had without having
- 6:43Speaker 2: to stop and then forgetting where you were because there's
- 6:46Speaker 2: been three major challenges in the kitchen.
- 6:50Speaker 1: Yeah, something's on fire the last fifteen minutes. Every time
- 6:54Speaker 1: we go away, the phone doesn't stop ringing the kids
- 6:56Speaker 1: like she's not being nice.
- 6:57Speaker 2: That is our fault. We could just turn the phones
- 6:59Speaker 2: off and say when not contact.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Well, then I wouldn't be pairing expert. So after the break.
- 7:04Speaker 1: We're going to take you behind the curtain. We're going
- 7:05Speaker 1: to tell you exactly what we talked about on our
- 7:07Speaker 1: weekend away so that you can put your own agenda
- 7:09Speaker 1: together based on this as inspiration hopefully maybe perhaps and
- 7:13Speaker 1: make your quarterly getaways, your quarterly immersions become par for
- 7:18Speaker 1: the course for what your family does, to get on
- 7:21Speaker 1: the same page and to absolutely thrive and flourish statements.
- 7:32Speaker 1: We're back. This is the Happy Families Podcast twenty eighth
- 7:35Speaker 1: wedding Anniversary edition, giving you a peek behind the curtain.
- 7:42Speaker 1: What happened on our weekend away.
- 7:44Speaker 2: Well, you forgot. It was our anniversary celebration.
- 7:48Speaker 1: And we discussed how we could make our family question better. So, Kylie,
- 7:53Speaker 1: you've got the notepad there, you're going to whis us
- 7:55Speaker 1: through it. There are a lot of things that we
- 7:57Speaker 1: talk about when we do this.
- 7:59Speaker 2: I don't want to ski everybody, but there's about thirty
- 8:01Speaker 2: pages of notes, like we're.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Not getting serious work effs and stuff to be done.
- 8:07Speaker 2: This is essentially our first quarter for the year. We're
- 8:12Speaker 2: doing a follow up from the one that we did
- 8:16Speaker 2: just before Christmas to set the year up.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Yeah, so in December we were like Okay, Christmas coming up,
- 8:20Speaker 1: We've got Christmas sort of, but what's happening in January one?
- 8:23Speaker 1: So Kylie, let's go through the agenda items. What did
- 8:26Speaker 1: we discuss? What should people consider putting on their agenda?
- 8:30Speaker 2: I think the most important thing, first of all, is
- 8:33Speaker 2: to start with a bit of a mind map, sit down,
- 8:35Speaker 2: brainstorm together. What are the areas of your life? Like
- 8:37Speaker 2: all of them, put them all on the page. That's
- 8:40Speaker 2: why there's thirty pages of notes because as we pulled
- 8:43Speaker 2: our lives apart my my mud map, it had each
- 8:47Speaker 2: of our kids' names. There's six things to talk about
- 8:49Speaker 2: all of a sudden, holidays, homeschooling, time with friends, what
- 8:54Speaker 2: does a calendar look like? Screens and devices, What hasn't
- 8:57Speaker 2: gone well? What's worked this year? Answers, extra curricular, our
- 9:01Speaker 2: spiritual lives, family dinners, renovations, physical fitness, babysitting, like it
- 9:07Speaker 2: just keeps going.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Yeah, and that doesn't include all the stuff that we
- 9:10Speaker 1: talk about in relation to the business. So there's the podcast,
- 9:13Speaker 1: and there's the writing and the books and the travel
- 9:14Speaker 1: and everything that I'm doing from a business point of view.
- 9:17Speaker 1: There's a day's worth of conversation just in that easily.
- 9:21Speaker 1: So let's get into the nitty gritty to the well,
- 9:23Speaker 1: we're not going to go nitty gritty, but let's know.
- 9:25Speaker 2: What the exciting thing is. Once you've got that mud map,
- 9:28Speaker 2: you can pull things apart. And some of those things
- 9:29Speaker 2: are going to take five minutes to talk about. Some
- 9:31Speaker 2: of those things you're going to be talking about all
- 9:33Speaker 2: year because there's so much challenge and tension around how.
- 9:38Speaker 1: It works, and there are some things where there's no resolution.
- 9:40Speaker 1: This is just what we do, and so we want
- 9:42Speaker 1: to make sure that we're working towards it. So the
- 9:44Speaker 1: first thing that we picked up was.
- 9:47Speaker 2: I took you down a bit of a rabbit hole.
- 9:48Speaker 2: You don't really like it, but I asked you if
- 9:50Speaker 2: you could pick three words that would encompass how you
- 9:55Speaker 2: saw twenty twenty.
