Podchaser Logo
Home
Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Released Thursday, 18th April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Why You've Not Met Your Person - Matthew Hussey

Thursday, 18th April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

By the way, in case you haven't heard, my brand

0:02

new book, Feel Good Productivity is now out. It is

0:04

available everywhere books are sold. And it's actually hit the

0:06

New York Times and also the Sunday Times bestseller list.

0:08

So thank you to everyone who's already got a copy

0:11

of the book. If you've read the book already, I

0:13

would love a review on Amazon. And if you haven't

0:15

yet checked it out, you may like to check it

0:17

out. It's available in physical format and also ebook and

0:19

also audio book everywhere books are sold. Hey

0:22

friends, and welcome back to Deep Dive, the podcast

0:24

where it's my immense pleasure to sit down with

0:26

academics and authors and creators and other inspiring people.

0:29

And we find out how they go to where they are and what we can learn

0:31

from them to help build a life that we love. What

0:33

you're about to hear is an interview between

0:35

me and Matthew Hussey. Matthew Hussey has got

0:37

a new book coming out called Love Life.

0:40

He is an absolutely enormously followed person

0:42

on the internet and on his podcasts

0:45

and on his first book, Get the

0:47

Girl, giving relationship advice,

0:49

mostly aimed at women. But his new book,

0:51

Love Life is aimed at everyone, not just

0:54

women. So this conversation

0:56

is mostly about relationships and how

0:58

to find and retain

1:00

love in a healthy fashion in the context

1:02

of a healthy relationship. This

1:05

was a super interesting conversation for me because we

1:07

start off talking about some stuff around like masculine

1:09

feminine energy and like kind of our

1:12

men and women looking for different things in that

1:14

kind of sense. But then after a little bit

1:16

of time, the conversation transitions into me basically

1:19

turning into a bit of a therapy session

1:21

and asking Matthew for advice about my own

1:23

love life. And man, the stuff

1:25

that Matthew shares is just absolutely incredible. And

1:28

if you are in a relationship or have ever been

1:30

in a relationship, I think you're gonna get a lot

1:32

of value from this episode. So

1:35

I hope you enjoy this conversation between me and

1:37

Matthew Hussey. All righty, Matthew,

1:39

welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?

1:41

Yeah, I'm good, man, I'm good. It's good

1:43

to see you. Thanks for having me. I'm

1:45

on a crazy three month, just

1:47

running around everywhere right now. So it's

1:49

actually nice to have an hour with

1:51

a friend. Yeah,

1:53

just kidding. So you

1:56

have a funky new book, great title by

1:58

the way, Love Life. What a title. How

2:00

is that taken by the way? I

2:03

know. I know. Every time I see really

2:06

good titles, I'm so jealous. I'm like, oh, shit. I

2:08

wish I'd written a book called Love Life. What

2:12

is the book about? The book is

2:14

designed to be a co-pilot for anybody

2:16

who is looking for love. You

2:19

know, the subtitle is how

2:22

to raise your standards, find your person

2:25

and live happily, no matter

2:27

what. And

2:29

it's been a real labour of love

2:31

for me because I started this 17

2:33

years ago, working with people in their

2:35

love lives. And so much has changed

2:37

in the way I think about this.

2:39

So much has changed in

2:42

the way, in some of the things that

2:44

I'm seeing out there with people trying to

2:46

find love. The work has gotten a lot

2:48

deeper. And

2:50

I got to the point where I went, why is it

2:52

so many of us are still struggling? Either

2:55

to find opportunities in love or

2:58

to find happiness in love

3:00

because opportunities and happiness are

3:03

not the same thing. And I know for a

3:05

while, even past the point where I'd learned how

3:07

to create opportunities in my love life, I

3:10

still struggled to find what

3:12

I felt was my person. Like I struggled

3:15

to find the kind of love that I

3:18

thought I wanted or needed. I

3:22

felt continuously not at peace

3:25

in my own love life. And I know

3:27

so many people felt the same. They either

3:29

felt they were chasing someone who was exciting

3:32

but made them miserable because

3:35

of how elusive they were, or

3:38

they were settling for someone who made

3:40

them feel safe, but they

3:43

found themselves continuously doubting

3:45

was the right person for them. And

3:49

just going through that cycle over and

3:51

over again. And

3:54

I felt like, you know what there

3:56

needs to be a book out there

3:58

that acknowledges these

4:01

struggles in a very real way

4:03

and in a very nuanced way

4:06

and is that copilot for

4:08

anybody at any stage of

4:10

life that is looking

4:12

for love even if

4:14

they are absolutely frustrated

4:17

exhausted and burned out from

4:19

the process of dating. Nice

4:23

okay so I

4:25

have lots of questions on this. Firstly

4:28

and it might be controversial but to what extent

4:31

assuming heterosexual relationships and cisgendered

4:34

people to what extent do

4:37

men and women have similar

4:39

or different struggles when it comes

4:41

to finding love? There

4:45

are things that I

4:47

hear more from women than

4:49

I do from men so

4:53

and this isn't necessarily just true

4:55

of women but I think

4:57

I hear it a lot more from women is I'm

5:02

you know why is it men don't want to commit and

5:09

I think that there are some typically

5:12

male challenges

5:16

I suppose with settling

5:19

down whether they're societal or genetic

5:21

or whatever that's almost beyond my

5:23

pay grade but it is it

5:26

is true that women seem

5:29

to suffer more with men who don't

5:31

want to commit than men suffer with

5:33

women who don't want to commit. So

5:37

I would say that's probably

5:39

a big one. I think

5:42

there are some interesting dynamics

5:44

right now between

5:48

men trying to figure out where

5:50

their power comes from and

5:55

facing women who you know

5:58

a lot of men were raised to believe that their

6:01

tools for impressing

6:03

someone were status and

6:06

money and power. Certainly

6:09

as a guy those feel like the

6:11

tools we can control, right? We may

6:13

not be able to choose how tall

6:15

we are or you know the bone

6:18

structure we have but we

6:21

can make ourselves more successful and

6:23

we can earn more money and we

6:26

can get more status and

6:28

I think that men are increasingly

6:30

coming up against women who already

6:32

have those things and at the

6:36

very least aren't

6:38

as easily impressed by those

6:40

things in men or like

6:43

I'm at that same level as you or

6:45

I'm you know higher on the food chain

6:47

in that way than you. So I think

6:50

men are suffering

6:52

a little bit today from trying

6:55

to figure out where does my power come

6:57

from, where does my

6:59

worthiness come from because

7:02

the old tools aren't

7:04

working the way they used to, it's not enough you

7:06

know there was a time where as a man you

7:08

know slapping

7:12

you know

7:14

money on the table for the night

7:16

dinner was enough

7:18

you know that was like decades ago that

7:21

was like that was what you were supposed

7:23

to do is provide and you

7:26

know bonus points if you're not

7:28

physically abusive. There

7:32

was a time when like that was like

7:35

the expectation and the

7:37

expectation has

7:40

got thank God significantly

7:43

higher for men

7:46

and I think a lot of men are

7:48

trying to figure out now they're

7:51

either having to find someone who

7:53

doesn't intimidate them

7:57

so let me try and find someone who's not

7:59

got as much going on as I

8:01

have or someone who's you know

8:03

needs me in all of those ways or they're

8:06

having to reevaluate where

8:08

their source of confidence comes from. I think

8:11

on the other side of the equation there's

8:13

something interesting going on with women where it's

8:15

like a lot of I

8:19

think a lot of women are going

8:21

to face and already are facing a

8:23

reevaluation of what's of

8:26

what they consider indicators of

8:28

a great

8:31

partner because if

8:34

you're in a strong position in your own life,

8:37

if you've got to a certain

8:39

place in your career and

8:42

your financial independence, then

8:46

I've always felt well that

8:48

gives you more choice, that

8:50

gives you the ability to

8:52

really pick who you want to pick. You

8:54

really can choose for love, you really can

8:57

choose for who has the

8:59

greatest qualities,

9:01

who has the most character,

9:04

who brings you the

9:06

most as a partner as

9:09

opposed to feeling like the more I go

9:11

up the food chain the less options I

9:13

have because I'm

9:15

still looking for someone who's at

9:17

my level and there's

9:20

less and less guys at my level.

9:24

I think that's a that's

9:26

a scarce way

9:28

of looking at it and I

9:31

think that depletes your options. But

9:33

I think it is

9:35

important for women to reevaluate what's really

9:37

important to me in a partner and

9:39

is it all of these, well at

9:42

the very least, is it some of

9:44

these things that I've told myself are

9:46

important in the past that

9:48

are actually not nearly as important as I

9:51

thought they were especially now that I've got

9:53

to this position for myself. So

9:55

I hope all that makes sense, I'm happy

9:57

to dive in. Again it's just a And

10:00

this is empirical for me because I'm

10:02

seeing what's going on out there. Um,

10:05

I'm not a data scientist in these

10:07

areas. I'm not someone who is

10:09

studying evolutionary biology, but

10:12

watching the actual patterns empirically of what's

10:14

going on for people in their love

10:16

lives. These are very real things that

10:18

I think people are coming up against. Okay.

10:21

Nice. So, um,

10:24

you know, I listened to, uh, the

10:26

modern wisdom podcast from my friend, Chris Williamson from time

10:28

to time, and he always has

10:30

these psychologists or evolutionary psychology type people

10:33

on, uh, talking about

10:35

the mating crisis, talking about this exact point. So

10:37

if we take this point of a woman who

10:39

is super successful, what

10:41

these guests and supposed experts on this podcast

10:43

would say is that that,

10:45

you know, because of hypogamy where women

10:48

want to date and marry upwards rather

10:50

than downwards. It

10:52

is just a fact, unfortunately, biologically or

10:54

psychobiologically, where wired women are wired in

10:57

a way as such

10:59

that they will not be interested in someone who

11:01

has lower status than them. They want someone on

11:03

a higher level. And it sounds

11:05

like what you're suggesting is that they

11:08

should reevaluate that perhaps the evolutionary psychologist

11:10

bros might say, yeah, but in the same

11:12

way that a guy can't choose to be attracted to

11:14

a woman. He's not attracted to a woman, a woman

11:17

cannot choose to be attracted to a man that she

11:19

doesn't view as above the level. To

11:21

what extent would you, would you agree with that? I think

11:23

that a lot of these people

11:25

have a very selective focus. I

11:28

don't doubt that they can find data

11:30

and a huge amounts

11:32

of data for, to support their arguments.

