The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Raising Values: New Year's Resolution

Episode Date: January 7, 2024

https://www.facebook.com/RaisingValuesPodcast/https://linktr.ee/PBNLinkshttps://www.instagram.com/raisingvaluespodcast/http://www.mofpodcast.com/www.prepperbroadcasting.comhttps://rumble.com/user/Mofpodcastwww.youtube.com/user/philrabSupport the showMerch at: https://southerngalscrafts.myshopify.com/Shop at Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ora9riPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/mofpodcastThere are three kinds of untruths in this world: lies, damned lies, and New Years resolutions. Phil and Gillian have a seat on New Year's Eve to talk about a few Gillian has seen, and what the RV family's opinion is.Raising Values Podcast is live-streaming our podcast on YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Rumble. See the links above, join in the live chat, and see the faces behind the voices.family, traditional, values, christian, marriage, dating, relationship, children, growing up, peace, wisdom, self improvement, masculinity, feminity, masculine, feminine

Welcome to the Raising Values Podcast, where the traditional family talks. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can support the Raising Values Podcast through Patreon. Phil and Gillian are behind the mic, and we hope you enjoy the show. I'm here. Welcome back to the Raising Values Podcast. We're having a morning, apparently. I'm having some difficulties. I'm sorry.

Can I fire you? Yes. But you're the host. I'm just the co-host and producer. I'm fired. Can I fire you? Yes. But you're the host. I'm just the co-host and producer. I'm fired. I wasn't ready. I'm firing myself from this production. She can find somebody else to do this.

You know, if this was an every episode kind of thing. This is every episode. That I sit down right before. You want to argue in front of everybody? Why not? We do it all the time anyway. No, we don't i i am off this morning a little bit and i sat down right as the pre-roll was

and i didn't start the recorder so see it's not just me do you want to be fired as well yeah i already said i'm gonna fire myself okay well you're fired i'm fired bye see ya anybody want one new year new co-host you can have him yeah new year new co-host anyway good morning and welcome back um i i know we missed last week and the whole thing about not knowing if it was sunday or monday or tuesday or what day was it um i actually i thought it was saturday so um anyway we're here for the new year. Happy New Year. And we have a show for you this morning about New Year's resolutions and whatever those are. um maybe month of what people are doing and what they are their hopes are for the new years and everything and i kind of just wanted to talk about what our goals are for the new year and um talk about those those things those memes that i've been seeing so before we do, though. Oh, okay. Do we have any New Year's resolutions?

So, as you'll see from the little memes that I'm going to read out, I don't want to call them a resolution because I'm already doing some of the things that we're doing. I want to focus on my health in the new year. And, you know, I want to lose 40 more pounds. I want to keep walking and actually do the weights and core training that we've started. For some reason, when we walk, we don't make an excuse. It's cold, too bad, suck it up, we're going for a walk. When it's raining sometimes, if it's not raining too hard, too bad too bad suck it up we're going for a walk when it's raining sometimes if it's not raining too hard too bad suck it up we're going for a walk but whenever we get to the

core where we're doing the sit-ups and the push-ups or planks or whatever we're doing there's always an excuse oh I've already eaten or I'm just too tired or we get home and we just forget about it and then we don't do it. And so it kind of just rolls off. But so I want to make sure that that is something that we are dedicated to in the new year. We have not been dedicated to that. It's been the holidays. Again, an excuse. It's been the holidays.

Okay. You've also been off diet for two weeks we both have been it's been the holidays babe like live it up enjoy it obviously i've lived it up and enjoyed it because yeah it it was not pretty i i haven't felt good i felt very sluggish and not, I don't know. I just haven't felt good during the holidays. And I think that's a very good reminder of living it up too much is too much. And so I don't want to live it up every day, all day.

