Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #165 Perfect Parenting Will Crush Your Soul
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The data shows that when we have perfectionistic tendencies, self
- 0:03Speaker 1: esteem clients feelings of wellbeing go through the floor.
- 0:09Speaker 2: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:12Speaker 3: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
- 0:15Speaker 3: wants answers.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Now today, this is doctor Justin Colson.
- 0:18Speaker 1: I'm the author of six books about raising happy families,
- 0:21Speaker 1: and I'm here with my wife, Kylie missus Happy Families,
- 0:24Speaker 1: the mum to our six daughters, and Kylie, I've got
- 0:27Speaker 1: some really cool news. I got an email earlier this week.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Somebody sent a link to me. We've shown up in
- 0:34Speaker 1: a publication that I haven't heard of before, but apparently
- 0:37Speaker 1: they're important.
- 0:37Speaker 2: It's called media Week, and our podcast got to mention.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Really yeah, And not only did our podcast get to mention,
- 0:44Speaker 1: but it got mentioned in the same sentence as Hamish
- 0:46Speaker 1: and Andy's new podcast.
- 0:48Speaker 3: Hamish and Andy, the Hamish and Andrew.
- 0:50Speaker 2: I don't know any others, just Hamish and Andy.
- 0:53Speaker 1: So they've got the number one podcast in the country
- 0:55Speaker 1: and everybody loves or a number two podcast or something.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Everybody loves Hamy Shandy and somebody like. So we're not
- 1:00Speaker 1: anywhere near them. Let me just but the reason that
- 1:03Speaker 1: I'm mentioning. This is because Media Week have highlighted that
- 1:07Speaker 1: last month there was a brand new entry into the
- 1:09Speaker 1: top one hundred Australian produced podcasts in this country, and
- 1:13Speaker 1: we were.
- 1:13Speaker 3: It, does that mean we're the hundred No?
- 1:15Speaker 1: No, no, we're actually well inside the top one hundred. I
- 1:18Speaker 1: mean we're not We're not on the top ten or
- 1:20Speaker 1: anything like that. We can't even say we're in the
- 1:21Speaker 1: top fifty, but we're in the top one hundred Australian
- 1:24Speaker 1: podcasts that are produced in Australia, And you know, with
- 1:27Speaker 1: all Australian content.
- 1:28Speaker 2: I was like, wow, how awesome is that?
- 1:30Speaker 1: That is?
- 1:31Speaker 3: That's amazing. Yeah, what's so amazing about that is not
- 1:34Speaker 3: so much that it's a celebration of you and me,
- 1:37Speaker 3: but it's a celebration of all of these parents out
- 1:40Speaker 3: there who are listening because they just want the same
- 1:42Speaker 3: thing you and I want. They just want a happy family.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and some solutions when you're time for it
- 1:47Speaker 1: and you just want to.
- 1:48Speaker 2: Figure out how to deal with this thing with your kids.
- 1:50Speaker 1: So to everybody who's listened to the podcast and put
- 1:53Speaker 1: us into the top one hundred, thank you.
- 1:55Speaker 2: I mean, just so so awesome.
- 1:58Speaker 1: It feels really nice to know that there's thousands and
- 2:00Speaker 1: thousands of people who were trying to perfect their parenting
- 2:04Speaker 1: and make things work out just that little bit better
- 2:06Speaker 1: in family life.
- 2:07Speaker 3: Well, I have a confession to make because up until recently,
- 2:10Speaker 3: I actually haven't been a podcast listener at all.
- 2:15Speaker 1: So Luke and Susie used to interview me every week
- 2:17Speaker 1: and we'd have a conversation about how to make families happier.
- 2:19Speaker 1: I'd be like, oh, you've got to listen to and
- 2:21Speaker 1: you're like, Nope, don't listen to podcasts.
- 2:23Speaker 3: It's just really tricky, you know, Like most of my
- 2:25Speaker 3: driving is, you know, two or three minutes down the road,
- 2:27Speaker 3: and so kind of putting our podcast for a few minutes.
