In today’s solo episode, Gabby shares updates about her training methods with an injury & what changes she’s made that have really helped, how parenting has fascinated and challenged her sense of self and service and digs into previous podcast episodes around “the price of winning” with Kent Steffes, Arthur Brooks and more. Thank you for hanging out with me. Aloha.
Listen to the episode here:
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Key Topics:
- Training Update [00:06:33]
- Aging and Intelligence [00:09:18]
- Parenting Teenagers [00:12:28]
- Marriage: Going Through Time [00:16:52]
- Family Time [00:21:33]
- Winning [00:23:45]
- Women and Fasting [00:28:56]
- Building vs Criticizing [00:33:56]
- On Repetition and Creativity [00:36:46]
- Feedback and Questions [00:43:53]
Are You Missing the Good Stuff? Updates from Gabby around Training with Injury, The Price of Winning & Maintaining Familial Relationships
This is a solo podcast and I get into sharing some of my training and things I’ve been up to. It’s amazing how injury forces us to keep changing. I don’t know why I need to learn that so many times. I share what’s been going on and some changes I’ve made that helped. I get into parenting. Parenting is fascinating to me and that’s a code word for amazing, life-changing, ass-kicking, and confusing. I often wonder, “Am I qualified?” I’ve been doing it for a long time. Sorry to my girls. They say as parents, “I’m interested to see all the exciting ways. During the holidays, you can tell me how I’ve blown it.” There are some things I’ve been going through in parenting.
I talk a little bit about aging. Even though you can have a good attitude about it and have a good perspective, it is what it is. Sometimes, there are also ways that if you don’t actively participate in what is pretty wonderful about certain things, you’re almost missing the magic of whatever the thing is that we’re in because we keep pining for another time or different situation. I don’t know about you but a lot of couples were taken down by COVID. Maybe it was like, “We’re together too long too often.”
Laird and I have been together for a long time. It’s the different stages of being in a relationship with somebody. Also, you have this romance of maybe what it has been. You have this notion that instead of waking up each day not only making the best it can be right now but never comparing it or thinking about it in any other terms of what it is in this day. Laird and I have probably been getting on each other’s nerves a little bit. I’m talking about that because this is not going to be the first time in over 27 years that we’ve got on each other’s nerves.
I reflect back on a couple of podcasts I did, one with Kent Steffes. Even though we talked about the platform of sports and being in a winning mindset or mind frame, we’re geared to win at business, win and get money, win and get attention, and win and get credit. If you are talking about sports, it’s the actual winning, and if anything is under those things. For a lot of people, it’s like, “This was a total bust.” What’s the price for that? It’s important to stay on top of that. You’re missing the good stuff because you’re focused on either what you’re not yet or it didn’t happen or it happened but it’s now not happening.
My hope with this show is to bring accessible information but pretty scientific or high-end. We’re going to get it wrong sometimes where the science will be different. A lot of studies are done on men and I don’t mean that with anything attached to it. For example, some of the studies on fasting have been on men and all the benefits of fasting, giving your digestion, autophagy, and all these things. For women, it turns out that it may not be that great. Half of the women out there are like, “I knew it wasn’t just me.”
I can fast with Laird. I’m like a lunatic and he’s like, “Those are a big bunch of problems.” There are some data and science suggesting that maybe it’s not all scrapped up for women, especially maybe as we get older. Finally, I was just coming out of a hectic few days with a lot of family members, guests, and dinners with ten people.
All of us do the circuit. We empty dishwashers if we’re lucky and we have one. You’re folding laundry, making the bed, showering, and brushing your teeth. If you have a lawn, you’re cutting your lawn. It’s that constant loop. There are two things about that for me. One is the art of the repetitive or the mundane. I have tried to appreciate this weird art that comes from doing it again and again.