When I sat down, I said, no more sweets. I'm done with sweets. I don't want to eat another cookie, another chocolate whatever, anything. I don't want to do any of that anymore there is a small school of thought out there that believes that the reason why we have cold and flu season is actually because this is the time of year where we're getting we're spending less time outside we're getting less sunlight because the days are shorter and we're eating tons of sugar which lead to more inflammation yeah so no i agree with you though. I mean, like it's, it's a, it's an interesting thing because like, I, I re I've

always said, I refuse to be on a diet that you can't cheat or you can't break because I'm not, I'm not going to be that person who says, sorry, I can't come to Thanksgiving. I'm on a diet. That's just, that's stupid. But I will happily say that, yeah, after a couple of days of eating really, really bad, I mean, I can't, we came home from Christmas and I was like, God, I just want to eat like a couple of fried eggs and some sausage and bacon. And just, I wanted, I wanted to be back on my normal diet because my body was just screaming, stop putting this stuff in me and give me what I wanted. And see, the hard thing of using that whole, well, it's the holidays, live it up kind of thing. Holidays in South Louisiana start in Thanksgiving and they don't end until April because we have Thanksgiving, Christmas,

Mardi Gras, which is a king cake every single week, a new king cake every single week, sometimes every other day there's a new king cake at the office or wherever. And, of course, I love king cakes. I love a specific type of king cake. Dumb bong. Yeah. And so then you have that. Then you have crawfish season, and then you are outside more.

But now you're eating crawfish and salty salty crawfish every weekend or every other weekend or you know there's always some sort of new festival or Louisianians never have a bad excuse to eat it's such and such live it up it's such and such live it up it's you know this festival live it up. It's, you know, this festival. Live it up. And I think that is dangerous. I think it's very dangerous. But I'm really proud of myself for saying, yeah, I'll live it up. Okay, sure, I'll have that. But that also means that I don't have this later.

You know what I'm saying? Moderation. Moderation. So there's that so there's the focus on health and the focus on finishing what I've started and maybe not even finishing but ramping up what I've started and then there's this whole other aspect and and it does kind of play into exercising and making sure that i'm eating better and things like that and it is and there's there's a couple of memes on here that are just

like perfect and i was like oh that's so me that is just so me um when we started this whole transition into health about it's been about seven or eight months now june july august september october november december oh okay so six months when we started this whole transition into health i also started to transition into guarding my energy and i've talked about this time and time and time and time again i'm sure people out there listening are so tired of hearing about Gillian's energy and Gillian what she's doing with her energy and What this person has done to her energy and how she's going to recoup her energy and all that stuff. I Just think it is beyond

important to focus on beyond important to focus on energy and that's all I'm gonna say because a lot of these memes I'm gonna get into it and kind of explain more of what I'm trying to say so there are some things that yes I am I'm going to focus on in this new year and I think there's a huge change in me that has already started that I'm going to continue to feed that fire I'm just I'm so fired up for it and I guess you know the other thing was I went to the doctor this last week because it was my six month checkup which also correlates with a lot of the changes that I've made in my life. And my own doctor asked me,

what are your health goals? Like, what are your goals for the new year? And first off, I was shocked. I was like, a doctor's never asked me what are my goals? Like, you have goals? Like, you're not just trying to pump me full of prescriptions and, you know, whatever. I love my new doctor. But she's very much a, well, I would say they're all very much in this practice, a health conscious, not pharmaceutical conscious. Like, so it got me thinking about a lot of that. And then that's when I was like, yeah, let's do a goals and resolutions episode for the new year. Yeah. Do you have anything?

Well, to me, like, I look at New Year's resolutions as you should already be on a pathway towards some kind of goal. Like, I don't think that's something that starts at New Year's. Like, I don't think that's something that starts at New Year's. I think of New Year's as a time to kind of assess the journey I'm on, where I've come from, what progress I've made, and what progress I've left to make. So to me, I kind of cast off the idea that when a person says, New Year, new me, I'm like, it shouldn't be a new you, though. It should be another step down the path to becoming the person you want to be that you should have been working on for the last 12 months anyway. I guess what I'm saying is, like, to me, a New Year's resolution is this is the next step to becoming who I want to be. But I don't believe the New Year's resolutions are this moment for, like, this huge transformative change where, like, okay, today's the day I'm going to get my stuff together and finally make a change.