- 9:57Speaker 1: Six, how I want to feel at the end of
- 9:59Speaker 1: the year.
- 10:00Speaker 2: What would they be? And I think that has actually
- 10:03Speaker 2: changed the way we came together this time.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Yeah, we want to feel vital, We want to be
- 10:08Speaker 1: really intentional, and we wanted to have high levels of connection.
- 10:12Speaker 2: And so as we go through our weekly catch ups
- 10:15Speaker 2: where we come together and we chat and we check in,
- 10:18Speaker 2: we're able to tap in with.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Those three words probably worth highlighting. We do the quarterly immersion,
- 10:23Speaker 1: but then every week we just go through here are
- 10:25Speaker 1: the main things that we talked about. Here we're our goals,
- 10:28Speaker 1: here's our focus.
- 10:28Speaker 2: How do we pages?
- 10:30Speaker 1: No, it is just the summary. How are we going,
- 10:32Speaker 1: what's working, what's not? Where do we need to get realigned?
- 10:35Speaker 1: And that keeps us on track so that every twelve
- 10:37Speaker 1: weeks when we sit down for this, we've got a
- 10:40Speaker 1: really good assessment of where we're up to.
- 10:42Speaker 2: So having that mud map, having that focus then helps
- 10:46Speaker 2: us as we move forward if we use that focus
- 10:49Speaker 2: as the ability to look at each of these areas
- 10:52Speaker 2: of our lives and how they are impacted by what
- 10:56Speaker 2: we want to achieve.
- 10:57Speaker 1: So, Kylie, once we had that set up, what's next
- 11:00Speaker 1: for us?
- 11:00Speaker 2: Spirituality is at the top of our list. That's how
- 11:03Speaker 2: everything we do is governed by that. So we talked
- 11:06Speaker 2: about our spiritual lives and what that looks like, and
- 11:08Speaker 2: we broke it down into all the different areas that
- 11:10Speaker 2: make up what we consider our spirituality.
- 11:13Speaker 1: Yeah, what are we doing daily and weekly at a
- 11:14Speaker 1: personal level and with the family to make sure that
- 11:18Speaker 1: that's on track and helping me serving people heading in
- 11:20Speaker 1: the direction that matters.
- 11:21Speaker 2: Yeah, then we looked at our physical well being. This
- 11:24Speaker 2: was a really big one and we've talked about this
- 11:26Speaker 2: a lot throughout the beginning of the year, this journey
- 11:29Speaker 2: that I'm on specifically, but you're joining me in well
- 11:33Speaker 2: being and it does. It's not glamorous, but the idea
- 11:37Speaker 2: that we are training for old age. We want to
- 11:41Speaker 2: be strong. We want to be It's not about being
- 11:43Speaker 2: muscular and fit and all of that kind of st
- 11:45Speaker 2: It's about being strong mentally, physically, emotionally so that we
- 11:49Speaker 2: can carry ourselves for as long as we hear.
- 11:52Speaker 1: So the critical thing about this, whether it's the spiritual
- 11:54Speaker 1: or physical or anything that you're going to talk about
- 11:56Speaker 1: in the next mineral two is we don't just say, well,
- 11:59Speaker 1: what do we want to do. We talk about specific implementation. Okay,
- 12:02Speaker 1: so let's say, let's let's stick on physical healthful.
- 12:04Speaker 2: We've break it down right. We looked at diet, We
- 12:06Speaker 2: looked at our routine. We looked at exercise and how
- 12:08Speaker 2: many days we're going to exercise.
- 12:10Speaker 1: What are we going to do for exercise, where are
- 12:11Speaker 1: we going to be doing it, who are we going
- 12:13Speaker 1: to be doing it with, what time are we going
- 12:14Speaker 1: to be doing it? Like we broke it down so
- 12:16Speaker 1: we know exactly what exercise looks like. Same with diet.
- 12:19Speaker 1: What are we eating, what are we not eating? What's
- 12:20Speaker 1: our meal lists, what's our program? How are we going
- 12:24Speaker 1: to get it? Do we know enough about the diet
- 12:26Speaker 1: that we need macros and micros and all that sort
- 12:28Speaker 1: of stuff like this is why we need two days?
- 12:31Speaker 2: And then if exercise is huge and diet is changing,
- 12:36Speaker 2: which is going to require more of me in the kitchen,
- 12:38Speaker 2: we actually have to look at routine. How are we
- 12:40Speaker 2: going to make this happen.