- 2:29Speaker 1: That's why it's the time the podcast or the time
- 2:31Speaker 1: Pop parent. But anyway, I know it's tricky.
- 2:34Speaker 3: But over the last few weeks since I've joined you,
- 2:36Speaker 3: I've actually been a little bit curious about what went
- 2:38Speaker 3: on before me, because people have been kind of saying,
- 2:41Speaker 3: you know, different things they've missed hearing from Luke Lupsuit.
- 2:44Speaker 1: We had some really nice feedback about how much people
- 2:46Speaker 1: love what Luke and Sussi do.
- 2:47Speaker 3: Yeah, And so I was I was a bit intrigued,
- 2:50Speaker 3: and I thought, you know what, I'd really like to
- 2:51Speaker 3: kind of just get a sense of what went on.
- 2:54Speaker 3: And I have to admit that, while I have absolutely
- 2:58Speaker 3: loved listening to all of the wealth of knowledge that
- 3:03Speaker 3: you bring to the table, it left me feeling a
- 3:06Speaker 3: little bit overwhelmed. I don't know if it's because I
- 3:08Speaker 3: was binge listening, but now that I'm your co host,
- 3:14Speaker 3: I'm feeling a little bit inadequate.
- 3:16Speaker 2: As a parent or as a co host.
- 3:18Speaker 3: Both Pluck and Susie are amazing, and Mayke do such
- 3:21Speaker 3: a great job, so definitely that, but just you know,
- 3:25Speaker 3: as I listened to all of the different strategies that
- 3:27Speaker 3: you share for parents, you know, who just want those answers,
- 3:31Speaker 3: quick quick solutions to everyday challenges, it just highlighted to
- 3:36Speaker 3: me how many times I get it wrong. And it
- 3:40Speaker 3: was really it was actually, honey.
- 3:43Speaker 2: Don't want to make you feel inadequate, No, I just it.
- 3:46Speaker 3: Really kind of it really just highlighted, Yeah, there's a
- 3:51Speaker 3: wealth of knowledge that you have shared with me over
- 3:53Speaker 3: the years that has made such a positive impact in
- 3:57Speaker 3: our lives. But I can't be that person twenty four
- 4:00Speaker 3: to seven.
- 4:01Speaker 1: Yeah, but totally off script here. You've got to remember
- 4:03Speaker 1: that I don't make any claims to being a perfect parent.
- 4:07Speaker 1: I get it wrong all the time. You see me
- 4:08Speaker 1: get it wrong all the time. And this is not
- 4:11Speaker 1: the perfect parenting podcast. It's the Happy Families Podcast. It's aspirational,
- 4:15Speaker 1: like we're trying to we're trying to help families do
- 4:17Speaker 1: better and be better, but nobody's trying to be perfect,
- 4:20Speaker 1: and it's impossible for us to do that.
- 4:22Speaker 2: It's just it's too hard.
- 4:23Speaker 1: Although a lot of parents try to be perfect, and
- 4:27Speaker 1: I think that's where we actually get ourselves into trouble
- 4:29Speaker 1: when we put those expectations so high on ourselves that
- 4:34Speaker 1: we can't possibly live up to them. And sometimes I
- 4:36Speaker 1: don't know, I mean Instagram Hello, it feels like everybody
- 4:39Speaker 1: expects us to be that perfect, and it's just it's
- 4:42Speaker 1: not fair. It's the Happy Family's Podcast, not the perfect
- 4:44Speaker 1: parenting podcast. Although that is a pretty catchy title.
- 4:48Speaker 3: Well, I know that for myself, as I've listened and
- 4:51Speaker 3: I've focused on all of the things that I'm doing wrong,
- 4:54Speaker 3: my week has been.
- 4:56Speaker 1: Not There's a phrase that I use all the time,
- 4:58Speaker 1: where your attention goes your energy flows so if you're
- 5:01Speaker 1: focusing on all the things you're doing wrong, you know,
- 5:03Speaker 1: if that's where your attention is, where all of your energy.
