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Road of Life Podcast

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Road of Life

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With Meredith MacKay & Craig Bennett

The

Road of Life

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Road of Life Podcast Episode 52 - Celebrating Consistency: A Look Back at Year 1

52. Celebrating Consistency: A Look Back at Year 1

October 17, 202418 min read

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Episode Transcription

Welcome back to the Road to Life podcast. This is a special episode.

Very special episode. What makes it so special?

One year. One full year. Yeah. We have not missed one week. For one full year since we started doing this

podcast.

I'm actually quite proud of that.

Very proud of that. 52 consecutive weeks. This is episode 52. This is

episode 52. We

did not miss a single week.

Yeah. It goes to show, like, just consistency. Just And we're still learning. We're still growing and there's so much to learn. And it's not even been our major focus.

We're, we're trying to, you know, add value as best we can. And this is our little unique way of doing it. Unique in that we're the only ones with a podcast, but like we're, it's, it's a work in progress, but, but we've showed up. Every single week for 52 weeks. And I think that's just, I'm, I'm pretty happy and proud about that.

I

think it's a huge milestone. I'm super proud of

us. So a little bit of celebration on our part. Cause we

think it's super important to celebrate.

It's how you

build momentum. It's how you maintain your momentum. It's how you overcome all the obstacles. Life throws your way.

Yeah. And this is one year down and we've got so much more planned and on the horizon that, you know, it's only going to get better.

So stick with us. Yeah. You're on the ground floor here. So stick with us as we navigate these waters and get to a For sure. I think

most of this year was sort of finding our footing. Like we were trying different things and talking about different topics and seeing what works and what doesn't, what resonated, what didn't.

Like we experimented a lot this year.

Totally. Totally. And so we thought we'd do something special for our 52nd episode. We

did.

What are we doing?

We are talking about our favorite episodes.

Over the year. Yeah, because we've done some things, tried some things to your point, some of them resonated better for us or we enjoyed talking about or doing more than others.

Yes. And

so these are in no particular order, just our top ones of the year. And it's interesting how we came to this because

we did it separately first.

Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't sure if I was picking five or 10. And so I was going through the list and I said, so how many did you pick? McKay, did you do five or 10?

I did six. So that's how we ended up with six episodes. So we're doing our top six. You picked six. I picked six. It happened that when we did that list, we each had two that overlapped. Yes. So those two make the list. We'll highlight those. Yeah. And then the other four are two of your favorites and two of my favorites.

Yeah. So it ultimately worked out well that it was six. Universe working in your favor. There you go. So I guess we'll just get kicked off. Yeah. In no particular order. Nope. The first one we're going to talk about, episode 36.

Achieving the goal is not the goal. This is one of yours. This is one of the ones you picked.

Yeah, this is one of the ones I picked. This was a special episode for me because this was about my big goal of running 29k back in June. So I set a goal of running 29k, as did you. And I worked really hard at that goal. And ultimately, I didn't achieve it. And it was such a huge, it's probably my biggest lesson of the whole year. I'm sure it will come up again at the end of the year when we talk about our big lessons from the year. But my biggest lesson of the year that it was more important for me in my journey and what I'm going through this year and in this life That I didn't actually achieve that goal that day that I that I set a big goal I announced a big goal and that I didn't actually achieve it because when we're setting our goals big enough, we actually don't achieve most of them And so it's kind of good practice to set a big enough goal that you fall short.

Yeah, it stretches you. It makes you work a little bit harder and, and no matter what ends up happening, you grow as a result. So you win no matter what, for sure. You win no matter what.

So you, maybe you didn't, you didn't

feel that way at the moment.

You didn't maybe get to 29K, but you ran 23 or whatever it was that day. And you grew in the process. And not only did you grow from running 23, which up until like a week before that would have been your best run of all time. Right. But you also grew outside of the run itself. Like the vulnerability you showed and the growth mindset that you had to go through and think about

as

a result of that experience stays with you forever. It's exponential.

Yeah. So that was, that was a very special episode for me. Super emotional episode, huge lesson I learned.

That was one of my favorite episodes of the year.