11:34

And I don't doubt that there's

11:38

an enormous amount

11:40

of truth in some of what they're saying. I

11:42

don't, you know, I don't think

11:44

it's either or.

11:47

I think that if you, if

11:49

I look around in my life, I

11:53

have, I'm not sure of

11:55

examples of women

11:58

who have chosen. men who

12:01

are not in the same position as they

12:03

are, they are the person

12:05

earning more, the woman is the person earning

12:07

more money in the relationship, the woman is

12:10

higher up the food chain and

12:14

she's not in an unhappy relationship going when

12:16

can I get rid of this

12:18

loser and go and find someone who's on

12:20

my level. She's found

12:22

an incredible partner that she's

12:25

incredibly happy with and

12:27

her career is its

12:30

own thing outside of that. Not

12:33

to mention if I look on

12:36

the male side of that equation,

12:39

the men that I know in those relationships

12:41

and granted I'm talking about the successful ones,

12:43

I have no doubt that I could find

12:45

unsuccessful versions of this too in my life

12:48

but the guy in that

12:50

relationship is also

12:52

not saying God I feel like

12:56

I hate myself because she earns more money

12:58

than me and she's in a

13:00

more high flying career than I

13:02

am and what I do is

13:04

more subtle or more modest. Some

13:07

of those men are the most

13:11

confident men I know and

13:14

I don't look at them from

13:16

a distance and go God they wish they

13:20

were more alpha. They

13:22

strike me as just incredibly secure

13:24

men who have

13:27

found their peace within a relationship where

13:29

those men are not going I have

13:31

no significance because she earns more money

13:33

than me. They're saying my

13:35

significance didn't come from that in the

13:37

first place. So I know

13:42

those relationships exist and I

13:45

think it is entirely possible to

13:48

look at ourselves and go where does

13:51

my happiness come from?

13:53

Maybe society has steered me this way

13:55

or maybe even to some extent nature

13:57

has steered me in a certain way.

14:00

and direction, but there's

14:02

plenty of things in life that, you

14:04

know, nature has steered us towards over time that

14:07

we no longer do. And we

14:09

make more conscious decisions

14:12

and more intent we, we human

14:14

beings have the benefit of intent,

14:16

we can put intent behind

14:18

things and we can, I believe, we have

14:20

a great degree to which

14:22

we can choose what

14:24

we value. We can even

14:27

train ourselves to value new

14:30

things. I mean, I was a, there

14:32

was a stage in my life where I didn't

14:34

date in a healthy way. Like, I

14:37

would say my nature, my

14:39

instinct guided me towards

14:42

things that just felt good or things

14:44

that felt like a buzz or a

14:46

high, I think there was an addictive

14:49

quality to the way that I dated,

14:51

which I look back on with some

14:53

regret. And

14:55

the, the, the way that ways

14:58

I hurt other people ways that I hurt

15:00

myself in that process, I don't

15:02

look back on that with a huge degree

15:04

of pride. I go, Oh,

15:06

that was where I was then that was

15:08

my degree of evolution. Then I had

15:11

a lot to learn. I didn't have the

15:13

tools to fight. I didn't

15:15

know how to make myself happy. In

15:18

my love life, I just was this

15:20

like ball of reactivity. And

15:22

at a certain point in my love

15:24

life, I started to value peace. I started

15:27

to go, I really want peace in

15:29

this area of my life. And

15:33

yes, I still want attraction. It's not,

15:35

I'm not giving up on attraction. Yes,

15:37

I still want chemistry and I never

15:39

could have been with a partner

15:41

where I had no chemistry, but peace

15:45

started to become this really

15:47

important overriding thing. Am I

15:50

with someone who I can

15:52

build with? Am I with someone where I

15:55

feel a high degree of peace? Do I

15:57

feel more of myself with this person? And

16:00

those things were not things, if you'd have

16:02

asked me at 25 what I

16:05

was looking for, I wouldn't have said peace. But

16:09

nowadays, that's like the greatest thing in

16:11

the world to me. If you take

16:14

a woman who has come out

16:16

of a 10-year relationship or

16:18

a 10-year marriage or a 30-year marriage

16:20

with a narcissist, the things she's looking

16:23

for at the end of that, when

16:25

she gets to a place where she's healed and

16:28

recovered enough from that relationship to go back out

16:30

there again, the thing

16:32

she's looking for will be different than

16:35

the thing she was once looking for. And I

16:37

guarantee you peace or safety

16:40

will be a lot higher on her list. So

16:42

I do think our values change. I

16:44

do think what we want

16:47

change is. And whether

16:49

you wait for life to do that to you

16:51

because you have to experience enough pain

16:54

in chasing the other that you

16:57

feel like your hand is forced.

16:59

To value something different or

17:01

whether you can see the

17:03

writing on the wall early where you don't

17:05

have to experience all of that pain. And

17:08

you can start to pay attention to where

17:10

your true happiness comes from, where

17:12

your true peace comes from, where true alignment

17:14

comes from for you. I

17:16

think we can actually start to choose what

17:19

to value and those choices change the decisions

17:21

that we would have once made in our

17:23

dating lives. No.

17:25

Okay. This is interesting. So

17:27

as you were talking, it was kind of

17:29

reminding me of the concept of like first

17:31

and second mountains. I remember called Second Mountain

17:34

by David Brooks where he kind of talks

17:36

about how in life there are two mountains.

17:38

The first mountain is the mountain of success

17:40

and achievement and money and freedom. And

17:42

then you get to the top of the

17:44

first mountain and you realize it's kind of a bit hollow.

17:46

Or you get knocked off the first mountain by a health

17:48

scare or someone close to you dying or something like that.

17:51

And then you realize there is the second mountain and that

17:53

is the mountain of commitment, of family,

17:55

of like really dedicating yourself to a particular

17:57

cause. It's not the mountain of life. I

18:00

want to be free to do whatever I want. I actually,

18:03

what I really want is to commit to

18:05

this thing which myself at age 21

18:07

might have thought like, that's

18:09

so boring but actually that's the thing that brings me

18:11

joy. And it sounds like

18:13

there's almost this sort of like two

18:16

phases of how people view

18:18

dating and relationships. Would that be

18:20

fair to say where phase one is maybe, you

18:22

know, call it the party years, call it the

18:25

have sex with as many people as possible years,

18:27

call it the I'm looking for someone really hot

18:29

with like high drama years and maybe like a

18:31

phase two which is more like actually I'm looking

18:33

for peace, contentment, commitment, someone I can build a

18:35

family with, someone I can build a life with.

18:38

Would you say that's a reasonable approximation? Yes,

18:41

well I think that's very good Ali. I think

18:44

that the comparison is really strong and

18:48

some people never get over that first

18:50

mountain by the way. That's

18:53

a scary thing I think for a lot of

18:55

people in their love lives is that, you know,

18:58

they get to their 50s or 60s and they're

19:00

still chasing that first mountain as

19:02

if that's the one that's going to make them

19:04

happy. And I don't come from a place of

19:06

saying that everyone should end up in a place

19:09

where they value marriage above all else. I don't

19:12

have any kind of a gender around what

19:15

mountain people end up deciding

19:17

is important. But it does

19:19

seem to me that we

19:22

are happier at depth

19:26

whatever represents that

19:28

depth for us

19:31

in our life. And

19:33

I think that if

19:35

we can get to that depth and decide what that

19:37

is for us, that will

19:40

be the thing that ends up making us a

19:42

lot happier. And often, you know,

19:45

I think that the same thing you can,

19:47

one thing I've been saying a lot that I talk

19:49

about in this book is

19:53

the difference between what serves your ego

19:55

and what serves your happiness in your

19:57

love life. And I think that there

20:00

is even maybe something analogous with

20:03

the mountain idea of saying the first mountain

20:05

there's a hell of a lot of ego

20:07

in that mountain and the

20:09

second mountain there's a hell of a lot

20:11

more happiness because

20:13

that money, status,

20:15

excitement, opportunity, validation, all of

20:17

that, there's a lot of

20:20

ego behind all of that

20:22

and we tend to get

20:24

to a point where we find that that

20:26

doesn't work nearly as well or as sustainably

20:29

as we hoped it would and

20:31

then the second mountain, in

20:34

some ways it's the opposite of

20:36

ego because the things that

20:39

work for us on the second mountain are

20:41

often a lot more subtle, they

20:43

don't necessarily come with as many

20:45

applause or as

20:48

many cheers from the sidelines or

20:50

they're not always as easy to

20:52

show off. I

20:55

have this challenge in my work today and

20:57

I'm sure you do too in some capacity

20:59

which is there

21:02

was a propensity for me in my 20s

21:04

to want to do the thing that would

21:06

create the most applause and now

21:09

in my late 30s I'm going

21:11

I want to do the thing that

21:13

fulfills me the most and

21:15

makes me the happiest and that's

21:18

often a very different thing

21:21

and I have to be prepared to

21:23

give up the thing

21:25

that gets me the most attention for

21:27

the thing that brings me the most

21:29

joy. The same is true in

21:32

our love lives, when we're looking

21:35

for a partner often

21:38

the things that people do

21:41

to get them attention push

21:43

the real love that they want

21:45

further away. You know you've got

21:48

how many guys message me every

21:50

month that want to

21:52

connect with me or do something with me

21:54

and I look at their profile and

21:56

it's all Ferraris

21:58

and lanes and,

22:02

you know, this insane

22:05

lifestyle that they

22:08

are putting forward as the be all end

22:10

all and it's

22:13

women in thongs sitting

22:15

next to them on a cabana,

22:18

you know, it's like while they're

22:20

drinking a cocktail in Dubai. That's

22:26

not what I value. So it's kind of like I

22:30

struggle with, I'm less likely to

22:33

connect with that person, not because I think they're

22:35

a bad person, but just because I'm like, I

22:38

don't think we have a lot in

22:41

common and people

22:43

do that in their love lives too. It's like I

22:45

have people that men

22:48

that I've worked with who are like, why do women

22:50

always only want me for

22:53

my money or for my, you

22:55

know, what I've achieved in my life? And

22:58

I'm like, well, you

23:00

keep going to five star restaurants for

23:03

a first date. Why do

23:05

you, why don't you stop doing that? Why don't

23:08

you take them to somewhere more normal? And

23:12

I know it's because they feel like

23:15

their greatest weapon is what they've

23:17

achieved, but it's hurting them

23:19

because it's attracting a certain kind of person all the

23:21

time to achieve actual connections, to

23:23

achieve actual love. We sometimes have to

23:25

be prepared to let go of the

23:28

attention we've enjoyed or the attention we

23:30

know how to get. We

23:32

might get a lot less attention, but what

23:34

we get instead as its replacement is a

23:37

lot more depth. And

23:39

to David Brooks point, raising a

23:42

family or being

23:44

in an amazing relationship, it

23:46

doesn't necessarily get you a lot of applause, but

23:49

it can get you an awful lot of happiness,

23:52

but people continue to chase the applause in their

23:55

life and then wondering why they're unhappy at the

23:57

end of it all. The

24:00

Deep Dive is very kindly sponsored by YNAB,

24:02

which stands for You Need a Budget. Now

24:04

for many people, money is a cause of

24:06

guilt and anxiety. You're never entirely sure where

24:08

all your money goes, and you're left feeling

24:10

guilty about purchases, big or small. Money is

24:12

often associated with restriction, fear and uncertainty. But

24:14

your money is an extension of you in

24:16

many ways, and it's obviously not ideal to

24:18

feel so bad about it. Now YNAB is

24:20

an app that's helping millions of people change

24:22

their mindset around money. It's built on four

24:24

simple habits which could transform the way you

24:26

think about money. These habits are firstly give

24:28

every dollar a job, two embrace your true

24:30

expenses, three roll with the punches, and four

24:32

age your money. Now these habits are actually

24:35

really simple. Giving every dollar a job

24:37

basically just means that you plan out the different things you

24:39

want to spend your money on after you've been paid. Then

24:41

all you have to do is stick to the plan knowing

24:43

that you already have enough to cover everything.