Because to me, it's like that's why so many new year's resolutions fail with it by the, by the middle of February. You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's the difference between I'm going on this diet to lose 10 pounds for bikini season. And I am making a fundamental change in my lifestyle forever. So I guess that that's kind of the way I look at it. And then I do have a couple of goals for 2024,

but their goals that like, if they don't happen in 2024, they're going to happen in 2025 or they're going to happen in 2026. They're going to happen as time, money, and everything else is available for them. They're things that are on my trajectory no matter what. It's just a question of when do I get there. It's like we were talking last night about wanting to purchase some land eventually so that we have a place to use as a private campground. We have a place to use eventually to build a house on. We have a place that we can use for whatever we want to use it for.

Is that something that happens next year? Not likely. Is that something that happens the year after that? A little bit more likely. But sooner or later along our path, that's going to happen. So I guess that's my outlook on New Year's resolutions. It's like, to me, a New Year's resolution

is a chance to say, this is the next step down the path I'm going to take. But if what you're trying to do with a New Year's resolution is say, I am completely changing my path, then my immediate question is going to be, why didn't you change your path last week or the last month or previously? Like if you knew you weren't on the path you want to be on, why didn't you make that change then? Because that's always

been me is once I realize, once I realize I'm not where I want to be, okay, let's change something. Let's put, let's get where we want to be do the work make the you know make the change make the commitment i think it's easy in the new year because i i know i'm not the only one but you start to see right after christmas almost like 5 p.m on christmas day you start to see all of the ads for the gym memberships and this diet bad and this diet book and this diet podcast and this whatever and you start to see all that and then you start to get caught up in it and I do think that there is sincere excitement sincere excitement with people wanting to change and getting caught up in that excitement. And then in the new year, you know, they're gung ho and they're gung ho for a week.

I mean, it's statistically proven that gym memberships go up and then fall out within the first three weeks of the new year. There is a reason why gym memberships in January or at the end of December, the beginning of January, offer discounted rates for a full year if you pay up front. Because they know those gyms are going to be full in January. And by about the middle of February, they got your money. It's too late to get it back. I hate to say it that way, but like.

It's just smart marketing and it's a smart business scheme. Oh, yeah. It's smart business. But I guess what I'm saying is like it's unfortunate it works out that way. But history is pretty telling. Yeah telling yeah so i don't know i think for me it has been um it hasn't been the easiest i don't always want to go work out i don't always want to just not eat the cake although what has helped me and i know it's helped you and piper to an extent is when you stop eating all that crud you don't crave the crud and so it's been very easy for me to not order a coke at dinner when we go out to eat it's very easy for me to not order the dessert after dinner or whatever and

it is honestly it's gotten a little bit easier not a lot because i do like to go out to eat it has gotten easier to say no we're just going to cook at home tonight you know and a lot of that for me is because i can control my portion sizes i'm not intimidated or not intimidated that's not the right word i'm not um i'm not um what is the word? You don't feel the pressure of, I've made this, I've got to eat all this? Yeah, like I've got to eat this whole plate. Or even like my favorite, when we go out for Mexican food and I get the fajitas, the fajitas can last me for three days. But the thing that I have found out with eating out is as long as I'm eating that,

so I've eaten that for dinner now I'm gonna be bloated the next day like I'm going to be water retention whatever hmm and so I don't want to eat that the next two days because that's gonna just continue on through the week and then I'm gonna get upset because I've done this to myself but it's so delicious blah blah blah so you go back and forth and I get that but I have been I have been better I feel like about saying let's not go out to eat no I don't want the dessert and no I'm not I'm just gonna drink the water so I do live it up it's not like I'm

just totally depriving myself I think if I was depriving myself and not living it up then I wouldn't have made it six, almost seven months with this whole lifestyle change. So, well, I mean, and that's why it's a lifestyle change. Well,

and then Christmas is just, Christmas is not a speed bump. Santa has laid down on the damn road and we can't get over this log. Like I'm just, that is the one reason why i'm ready for the holidays to be over with like i really just want to throw everything in our kitchen away like i'm done with it like and then this guy here stuffs my stocking with chocolates and chocolates and chocolates so i have to eat them no you don't take them to work but they're gonna sit there for another week so take them to work for a no I have I don't go to work for another week that's fine

put them up and we'll all quit eating them and take them to work feed them to all your co-workers yeesh I'll give you any stocking stuffers ever again. That's not true. Yes, you will. Anyway, on to all of the New Year's resolutions you sent me. So for a lot of these, they're going to look and sound the same for some of them. But some of them are just like, some of them are funny. All right. So this one says start and start now. A month from now, you will either have a month of progress or a month of excuses of why you didn't. And I thought that that was like, duh.