The second part of this is we think of services always have to be grand gestures like fundraisers, the community, and all this stuff. Yes, that is important because we participate in that. The other thing I was thinking, and I didn’t talk about this in my podcast but I’m sharing it now, is to be of service. You are being of service to your family, your friends, or your community. That’s important and it’s rewarding. When you sit down and it’s like, “Does anybody else need anything before I sit down?”
[bctt tweet=”Wonder, possibility, and hope are things that we should never let go of.”]
This is something that’s good for us. Even though it’s hard, it takes a little extra effort, and all these things, this too is important, to be of service to the people close to you. Yes, it does take more effort. However, those connections, that exchange, and the time with those people are pretty special. I believe that if we find pockets of enjoyment within it, it also fortifies us, and it makes us a lot stronger than we would be without that service. It’s an opportunity. There might be certain people who’ve moved to cities for jobs and more isolated. They don’t even have that opportunity.
I rein it up. How we approach things, our perspective, and how we frame things is a constant battle. You have to keep paying attention to enjoying, appreciating, and understanding your feelings and what you’re doing. I was bringing that up. I’ve said many times that I wanted to write a book called Death by Domestication. Sometimes it feels like it’s uncreative and it’s not free and all those things. Where do you find this subtle beauty in all of it that turns out not to be so subtle? As always, thank you for hanging out with me. I hope you enjoy.
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I have a lot on my mind, I always do, don’t we all? I thought I’d bucket out some things and talk about them. I’m going to start with training. I have been recovering. I’ve had a torn labrum in my hip. I’m going to be honest with you, my adductors are incredibly weak. You’ve maybe heard me talk about how I’m not that flexible literally, figuratively, and metaphorically. It’s one of my constant dances. It’s like, “You’re so grounded.” It’s like, “Yeah, like concrete.”
I started incorporating other small tedious exercises on the regular basis. I sell the message of, “We can heal ourselves and the body is a miracle.” I sometimes have a hard time believing it. I can say that I have been able to start to work a little bit harder. What I noticed in this is sometimes we get going into doing it a certain way, like, “I lift on these days. I like to do outside activities on these days.” Even in that, we get stuck in our way. It’s interesting. It’s like, “This is the way I do it. This is my way, our way.” Also, that gets in our way.
I haven’t been banging as much iron, which makes me feel like I’m earning it. You go, “Am I going to keep my muscle and all this stuff?” In the meantime, I’ve been healing. It’s creating an environment where I can work a lot harder. I want to encourage you. If you have some aches and pains, if you do have some homework, which I’m sure you do, do it. Believe in that process even though it always takes longer. I do believe that as we get older, you start to think, “Is this it? Is this permanent? Is this what I’m going to be living with for the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years?”
I want to say that we can always still make changes. I don’t mean this in some fluffy way. I mean that if we can stay malleable in all those ways, the body follows. Of course, we’re not surging full of hormones like 16 or 20-year-olds but there’s so much that we can do if we strategize. It’s staying open minded, learning, and changing. I want to encourage you. I’ve ramped that up. If you don’t have homework and you’ve got something going on, get involved, get some help, ask somebody, find somebody that you trust and that feels good, and see how it goes. If something happens interesting, I’d love to hear about it.
The next area connected with that is aging. What’s always interesting for me about aging is I try not to give it too much. I try not to hang too much on it. There are things about it that’s the way it is for all of us. Time is moving. Transitions are uncomfortable. Life is always changing. I feel like I’m always trying to find ways to flow with that. I interviewed Arthur C. Brooks, From Strength to Strength. If you did not read that podcast, I would direct you to it.
What he talks about is we have this fluid intelligence when we’re younger and as we do live a little longer, it turns into something else called crystallized intelligence. Things that maybe were easy or effortless for us when we’re younger become harder but then we have different strengths as we get older.
How do we keep finding that purpose and satisfaction? We cannot do the same things over and over even though it’s a tendency. It’s natural to be like, “I’m good at that. People know that I do that.” It’s like, “All of a sudden, why is this new person in the office the new superstar or the new athlete on the court and I’m not?” It’s completely natural. I have found that embracing that and keep focusing on, what are my strengths? Who am I trying to be? How can I help someone else? That’s helpful.