24:46

Your true expenses refers to those big non-monthly

24:48

outgoings like trying to buy a car or a

24:50

holiday deposit. You want to break these down

24:52

and you want to save in advance so that hopefully you're not

24:54

hit by a big charge that you were not expecting. Now one

24:56

of the things that I really love about YNAB is their idea

24:58

of rolling with the punches. Because sometimes life

25:00

does throw things at you like a piece of tech

25:02

breaks and you need to have it fixed, or you

25:04

get your stuff stolen from the back of your car

25:07

like happened to me, or a pipe burst and you

25:09

have to call a plumber. YNAB helps you set money

25:11

aside in advance to help cushion you from life's unexpected

25:13

expenses. They also recognize that we can feel really guilty

25:15

for spending money. So if you do spend more than

25:17

you plan, that's totally okay, just move your money to

25:19

wherever it's needed. It's yours at the end

25:21

of the day. And you can even age your money, spend

25:24

less than you earn and have a nice stack of saved

25:26

money waiting for your bills as they come in, not the

25:28

other way around. In an ideal world, money really shouldn't be

25:30

scary or stressful for us. And we actually have way

25:32

more control over our money than we often think. So

25:34

if you're interested, you can try out YNAB today. And

25:36

you can see if this approach to budgeting can make

25:38

a difference in the way that you think about money.

25:40

So thank you again, YNAB, for sponsoring this episode of

25:42

Deep Dive. Now if you're looking to start

25:44

a business or develop your personal brand in 2024, then you're

25:47

going to need a website. But the question of where to

25:49

start is a question that I get asked all the time.

25:51

So if you've ever wanted to set up a website, but

25:53

you've had a question of where to begin because there's all

25:55

these different options out there, then Hostinger has literally everything you'll

25:58

need. Hostinger is a top global website. hosting

26:00

service with servers all around the world. It's fast

26:02

and reliable and with over 2 million users it's

26:04

becoming one of the fastest growing web hosting services

26:06

out there. We've recently moved our website over to

26:08

Hostingr to host my personal website and not only

26:10

was the transition completely seamless but the tools are

26:12

actually really simple to use as well and I

26:14

really wish something like this had been available when

26:16

I was first starting my business like 12 years

26:19

ago. If you're new to web design then they've

26:21

got everything you need to make a professional looking

26:23

website. One of the really interesting features is their

26:25

AI website builder which can help you make a

26:27

custom website in literally seconds and a whole suite

26:29

of other really useful AI tools including a

26:31

lower creator, an image generator and a heatmap tool

26:33

as well. It's super easy to use with a

26:35

drag-and-drop editor for simple customization and you don't need

26:37

any coding or technical knowledge at all. Hostingr comes

26:39

out to less than $3 a month

26:42

which includes a free domain name so it's super

26:44

affordable and if you use the link in the

26:46

video description or in the show notes which is

26:48

hostingr.com/AliaDal and if you use the code

26:50

AliaDal in all caps at checkout then you also

26:52

get 10% off. So thank you

26:55

again to Hostingr for sponsoring this episode. The

26:57

thing I like about your view

27:00

of the world compared to a lot of these like

27:03

evolutionary psychology pros is that I

27:06

think the evolutionary... I mean this is a little bit of

27:08

a mischaracterization on my part but broadly I think

27:10

the evolutionary psychology pros around relationships act

27:13

as if attraction

27:16

is never a choice

27:18

and you have no control, broadly

27:21

no control over who you've fallen off with or

27:23

the kind of relationship you end up in and

27:26

therefore you are almost forced to... I guess

27:29

guys just have to go after the hot girl, I guess

27:31

girls just have to go after the rich guy kind of

27:33

thing and therefore as a girl you've got to be hot

27:35

or you have no chance or as a guy you've got

27:37

to be rich or you have no chance. But

27:40

in much the same way it's like sure

27:42

we might be default wired in that direction

27:44

just like we are default wired to seek

27:46

status and money in our jobs even if

27:48

they're not that fulfilling. Eventually

27:51

people realize that actually chasing

27:53

money and fame and

27:56

shit in my job or in my life is

27:58

not actually the thing that brings me fulfilling. And

28:01

even though it's not

28:03

in line with your potentially your

28:06

innate urge, you can in fact act against your innate

28:08

urge. Will that be a fair summary of your position

28:10

unless that we actually can choose? Yeah,

28:13

absolutely it would. I

28:19

haven't studied the data that some of

28:21

these people have studied or in some

28:23

cases made a living out of that

28:27

enough to know whether the extent to

28:30

which they talk about it is

28:32

true. But even if we just

28:34

take it at face value that

28:37

everything they're saying is

28:39

true on some level, I

28:42

don't find

28:45

it compelling because

28:47

I know that there

28:49

are so many decisions we make all

28:51

day every day that are intentional about

28:53

what takes us towards a better life.

28:56

And I think that's so much of what you've done in your

28:59

most recent book and what

29:02

you talk about is sometimes

29:05

it's actually saying we

29:07

have some bad instincts. Some

29:11

of our instincts make us incredibly unhappy. There's

29:14

a chapter in my new

29:16

book called Question Your Instincts.

29:20

And that

29:22

kind of rails against a lot of common

29:24

advice about trusting your instincts.

29:27

I don't think our instincts are always

29:29

to be trusted. I think that they

29:31

often lead us down bad paths towards

29:33

people who don't treat us well, towards

29:35

lives that make us unhappy. And

29:37

I think our work intersects there, Ali,

29:40

because I think a

29:42

lot of your work is also training people

29:44

out of bad instincts towards instincts that are

29:46

going to lead them to more fulfilling jobs,

29:49

calmer lives, working at

29:51

a sustainable pace, balancing

29:54

their work life with other parts of their

29:56

life that are also important. So yeah. that

30:00

stuff interests me more than the

30:02

kind of very fatalistic, pessimistic view

30:05

of the world that it

30:07

always seems to kind of... I

30:10

find myself suspecting it a lot

30:12

because it always ends up being

30:18

tinged with um, being

30:22

slightly misanthropic. Like

30:25

it really

30:27

doesn't always seem to come from a place of

30:29

liking people very much. It

30:32

always feels to me, maybe I'm wrong, but

30:34

it feels to me like there's an edge

30:36

there where it's like, you

30:38

know, I come

30:40

from a place of really loving people

30:43

and seeing the best in people and

30:45

I just feel like so much of that

30:47

is very surface level and when I get

30:49

under the surface with people I always find

30:52

them much more interesting than those conclusions. Nice.

30:55

Okay, what is

30:58

your view on masculine and feminine energy?

31:01

Is it a thing? Do I have a...

31:03

I always feel

31:05

like I suck in

31:07

these conversations because there

31:10

are people that have thought about it so much and

31:14

I can

31:17

tell you this, in

31:20

my relationship, which is the happiest

31:22

relationship I've ever been in, we

31:24

never talk about masculine feminine energy

31:26

ever. Like it's never a... it's

31:29

just never a thing. Now if I were

31:31

to try and present the biggest counter argument

31:33

to that, it

31:36

would be, yeah, it's never a thing because you

31:38

guys are nailing it. Like

31:41

it's going well, like there's a real femininity

31:43

about Audrey and there's a masculinity that you

31:45

bring to the table, but I also have

31:47

a lot of feminine energy too, so I

31:51

bring that to the table as well and, you

31:53

know, is

31:57

polarity a real thing? Of

31:59

course. Of course it is,

32:01

you know, that there are

32:03

areas where we need,

32:06

like, there are areas where people need

32:08

to feel strong and they need someone to see

32:11

them as strong and to recognize that they're

32:13

strong. I'm not sure that that goes hand

32:15

in hand with that person not being able

32:17

to be strong themselves. I think they

32:20

can still bring that strength to the

32:22

table as long as they

32:24

also are prepared in other moments

32:27

to really recognize and acknowledge and

32:29

celebrate the strength in the other person. So

32:32

I think, I don't

32:34

know that I subscribe to this idea

32:36

that one person has to always be

32:39

feminine and the other person has to

32:41

always be masculine. I think

32:43

that polarity is

32:45

needed but I

32:49

feel like you can

32:51

experience polarity being,

32:54

you can experience reverse

32:56

polarity in different

32:58

days of the relationship depending on who's

33:01

the one who's showing up as a leader that day

33:03

or who's the one who's presenting as strong that

33:08

day, who's the one

33:10

in this conversation that

33:12

is being the strength for the other person.

33:16

And where the masculine feminine arguments turned

33:18

me off a little bit is,

33:22

you know, I was

33:24

part of a conversation, I was

33:26

on Red Table Talk with

33:30

Jada Pinkett Smith and a round table

33:33

of people all talking about

33:35

masculine feminine energy and

33:37

I felt slightly unprepared for

33:40

it because again it's just

33:42

not something I talk about a lot and

33:46

there was one particular argument put

33:48

forward that there has to be

33:50

a decision maker in the

33:53

relationship and no points

33:57

for guessing which gender was...