- 12:41Speaker 1: Yeah, so if we're going to have food and we're
- 12:43Speaker 1: going to be eating at this time and we're going
- 12:44Speaker 1: to go for a walk after dinner, that means we've
- 12:45Speaker 1: got to have dinner at this time, which means we've
- 12:47Speaker 1: got to start prepping it at this time. And how
- 12:48Speaker 1: is that going to work? Because we've got busy lives
- 12:50Speaker 1: and we can't be at home at this time to
- 12:51Speaker 1: get the prep doune, So make sure we have the
- 12:52Speaker 1: meal on time. So it's kind of like a reorganization
- 12:55Speaker 1: of our lives so that we can achieve the things
- 12:56Speaker 1: that we want, or recognizing that the things we want
- 12:59Speaker 1: are unachieved, and therefore making the compromises that are necessary
- 13:03Speaker 1: to get as close to it as we can given
- 13:05Speaker 1: what our life structures demand of us.
- 13:08Speaker 2: So the next big one was finances. This actually spilled
- 13:11Speaker 2: over on a few pages. We've set some really big
- 13:14Speaker 2: goals this year, and we're working really really hard to
- 13:17Speaker 2: achieve them.
- 13:17Speaker 1: There is a bank's not helping us to achieve those goals.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Gosh. But then on top of setting those really big
- 13:23Speaker 2: goals that we then set stretch goals. So we're going
- 13:27Speaker 2: to try even harder than our big goals to achieve this.
- 13:31Speaker 2: And what's really cool about the whole goal setting thing
- 13:34Speaker 2: and the idea of stretch goals is sometimes you're not
- 13:37Speaker 2: going to make it. You're going to be completely, like,
- 13:41Speaker 2: just squashed.
- 13:43Speaker 1: Our commitment is we are not fanatical about this. This
- 13:46Speaker 1: is what we're working towards, and simply by being on
- 13:49Speaker 1: the same page and working towards it, we get closer
- 13:51Speaker 1: to it than we would if we didn't have these
- 13:53Speaker 1: conversations at all, and we were just flying by the
- 13:55Speaker 1: seat of our pants. Okay, so we've got spiritual, we've
- 13:57Speaker 1: got physical, we've got financial.
- 13:59Speaker 2: Then we looked family holidays. We broke the year up
- 14:01Speaker 2: into quarters, and we looked at what we would like
- 14:04Speaker 2: to do as a family in each of the quarters.
- 14:07Speaker 2: So some quarters it's not even about going away. We've
- 14:10Speaker 2: booked in family photos for this quarter. This is really
- 14:13Speaker 2: important to us or.
- 14:13Speaker 1: One of the kids seing the grandparents because the grandparents
- 14:15Speaker 1: live a long way and how can we get them there.
- 14:17Speaker 2: We've got a family holiday booked in later in the year,
- 14:19Speaker 2: but then at the end of the year, we're just
- 14:20Speaker 2: doing a family outing together.
- 14:22Speaker 1: I remember speaking to friends and they had their holidays
- 14:25Speaker 1: planned for this year and next year. That's going back
- 14:27Speaker 1: years ago, and I was like, who plans to holidays
- 14:29Speaker 1: that foreign advance. But now we started doing this, it's like, Oh,
- 14:32Speaker 1: we know where we're going and what we're doing because
- 14:34Speaker 1: we've sat down and done the work. It's amazing.
- 14:37Speaker 2: We talked about renovations and we pulled them to pieces,
- 14:41Speaker 2: and then we talked about work, the podcasts, blah blah
- 14:43Speaker 2: blah blah blah, and then more finances, and then we
- 14:46Speaker 2: started talking about relationships. We talked about just you and I,
- 14:49Speaker 2: what were the things that irked us about each other,
- 14:51Speaker 2: what we were driving each other crazy.
- 14:53Speaker 1: A quick note on that, we don't say what's irking
- 14:56Speaker 1: you right now, and we don't get into the nitty
- 14:58Speaker 1: gritty of how we can be Oh, let's.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Just be real. You said you didn't like that I
- 15:03Speaker 2: fart that seriously, we're getting into the nitty gritty here.
- 15:08Speaker 2: And you may have also said at this quarterly getaway
- 15:11Speaker 2: that it shows you that I love you the most
- 15:15Speaker 2: when I don't fart in front of you. Yeah, there
- 15:18Speaker 2: you go.
- 15:19Speaker 1: That's real sacrifice because you'd feel better if you did, probably,
- 15:22Speaker 1: but holding it in couple of you said on the podcast.
- 15:26Speaker 2: We then we actually calendared our quarterly getaways in December,
- 15:31Speaker 2: so we know exactly where we're going, when we're going,
- 15:34Speaker 2: how we are going to achieve that.