Arthur C. Brooks talks a lot about that in From Strength to Strength, which is also when we become of service because we do have a certain amount of experience or what have you. There’s something so deeply fulfilling. Maybe you won’t be the rock star, whatever that means, the deep richness of helping someone else improve or being a part of something, culturally, we don’t give it enough juice but it’s powerful. Everyone gets their place in those moments. How do we keep moving, growing, sharing, and supporting one another? That’s certainly one of them.
Gabby Reece – All relationships, friendships and love, have all these chapters. We have to keep rolling our sleeves and say, “How do I participate?”
There’s a well-known makeup artist named Bobbi Brown and we were talking about straight up aging. It’s like, “On those certain days, don’t look close to the mirror.” In those days, you’re like, “Holy crap.” Everybody experiences that. It’s normal. Remember when we’re teenagers, were tortured for other reasons. We’re so uncomfortable and then we get maybe a sweet spot for a few years. If I could encourage you on those particular days, on that to superficial external, get a sense of humor and back away from the mirror. Have fun with it. Tell a friend. Don’t make it a big deal.
The parenting front has been always university. Being a parent, it’s always trying to be self aware. I had an incident with one daughter, Brody. She’s tough on Laird. He probably harasses her but he also shows up for her. He’s there. He takes her every morning to school. He is affectionate. He said something interesting to me. He’ll point to the pillars in the living room and be like, “See that post? Sometimes that’s my job. It’s to be there.”
I was in the car with her and he calls her to say hi and see how she is and she’s rude. Granted, she’s that age. I was like, “I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to be around that.” What does that stem from? That stems from me thinking, “She talks to her dad like this. This is how she’s going to be in relationships.” We always talk about baseline decency. I don’t care what you have going on short of the real stuff. No matter what mood we’re in, I don’t think it’s our right and privilege to be able to take it out on the people close to us.
Granted, you hear that parents are safe. When people are teenagers, oftentimes, they’re the worst because we’re not going anywhere. That means it’s some badge of honor. Thank you very much that you’re that safe person that won’t split on them. We’ve all gone through those phases. I said to her, “I don’t want to hear that. That’s your dad but that’s also my partner. He’s not your welcome mat.”
She said something. I do this and I have to figure this out. I’m super cool and then I’m not cool at all. She’ll try to give me some BS dialogue. She said to me, “I’m sorry, you feel that way.” The last person that said that to me was Katie Couric in an interview. That’s a pro move. I was like, “Pretty good. I’m sorry, you feel that way.” It has no sense of accountability in it.
My point of sharing it with you is I did lose my cool on some level. I wasn’t throwing things. I was driving the car. I lean into it so much because it is ultimately stimulated by the concern that this is who she’s going to be as a person and not that it’s a phase. She proceeded to tell me, which is pretty funny, that I handled it wrong and that I could have been so much more impactful if I had said, “It’s not the way to do it. I’ve tried that method and now I’m trying something else.”
It’s the reminder if you’re in those instances with a child or a young adult child or an adult child, try to remember back to what you were like. I feel pretty confident saying that probably most of us had versions of this and we probably make better decisions today. I was talking to a friend of mine who has a young adult child who went through sobriety and had an active recovery place for about six months and he’s going to do another six months. This young adult child is a year younger than when my friend got sober and my friend is thriving and killing it in his 50s.
Why I’m bringing this up is if you’re going through something like that, remember what you are going through and have that reminder like, “That’s right. This too is part of it and they have to go through it. Why would they figure it out sooner than we did?” It’s hard to remember that but it’s true. Have that faith. There wasn’t an F-bomb but I occasionally didn’t love hearing it but just to lift the valve out, we can’t be perfect.