That's kind of like what we've been talking about. Someone had said to me when we first started working out, or I had read it somewhere. I don't remember. But anyway, someone had said, in six months, you will either have seen the results of the progress that you've made, or you'll have six more months of saying, I should have started, I should have started six months ago, I should have done this, all the excuses. So I thought that that was very, I thought that was a good one to start off with was to start and start now and then just keep going. And, you know, we take it day by day.

If it's raining outside hardcore, then no, we're not going to go walking. But I've been really good that if we can't go outside and walk, then I'll get on the bike in the bedroom and watch a show or whatever. But start and start now. And then it's not just for exercising and dieting. That's for anything. That's starting a new business. That's starting a new hobby. That's picking up a book that you haven't read a book in 10 years, which was where I was last year. I hadn't read a book in so long. And now I've chewed through half a library because I just remembered the passion that I had for reading books so start and start now so that was my first one and this is all something we talk

about in the preparedness community a lot because I think a lot of people no matter what their journey is no matter what their lifestyle changes they they get they get hyper focused on this is the goal and it's so far away and it's going to take forever. It takes so much money, so much time, so much effort. I'm never going to get there, so why try? And then people like me point out to them that losing 40 pounds has been the culmination of six months of consistent effort on your behalf. Losing 30 pounds has been the culmination of six months of effort on on your behalf losing 30 pounds has been the culmination of six months of effort on my behalf it doesn't happen in a week you have to grind it

out for six months to get those results and like looking at our journey into preparedness like where we're at today where we're never going to be where i want us to be that's that's that goal has no end but i feel like our position is pretty well shored up, but it's been seven years. It's been seven years of work and saving and prioritizing and putting things away and building things and learning things, learning what not to do. So I always point out to people, I'm like, if you start today, no matter what your goal is, like you said, in six months, you're either going to be six months further down the road, or you're going to be right where you started today if you don't do anything.

Yeah. So it is never a function of, I'm never going to lose 100 pounds. Well, you might, but it might take a couple of years. But the goal is that if you sit there and you keep making excuses you will never do it but if you do it now then in six months you'll be six months closer your goal so would you rather be six months close to your goal or six months of excuses to this point yeah it's a it's very pointed yeah yeah okay so this this one's totally me. Um, I read this and I'm like, oh my God, I have to include this in 2024. You need to be the girl. You need to be girl mossing, mossing, not bossing. I don't know what girl mossing is. Hang on. You need to be girl

resting, girl lounging and reading thick books savoring your food going on long walks spending hours watching wildlife sipping your coffee girl laying down on the floor of the forest and slowly being absorbed by nature that's me i want to be that girl in 2024 girl mossing like you're just slowly growing you're slowly being becoming yourself you're slowly like becoming you're becoming yourself and figuring out who you are and not pushing that whole I I don't know who I am I need to know who I am because society says I need to know who I am and I have to find myself in this. There's just like this craziness of having to find out who you are. It took all of my 30s to figure out where I am right now at 39, almost 40. Like I spent 10 years trying to figure out

who Gillian is and what was important to me. And it wasn't within, it wasn't until within the last maybe two years that I, I have like chiseled it away so much that I have figured out this is who I am. This is what I stand for. These, these, these are the things that are important to me. And these are the things that I'm going to focus on. It doesn't happen overnight. And moss doesn't grow overnight. That's what girl mossing is. That's what it means to me is just take the time to be okay with not knowing and being okay with growing slowly. So anyway, I want to be the girl that lays down on the fourth floor and slowly gets absorbed by nature. And to me, what I take away from this is that in modern society moves so quickly. It's so high demand. It's so, it requires so much attention. There's so much to do. I feel

like we have lost that ability to some degree to just like take a deep breath, slow down, disconnect and relax and allow ourselves to enjoy the world around us and allow ourselves the ability to grow at our own pace, not the pace that modern society is demanding. It kind of goes back to a conversation we had years ago about intentionally limiting Piper's extracurricular activities because we didn't want to be one of those families that had to go straight from school, straight to band, straight to drama, straight to this, that, and the other. And then we get home at 10 o'clock at night, nobody's eating, we're all exhausted. We didn't spend any time here as a family. It was event, event, event, event. And it's also the same reason why you and I have, to a large degree, tailored our careers the way we have. We've prioritized time with the family,