34:00

Being put forward as the one that needed to

34:02

be the decision maker, but there needed to be

34:04

one ultimate decision maker who

34:06

was the leader of the relationship

34:09

and Ultimately the

34:11

other partner in her

34:13

feminine had to you know

34:16

Defer to that decision ultimately because

34:18

you can't have two ultimate

34:20

decision makers in a relationship and

34:24

I I Have

34:29

been doing this for 17 years and I know where

34:33

that goes in so

34:35

many relationships that that

34:37

that is a mandate for abuse

34:39

in a relationship that

34:41

is a mandate for narcissism in

34:44

a relationship the there

34:46

are so many relationships that are terrible because

34:49

at some point and I'm Some

34:52

point the man decided my

34:54

way is the way and you

34:57

don't get a say or Ultimately,

35:00

I don't need you to weigh in

35:02

on these decisions because I make these

35:04

decisions for our family and because and

35:06

I've seen how bad that gets So

35:09

I can't I

35:12

can't subscribe to such what

35:14

I see as reductive ideas about

35:19

Initiating people in these

35:21

ways and who's responsible for what I?

35:24

think that it's also true

35:26

that people are more complex than I

35:28

I'd like to think I'm

35:30

more complex than You know,

35:33

I do a lot of very stereotypically

35:35

masculine things like I might pass

35:38

my hobby in my spare time is

35:40

Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing, you know, like

35:42

I'm not I'm

35:44

someone who and I don't do those

35:46

things because they're manly I do them because I

35:48

really enjoy them But those would

35:51

be typically associated with masculinity But

35:54

I can tell you right now. I there are

35:56

plenty of other areas of my life where I

35:58

don't fit into it a traditionally

36:01

masculine stereotype.

36:05

And it's nice

36:07

for me to be able to play

36:09

in both and for me to have

36:11

a relationship that has the kind of

36:13

ability, the versatility to be able to

36:15

play in both. So,

36:17

and I think vice versa.

36:20

So I just, I struggle, I struggle

36:22

with where the argument goes with these

36:24

things. Do I think polarity is important?

36:27

Yes. But

36:30

I, I think you can have a

36:32

lot of polarity going in both directions in

36:34

the same relationship on different

36:36

days. What we do have to

36:38

ask ourselves, I think is, is

36:43

am I ever, am

36:45

I ever helping to create the

36:47

polarity that

36:50

my partner needs in

36:52

order to feel what they need to feel?

36:56

Often enough, like

36:59

as often as they need to feel it,

37:01

because I don't need to feel

37:03

like a strong man, a hundred

37:05

percent of every day. It doesn't matter to me.

37:08

But sometimes I

37:11

do want Audrey to be feminine and I want

37:14

to be the man and

37:16

I want to feel that polarity.

37:18

Sometimes I want to feel that. And it's

37:20

nice that she knows how to play that

37:22

role and I know how to play that

37:25

role and she enjoys that too. Right. So

37:27

it works for both of us. But my

37:29

God, if our relationship needed to live by

37:31

that lens a hundred percent of the time,

37:34

I, that, that

37:36

would be strange. And I think it wouldn't, it

37:38

would be very reductive for both of us. Okay.

37:43

I really like that take. That's, that's, that's

37:45

very, yeah, it's nice and nuanced and kind

37:47

of speaks to, you know,

37:50

certainly rings true in my experience that yeah,

37:52

polarity is a thing, but it

37:54

doesn't need to be a thing a hundred percent of the time. Like

37:57

happy and for the life. Yeah. I've

37:59

been thinking about something over. last couple of weeks, I would love

38:01

to get your take on. And that

38:03

is the concept of personal

38:06

boundaries within a relationship.

38:10

So for example, let's say I

38:15

want to go on this boys trip

38:17

with my guy friend and

38:20

the wife or my partner does

38:23

not want me to

38:25

go on this boys trip.

38:27

Like clearly

38:31

it's not being in

38:33

a relationship is about compromising some of the

38:36

time and you know understanding why the

38:38

other person feels that way and sometimes going with them.

38:41

But I also get the sense that it's

38:43

not about always going with

38:45

what the other person wants you to do or not

38:47

do not do. So how do you think about this

38:49

balance between personal autonomy, personal

38:51

boundaries, but also compromise and respecting the

38:53

other person's wishes and all of this

38:55

sort of stuff? Yeah, it's so interesting.

38:58

It's such a great question. Because

39:01

we've all seen that

39:03

from the outside as well, where we

39:05

have a friend that can't

39:08

come on the trip.

39:11

Because you know, their partner has

39:15

an issue with the trip, even though you

39:17

know that there's literally not a single thing

39:19

about the trip that should

39:21

raise any alarm bell for

39:24

anyone. And you

39:26

just end up feeling a bit sad for

39:28

your your friend because you go, wow, that's

39:33

you sort of it's sort of sad for

39:35

everybody, because you're like, we've, you

39:38

know, his partner

39:40

must be having a hard

39:42

time about this, which is

39:44

completely unnecessary. And

39:48

now my friend, now I know

39:50

that my friend is in a relationship where

39:52

there's that kind of dynamic, where

39:55

there's something he would I know he would really

39:57

like to do, but he's not essentially

39:59

a little allowed to do because

40:03

it's presenting as

40:05

a challenge for his

40:07

partner, it's always a bit scary

40:09

sometimes to observe those relationships from the

40:11

outside because of course you do, you

40:14

tend to on behalf of your friend extrapolate

40:17

out what their life is going to look

40:19

like based on that and

40:22

I think that's true

40:24

in our own relationships as

40:26

well when we're the one being

40:29

controlling or when we're the one saying

40:32

I don't want you to do this or I you

40:34

know you have to do it like this whatever. There's

40:38

also an extrapolation going on on their

40:40

side, also human

40:43

beings, we struggle, we all have

40:45

our struggles and we all have

40:47

our trauma and our things that

40:50

you know activate that trauma and

40:53

make us afraid and our partner going on

40:55

that trip even though there might be nothing

40:57

untoward about it does

40:59

make us feel something that's very real to

41:02

us and so

41:05

how much do they owe us saying

41:08

you know what I just won't

41:10

do it because it makes you uncomfortable.

41:12

I think sometimes that's

41:14

the right answer, sometimes the

41:16

right answer is it's

41:19

not worth it to

41:21

me to make you uncomfortable you

41:23

know it's a bit like you

41:26

met someone two weeks ago that you

41:30

know for business and that person

41:32

wants to go to lunch with

41:34

you one-on-one and there's something

41:37

about that person that makes your partner

41:39

deeply uncomfortable. You

41:41

know if your partner says I just

41:44

this person makes me uncomfortable, you going

41:46

for lunch one-to-one with them makes me

41:48

feel weird, maybe that's a

41:50

moment where you go okay

41:53

fair enough like it's

41:55

not this isn't the business opportunity

41:57

of my life and It's

42:00

not make or break. And

42:03

I only met this person two weeks ago.

42:05

So frankly, it doesn't

42:07

matter that much. I

42:10

don't need to have lunch with this person. I

42:12

can just say, you know what? You get a

42:14

pass on this one because this person makes you

42:16

uncomfortable and you feeling good

42:18

is much more important to me than

42:20

this lunch with someone I met two

42:23

weeks ago that for me

42:25

was innocent. But if you feel

42:27

uncomfortable, fair enough. Now, if your

42:29

partner does that with the

42:31

next seven business meetings, then

42:35

it's like, okay, we need to talk about

42:37

this because then we

42:39

need to have an, we need to understand

42:41

where this comes from for you and

42:44

what, how we can get you to a

42:46

place of comfort. How do we, can we

42:48

look at this differently together? Is there a

42:50

different way of seeing this whole situation? Can

42:53

we, you know, I want to understand more

42:55

about you and what makes you feel unsafe

42:57

in this situation. You know,

42:59

I think there needs to be more of that

43:01

because if it's like, I think we always have to

43:04

be asking ourselves the question is

43:07

me, is

43:11

me acquiescing to this

43:13

sustainable for

43:16

the relationship? Um,

43:20

you know, if it's not,

43:23

then we need to dig deeper on

43:25

this and it doesn't, I don't think we should

43:27

apply a lens of just, no,

43:29

I'm not going to change that for you. I think

43:31

it's more, let's understand

43:33

our way around this better and where

43:35

it comes from, what

43:38

situations in the past have made

43:40

you feel unsafe or

43:43

have represented not just unsafely, but

43:45

like genuinely hurt you genuinely resulted

43:47

in bad times for you that

43:50

are making you feel unsafe in

43:52

this situation today in a context

43:54

in which I know you are

43:56

a hundred percent safe, but

43:59

it's. making you feel unsafe. Let's

44:02

talk about that. And

44:04

if we do it in therapy, great. If

44:06

we do it outside therapy, great. It doesn't

44:08

matter. But let's figure that out because

44:11

actually those moments

44:14

can be very, what

44:17

would be talked about in therapy as corrective

44:19

experiences. If

44:23

your partner can go on the boys trip that

44:25

would normally have freaked you out and

44:29

you have a very positive experience of that

44:31

with a person who makes you feel very

44:33

safe with a person who

44:35

gives you no reasons not to trust them with

44:37

a person who can check

44:40

in with you or like that can be a

44:42

very corrective experience. And that

44:45

that going towards that

44:47

thing that makes you uncomfortable might actually end

44:49

up being the most healing you can do.

44:51

I know that in

44:53

my relationship today, there are things

44:55

that 100% would

44:58

have made me jealous even five

45:00

years ago. And, and because

45:03

of the relationship I'm in and how safe

45:05

I feel in that relationship, it, it's

45:09

been such a corrective relationship for me

45:11

that I don't, Ali, I

45:13

barely ever get jealous. Like

45:15

I can't remember the last time I got

45:17

jealous and it's not I'm not someone with

45:19

a history of no jealousy. So

45:22

I don't feel jealous today. And that's

45:24

because this relationship has been, has been

45:27

highly corrective for me. And part of

45:29

that has been me feeling really safe.

45:32

So again, that invites another conversation.

45:35

If something about this

45:37

experience is making you feel unsafe, is

45:41

that just to do with this experience?

45:44

In which case, maybe we can address that or

45:46

is it to do with a greater feeling of

45:48

unsafe do you have in this relationship? And

45:51

we're not talking about that. Because maybe

45:53

what you're feeling about this experience is

45:55

that is not about this experience at

45:57

all. Maybe it's pointing to some people.