- 5:06Speaker 2: Is going to be going into the things you're doing wrong.
- 5:08Speaker 1: As well, and that can't be helpful. That's not going
- 5:11Speaker 1: to make your family flourish. It's not going to help
- 5:14Speaker 1: you to thrive. Your focus needs to go where your
- 5:17Speaker 1: attention needs to go, and your focus needs to go
- 5:19Speaker 1: on what could go right, because your energy will follow
- 5:22Speaker 1: that focus.
- 5:23Speaker 3: Well, I was thinking about this conversation and just obviously
- 5:26Speaker 3: my experiences this week, and I was wondering if we
- 5:29Speaker 3: might kind of, you know, put on your professor hat.
- 5:31Speaker 1: I was never a professor, but I was a lecturer
- 5:33Speaker 1: for a little while at university, so we could we
- 5:35Speaker 1: could do that?
- 5:36Speaker 3: Yeah, And I thought that we could, you know, really
- 5:39Speaker 3: kind of unpack this idea of perfectionism. I think that,
- 5:44Speaker 3: you know, we definitely know people in our lives who
- 5:47Speaker 3: you know, strive for this excellence that.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Is just beyond beyond real real.
- 5:53Speaker 3: Yeah. So I want to ask you a couple of
- 5:55Speaker 3: questions after the break.
- 5:56Speaker 2: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 5:59Speaker 4: Imagine a home where discipline got results without anyone having
- 6:02Speaker 4: to feel bad or in trouble. The Do's and don'ts
- 6:05Speaker 4: of Discipline as a webinar to help parents set limits
- 6:07Speaker 4: with love, compassion, and humanity. Find it now at happyfamilies
- 6:11Speaker 4: dot com dot au slash shop.
- 6:14Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the time
- 6:16Speaker 1: poor parent who just one's answers now And we're talking
- 6:18Speaker 1: about perfectionism and the quest for perfectionism in parenting.
- 6:22Speaker 2: And you have some questions for me, missus Happy Families.
- 6:25Speaker 1: So I'm putting on my lecturer hat for just a moment,
- 6:27Speaker 1: and we're going to get very serious about being perfect.
- 6:31Speaker 3: Can you tell me what perfectionism is?
- 6:34Speaker 1: Yeah, So the research literature is really clear on this perfectionism.
- 6:38Speaker 1: And like academics argue all the time about definitions, but
- 6:41Speaker 1: we've got pretty good consensus on this. Perfectionism is a
- 6:43Speaker 1: combination of two things. First thing, excessively high personal standards.
- 6:49Speaker 2: You know, I just have to be flawless is essentially
- 6:52Speaker 2: what we're talking about.
- 6:53Speaker 1: And the second thing is being extraordinarily critical in your
- 6:57Speaker 1: self evaluations. So not only do I have to be perfect,
- 7:00Speaker 1: but I never will be, Like, it's such an unfair
- 7:03Speaker 1: thing to do to ourselves. It's so cruel, and we
- 7:06Speaker 1: expect so much of ourselves. When we have that perfectionistic tendency,
- 7:08Speaker 1: we're basically saying, I must be the best, but I
- 7:10Speaker 1: never will be. I never can be, I never will
- 7:12Speaker 1: It's just not doable.
- 7:14Speaker 3: And I guess that was my experience this week, just
- 7:16Speaker 3: you know, kind of having this expectation of what I
- 7:19Speaker 3: should be able to do as a parent because I'm
- 7:21Speaker 3: number one, married to a parent in expert I should
- 7:23Speaker 3: know how to do this stuff, and then number two
- 7:26Speaker 3: recognizing that I can't even come close.
- 7:28Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's exactly right.
- 7:30Speaker 4: Now.
- 7:30Speaker 1: There's three types of perfectionism as worth highlighting this really
- 7:33Speaker 1: quickly as well. The first is called self oriented perfectionism,
- 7:37Speaker 1: and that seems really adaptive, right, That's about saying, well,
- 7:39Speaker 1: I've got to be great, I've got very very high standards.