So episode 36, we go into more detail. Achieving the goal. Isn't always the goal. Yeah. You isn't always, and it's not even always the reward. Like there's a big, you ended up with a bigger reward, a bigger lesson than had you finished the 29K.

A hundred percent.

Couldn't agree more.

Yeah.

So also we'll link these episodes in the show notes so that it's easy to find them.

The second one. These are in no particular order. I just randomized them.

Yeah.

Episode 16. This is one that we both had on our list and it was lessons from our Ayahuasca trip. That's right.

That was a, that was a big moment for us in the last 52 weeks.

Yeah. That happened in, that was with, that was just November, last November. So we're coming up on a year. Well, it was episode 16. So yeah, a couple months in . I found the trip to Peru in general to be just a really cool experience.

A very big moment in my life. It was a goal of mine to go to Machu Picchu, experience Peru. And so we did all of that. And then while there, obviously, we went on a five day retreat. Three day retreat. Three day retreat. Three day retreat. Felt like five days. Went on a three day retreat. And ended up Taking ayahuasca twice in those three days.

Yeah. And very different experience from one day to the next. Yeah. And from each other. And from what you experienced from what I experienced. Yeah. Do you want to talk a little, like, we're not going to go into all the detail because it's in the episode that, you know, you can go back and listen to, but some high level lessons.

My biggest lesson, there were several, like I had, I think four or five big lessons that I took from that experience, but my biggest lesson that I took from that experience is I am stronger than I think I am. I can get through shit that I do not think I can get through in the moment. I come out the other side stronger for it, even when I'm miserable, even when I hate it, it's serving me.

I am stronger than I think I am.

Yeah. I came away with two lessons. One lesson was on the first night. The second lesson was on the second night and I had two totally different experiences, which I go into detail in the episode, but the first night was more euphoric, happy and just a really. grateful experience.

I was, I had tears of gratitude. It was a really cool experience until I realized what you were going through and you had a miserable experience the first night. Yeah. And again, we talk about this in the episode, but the lesson I took from that night, that experience was that You're capable of taking on that pain.

Like initially I saw you struggling and in pain and I wanted to take that from you. She, she doesn't need to struggle. Just give it to, why can't I just give it to me? I'll struggle. I'll take on the, I would have

happily given it up if I could.

I know, but I wouldn't have had the lesson, but I would have been robbing you of the experience.

And the thing that I took from this is that I don't need to be a hero to anyone you, anyone. We're all on our own journey. We all need to go through certain things to grow as a person. And if I had taken some of that pain or that experience from you, I'd be robbing you of your experience. And so it's not about coming in and being a knight in shining armor.

It's just being there to support you in whatever it is that you need and however you need it. And so it was just a different mindset for me of you don't need to solve the problem. You just need to be there to support and be the shoulder or whatever the you need in the moment or whatever the other person needs in the moment.

And that was something that I intellectually knew, but it really hit home for me in that. Yeah.

Cause, cause you're the hero of your experience of your journey of your story. And I'm the hero of mine. Right.

Yeah.

And that's kind of counter to like what society has taught us through our whole lives.

Yeah.

The man, isn't the always the hero of You're not my knight in shining

armor. I'm not. I'm my knight in shining armor.

You are. And so that was the big lesson that really hit home for me on the first night. And then the second night, that's the second lesson I learned. It was a miserable experience for me.

It wasn't quite to the extent that you had on the first night, but I had a, it was less euphoric and more dark and skulls and danger. And I was, Afraid. I was legit afraid of what was going on and I thought my mind was going to like destroy me but one of the things that I took from it was that You know, I was seeing all these visions and scariness and then at the end It was like a movie set and it turned and behind it was like A little man operating, little operating the controls of this, you know, dragon or whatever it was, machine thing that was so scary.

But when you turn around and look at it from a different angle, it's just this little thing that's not anything to be afraid of. And so it's not real. And so it just reminded me of our fears in life in general, going through and achieving our goals, the things that we are the most afraid of judgment and rejection and all those things.

They're not real. They're just stories. You're telling yourself. And when you really, really get behind the curtain, pull back the curtain and look and see, it's just a little old man, puppet playing puppeteer with the, with the controls. So those

That's a great episode. That's why it was on both of our lists.