46:00

something much broader in the landscape

46:02

of this relationship that we

46:04

need to address and

46:07

this is just the inflamed

46:10

representation of that. Oh

46:13

man, it's like

46:16

you read into my heart and mind at the same time as

46:18

since you were giving that up, which is like wow, really

46:22

good. And I give you very little context

46:24

about my situation because you just hit the nail on the head

46:26

in terms of like, that's really good advice. Okay,

46:31

again, purely asking for a friend, but what

46:34

if you're in a situation where your

46:37

partner wants thing X and

46:40

your mom wants thing

46:42

Y and things X and Y

46:44

are somewhat contradictory. How

46:47

does Adeban go about approaching the situation

46:49

in this sense? Well,

46:59

firstly, I think we have to show

47:01

ourselves compassion in that situation because it's

47:06

likely an

47:10

indicator of something that this isn't the first

47:13

time that has caused us pain

47:16

in some way. There's

47:19

probably something long standing there that has

47:21

caused us a lot of pain in

47:24

our lives and we've

47:30

adapted to that. We've

47:33

adapted to needing

47:36

to make various people happy in

47:38

our lives. That is

47:40

not always easy to make happy and

47:43

maybe should never have

47:46

been our job as much as it is to

47:49

appease that person or to make them

47:51

happy with our decisions. And so

47:54

I think it's worth taking a

47:56

moment just to acknowledge ourselves and to

47:58

go, Oh,

48:01

you've probably not had it easy in this

48:03

area, have you? You know, there's been

48:06

a lot of needing

48:08

to live life in such a way as

48:10

where we're managing someone else's feelings a lot

48:12

of the time. And this

48:14

is just another representation of that. I,

48:17

you know, I now have this other

48:19

important person in my life whose

48:23

feelings I'm also worried about and

48:26

I've, you know, gotten as far

48:28

as I have and I've survived by

48:32

managing these feelings around me. And

48:34

so it's probably a gear that

48:37

you're good at going into in

48:39

those situations. It

48:42

is actually really good at taking care of

48:44

people and managing people, but you're

48:46

the one who ends up quite

48:49

unhappy or resentful or burnt out at the end

48:51

of it all. So

48:53

it's worth, firstly,

48:55

that compassion can be really healing because you

48:58

realize like, oh, this is, this is,

49:01

it might be what I'm not getting from anyone else right

49:04

now. It might be the exact

49:06

thing that I need is that acknowledgement. And

49:10

then saying, well, you know, maybe

49:12

this is an opportunity for me to have

49:15

to do, to put

49:20

a boundary in place that

49:22

I actually never did

49:24

before. You know, this, this

49:26

actually might be a moment for me. This

49:28

might be a healing moment for me and

49:30

a moment where I get to, I get

49:35

to make some progress in

49:37

my life because maybe there

49:39

are expectations that I have allowed

49:43

to be set up

49:45

over time that have, I've been

49:47

able to manage so far. I

49:49

mean, it's kind of like, Ali,

49:52

it reminds me of what you do so

49:54

well with people in their careers

49:57

is that you, you're so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

49:59

so, so, so good at helping people see

50:01

that there's like an expectation

50:04

maybe you've had of yourself or

50:06

your business or the way you

50:08

work, your capacity for doing

50:10

hard things that works

50:15

until a point, right? You're like

50:17

nearly killing yourself and

50:19

then it takes something bubbling

50:21

over to make

50:24

you realize like the insanity

50:26

of the expectation you've had on yourself

50:28

for so long. That was

50:30

like functional in a time where

50:33

it wasn't, there wasn't like

50:36

one more demand but the moment there was one

50:38

more demand or the moment like someone

50:40

got sick or the moment there was

50:42

a catastrophe you know some other problem

50:45

in your life that demanded that 10%

50:47

of energy that you do

50:49

not have, that was when

50:52

you realized like oh this isn't a problem that

50:54

started with this catastrophe,

50:56

this is a problem that started

50:58

10 years ago that was waiting

51:00

for a catastrophe to bring

51:02

it out and I kind

51:05

of think that it's the same thing

51:07

with what you're talking about in relationships

51:09

is like oh there's probably something here

51:12

that has been demanding an unreasonable amount

51:14

of sacrifice or energy or me managing

51:16

someone else's feelings for a very long

51:19

time and now because there's one more

51:21

person in the mix it's

51:24

hit a kind of breaking point

51:26

so those I

51:29

find those to be really good moments to

51:31

have a conversation with a mother

51:33

and a partner where we say

51:36

to our partner look I

51:39

that they giving them context

51:43

for your life I think is really important

51:45

in those moments like because

51:47

it's very easy just to for it to

51:49

become an ego battle between you

51:53

know your partner and your mum and

51:57

that's the thing it has to be removed

51:59

from because actually

52:01

you and your partner have to be on

52:03

the exact same team. So

52:05

I think that it's almost

52:08

enrolling your partner as part of the team

52:10

in saying, look, this is

52:13

something I've had to manage my whole

52:15

life. And I love

52:18

my mum to pieces and she's like

52:21

an amazing friend to me and she's

52:23

done so much for me. And I

52:26

also acknowledge she comes with her

52:28

challenges. And I

52:30

don't want to gaslight you that

52:33

my mum's an angel and doesn't have any of

52:35

these challenges because that will also then

52:38

your partner will like, they won't listen

52:40

anymore because they're like, don't you

52:42

see this or don't you like what? Surely

52:44

you're seeing this and you're like, no, no,

52:46

no, she's great. How dare you like that?

52:48

That's the quickest way to alienate your partner.

52:51

But if instead it's like, no, no,

52:53

no, I see it. I

52:56

trust me. I see it. In

52:58

fact, more than I see it,

53:02

I've been dealing with it my

53:04

whole life. And I've

53:07

been trying to manage this my whole life. And

53:10

as much as you're exhausted by it in

53:12

the last year, I am

53:17

borderline burned out from it from

53:19

a lifetime. And

53:24

I need you to be a teammate with

53:26

me here because

53:29

I actually need

53:31

love and I need support in

53:33

this because it's really, really hard. And

53:37

I don't maybe demonstrate always how hard

53:39

it is. You know, I

53:41

keep the emotion in because I don't have

53:43

part of this pattern is that

53:46

I've never acknowledged myself and

53:48

my own needs in this

53:51

situation. So an

53:53

extension of that pattern is me also not

53:55

communicating to you how hard this is

53:58

for me. I

54:00

need you on my team, but I also know

54:02

that I need to be on your team as

54:05

well. And I know that part of that is

54:07

me having boundaries that are

54:09

healthy with my

54:11

mom. And for me

54:13

to start to use these experiences

54:15

as an opportunity to maybe have

54:18

some boundaries that I haven't

54:20

had before and to trust

54:23

that my mom's love for me

54:25

runs deeper than my ability to

54:29

please her in this way and to

54:31

make the decision that's going to make her the

54:33

happiest, that she loves me more than that. And

54:36

that if I do make a hard decision

54:38

and I communicate that

54:40

hard decision to my mom in the

54:43

most loving way possible, that even if

54:45

she's hurt in the beginning, actually

54:47

her love for me is going to be the

54:50

thing that supersedes all of that once she's had

54:52

a chance to understand not

54:54

only that, but it

54:57

gives me, and this is the reframe

54:59

for ourselves, it gives me a chance

55:01

to reset a boundary with my mom.

55:05

That's actually going to make both all

55:07

of us a lot, lot happier in the

55:10

future because once my mom, once

55:13

I've reset this boundary with my mom and

55:16

said, mom, I love you so much and

55:18

I'm so afraid to make this decision or

55:20

I feel it's so hard to make this

55:22

decision because one of the things that hurts

55:24

me the most is hurting you and I

55:27

hate the idea that this would hurt you or it

55:29

would affect you negatively and that I

55:31

know you don't, I know the last thing you

55:33

would want is for me to be unhappy and it makes me

55:35

so unhappy to think that I've made

55:38

you unhappy, but I

55:40

need to do this because it's the

55:43

right thing to do for right now. If

55:47

we can overcome the initial guilt that

55:50

we'll feel and the

55:52

initial feeling of like, oh god, I've

55:55

hurt my mom and she's angry at me and

55:57

she's this and she's that, if we can overcome

55:59

that, then I actually

56:03

think it opens us up to a much

56:05

more real relationship with our mum. It

56:08

opens us up to a relationship that's not based

56:10

on pleasing the

56:12

parent all the time, but one

56:14

where we actually, it's just based

56:16

on love. And here's

56:18

the beautiful part about it, like this to me

56:21

is the real catharsis, is that when

56:25

we suddenly feel like we're doing something

56:27

that's good for us, and

56:30

not just good for somebody else, the

56:34

love that you can then give your mum

56:36

is so pure, because

56:39

it's not like, we've all

56:41

done that with a parent where we show up because

56:43

we feel like we should or we did something because

56:45

we think it would make them happy. And

56:48

what we're giving them in that moment is

56:51

not our like pure love. What

56:53

we're giving them is like service. But

56:57

when we stop giving them the thing

57:00

that we've kind

57:02

of brainwashed ourselves or been brainwashed by them

57:04

to think is the source of our love

57:07

with them, when we stop doing that and

57:09

we start meeting our own needs again, all

57:13

of a sudden it like frees up energy.