- 7:41Speaker 1: But what happens when you standards are that high is
- 7:44Speaker 1: you realize that you're never going to achieve it, and
- 7:45Speaker 1: so then you actually stop trying, and then it becomes
- 7:47Speaker 1: self defeating and it does not lead to excellence, It
- 7:50Speaker 1: doesn't lead the good outcomes. That leads to feelings of
- 7:52Speaker 1: depression and feeling lousy because you just can't measure up,
- 7:56Speaker 1: so not healthy at all. That's self oriented perfectionism. The
- 7:59Speaker 1: next one is called other oriented perfectionism, and this is
- 8:03Speaker 1: basically when you expect everybody around you to be perfect.
- 8:05Speaker 1: And this is something that some parents fall into the
- 8:07Speaker 1: trap off. You know, they look at their kids or
- 8:09Speaker 1: they look at their partner and they're like, well, I
- 8:11Speaker 1: expect you to be better. I expect you to do
- 8:12Speaker 1: this right, I expect you to never fail. I expect
- 8:15Speaker 1: you to be the most valuable player on the team.
- 8:17Speaker 1: And that other oriented perfectionism is really really challenging.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Does that kind of tap into parents who want their
- 8:23Speaker 3: children to be better than they were?
- 8:25Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that's part of it.
- 8:27Speaker 1: Well, I guess it depends on the motivation for why
- 8:29Speaker 1: and what it does for their identity and their kids' identity.
- 8:31Speaker 1: And this is the critical thing here. Perfectionism is really
- 8:34Speaker 1: about identity. There's nothing the matter with having high standards.
- 8:37Speaker 1: There's absolutely nothing the matter with being conscientious and working
- 8:40Speaker 1: hard towards goals. The issue is when you start to
- 8:44Speaker 1: classify your value as a human based on how well
- 8:47Speaker 1: you achieve those goals.
- 8:49Speaker 3: All right, so you said that there were three yes.
- 8:51Speaker 1: So there's self and other oriented perfectionism, though that's the
- 8:54Speaker 1: first two. The one that's most abilitating, though, and I
- 8:57Speaker 1: think this is the one that is a really big
- 8:59Speaker 1: challenge is what's called socially prescribed perfectionism, and that essentially
- 9:03Speaker 1: is when you think that everyone else has excessively high
- 9:09Speaker 1: expectations of you, or you know, you're scrolling through Instagram
- 9:14Speaker 1: and you're like, look at the life that everybody else
- 9:15Speaker 1: is doing, and this is what I'm expected to live
- 9:17Speaker 1: up to. And then you get this combination of self
- 9:20Speaker 1: oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism where you think everyone is
- 9:24Speaker 1: prescribing this to you, but you also feel that you
- 9:26Speaker 1: have to live up to it. And then you put
- 9:29Speaker 1: the pressure on yourself as well, so you feel like
- 9:31Speaker 1: there's other oriented you know, sorry, there's pressure coming from outside,
- 9:33Speaker 1: but you also put it on you.
- 9:35Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's a double edged sword, really, isn't it.
- 9:38Speaker 2: And it's toxic.
- 9:39Speaker 1: Like, the data shows that when we have perfectionistic tendencies,
- 9:43Speaker 1: self esteem declients, feelings of well being go through the floor.
- 9:48Speaker 1: The data shows that, in fact, this is really kind
- 9:51Speaker 1: of heavy stuff. But pretty much every major psychopathology, anxiety, depression,
- 9:54Speaker 1: even suicidal ideation much much more likely to occur in
- 10:00Speaker 1: individuals who are perfectionistic, just terribly, terribly toxic.
- 10:04Speaker 3: So you've talked about what the negatives are. There are
- 10:09Speaker 3: plenty of negatives too. Are there any positives to being
- 10:12Speaker 3: a perfectionist?
- 10:13Speaker 1: So there's some people that talk about how there's this
- 10:15Speaker 1: idea that you can have positive perfectionism.