and we've prioritized having the ability to slow down. Yeah. Because we feel like that's more conducive to our emotional and mental health. Yeah. So this is exactly what I tell people all the time. When I tell them that my happy place is in a lawn chair in the woods smoking a cigar by myself but this is why I tell them that is my happy place because it's quiet there's no cell phones there's no honking horns there's nothing it's just

peace it's quiet it's the ability for me to let my brain relax. And I think that is desperately needed by everybody. And if you don't think you need it, you need worse than everybody else. I believe that there's a movement of that change. I think, and I think the millennials, the older millennials like us are leading that charge. I think in the eighties is when, and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, but in the 80s is when you started to see women really entering the workforce. And you started to see this go go go like we have to go we have to work nine to five Dolly Parton, you know, all that stuff. And it continued

like I can remember in the 90s. My neither of my parents were home. We were what was itkey? We were latchkey kids. We had a getting off the bus or, you know, being dropped off at the house or whatever. Parents were, both parents were at work. My older sister took care of us. And, or she went to her room and we kind of just fended for ourselves. She was there to make sure the house didn't catch fire. Yeah, sure. No, she did a good job. She did okay. I'm alive. I'm almost 40, so my sister did pretty good.

But, you know, you know what a latchkey kid is. And so I feel like our parents were never there because they were under that pressure of go, go, go. So I feel like our parents were never there because they were under that pressure of go, go, go. A lot of things contributed to that and why women entered the workforce the way that they did and why families evolved the way that they did, and I understand that. But I think what we're seeing now is those early millennials, those Gen Xers, living that life of being alone and raising themselves and this go get them, go always go atmosphere that they grew up in, that we grew up in. We don't want that.

We want to slow down. I think we're seeing our generation is saying, hold on, why? Why are we doing this to ourselves? I saw what it did to my parents. I saw what it did to our family. I saw the stress that was involved in this constantly going mentality. I don't want that. And I think that's what a lot of people are saying.

And so this is not just girl mossing and girl resting and all and all that stuff it's just girl i mean i'm sorry it's just people people yeah okay wait can we catch up really quick on the comments because i saw something about goats where did you see something about goats? New goals, not resolutions maybe? Oh, maybe so. I thought I saw goats. Sorry. But that is kind of what I was saying earlier, Jo. To me, it's like a New Year's resolution to me is never going to be anything that's grossly off of the path I've already set for myself. Because if it was, then I should have already changed course.

It's just what do I think the next step down this path is? And, like, I've personally said that for 2024, I really want to get myself back into a firearms training course or two. Because the last time I had a professional teaching me how to do anything with a rifle or a handgun, I was still in uniform. It's been a hot minute. It's not that I don't know how. It's just the fact that, like, I think it's time for's been a hot minute it's not that i don't know how it's just the fact that

like i i think it's time for a reassessment yeah now do i is that an unattainable goal for 2024 no it's just it is something on my path i need to get to yeah all right i think the next one um i think the next one might be similar. I can't remember all the ones I sent you. Oh, no, this one. Next year is so personal. I think this one was the best one. It's five words, and it is the biggest impact.

Next year is so personal. Like, I am not focusing on what other people think, what other people are doing, unless it directly impacts me. This is such a personal year for me. I'm turning 40 in three weeks. And I feel like I'm at a point now in my life where I'm finally that person that I've always wanted to be. I've always envied those women that are always like, screw you and what you think about me, screw you and what you think about this or whatever. I've always envied those, those women that can just stand up and say, no, just no. And, and I've

never been that person. I am, I have always been a people pleaser and I've always been that, that person that doesn't want to hurt anybody's feelings I don't like confrontation I don't think I'll ever like confrontation no matter how much of a backbone I you know build in myself but I just think that this year has to be a focus on myself I've already started that focus and I feel like I'm in a good place to really like dig down deep and be like that's it this is me this is my year this is not your year you don't not know you but this is not your year you don't get to take from me what I'm not gonna give to you yeah and I read this completely differently oh see good that's why I wanted to do this. See, to me, I look at this as, you know, the last several years, not just us as a family, but this entire society has taken some pretty solid hits on the chin.