57:15

And then we're calling our mum or visiting

57:17

our mum or sitting and having a quality

57:19

moment with our mum just

57:21

because we love them and because

57:24

we want to. I

57:26

believe that deep

57:29

down they start to feel that

57:31

shift in energy and they

57:33

start to feel like even if they couldn't see it

57:35

in the beginning because they were just afraid of losing

57:37

something, they start to realise, oh

57:39

my God, I'm getting more back. What

57:41

I'm getting is much more pure and much

57:44

more intentional and

57:46

the basis of a different kind of relationship. So

57:49

I apologise because I feel like that

57:51

was a really long winded answer, but

57:54

I feel like it's important to add all of that

57:56

nuance because otherwise it's incomplete. Yeah, that made

57:59

sense. smashed out the park that was great

58:01

I will I'll pass that along to my friend it

58:07

sounds like you had personal experience with that particular issue well

58:10

I think that I think that it's

58:12

I've certainly had my experience of

58:17

operating so much of my

58:19

life out of a feeling

58:21

of obligation or guilt and

58:25

and not and

58:29

resentment deep down and

58:32

not realizing how close I

58:34

was to snapping and

58:36

how close I was to breaking point

58:38

at trying to manage so many different

58:40

people's feelings all the time and it's

58:42

been a pattern not with one person

58:44

in my life but with multiple people

58:46

in my life where you

58:48

know I've had to really learn to

58:52

not only set boundaries but

58:55

to feel safe and

58:59

in having set boundaries that that

59:02

people will that it's

59:05

not like I'm gonna irrevocably upset someone

59:07

to the point where they're now never

59:09

gonna be happy again that actually

59:12

something better can come in its place if

59:14

I'm brave enough to do that but that's

59:16

been a real journey for me and I

59:18

sympathize with anyone who's going through that because

59:21

it is not easy and it you

59:24

know it requires a lot of healing to be

59:26

able to do that this

59:29

episode of deep dive is sponsored by Grammarly now

59:31

Grammarly is an AI writing partner which has been

59:33

designed to help you improve your writing perhaps on

59:35

surprisingly and it's not just for people who write

59:38

for a living like me anyone can

59:40

improve their communication skills and get done faster

59:42

with Grammarly you can use Grammarly anywhere it's

59:44

compatible with 500,000 websites

59:46

so I can help you in all aspects of

59:48

your daily life one of the things that I

59:50

really love about Grammarly is how easy and frictionless

59:53

it makes communicating with my team one of our

59:55

core values is over communication and it's really important

59:57

to us that we share as much information in

59:59

an easy to and accessible format to everyone else

1:00:01

on the team, especially because we have people in

1:00:03

the team who have English as a second language,

1:00:05

for example. For me personally, Grammarly helps me make

1:00:07

sure that my messages are concise and positive and

1:00:09

helpful, which I think I do sometimes struggle

1:00:11

with. I also don't particularly enjoy tasks like

1:00:13

writing emails, and the nice thing about Grammarly is that it

1:00:15

can help you write your emails super quickly, so you can

1:00:18

take them off your to-do list in no time rather than

1:00:20

spending hours agonizing over the word choice and the tone and

1:00:22

all that kind of fun stuff. Grammarly is super safe and

1:00:24

secure, you're in complete control of all of your data, and

1:00:26

it's never passed on to third parties, so you can write

1:00:28

with confidence. Grammarly is also completely free to use, and you

1:00:30

can sign up with the link in the video description or

1:00:32

in the show notes. So, happy writing, and thank you Grammarly

1:00:34

for sponsoring this episode. So, okay,

1:00:37

so one thing that I've

1:00:39

been thinking about a lot is the

1:00:42

idea of duty

1:00:46

and respect in a way,

1:00:49

I guess. You know, as you know, I'm from

1:00:51

a South Asian background, and I'm sure there are

1:00:53

people in your audience and in your programs and

1:00:55

retreats and stuff who are

1:00:58

from family backgrounds, which is

1:01:00

not necessarily tied to ethnicity, but is

1:01:02

often correlated with it. I feel like

1:01:04

I've got the most ethnic, non-ethnic family

1:01:06

in the world, because my family

1:01:09

are all from the East end

1:01:11

of London, and there's everything people

1:01:13

describe, whether they're from a

1:01:15

Middle Eastern family, Asian family,

1:01:17

like Italian family. I

1:01:20

always feel like my family's come with all

1:01:22

of that same stuff, so I get it.

1:01:24

Oh, okay. So, the

1:01:26

idea of duty and respect

1:01:28

to parents compared to, you

1:01:30

know, this more...

1:01:36

I think in Asian cultures, it's more like the parent

1:01:38

is the parent rather than a friend, and

1:01:41

that has like these concepts of duty and

1:01:43

obligation and should... Oh, I should do XYZ

1:01:46

for my mum or my grandma or my

1:01:49

family because it's just, you know, familial

1:01:51

duty in that sense comes before,

1:01:53

I don't know, a personal relationship.

1:01:57

I think, as I'm saying this, this is...

1:02:00

There's maybe a parallel in

1:02:04

Islam, for example, like duty and

1:02:06

submission to God comes way before

1:02:08

personal relationship with God. And

1:02:10

when I first heard Christians talk about personal relationship with

1:02:13

God, I was like, wait, what?

1:02:15

Like, that seems completely…

1:02:19

And I'm often surprised when people I

1:02:21

know have kind of friend kind

1:02:24

of relationships with their parents. Because

1:02:26

it's not the model of parental and child

1:02:28

relations that I'm familiar with, kind of

1:02:31

way from a South Asian background. Any thoughts

1:02:33

on any of that? I always have

1:02:35

a question there. You know,

1:02:37

sometimes it's different in

1:02:39

that it's a different culture, but maybe

1:02:41

there's some similarity. But I, you know,

1:02:45

I sometimes would

1:02:48

hear, let's say, an

1:02:50

expectation my mum had and

1:02:54

feel that same sense

1:02:56

of duty, obligation, respect,

1:02:58

and so on. And

1:03:04

then I'd be like, but wait, you

1:03:09

did this with that. Like

1:03:12

the thing that I'm… You

1:03:16

know, you prioritized that.

1:03:19

So like clearly at

1:03:23

some point you broke with mindless

1:03:28

obligation to your

1:03:30

family and did what was right

1:03:32

for your relationship. And

1:03:36

I think there's something a little bit

1:03:38

freeing about that to

1:03:41

me, because… And

1:03:43

maybe not everyone has that example

1:03:45

in their life. So I sympathize

1:03:47

with that. But it was good to almost

1:03:50

point out a little bit of

1:03:52

the hypocrisy that I was seeing that

1:03:55

my mum didn't just have some mindless obligation

1:03:58

to her mum and dad. that

1:04:01

in her trauma, she might wish

1:04:03

for me to have, you

1:04:06

know, with her. Actually, there

1:04:08

were times in her life where I can point

1:04:10

to examples where she did what

1:04:13

was right for her. Where

1:04:16

she did what felt right for

1:04:18

her new family that she was

1:04:20

building. And that

1:04:23

we are all going to

1:04:25

navigate in

1:04:27

our lives this respect

1:04:31

for the structures that

1:04:33

have been built before us

1:04:35

that already exist. And

1:04:38

that generational

1:04:40

trauma is very

1:04:43

real. And these,

1:04:47

you know, we

1:04:49

are some of us lucky

1:04:52

enough, especially I've got

1:04:55

friends in Indian families, for

1:04:58

example, where I've got

1:05:00

both types of friends. I've

1:05:02

got friends in Indian families who their

1:05:06

the generations above them, their

1:05:08

mom, their grandmother, never

1:05:12

were in any way unshackled from

1:05:16

automatic sense of obligation and

1:05:18

sacrifice that permeated every facet

1:05:20

of their lives for as

1:05:22

long as they lived. And

1:05:24

they never knew any different.

1:05:27

I also have Indian friends

1:05:29

who have seen

1:05:33

that they've had the gift

1:05:36

of a mother, one

1:05:38

friend of mine in particular,

1:05:40

has the gift of

1:05:43

a mother who has

1:05:46

actually exercised the freedom in

1:05:48

her 70s and 80s

1:05:52

that she never

1:05:54

saw of her mother. And

1:05:58

that she got the. see

1:06:00

what her mother looks like when her

1:06:02

mother is starting to heal and realize

1:06:04

that she

1:06:07

can, if she

1:06:09

chooses, have a kind of autonomy of

1:06:11

her own that she doesn't just have

1:06:13

to live in

1:06:15

relation to a man

1:06:18

or to her parents and

1:06:22

that for her, for my friend,

1:06:24

was a very healing experience because

1:06:27

she realized, oh there

1:06:29

isn't just some law somewhere that says

1:06:31

that this is the way it is.

1:06:35

There are, even the older generations

1:06:37

can sometimes surprise

1:06:39

us and if you're lucky enough to have someone

1:06:42

like that in your family, it's

1:06:44

a very, or even to know someone

1:06:46

like that, if anyone who's ever

1:06:49

seen it knows it

1:06:51

is an incredibly,

1:06:56

man, it's like one of the most powerful things

1:06:58

you can ever see is someone who's lived their

1:07:00

whole life being

1:07:02

in service suddenly realize

1:07:04

that it doesn't

1:07:06

have to be that way and that they have,

1:07:10

that they can have a

1:07:13

life of their own or a mind of their

1:07:15

own that they never realized their power, they never

1:07:17

realized what they were capable of, that they spent

1:07:19

a whole life in

1:07:22

some way being

1:07:24

constrained and never realizing what was

1:07:26

possible for them. God only

1:07:28

knows who would they have been if they

1:07:31

had had the resources or

1:07:34

the influences to be able to

1:07:36

set those boundaries or realize that

1:07:38

about themselves 20 years earlier. God,

1:07:41

who knows who they would have been or

1:07:43

what they would have done or what they would

1:07:46

have been capable of and the tragic part is

1:07:48

for so many, we'll never

1:07:50

know because it just didn't happen in

1:07:52

their time. But my point

1:07:54

with that is, if

1:07:58

we weren't lucky enough to accept experience

1:08:00

that with our elders, with

1:08:03

a grandmother who got to experience something

1:08:05

that her grandmother didn't, or a mother

1:08:07

who got to experience something that her

1:08:09

mother didn't. We

1:08:13

might actually, we might be the one.

1:08:17

It might be us who

1:08:20

is the inspiration. It

1:08:23

might be us who breaks

1:08:25

that generational cycle. And

1:08:27

being the one who breaks that generational cycle

1:08:30

of just

1:08:33

automatic or even mindless service and

1:08:36

obligation against all of our wishes

1:08:38

or all of our needs and

1:08:41

the subjugation of that inner

1:08:43

child of ourselves or that part of

1:08:45

ourselves that wants to express itself but

1:08:47

can't in that environment. Breaking

1:08:50

that is an incredibly brave thing

1:08:53

to do. You become the pioneer of

1:08:55

your family. And

1:08:57

for a long time, you'll

1:09:00

never get any thanks for that. You'll

1:09:02

only get resistance and fear and resentment.

1:09:07

And that will be in many ways the hardest part

1:09:09

about it. It's like in

1:09:12

family therapy there is a concept

1:09:15

of homeostatic pull, the

1:09:18

desire for the system to remain the same.