Yeah, and and

we go into detail about the planning because this is not something you just jump into

and we did not take It lightly. We

did not take it lightly We did a lot of research and there was a lot that went into it and we go into all of our You know process for finding the right place one that we felt comfortable with one that had the safety and all the medical care and all that stuff so Check that out.

If you're interested in ayahuasca at all We go into detail and definitely reach out if you have any questions on that one.

Episode 16 Next episode.

This was one of mine. Near and dear to my heart. Episode one.

Episode one is an important one.

It starts with one.

It does.

And that was where we talked about our story a little bit and how we were scared out of our minds to leave our corporate jobs, the default life to pursue our dream of entrepreneurship and controlling our own life and our own freedom and time and all that.

And so the episode is the antidote to fear, which is action. Just do the thing.

It always seems scarier before you do it.

Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that was a really cool episode in that, you know, we got to share a little bit about our journey, but also it was the beginning of this journey, the podcast. And so check that one out.

And

it's interesting because it's the antidote to fear. It was very scary to start this podcast.

It really was. Yeah. I think

we underestimate how scary it was to start this podcast and how long it took us to actually press record on this podcast and then actually doing it it's significantly less scary.

So it's a nice embodiment of the whole principle of that episode.

Exactly. So that's episode one, the antidote to fear. A little start to our journey.

The next one is also one that I chose and it's episode five. We're early days.

Early days.

Exponential Relationship is the title of that one. It's basically the framework for how we Envision and how we approach relationships. And so I thought this, this one was a really

like a flagship episode almost.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's a foundational episode because it forms the foundation of our approach to relationships and everything we do with our coaching and all that stuff. So I really thought that this was a really keen one because it's the first one. It's the first time that we basically put out to the world our philosophy on relationships.

Which is so cool.

Yeah. And so we talk about, you know, our four pillars of, the relationship to the self, the commitment to the self, the relationship in the marriage, the commitment to the marriage, the commitment to fun, the relationship to the future commitment to the future. So those are the four pillars.

And then we just go into a little bit more detail in those and what an exponential relationship is. And so that's, it's pretty cool.

It's kind of an important emphasis.

Yeah. So that was, that was a number four, number five episode 31. Episode 31 is on self worth. This was one of yours.

This was one of mine.

This was one of my favorite episodes because self worth has been a focus of mine for this whole year. I mean, it's been something I've been working on for many years now, but I really, when I set my goals this year, the word I picked was worthy for my, for 2024, I picked the word worthy as my sort of focus word.

It's something I've been working on really diligently, a priority for me all of this year. And I've learned a lot about myself and my self worth through this process. And a big component that I've discovered, self worth and self care are so, so we have an episode on that too. So shout out to that episode.

It's number 22. I'll link to that one too. So I'm getting a sneaking in a two for one job. I didn't realize how connected those two concepts were because growing up, I was a ginormous people pleaser always, like whatever anybody needed or wanted, I could do at the expense of doing things for myself.

So if it came down to coming through for you or coming through for me, I would come through for you every time because then you would give me a gold star and a pat on the back and just tell me how wonderful I was and so that I could feel good about myself for, for five minutes. But that's not self worth.

That's fake self confidence. And it wasn't until I really started digging into these two concepts that I realized that one of the most important components of self care is boundaries and doing what you need to do to take care of yourself and saying no to other people so that you can do that. The only way I'm able to say no to other people and actually come through for myself is if I believe I'm worthy of saying no to someone else so I can say yes to myself.

So I can't effectively take care of myself if I don't believe that I'm worthy. And so those two concepts and the integration of those two concepts were huge for me this year.

Yeah. Self worth is a big one for me this year too. Like I, it wasn't my word, but it was something that I've focused on quite a bit this year and reading the book Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima.

Good book. Shout out to that book. Everyone should read it because I think there's an epidemic with, with worthiness issues in the world. So I think anyone can benefit from that book. So. Read that but yeah, self worth. It's it's massive. And like I said, there is an epidemic I think this is something that everybody can can learn from and improve with.