You know what I'm saying? There's been a lot of things go on that have really tested people's, their faith, tested their resolution tested, their finances. It's been a hard year for a lot of people. It's been a hard couple of years. True. So I look at 2024 and I look at when Pastor Wes says next year is so personal, I take it in the guise of like, it's our time. It's time for payback.

Okay. So to me, it's like 2024 is the year where we stop taking it on the chin and we start getting things back on our track on our terms. You mean like as a society and politically and all that? I mean in whatever way a person chooses to take it. Like, you know, I admit I am developed, the longer time goes on as far as politics, since you brought that up, I'm developing a very almost nihilistic viewpoint of it. It really doesn't matter who gets voted into power. It's going to suck no matter what. If voting mattered,

they wouldn't let us do it. But all that being beside the point, to me, it's more of, I'm going to focus on my family. I'm going to focus on what we need to do so that we're where we need to be. I'm going to focus on our finances, on our health, on our preparedness. This is all about, this is the year that we, we stop responding to what the world is throwing at us. And we start saying, no, this is what I'm going to do and preempt whatever the next manufacturing emergency is. But I do agree with you about, like, at a certain point,

you have to kind of dig your heels in and say, what is my priority here? Like, I simultaneously love and have been internally frustrated by you being a people pleaser. That's just who I am, though. True, but that's why I say I love it about you because I see where it comes from, but I also see that there have been times where you drove yourself bat crap crazy trying to make somebody else happy. And my point of view has always been

like you know like i organize everyone in my everyone in my life in a hierarchy and some of those people in my hierarchy are above me as far as people i prioritize i prioritize people above myself but if like this person down here wants to be made happy and this person up here wants to be made happy this person's gonna win and this person down here doesn to be made happy and this person up here wants to be made happy, this person's going to win and this person down here doesn't. So I guess that's always been my point of view. And I think where you've struggled is that you put almost everyone above yourself for years so that if Gillian had to be miserable so that a person's happy, that's just what happened.

And I think what you finally have started to do is you realize that Gillian has to be further up the scale don't know about the top of the scale that's up to you but like you know you and like you and piper are above me on my scale always will be well i think you and piper are above me on my scale too. I don't think I've ever been at the top. Unless, is yours fluid? Does yours change? Does your scale change depending on the situation? No. No. Do you never want to make yourself happy?

It's not that I never want to make myself happy, but if I have to make myself happy at the expense of someone that's further up the scale than me, it's not going to happen. But you just said that the only people that are above you on the scale are me and piper yes so we never trump i mean you never trump us i don't think so never you never do something that's just for yourself but you're not you're not hearing what i'm saying if i do if i do something that makes me happy and it has no effect on y'all, then that's not taking anything from y'all.

Yeah. But what I'm saying is if I have to prioritize, like I can do one thing and it can make you happy or me happy. I'm going to do the thing that makes you happy and I'm going to skip myself. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Think of it like you're at the grocery store, you're on the aisle, you're purchasing stuff. If I'm going to purchase this or this and I only have so much money, what am I going to prioritize?

And that's kind of the way I prioritize that kind of thing. Whether it's time, money, energy, anything else, it's always going to be if I have a limited amount to give, it's going to go to you and Piper first, then and then everybody else down the road I get it I get it um I don't know what explanation you give that Valerie loves so much I don't uh it was probably something that when you said I was like oh that's really good my it should go on a shirt go up some there were some other ones yes Valerie we do need to hang out more. It's just that you're two and a half hours away. It's not even the two and a half hours away.

No offense. It's two and a half hours on the other side of Baton Rouge. It's an hour on the other side of Baton Rouge. No, but my point is, if it was two and a half hours from here east, it wouldn't be a problem. It's the fact that to get to you involves going over Baton Rouge, and I kind of wish that the whole city of Baton Rouge would fall into a sinkhole. And we won't talk finances today, Joe.