- 15:35Speaker 1: So they are locked in, which means that we are
- 15:37Speaker 1: going to do this every quarter so that we can
- 15:39Speaker 1: stay on the same page.
- 15:41Speaker 2: We recommitted to monthly date nights and we calendered them.
- 15:45Speaker 2: They're in the calendar. We know that on the fourth
- 15:48Speaker 2: Friday of every month that is our night. And we
- 15:52Speaker 2: also talked about how our weekly catch ups and how
- 15:54Speaker 2: that was important.
- 15:55Speaker 1: And once we've done you and I then we talk
- 15:58Speaker 1: about each of the six children, and we all so
- 16:00Speaker 1: talk about time with friends. They're kind of.
- 16:02Speaker 2: The vitality and tension connection. Yep, if those are our goals,
- 16:06Speaker 2: then these are the things that matter.
- 16:08Speaker 1: And so we were planning on making this podcast last
- 16:11Speaker 1: for approximately six minutes. We thought we could give you
- 16:13Speaker 1: a quick run through of what we do when we
- 16:15Speaker 1: have our quarterly getaway so that you can get the
- 16:16Speaker 1: vibe and go and do it yourself. But as you
- 16:19Speaker 1: can see, it's impossible to even describe it in less
- 16:22Speaker 1: than fifteen to twenty minutes because there's so much to do.
- 16:26Speaker 1: And yet, if I go back to the very first
- 16:28Speaker 1: thing I said in the introduction of this podcast, it's
- 16:31Speaker 1: these quarterly getaways and having these conversations about all these
- 16:35Speaker 1: things that matter to us so profoundly that helps us
- 16:38Speaker 1: to be aligned. It helps us to stay on the
- 16:40Speaker 1: same page. It helps us to listen to one another
- 16:43Speaker 1: and see what's important to the other so that we
- 16:45Speaker 1: can consider that in all the decisions that we make.
- 16:48Speaker 1: And truly, I think that it's, if not at the
- 16:52Speaker 1: very core of our success and happiness in our relationship,
- 16:55Speaker 1: it's certainly one of several fundamentals that makes so difference. Well,
- 17:00Speaker 1: maybe it is because it allows us to discuss and
- 17:04Speaker 1: review and plan for and work through everything that is
- 17:08Speaker 1: fundamental to who we are as a couple and what
- 17:10Speaker 1: our family is.
- 17:11Speaker 2: So the absolute highlight from this weekend's getaway was because
- 17:17Speaker 2: we put so much effort and intention into December's catch
- 17:21Speaker 2: up in setting up our year. As we went through
- 17:25Speaker 2: and revisited everything that we spoke about, specifically with the kids.
- 17:30Speaker 2: That was actually the real powerful part for me was
- 17:34Speaker 2: just being able to tickle those boxes and say, oh
- 17:36Speaker 2: my gosh, look like by tracking look at the progress
- 17:40Speaker 2: of a three months, we can see progress.
- 17:41Speaker 1: How's it going to be the end of the year.
- 17:43Speaker 2: Because you get you get so caught up in the
- 17:45Speaker 2: mundane of everyday life, it's so hard sometimes to see progress.
- 17:49Speaker 2: But we actually have written proof of the things that
- 17:52Speaker 2: we were worried about, the things that we talked about
- 17:54Speaker 2: needed to happen, to improve things, and all of those
- 17:57Speaker 2: things have happened. And so the last thing is, now
- 18:01Speaker 2: that we've done that review, what are the action items
- 18:04Speaker 2: moving forward? Because it's about progress, it's about intention, it's
- 18:08Speaker 2: about connection.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Okay, So that's what we did, and that's what we
- 18:11Speaker 1: think will make a big difference for you in your relationship. Kylie,
- 18:16Speaker 1: we have a wedding anniversary to go and celebrate, so
- 18:19Speaker 1: let's strap up this pod now. And I know we
- 18:21Speaker 1: celebrated last weekend, but we need to do something now,
- 18:24Speaker 1: so let's go. Thanks so much for listening, have a
- 18:26Speaker 1: great weekend. Alder Better Tomorrow returns next week as well
- 18:29Speaker 1: as the other stuff we've got to talk about on
- 18:32Speaker 1: the pod, which is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Mim Hammond's provides research, admin and additional support and if
- 18:38Speaker 1: you would like to know how to make your family happier,
- 18:41Speaker 1: please visit us at Happy Families dot com dot au
- 18:44Speaker 1: or go to book Topia and pre order the brand
- 18:47Speaker 1: new Boys book Boys by Me Building Strong Young Men
- 18:52Speaker 1: from the Inside Out at Hit stores in June