And the last one episode six or seven depending on how we're You snuck one in there.

Call it six officially and it is episode 50 Marriage is not 50 50.

That's a big giant myth.

That's a recent one. That was one we did a couple weeks ago. Two weeks ago, yeah. Yeah, but it's a big one.

It's a huge one.

It's for sure something I grew up believing.

It's a big myth.

It's a huge myth. Yeah. A good marriage is not 50

50.

And we're brought up to believe that a good marriage is 50 50.

Yeah, but

trying to divide 100 percent responsibility between two people is always going to create a problem.

Yeah, there's always gonna be gaps There's always gonna be yeah, but this isn't mine. That's his and then the other person. Yeah, but that's not mine That's hers. And before you know it that's gone that slips through the cracks and now you've got a big huge hole

Yeah, or like what you did was worse So I'm gonna wait for you to apologize first because what you did was worse And so you owe the first apology and once you apologize then I'll apologize but your responsibility is the first apology,

right?

You And then we're playing these games.

Yeah.

So marriage, not 50, 50, it's all about 100 percent responsibility for your marriage and 100 percent responsibility on one side and 100 percent responsibility on another side creates a 200 percent marriage.

That's correct.

And that is a near and dear concept to our hearts.

It's really the foundation for everything.

Yeah. And so that's a really cool episode for us.

So that was the other one that we had in common. That was our overlap.

That was, that was the second one that we had in common. Absolutely.

And so we, I mean, obviously we like lots of episodes.

Tons. Yeah. All of them.

All of them. They're like children. You know, you have a favorite, you have a couple favorites, but you love them all. You love them all, but a couple stand out. Yeah. They're your favorite.

Unlike your kids. We shared our favorites, you know, broadly. Yeah. You keep them in your head usually.

So those are the bones for the last year. Yeah. And we've got another year, year one. Those are the top six.

We'll have a new top six for year two.

Yeah.

52 weeks from now.

Stay tuned. See you then. We'll see you every week between now and then. And we've been doing this for a year consistently. And. We talked about it at the front end. I'm grateful and, and proud that we were so consistent to do it once a week, every week for 52 weeks. But I'm also really grateful and proud of all the people that have listened to even a minute. I'm grateful for all of it.

Yeah. That, you know, there's, there's someone out there that needs to hear a message and we're able to help them in one small little bit. So if you're listening to this and you got any value out of it and you listen to the podcast, we appreciate you more than, you know.

And we would love it if you would share it with a friend, because this is a great way to get introduced to the podcast because, you know, we think these are the best episodes.

You might as well start with these ones.

Exactly. Get the word out. And if you're feeling extra froggy, we'd love a review.

It's true. Just helps with our mission to help as many people as we possibly can.

So on that note, on to year two,

see you next week.

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Meredith & Craig

Meredith (aka MacKay). Loves rules, processes, order and efficiency. All around badass and most empathetic human you will ever meet. She feels what you feel, as strongly as you feel it. Her emotions pour from her eyeballs. Has a borderline unhealthy obsession with saltine crackers and believes squirrels are just rats with better PR. Craig (aka Bennett). Basically a giant kid with a ginger beard. Loves any game that involves a ball and seeing how many of MacKay's rules he can get away with breaking (Spoiler Alert: not many). Has un uncanny ability to give you the kick-in-the-ass you need and make it feel like a giant warm hug. Can crush a bag of Chicago Mix like Popeye does spinach We're sharing our life experiences, funny stories, failures, lessons and wisdom from this epic adventure together in hopes that it will both entertain you and equip you to live your dreams on your own epic adventure.

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Meredith & Craig

Life partners, business partners, and best friends. We left the corporate grind to become fulltime entrepreneurs... with no idea what we were doing.

That made for some interesting, amazing, stressful, awesome, painful, scary, awful, awesome, insightful, unbelievable decisions, moments, experiences, relationships, and quite honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.


Our marriage is the foundation for everything else we build in our lives. It is a cheat code for life, and we believe that having that part dialed in levels up every other part of life.

We help others live their dream life... and that starts with a rock solid relationship so they can level up the rest of their lives too.

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