I don't think that that's what this show should be about. So, yeah, we've already seen everything up there. And, Joe, I've got to put tires on my truck, and then you're in the next couple. We were just talking about that. Oh, Jesus Christ. Truck tires are one of the more financially crippling regular expenses that people have to go through, and it's never fun. Yeah. His scale won't change.

Oh, I get it, the hierarchy. You bring up Baton Rouge. Go down some. This is another yes. Ugh. And actually, Joe, like... No, I can't see that. You're still at the top of my scale.

Piper's right behind you on my scale. If I end up with a son-in-law, his happiness is his problem. Yeah. That's right behind you on my scale if i end up with a son-in-law his happiness is his problem yeah that's right uh okay what's the next one we probably don't need to go through all of these i gave you so many well i mean we got 25 minutes so we got plenty of time okay so this is the energy one or one of the energy one. 2024 is almost here. Carefully choose who and what gets your time and energy. Be ready to make difficult choices and changes that move you forward. Stepping up means stepping away from certain people, relationships, habits, beliefs, and environments.

It's so good. It's like so good. It's like so good. Um, I, there are probably two, maybe three. I can think of two right off the top of my head that are in a box in my, in my little brain. They're in a box. And these people never get the full me. They never get the authentic me. They get the everything is good. We're all doing great. Nothing is weird. Nothing is strange.

Nobody's sick. Life is wonderful. Phil's job is great. My job is great. Piper's a straight-A student. Everything is positive and wonderful and flowery and fluffy and just wonderful. Rainbows and unicorns. Rainbows and unicorns.

That's what it will always be for them. There will never be a negative. There will never be anything even slightly not positive because these people will grasp onto that, hold onto it, chew it around and whatever, and that is what they're going to be hyper-focused on in my life. They will never be hyper-focused on the positive, and I have learned that.

It's kind of funny. I test people sometimes. I test them to kind of see where they're going to fall and what they're going to do and the actions that they take once I tell them something or do something or whatever. And it's very sad to watch people fail miserably at that. You know, give them something positive and there's no response. Give them something negative to hold on to and it is all they can fixate on for a while or that's

all they're going to comment on in the conversation. Give them something that's just about them. Like start talking about them or start talking about. And that's a lot of what I do is just like turn the focus away from me because I know their narcissistic behavior wants to talk about them. And so. Well, and they're also Gospers. Yes. So whatever whatever you give them is not a genuine i want to know how you're doing it is what juicy morsels can you give me that i can use for attention yeah that i can i

can then spread up the chain to whomever so when when we talk about when this one says stepping away from people from certain or stepping away from certain people relationships habits beliefs and environments um for some people it's it's going to be a relationship is ended with me or it's going to be you only get me when i want to give you something or you are now in this box where sure i can be a friend with you or I can be nice and cordial and all that stuff but you're never going to get the authentic me you're always going to get everything is wonderful and unicorns and puppy dogs and rainbows that is all you will ever get from me they're gonna get the version of you that you can give them without sacrificing yourself they're also going to get the version of me that

is me you know what i'm saying like you're you've asked me how i'm doing i'm going to tell you how i'm doing i'm not going to reverse it on people anymore and be like well so tell me about this or tell me about that or you know i i i think i'm just so done dealing with narcissistic behavior in my life. And my sister-in-law said something last night, and it was just kind of like, oh, why did you have to just speak that into existence? I love her to death. But it's so true. Empaths like myself, is that what she said?

Yes. Empaths like myself attract narcissists. And as soon as she said that I started like ticking off people in my life is like yes she's a narcissist yes she's she's a narcissist she's also a narcissist this one's a narcissist like damn it like why I get it I get why because it goes back to that whole people pleasing and wanting to make sure everyone's emotions are taken care of and everything else and putting myself further down that hierarchy list. At least you didn't marry one. No.

Well, thank God I didn't marry one. But yeah, so I'm either going to be removing them from... I'm either going to be removing them from... Steward. I'm either going to be removing those people completely from my life, or there's going to be a box that is set aside for them. And I can think of quite a few people that are going to go in that box. Hang on, I might have to full screen somebody so we can read them. Okay, this was, I really wanted to put this one up there because I thought, rather than saying it's a New Year's resolution, let's focus on some things.