It’s been an interesting time. I will be in my 25th year of marriage this 2022 and over 27 years in the relationship. I was joking with Laird, I was like, “Are we here?” Have you ever heard the study that men don’t hear as well or they’re desensitized to their partner’s voice after so many years? I swear to God, I feel like Laird is hearing a third less of the things I say. Everything I say is important. I was joking and one of our older daughters was here and I was like, “Is this where we are in our relationship? You’re not hearing me anymore.” I was joking but I was also serious.
You also realize, how do you go through time with somebody? Of course, you love them. It’s the given thing, “I love them and I respect them and all these things.” Are we able to look at each other as we are at this moment? I may be different than I was yesterday. If you’re not paying attention or you’re not giving me that chance to be who I am today or if I’m doing that, you’re missing. You’re missing the opportunity for growth and that rediscovery, like, “My partner is still learning and expanding.”
I don’t know every story or I haven’t heard every single thought but I can say that in the dance at the moment, it’s been uncomfortable. I imagine it’s natural. It’s something that forces you to go, “Where am I going from here because I’m only in charge of myself?” That has been interesting. Also, I have strong opinions and I’m a pretty strong person but I have a tendency sometimes to be more on the quiet side.
We had a scenario where he was sharing something and I felt that part of what he was sharing was inaccurate and it felt like important information. I was like, “It was this.” It was interesting because he did not take kindly to that because it was in front of two other people. I wasn’t combative or disrespectful in any way. Within being agreeable, wanting peace, and being more quiet in a certain way, I also realized that it’s important to be in your own strength and your own voice and to be strong even if it is quiet and even if your partner is super energetic, boisterous, and wonderful things.
[bctt tweet=”We can always make changes. If we can stay malleable in all those ways, the body follows.”]
It was interesting when I will fold on and then when I’m like, “I have to go along with everything.” I certainly believe in never embarrassing your partner, especially in front of a group of people. That’s not a good look. Certainly, being able to have like some healthy debate or an opinion would be okay. It was interesting.
All relationships, friendships and love relationships, have these chapters. We have to keep rolling up our sleeves and say, “How do I participate? What’s my part in this? What do I want to bring to the table? When am I willing to not worry about it?” We can get fixated on all these things that don’t matter. Especially when you know your partner’s heart in the right place, that’s pretty powerful to know. They have your best interests at heart or they’re trying and they’re showing up, that’s a powerful starting point. The rest is nuance and massage and making yourself happy.
Family time, I can imagine a lot of you are filling that because a lot of older children are moving home because the world is difficult. Is it open? It’s not fully open. They can work from home. Everything else is too expensive. You’ve got older kids or you’ve been trapped at home quarantined with your kids and your partners. We make these romantic ideas about family and then we’re always surprised when it’s not that. I wonder where we get that from. I don’t know if that’s part of the whole Cinderella thing.
Have you ever gone on a business trip and you miss everyone so much that you get home and you go, “Yeah.” I have fun with that because I do love my family and I’m grateful for them. I’m sure they feel the same way about me. There are days where I’m like, “A one-bedroom apartment and a dog. I don’t know, maybe. I’d be missing out.” All the real growth, the best growth, the things I don’t want to look at about myself, there they are. That’s one of the great opportunities.
By the way, if you’re reading this and you haven’t gone this route, props to you. There are a million ways to walk the journey and to make yourself be in this life. I’m not suggesting it’s the only way. In fact, we talked about it with my friends. If you think having children makes you happier, that’s not what it is, it’s something else. If anyone tries to sell people that narrative, it’s unfair. Anyway, I’m just putting that out there
I had an interesting interview with Kent Steffes. He has a new book out. What was interesting is somebody posted this, I said, “A winning mindset.” Someone said that was fixed instead of a winning state. My point is that Kent talked about how when he went to play volleyball, he was there to win and win only. Everything short of that was an incomplete fail.
My experience playing sports was so different. It was something to be a part of. I loved the hard work. I love training. I love the silliness of being with the girls and the brittleness. I respected myself. I felt good about myself training hard. I loved having good coaches. There’s nothing worse than having a bad coach but when you get a good coach, it’s hard to beat it.