1:09:21

And if something changes, it will reassert

1:09:23

itself. And when

1:09:26

you're the part of the system

1:09:28

that's changing, the system will

1:09:30

work to reassert itself and change

1:09:32

you back because that's easier than

1:09:35

the system living now with this

1:09:37

uncertainty and having to somehow figure

1:09:39

out a way to evolve around

1:09:41

you, which is much more work

1:09:44

for everyone in that system. But

1:09:47

if you can be brave and stay

1:09:49

with it, knowing that you're going to

1:09:52

create a better life for yourself,

1:09:54

for those who come after you, and

1:09:56

maybe even the people that came before

1:09:58

you, if you're you're lucky,

1:10:01

if you can stick with it, it can be one

1:10:04

of the most surprising things in life

1:10:07

to learn at some point that you've

1:10:09

not only inspired the people that

1:10:12

will come after you, but you've actually in some

1:10:14

way changed the course of a

1:10:16

life from someone who came before you that

1:10:19

sees you and gets

1:10:21

a reference point for themselves they never knew

1:10:23

they would get and it starts to change

1:10:25

them too. And you will never, you will

1:10:27

not, you cannot rely on the luxury of

1:10:29

that, that is a bonus because

1:10:32

there will always be people in your life

1:10:34

that they just, it's not in them to

1:10:36

be able to make that change at this

1:10:38

point but I know that

1:10:40

for me some of the

1:10:43

ways that I have broken that cycle in my

1:10:45

own family, I can

1:10:48

tell you Ali, the changes I've seen in

1:10:50

my mum who remains to this day one

1:10:53

of my best friends in the entire world,

1:10:55

I love this woman to pieces and you

1:10:58

know we've been through so much together, we've

1:11:01

had our ups and downs, the

1:11:04

ways that I'm seeing her brain

1:11:06

today form new

1:11:09

connections and

1:11:12

evolve is one of

1:11:14

the most rewarding things in my entire

1:11:16

life and it's one of

1:11:18

the most inspiring things in my entire life

1:11:20

to see that she's making those connections at

1:11:22

her age. So I just

1:11:25

would encourage you if you haven't got the

1:11:27

reference point for someone breaking free of that

1:11:29

cycle in your life, you

1:11:34

might be the pioneer

1:11:36

in your family and rather than

1:11:38

seeing that as like you

1:11:40

know somehow this fatalistic thing like it's always

1:11:43

just this way in my family, you

1:11:45

can actually see it as a very kind of inspiring

1:11:48

and deep thing that you get

1:11:50

to be that person. I

1:11:53

love that, just turning into a therapy session

1:11:55

for my friends. You

1:11:58

should do this every week. So I've read

1:12:00

the book, No More Mr. Nice Guy,

1:12:02

about a dozen times over the last 10 years.

1:12:04

It's absolutely sick. And every time I read it,

1:12:06

I take something new away because I think I

1:12:08

have this strong, like, people-pleasing tendency, this

1:12:11

strong sense that if

1:12:14

I do things right, then the people around

1:12:16

me will be happy and that is the

1:12:19

recipe for like a chill and fulfilled life

1:12:21

and stuff. And

1:12:23

then, you know, at various points

1:12:25

in my life, I've googled how to

1:12:27

set boundaries and stuff like that. And

1:12:29

the thing I haven't quite been able to shake is the

1:12:33

word selfish, like the concept of

1:12:35

selfishness, that is putting

1:12:37

my own needs. It's like, and I think like

1:12:40

needs, like, you know, I don't really

1:12:42

need them. Like, what's like, I'm need for like food

1:12:44

and water and oxygen. I don't really have a need

1:12:46

to, I don't know, make decisions

1:12:48

about my career or make decisions about do I marry

1:12:50

or, you know, any of the sorts. They aren't needs,

1:12:52

they're wants, really. So like, is it, to

1:12:55

what extent is it selfish of me to not

1:12:57

put someone else's needs and wants ahead of my

1:12:59

own needs and wants, if that makes sense? Well

1:13:02

I tried to look at it like this,

1:13:04

that the

1:13:07

idea that I have that the things I'm

1:13:09

doing for people is

1:13:11

making them happy is in

1:13:14

itself a flawed thought.

1:13:18

Because it's not the people

1:13:20

in my life that I have with

1:13:23

all my might wished

1:13:26

that would be happy, would like,

1:13:29

because that often is why I'm showing up, right? It's

1:13:32

not just a sense of obligation. It's

1:13:34

a feeling of I really

1:13:36

want this person to be happy.

1:13:39

And if I do this for them,

1:13:41

they'll be happy. And if I

1:13:44

don't do this for them, they'll be unhappy. And

1:13:47

then that feeds into the guilt. I don't want to

1:13:49

be the source of their unhappiness because I love them

1:13:51

so much. But

1:13:54

nothing I have ever done on

1:13:58

that basis has ever... made

1:14:00

happy any of those people. Like

1:14:03

it's never worked, in

1:14:06

other words. There's

1:14:09

always a next week and the next week they're

1:14:11

the same person they were the week before in

1:14:13

spite of the thing I did the week before

1:14:16

that was designed to try

1:14:18

to make them happy. So when

1:14:21

I realized like, oh, I'm not, there's

1:14:25

almost a godlike arrogance about this

1:14:27

thing that I'm doing that I

1:14:29

think that me

1:14:32

going and picking up these

1:14:34

things that they need me to pick up or

1:14:36

that me going

1:14:39

and spending the extra hour or

1:14:41

doing this or doing that or running around like

1:14:43

a crazy person to try to make them that

1:14:46

that's actually the thing like I'm

1:14:48

the reason they're happy. If

1:14:51

you're the reason they're happy, why are they still not

1:14:53

happy? Why are

1:14:55

they still frustrated or why are they

1:14:57

still complaining about the same things? So

1:15:01

I think that that's

1:15:04

like an important pressure valve is

1:15:07

to be like, oh, I'm not making them

1:15:09

happy that they're

1:15:11

as happy as they are because of

1:15:14

so many bigger things than

1:15:16

me. There's their

1:15:19

DNA, the way they're wired, the

1:15:23

unresolved trauma of their

1:15:25

life that they're not

1:15:27

even focused on and they're not doing any

1:15:29

work to actually heal. Maybe

1:15:32

they're not even aware of it. Their

1:15:35

view on life, the fact that they're

1:15:38

making me the source of their positive

1:15:40

emotions in the first place, like

1:15:43

there's all these reasons why

1:15:45

they're not feeling as good as I

1:15:47

would like them to feel that have

1:15:49

nothing to do with me.

1:15:53

So I think that allows us

1:15:55

to stand back and put almost like

1:15:57

put down all of these things we're

1:15:59

carrying. and go

1:16:02

that's clearly not

1:16:05

the answer and

1:16:08

then to go the only

1:16:12

really sustainable way for me to

1:16:14

live is in

1:16:18

a way that allows me to bring

1:16:21

my best energy and

1:16:24

to model my best self for

1:16:26

the people that I love and

1:16:31

then to say what way of

1:16:33

living allows

1:16:35

me to do that what

1:16:37

way of operating allows me to

1:16:39

do that and

1:16:42

I think that when

1:16:44

we think of our own

1:16:47

needs I think it's about

1:16:53

saying what's I'm

1:16:56

just a person in the room like everybody

1:16:58

else like if I if I

1:17:01

imagine me

1:17:03

in a room with all of my family we

1:17:06

often think of there being you know

1:17:09

there's my I'm in a room with my

1:17:11

five family members but

1:17:13

on a human level there's six human

1:17:15

beings in that room and

1:17:20

I think it's really important for us to

1:17:22

remind ourselves of that because I often think

1:17:24

we don't think of ourselves as a person

1:17:26

in the room with needs I

1:17:28

think we think like I'm no I'm just

1:17:31

two eyes looking out onto the world and

1:17:35

everyone else is people whose

1:17:38

feelings I worry about who I

1:17:40

concern myself with whether I'm doing enough

1:17:42

for where I worry

1:17:45

if I said the wrong thing and

1:17:47

hurt someone's feelings I feel like I

1:17:49

didn't stand up for that person enough

1:17:51

in my life or whatever it is

1:17:53

those are the people I'm just me

1:17:57

well we have to start including

1:18:00

ourselves as a human being in the

1:18:02

room and going, at

1:18:05

the very least,

1:18:07

I deserve as

1:18:11

much love as

1:18:13

I'm giving to other people. I

1:18:16

deserve as much time and

1:18:18

attention as I'm giving to

1:18:20

other people. Anything

1:18:22

else doesn't make sense, especially if I

1:18:24

say I care about people. I am

1:18:26

a person, so if I care about

1:18:29

people, then I have

1:18:31

to include myself in the calculation. There's

1:18:34

no special reason I should

1:18:36

be exempting myself from my love

1:18:38

for people. But

1:18:42

I actually think we have to go one step further

1:18:44

than that, Ali, which is,

1:18:46

and this is, there's a chapter in the

1:18:48

book where I talk about this, and I

1:18:50

think it's one of the, for me, it's

1:18:53

one of the most important concepts I've ever

1:18:55

discovered because, and there's

1:18:57

various versions of this in different,

1:19:00

you know, teachings in the world, but I found

1:19:02

a way to connect to it myself that

1:19:07

really changed the way

1:19:09

I felt about self-love,

1:19:12

which was to say, it's

1:19:15

not just that I am

1:19:17

a person in the room and

1:19:21

therefore I shouldn't

1:19:23

exempt myself from the same dignity

1:19:26

and love and

1:19:28

care that I give to everyone else. It's

1:19:31

actually a little bit more nuanced

1:19:35

than that. There's an important

1:19:38

distinction between us and everyone else in

1:19:40

that room. That

1:19:43

of all the human beings in that room,

1:19:47

there's only one human being

1:19:51

that I am truly responsible

1:19:54

for. I

1:20:00

think people waste their lives trying to figure

1:20:03

out why they're special or how to feel

1:20:05

special. I think it's an utter waste of

1:20:07

life. Because

1:20:09

the truth is, as long as you're playing that game, you're

1:20:11

playing an ego game, and you'll

1:20:14

always lose because there'll always be someone who walks

1:20:16

into the room who's more

1:20:18

impressive, who's better looking, who

1:20:20

has made more money, who

1:20:22

is more talented, who's more

1:20:25

likeable, who's funnier. You're

1:20:27

just never going to win the battle of

1:20:30

trying to tell yourself you're special. But

1:20:35

there is something special about us

1:20:37

that doesn't require any of that.

1:20:40

And it's realising that of the

1:20:42

8 billion people on this earth,

1:20:46

you're the only one who

1:20:49

has custody of

1:20:52

the human that is you. And

1:20:57

that means that what's special

1:20:59

about you is not all

1:21:02

of your qualities. What's special

1:21:04

about you is the relationship

1:21:07

that you have with you, which

1:21:10

is, imagine at birth

1:21:12

you were given a human, and

1:21:15

someone told you at a time, whispered

1:21:17

in your ear at the beginning of

1:21:19

your time, and said, hey, just

1:21:21

so you know, you have one

1:21:24

job. Your

1:21:27

job, you may take on many voluntary jobs

1:21:29

in your life, but you

1:21:32

have one job that is undeniable.