- 10:18Speaker 2: I don't like it.
- 10:19Speaker 1: I don't think that it's an adaptive way to use
- 10:21Speaker 1: the phrase. I think that the term perfectionism should stay
- 10:24Speaker 1: in this silo that says, stay away from perfectionism.
- 10:27Speaker 2: It's not helpful.
- 10:29Speaker 1: There's nothing the matter with saying I've got high expectations
- 10:32Speaker 1: and high standards, but perfectionism is about my value as
- 10:37Speaker 1: a person, and it's just not fair to say, well,
- 10:41Speaker 1: because I didn't attain that certain standard, I'm not a
- 10:44Speaker 1: valuable person. That's what I don't like about it. So
- 10:47Speaker 1: I would actually there would be some academics who would
- 10:49Speaker 1: argue with me and say that perfectionism is healthy in
- 10:52Speaker 1: some ways. There are adaptive kinds of perfectionism. But what
- 10:54Speaker 1: they're really saying, I think is that it's good to
- 10:57Speaker 1: be conscientious, it's good to work hard, it's good to
- 10:59Speaker 1: have high, high goals, and I would agree with that,
- 11:01Speaker 1: but I wouldn't call that perfectionism. I'd call that persevering
- 11:04Speaker 1: and having fortitude and conscientious, being conscientious.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Okay. So if I and I'm not saying I am,
- 11:13Speaker 3: If I am a perfectionist.
- 11:15Speaker 2: And wanting to be the perfect parent, what do I
- 11:18Speaker 2: do with that?
- 11:18Speaker 3: How do I work with this? How do I get
- 11:23Speaker 3: to a point where I can, you know, accept limitations
- 11:27Speaker 3: or set standards for myself that are actually achievable without
- 11:31Speaker 3: accepting a life of mediocrity, because that's not the person
- 11:34Speaker 3: I am.
- 11:34Speaker 2: So I'd call that a false dichotomy.
- 11:36Speaker 1: And a lot of people say, well, if I'm not
- 11:36Speaker 1: going to have these really high standards and be perfect,
- 11:38Speaker 1: what am I going to just be average?
- 11:40Speaker 2: I'm just going to be like everybody else. That's not
- 11:42Speaker 2: good enough for me.
- 11:43Speaker 1: And I think that that's you know, we're going from
- 11:45Speaker 1: one extreme to the other. You can still have high standards,
- 11:48Speaker 1: you can still want to be the very best parent
- 11:50Speaker 1: or the very best partner, or the very best employee
- 11:52Speaker 1: or the very best whatever it is that you value
- 11:55Speaker 1: that you can be, but there's a difference between saying
- 11:57Speaker 1: I want to work hard and improve and I want
- 12:01Speaker 1: to be the best, or my value as a person
- 12:04Speaker 1: comes down to this. There's this thing called the perfection
- 12:06Speaker 1: paradox or the perfectionism paradox, and what it basically is
- 12:10Speaker 1: is that we learn by making mistakes.
- 12:13Speaker 2: Okay, that's how we get better.
- 12:14Speaker 1: We have to make mistakes because as we make mistakes,
- 12:16Speaker 1: we recognize that we need to adjust what we're doing
- 12:18Speaker 1: so that we can get better.
- 12:19Speaker 2: That's how we learn.
- 12:21Speaker 1: When we avoid mistakes, therefore we limit our learning. But
- 12:24Speaker 1: because perfectionists hate making mistakes because then they show that
- 12:27Speaker 1: they're not perfect, they tend not to learn.
- 12:29Speaker 3: And so in your effort to be perfect, you actually
- 12:33Speaker 3: curb your learning, which means that you can never never
- 12:37Speaker 3: be perfect.
- 12:38Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, spot on. So I would do two things.
- 12:41Speaker 1: Number one, So this this idea that we're supposed to
- 12:44Speaker 1: celebrate failure. I read it in blogs all the time.