It’s hard to beat having somebody who makes you better and who’s willing, back to From Strength to Strength, to mentor you and share ideas with you that helped you in your own life. Most of it is not on the court. Personal accountability, work ethic, discipline, dealing with fear, dealing with losing, handling winning gracefully, working on everything you’re not good at, and not sitting at practice and only doing the stuff you’re great at.
It was an interesting conversation because we celebrate winners. When we watch the Olympics, we don’t even look at the person in second place. We only celebrate people who are number one. He talks in-depth about the real price for that. In the book, Natural Born Heroes, cooperation was a part of evolution. People competed for mates. Males, especially, competed to have mates. It wasn’t about beating you for the sake of beating you.
There’s an interesting thing where we celebrate winning so much but it is an unnatural part of our culture or evolution. Within it, it’s an interesting dynamic. If you’re doing something yourself, if you’re participating whether it’s professionally on a recreational level, maybe you compete in Spartan Races, marathons, half marathons, or you play basketball or soccer on the weekends. Whatever your jam is, what is it that’s being a part of that? Is it to challenge yourself? Is it to see if you can do it and to see if you’re better? Is it about winning?
Laird had a great quote and it says what’s different about Laird and me. Laird said to me, “Creative people get joy out of the experience and more linear people get the joy out of beating others.” I was like, “That sounds about right.” For him, he wants to go out and see the ocean, the color of the waves, the power, the landscape, and all the stuff. When I played, I was like, “What’s at stake?” We do that a lot in life.
Even when we say to someone, “What job are you going to take?” It’s like, “Get the most money you can.” That price for winning, in the long run, may not be worth it. We do have to grow up and we do have to provide and all these things. If we get that space to ask ourselves, “Who are we? Who am I? What’s going to make me feel good? What turns me on?” Sometimes we’d arrive at a different end game.
It’s hard, especially as we were in life to ask those questions because we’re buried under the responsibility. Maybe if you’re in a transition, this is the time to do it. If you have kids that are getting ready to go out there in the world, could you encourage them to quietly ask themselves that question? Kent is a smart guy. He has analyzed it. It’s like a CPA’s approach to the sport. You wonder. You’ve got the gold medal and what did you give up for it? Was it worth it in the long run? Maybe the answer is yes. It’s important, depending on who you are, what you want to give up for that “winning.” I appreciated that conversation. We had jokes. I was like, “I don’t know what game you play but it’s fun.”
Another thing that was interesting is in these podcasts, you’re going to talk to scientists or health experts. Most of them, and I do vet it, there’s an alignment. Mostly because it’s already confusing and I’m trying to make this as easy as possible by taking care of yourself and making it achievable and not one more confusing message. However, what happens is as you go along and certain trends come out like fasting. All of a sudden, you get all these studies about what’s great about fasting.
A lot of us don’t realize that these studies are oftentimes done on men. They don’t always reflect how it impacts women, especially women that are performing. What I mean is if you’re having a heavy physical output, don’t get me wrong, if you are running around, working, and trying to manage a family, you’re an athlete. That is the hardest stuff. Keep yourself dialed together and find those pockets to take care of yourself. This is also implied for women who are training hard. Maybe you’re doing lots of lifting or lots of miles or whatever. Maybe fasting, with all its great benefits, is not for women per se.
I talked to Dr. Gabrielle Lyon and even Dr. Stacy Sims. Here’s the deal. Let’s say you’re more sedentary and you’re using fasting to manage body composition. It used to be weight. I don’t love scales. Dr. Gabrielle Lyon talks about the importance of protein. I’ve done abbreviated podcasts on this with the exact information and the why. You can read to them. All of the things that protein supports, all of the systems in our body, whether it’s your brain, recovery, hormones, all of it, one gram of protein for ideal body weight. I was 182. I feel better at about 175, between all of us and me. What does that mean? I will eat 175 grams of protein.