1:21:35

And that is, for the rest of

1:21:37

your life, you have to take care

1:21:39

of this human. You

1:21:42

have to stand up for them, you have

1:21:44

to encourage them, you have to

1:21:46

take care of them, you have to

1:21:48

try to nurture them and their potential, you

1:21:51

have to try to give them the best

1:21:53

life you can possibly give them. That's

1:21:56

your job. You have one

1:21:58

job. Do it well.

1:22:02

Now. Most of this. Have

1:22:05

never truly understood that that's

1:22:08

our job. And we

1:22:10

have abandoned our post. when

1:22:13

I'm burn out. And

1:22:15

I feel like I'm gonna.

1:22:17

I'm over worked, I'm unhappy

1:22:19

on being mean to myself

1:22:21

and. Saying. Horrible things

1:22:23

to myself I i stop these

1:22:25

days and I same. Met.

1:22:28

What The hell? He. Had one

1:22:31

job. Where.

1:22:33

The hell have you been? That.

1:22:37

Shit, That to me turns

1:22:39

cells laws into a feeling

1:22:41

we think we're supposed to

1:22:43

have. Which by the way,

1:22:45

good luck. Good luck. Having

1:22:47

the feelings of love for

1:22:49

yourself on a daily basis

1:22:51

is not easy, but you

1:22:54

don't need the ceiling. When.

1:22:56

You realize. It's your

1:22:58

job. That loving

1:23:00

yourself isn't a ceiling is an

1:23:02

approach. And

1:23:05

and you take that job

1:23:07

seriously. You

1:23:09

don't' Catering

1:23:12

to your needs doesn't

1:23:14

look like a selfish

1:23:16

things through that lens.

1:23:18

It looks like doing

1:23:20

your job. And.

1:23:24

From their why I really believe is

1:23:26

when you take care of those needs

1:23:29

for yourself. The amount

1:23:31

the you then have to get

1:23:33

to the job you have volunteered

1:23:35

for in loving everyone else. Is.

1:23:40

It a whole different thing. As

1:23:43

great as up. the

1:23:46

so we would all mothers idea of the

1:23:48

not responsible for someone else is happiness because

1:23:50

the sloppy to do though actually make make

1:23:52

them happy. And to what

1:23:54

extent does that hold true for being responsible

1:23:56

for someone else is on the happiness as

1:23:58

well. Like could I not. A while I

1:24:00

cheated on my honor, but hey, I'm not responsible

1:24:02

for their unhappiness as a result of that. It's

1:24:05

just a story that having themselves but he blew

1:24:07

up you know that kinda. Will.

1:24:09

That's true, In some

1:24:12

way. Right

1:24:14

there. If. You look at

1:24:16

the little. If you look at life through the

1:24:18

lens of accountability. I'm

1:24:20

I'm a big believer in

1:24:23

separating accountability from from blame.

1:24:25

Right? A win, win, For.

1:24:27

Example: The way I overcome my own. Mistakes

1:24:30

or regrets in life is I. I

1:24:32

go. That was a version of

1:24:35

me that was less able or less evolved

1:24:37

than I am today. On

1:24:39

not gonna blame Need to Die.

1:24:42

For. That mistake. but I do

1:24:44

have to be accountable for fixing

1:24:46

it. right? So.

1:24:49

I I come free myself of the burden

1:24:51

of blame here. But.

1:24:55

I'd com free myself from

1:24:57

accountability. I have to make

1:24:59

myself accountable for fixing whatever

1:25:01

mistakes a past version of

1:25:03

me. Has. Done.

1:25:05

Whatever damage they've done, Whatever trials

1:25:08

they've created, I. I.

1:25:10

Don't have to take on all

1:25:13

the blame as the person living

1:25:15

today, but I have to take

1:25:17

accountability. Well. If

1:25:20

you apply that to what you

1:25:22

just said, you know I T

1:25:25

and on my partner. they're unhappy

1:25:27

that I'd I'm not responsible for

1:25:29

their unhappiness. Whoop! Fine.

1:25:33

But. You may be responsible for them leaving

1:25:35

you. If

1:25:38

they decide the. Eat

1:25:40

because of what you've done. This

1:25:43

So unhappy that they can be in this

1:25:45

relationship anymore. That their

1:25:47

version of taking control of their happiness

1:25:49

might be you not being in the

1:25:51

picture anymore. So.

1:25:54

If he, if you take the view the

1:25:57

are not responsible for their unhappiness. That's

1:26:00

fine, But. You're

1:26:02

also going to suffer the

1:26:04

consequences of not valuing their

1:26:06

happiness and not taking ownership

1:26:08

of the thing that you

1:26:10

have done that helped to

1:26:13

create the unhappiness in the

1:26:15

and that they sealed to

1:26:17

die. So

1:26:19

I. I would be looking

1:26:21

at that going. Is

1:26:23

something I've done has contributed to

1:26:25

them ceiling unhappy and unsafe. How

1:26:29

much do I value? Keeping

1:26:32

this person in my life is. What

1:26:36

are the correct is a fine

1:26:38

being truly accountable. What the corrective

1:26:40

measures the I can take that

1:26:43

can help create the conditions for

1:26:45

them to be happier you com

1:26:47

if you see it on someone.

1:26:49

It's true to say. I

1:26:52

can't. It's. It's. It's

1:26:55

both What you did was

1:26:57

you created the conditions. For

1:27:00

them. To be incredibly

1:27:02

unhappy. right? Now

1:27:06

all you ultimate in the

1:27:08

truest sense, are you responsible?

1:27:10

For their unhappiness? Well I

1:27:12

would say. Their risk.

1:27:15

but they are responsible for creating the

1:27:17

emotions they want to feel. So they

1:27:19

they're responsible for their happiness to even

1:27:21

if you did something that made them

1:27:23

unhappy. And that might mean trying to

1:27:26

find happiness with in this relationship or

1:27:28

it might mean leaving you. right?

1:27:30

But they're responsible today for

1:27:32

creating their happiness. You.

1:27:37

If you want to keep them. Better

1:27:41

make yourself responsible for creating the

1:27:43

conditions for them to be happy

1:27:45

so you can make them happy

1:27:48

either. But. You.

1:27:51

I would say if you value

1:27:53

this relationship, you better three. Creating

1:27:56

the conditions for them to be

1:27:58

happy to die. like it's your job.

1:28:03

Because if you don't, then you're

1:28:06

playing with fire because you can say I'm

1:28:08

not responsible for their emotions, but if they

1:28:11

leave you tomorrow, you will be responsible for

1:28:13

why you're alone. No,

1:28:16

no, thank you very much. This

1:28:18

has been great. Where can people

1:28:20

find out more about the book? And who's the book

1:28:22

aimed at? Like who should read the book? Probably

1:28:26

anyone who wants

1:28:28

to find love, anyone who

1:28:30

is trying to recover from lost

1:28:32

love, anyone who is

1:28:34

experiencing the pain of being

1:28:36

single and feeling like

1:28:39

I'm lonely and I don't know what to do

1:28:41

with those feelings because I really

1:28:43

want, I want to find love

1:28:45

but I feel like

1:28:47

I'm chronically unhappy. Anyone who's struggling

1:28:49

with chronic indecision in their

1:28:52

love life, really

1:28:54

this is a book about doing love better,

1:28:57

whether we have it or whether we don't. And

1:29:00

I've aimed it to be, I've written this

1:29:02

book to be a co-pilot for

1:29:05

anyone who is trying to

1:29:07

find love in their lives and

1:29:10

be happier along the way because I

1:29:12

think that a lot, anything can change

1:29:14

in our lives. We can find

1:29:17

love, we can lose it, we

1:29:19

can find ourselves in a long stint of being

1:29:21

single while we're waiting for the right love to

1:29:23

come along. Anything can

1:29:25

happen in life and I

1:29:28

believe we have to find the resources and

1:29:30

the tools to learn to be happy

1:29:33

enough in any

1:29:35

of those seasons. And

1:29:37

the book also shows you how

1:29:39

to do that through very practical

1:29:41

tools. So I invite

1:29:45

anyone at any stage of life who

1:29:47

relates to any of what I've just

1:29:49

said to read it. I'm

1:29:51

very proud of it. It's

1:29:54

called Love Life, how to

1:29:56

raise your standards, find your

1:29:58

person and live happily. No

1:30:00

matter what. And. I'm.

1:30:03

You can pre order it from any of

1:30:05

the normal or actually no by the time

1:30:07

this comes out I think is actually out

1:30:09

and ready for you can order it right

1:30:11

now been but you can order it from

1:30:13

where have you like. I would suggest that

1:30:15

you order it from Love Life boots.com. Even

1:30:18

still order it from any retailer you want

1:30:20

on that page. But what's cool about that

1:30:22

page is right now I have a really

1:30:25

special bonus were by anyone who buys a

1:30:27

book gets a ticket for free to an

1:30:29

event undoing on my force which is a

1:30:32

virtual event could find your person and it's

1:30:34

gonna take all of the ideas of the

1:30:36

book and bring them for mice in helping

1:30:38

you create a path over the next year

1:30:41

of your my to find your person. So

1:30:43

if you got to Love Life book.com. And.

1:30:46

Enter the code from your receipt whether you

1:30:48

get it from Amazon or physical bookstore. It

1:30:50

doesn't matter if you enter your code from

1:30:52

your receipt, you can get tickets to the

1:30:54

event on May fourth with me as well

1:30:56

so that website His Love Life book.com. Thanks

1:31:00

so much for the best of the promo and

1:31:02

I was elated or Usama trying to rally. Appreciate

1:31:04

you. For

1:31:06

this week absurdity type. Thank you so much for watching or

1:31:08

listening. All the links and resources that we mentioned input costs

1:31:10

A can be linked down in the video description or in

1:31:12

the sooners depending on where you're watching or listening to this.

1:31:15

if you listen to this on a podcast platform and do

1:31:17

please leave a review on the I Ching story really helps

1:31:19

other people discover the podcast or if you're watching this in

1:31:21

full Hd of okay on you tube and you can leave

1:31:23

a comment below and have any questions or an insight or

1:31:25

any thoughts about the episode that feel some and if you

1:31:27

do this episode uma to check out this episode here as

1:31:29

well which links in with some of the stuff that we

1:31:31

talked about to be upset by for wanting to hit the

1:31:33

subscribe button if you're already and I'll see you next time.

Rate

Join Podchaser to...

  • Rate podcasts and episodes
  • Follow podcasts and creators
  • Create podcast and episode lists
  • & much more

Episode Tags

Do you host or manage this podcast?
Claim and edit this page to your liking.
,

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features