- 12:47Speaker 1: I see it on social media all the time. Celebrate failure,
- 12:50Speaker 1: celebrate mediocreat It's like nobody's sell it. Now. If the
- 12:52Speaker 1: kids come home and they've got an F on their
- 12:54Speaker 1: report card, or if you get fired for underperformance at work,
- 12:58Speaker 1: or if you know the house is falling apart because
- 13:00Speaker 1: you everything's just a shamozzle. You don't sort of walk
- 13:03Speaker 1: in the door and go, look at this, We're failing.
- 13:05Speaker 1: How amazing, We're celebrated. Let's have a party, Let's go
- 13:07Speaker 1: and buy some cake. That's so unrealistic. It's a stupid
- 13:11Speaker 1: thing to say. But what I think we can do
- 13:13Speaker 1: is we can say we can shift our focus and
- 13:18Speaker 1: say I'm not so interested on the outcome. I'm more
- 13:20Speaker 1: interested in the process. My goal here is to learn
- 13:24Speaker 1: to become a better parent. And if I fail, if
- 13:27Speaker 1: I get it wrong, if I yell at the kids,
- 13:28Speaker 1: if I don't get my life together the way I'm
- 13:31Speaker 1: supposed to as a parent, what can I learn from
- 13:34Speaker 1: that so that I can be better tomorrow. It's not
- 13:38Speaker 1: about being perfect. It's about this ongoing becoming, this ongoing development.
- 13:44Speaker 1: That's why every Friday we have this conversation about I'll
- 13:46Speaker 1: do better tomorrow. Why because we're not trying to be perfect,
- 13:49Speaker 1: We're just.
- 13:49Speaker 2: Trying to do better tomorrow.
- 13:51Speaker 3: Yeah. I love it.
- 13:52Speaker 1: And by the way, the thing that I love about
- 13:53Speaker 1: it most of all is that it's tremendously self compassionate.
- 13:57Speaker 1: Some of the things that we say to ourselves. If
- 14:00Speaker 1: if you think about the last you know, when you
- 14:02Speaker 1: listen to those podcasts and you were thinking that you.
- 14:03Speaker 2: Weren't good enough?
- 14:04Speaker 1: Mum? What kinds of things did you say to yourself
- 14:08Speaker 1: about yourself? I don't know if you want to share
- 14:10Speaker 1: that or not.
- 14:12Speaker 2: Putting on the spot.
- 14:14Speaker 3: I think the biggest one that stood stands out to
- 14:16Speaker 3: me is I'm the weak link in our family.
- 14:20Speaker 2: And you can see how damaging that statement is.
- 14:23Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was. Now it broke my heart.
- 14:25Speaker 1: I'm going to get a bit weepy when I say this,
- 14:28Speaker 1: But can you imagine if one of our children was
- 14:31Speaker 1: struggling and you looked at her and said, you're the
- 14:34Speaker 1: weak link in our family?
- 14:36Speaker 2: Like you just wouldn't say it.
- 14:38Speaker 1: So if you wouldn't say it to somebody else, why
- 14:41Speaker 1: is it okay to say it to you?
- 14:43Speaker 3: You got me crying too.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Isn't this a big This is a big deal though, right, Yeah,
- 14:52Speaker 1: because we say such awful things to ourselves. You know,
- 14:55Speaker 1: we don't have to call ourselves names. Sometimes we just say, well,
- 14:58Speaker 1: I'm the weak link, I'm the failure. But you wouldn't
- 15:01Speaker 1: say it to your mum, and you wouldn't say it
- 15:03Speaker 1: to one of our kids, and you wouldn't say it
- 15:05Speaker 1: to our neighbor, you wouldn't say it to a friend.
- 15:09Speaker 1: We've got to be more compassionate to ourselves, not to
- 15:13Speaker 1: everyone else, although that's important too, but we've actually got
- 15:15Speaker 1: to just be kinder to ourselves. And if we can
- 15:17Speaker 1: learn how to do that, that is where we move
- 15:21Speaker 1: away from perfectionism. And at no point are you saying, well,
- 15:25Speaker 1: I'm going to accept mediocrity. What you're saying instead is
- 15:29Speaker 1: I had a really lousy day with the kids today.