Gabby Reece – Having a good coach, somebody who makes you better and shares ideas that help you in your own life, is hard to beat.
To get it in food is hard. I do take BCAAs or Branched-Chain Amino Acids. It is not a waste of time and money. You can get it in your food. She says that the first and last meal of the day is imperative, 35 to either 50 or 55 grams of protein. It will also keep hunger at bay and a bunch of other things from happening. You get to avoid insulin spikes and some other things.
My point of this is that a lot of times we’ve talked about all these incredible benefits of fasting and I want to say I do agree with that, especially if you do it right. How hard is it to get into autophagy? It’s very hard. It’s 36 hours. Intermittent fasting, yes. Digesting food is hard on you. That message has not changed. Snacking is not great, probably. However, how do we get that protein especially if you’re female? Most of us are not getting enough.
My hope is that the show has some flexibility to it but it doesn’t feel inconsistent. It doesn’t feel like, “Last week, you said this. In this week, you’re saying that.” I don’t like that myself. There are going to be constant things that are important like getting to bed on time, being hydrated, trying to stay mobile, eating enough of the right types of calories, and things like Omegas.
This isn’t going to switch in the health ethos, being connected, finding that community, and contributing to the world that you live in. However, there might be some of these other conversations as we go deeper into them. It’s like, “That study was on men or boys. Maybe there are some caveats for women.” I want to identify that. It’s something that has shown up for me.
Something else that we keep showing up to is this whole idea about don’t look where you don’t want to go. I don’t think most of us feel this way. There are a few that are loud that create all this separation and conflict. I don’t think that most of us feel that way. I like to reiterate that if it’s possible and you found the value in it, each of us could go out into our world and be empathetic, loving, and tolerant but strong. There’s so much complaining going on. I’m more interested in what can we build.
When you’re busy doing and building and being with people you love and trying to go for goals and dreams, you don’t have a lot of time to criticize other people, be upset, or be frustrated about the way they want to live. I sometimes feel that maybe people have too much time and they’ve been at home and they’re on their phones quite a bit and they’re frustrated and not feeling great. We all think that’s how the world is now. I don’t think it is. Most of us are trying to do the best that we can.
We’re flawed. We all have a lot of love in us. We want to be loved. I want to remind you. Within that, I mean the real strength too. At some point, some of it gets to be too much BS. Whatever your truth is, you’d be willing to take ownership of that. It seems to have gotten to be a scarier thing now. It’s important that we still can keep the discussion open and healthy debate.
I don’t have to agree with every single thing that one of my friends agrees with to love them and be friends with them. I hope that we don’t lose that. It could be temporary. If you ask half the world, they think we’re in transition to transhumanism. I don’t know. We would be smarter but I don’t know if that means that it’s better. Maybe that’s it. Maybe we’re in a far-out time and we’re in a transition and we’re getting to witness it. It’ll be interesting to see.
The book I’ve been reading is Mattias Desmet’s The Psychology of Totalitarianism. I finished it because I’m going to interview him. It was an interesting read. I’m going to look up all the books that I’ve been reading to share. You know how it is, you got to try out all new things and keep your mind open. I did read The War on the West, which I thought was great. You can laugh at me because you wouldn’t expect this from me. I re-read Autobiography of a Yogi and The Wisdom Codes, that was interesting.
I don’t know if most of you feel this way but sometimes it’s this repetition that we’re in. What I’ve been trying to do is open up to creativity within the repetition because there are going to be certain things. Kids are going to school, people are going to work, and dinner is going to be made. There’s stuff that happens that it mounts to repetitive.
One of the things I’ve been working on is being more optimistic about the possibilities of what’s in front of me. Will I say the word dream? Maybe. I had a friend that used to say, “What else is possible?” We get so locked and loaded and then we get a little bit of life’s experience. Maybe we’ve even had 1, 2, or 3 successful careers so we think we know something. That can limit us.
What I realized is I’m my own worst limitation. I put the ceiling on. When I was joking about being a Capricorn, stubborn, and grounded, that has a lot of perks but it also can hold you back. Sometimes I feel like I don’t expand even professionally as much as I could because I’m focused on being grounded and practical and having some whimsical ideas and some dreaming and shooting of the stars if you will. There’s something in that.
I don’t believe that you have to just be in your 20s. Wherever we are, if we still have these notions within us, why wouldn’t we aspire to do them or share them? Not everything is about dollars. Sometimes dollars reflect the size of an idea. Also, people have been feeling so defeated. If we can generate some of that dreaming and openness to, “I’ve been this. What else can I be? Who else can I be? What other part of myself can I bring out to the surface?”
I’ve probably been feeling this way for about maybe six months to a year. Also, it’s the place I am in my life. This is probably a natural place to be as your kids become more independent. There’s been a little more flow and more opportunities that have come my way. I liken that to me maybe getting out of my own way and not being afraid to do it differently. Maybe I’m going to be on the road two days a week or maybe my training schedule is going to be different or whatever weird things I cling to as the thing that keeps me from doing something different. I always admire people that can do that.
The problem is when we forego our whole real life for dreams. There’s a steep penalty for that. A level of consistency and participation in your real relationships and your self-care is imperative for making gains if you will. Within that, how do we not lock in so hard that we don’t see what’s around the corner or something new or something different? That is uncomfortable. That’s something that I want to share because I’m certain it’s not unique to me and I’m certain that you might have that going on in your mind and in your life.
[bctt tweet=”It’s important to be in your own strength, your own voice, and to be strong even if it is quiet.”]
Life is short. Everyone says it but I would like to start living more and more like it is. I know this to be true. We’ve all been losing people since the beginning of time. Maybe it feels accelerated now. Why not? It might be managed by our fears or our tendencies towards a radical routine. We don’t like the routine and monotony but somehow we can’t find a way to get out of it and that’s interesting. Also, how we’re in it enough that we can see real progress but yet bring some more color and some dynamic.
I’ll close on this. It’s an interesting thing. I always say that I can go behind, on the side, and in the front. Sometimes I’m behind my children. Sometimes I’m on the side of my partner. Sometimes, indirectly, I almost leave them all behind and I’m in front. That can be a personal or private experience. It was who you were before you were with all these people. When we get good at that, “I’ll support you. It’s about you. I’m behind you. I’m next to you.” Even with Laird, I could be behind Laird, no problem, and try to elevate his cause and purpose.
Still being willing, from time to time, to step in front and ask myself, “What are your skillsets? How do you want to present those?” It’s not always defaulting to the other roles. It becomes natural to do. It is more common in females than males. Everybody wants us all to be the same but I don’t think we are. There are exceptions but it seems that if you look around, it’ll be a pattern. Don’t be afraid to stand behind but don’t be afraid to stand in front either from time to time. It’s good. It’s healthy. It’s good weirdly and I say this directly for the people in your life to sometimes view you differently and have a different appreciation for you. It’s good.
If anything comes to mind that has improved your toolkit, if you will, for parenting, training, something in your work, or you’re an entrepreneur or you’re in a transition or your relationship, I would love to hear it. The other thing I would love is if you have any questions for me, if you would leave them for me so I can incorporate them or address them in future shows, that helps me out. I can then be more of service.
I always appreciate you guys hanging out with me on these solos. It’s important that if we feel like we’ve been around the block, we’re reminded that wonder, possibility, and hope are something that we should never let go over or lose. It gets easy to get covered up. Let’s face it, folding laundry is not the sexiest thing. Aside from that, can you keep parts of your world in a sense of wonder? Till next time.
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Thank you so much for reading this episode. Stay tuned for a bonus episode where I go deeper into one of the topics that resonated with me. If you have any questions for my guests or even myself, please send them to @GabbyReece on Instagram. If you feel inspired, please hit the follow button and leave a rating and a comment. It not only helps me, but it also helps the show grow and reach new readers.
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