- 15:32Speaker 1: I haven't been the mum that I want to be.
- 15:35Speaker 1: And while it's not okay, I'll do better tomorrow. I'm
- 15:39Speaker 1: going to learn from today.
- 15:42Speaker 3: That's a message of hope. So we've obviously talked about
- 15:46Speaker 3: what do I do I find the perfectionists, but is
- 15:50Speaker 3: it easy to actually spot it in other people? And
- 15:53Speaker 3: especially I guess as we're talking about families and our
- 15:55Speaker 3: spouses or our children.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Yeah, you can spot it, you know. Perfectionism really just
- 16:00Speaker 1: comes down to one thing. How do I feel about failure?
- 16:04Speaker 1: How do I feel about mistakes? And if you've got
- 16:06Speaker 1: a partner or a child, or if you've got somebody
- 16:08Speaker 1: close to you who won't try things because they're going
- 16:11Speaker 1: to make mistakes, as opposed to not trying things because
- 16:13Speaker 1: they're not motivated.
- 16:15Speaker 2: There's a difference.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Or when they do try something, they fail and they say,
- 16:19Speaker 1: I will never do that again because I hate feeling
- 16:21Speaker 1: stupid and looking dumb. Then they're moving towards perfectionistic tendencies.
- 16:27Speaker 1: And that's where we give the same strategies, you know,
- 16:29Speaker 1: some compassion. We talk about learning. We say, well, how
- 16:32Speaker 1: would you do it differently next time? And we've got
- 16:35Speaker 1: to it's critical that we say, whether you do this
- 16:40Speaker 1: right or whether you fail, you're still okay.
- 16:43Speaker 2: It's not a reflection on who you are as a person.
- 16:47Speaker 1: And that compassion, that softness actually helps people to know
- 16:51Speaker 1: that it's okay to make mistakes. That's why people listen
- 16:53Speaker 1: to the podcast right because we all know that we're
- 16:54Speaker 1: making mistakes, but we want to be better tomorrow.
- 16:56Speaker 2: That's I think the central message.
- 16:59Speaker 3: Well, things a bit personal there, and I feel like
- 17:01Speaker 3: I had a little bit of a therapy session with
- 17:03Speaker 3: everybody listening in too.
- 17:04Speaker 2: I hate some tissues as well.
- 17:07Speaker 3: I'm so grateful not only that you're my husband, but
- 17:10Speaker 3: that I can pick your brain as an expert with
- 17:13Speaker 3: these issues because I think that it makes such a
- 17:15Speaker 3: difference for families.
- 17:17Speaker 1: You know, I think it's really funny because on this
- 17:19Speaker 1: podcast we talk about stuff that we don't necessarily talk
- 17:22Speaker 1: about in the hum drum of everyday real life. And
- 17:25Speaker 1: I love having these conversations with you. If you enjoy
- 17:28Speaker 1: the conversations that we're having, we would be so grateful
- 17:31Speaker 1: if you would jump onto Apple Podcasts and tell everyone
- 17:34Speaker 1: about the podcast, let people know what you think. When
- 17:37Speaker 1: you do that, Apple's algorithm bumps our podcast up, and
- 17:40Speaker 1: it helps other people to find out about us so
- 17:42Speaker 1: that they can make their families happier but not necessarily
- 17:45Speaker 1: more perfect, And we would love it if.
- 17:46Speaker 2: You would be able to do that. Just go to
- 17:48Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts and.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Leave your rating and review and help other people to
- 17:52Speaker 1: find out about the podcast. We appreciate so very much.
- 17:55Speaker 1: Justin rule On from Bridge Media. He's our producer and
- 17:58Speaker 1: our executive producer is Bruce And if you'd like more
- 18:01Speaker 1: info about how your family can flourish, visit Happy families
- 18:05Speaker 1: dot com dot au.