Reading more books, checking in on friends, find ways to reach out to your community. I'm going to stop there for a second. I thought it was important to say that because I really wanted, I've always really wanted Piper to have some sort of foothold in what goes on in her community and the people that are like that. And that was one reason why I was so gung ho about her doing a summer camp at the SPCA a couple of years ago so that she could see what it's like to struggle to take care of these animals and all that stuff. So anyway, screen-free days. Oh, I forgot one. Continuing and finding new hobbies. Screen free days. That is going to be a focus for me. I'm loving that I have found my books again because it means that I'm not on my phone all the time. I'm not looking at the screen all the time. Having FaceTime dates with friends

near and far. Getting enough sleep. God, I can't tell you how much that improves your life is just sleeping uh moving your body for 30 minutes a day and drinking more water i mean i just need water now it just sounds to me like prioritizing your mental and emotional and physical health yeah it is it's fo it's that bringing that focus back to yourself so yeah and don't discount the fact that if you don't take care of your physical health your mental health follows shortly behind yeah uh i don't know if it's just me but in 20 but 2023 revealed the true character of some people some aren't coming with me in 2024. Again, I said that in the one before this one.

There is going to be a reprioritization of friends and family in 2024. And I'm not waiting for tomorrow. Like, that whole list has changed. people on that list have been shuffled around and um i'm actually up higher on that list so i know high five now i just gotta work to keep it there and see for me like this has been something that's been happening for years with me and i i'm i'm a firm in, you don't really know what a person, who a person is until they're at their lowest, when they're scared, when they're worried, when they're beat down, when they're at, when they're at the point of breaking, that's when

you really find out who a person is. And I feel like over the last several years, I've had a chance to look at a lot of people in my life, and I've seen very clearly now who they are. They have shown me their true colors, and some have attempted since then to kind of like come back into my life, and they're not allowed. Because my point of view is like, no, i saw who you are when things get really bad when things got really bad you me and piper banded together and we prioritized ourselves we prioritize you know learning learning to relax learning to unwind caring for ourselves emotionally like we did the work to make sure that our family was able to get through to hard times and it didn't didn't

really bother us that bad i mean the day after hurricane ida is the greatest example i was used because our daughter was flying a kite in the front yard you and i you know we had a lot of problems to deal with but we weren't we weren't fighting with each other we weren't freaking out we weren't we didn't lose our cool we just said wow we got a lot of work to do and we just started doing it it was more like oh my god we have a lot of work to do there might have been some tears involved but but my point is that you know we we looked i looked around at the community around us and there were a lot of people that they threw the white flag up and they left town yeah our neighbors were like i'm not dealing with this i'm not dealing with these trees i'm not dealing with my house i'm leaving yeah and there were a lot of people

they were packing up and leaving while we were cutting trees while we were cutting trees yeah and i'm not mad at him for that but but the thing i said right after hurricane ida was these people have all shown me exactly who they are i do have to say on that whole on the note of just leaving we okay you're you're not gonna like this we don't know what their stress level was at that point we don't know if it was just so overwhelming for them that they could not bear the thought of having to deal with everything physically at their house and not having electricity. And then having to deal with the emotional aspect of my car has been crushed, my house has been crushed. And that was it for them. Their brain shut off and said, I need something.

I need to get out of here. I need to see something beautiful, something that's not a total wreckage. So on one hand, yes, it was hard because our neighbors all left and we were here. Not all of them, but one of them stayed. We were here picking up the pieces in what felt like a lot, not just for us, but for our neighbors as well. Because the trees that had fallen, they were on our property and their property and all that stuff. But on the other hand, I want to give them grace because I've been in such a situation where it's so overwhelming emotionally that I need to just check out. And if checking out means I need to go to the beach

for three days and I'm not just saying that that's I'm saying that because that's what happened they left they went to the beach um if that's what I need to do then I think that that needs to be allowed like I I don't want to see this is where you and me differ so much. I don't want someone to feel bad for themselves or bad about their decision to need to check out. Because there's so many times in my life where I've needed to just check out. And the last thing I need is for someone to judge me because I was prioritizing my mental health. And don't misunderstand. I don't care if they checked out or not. I don't care if they went to the beach. But the end result is the same.

I know I can't depend on them if things happen here. They will leave. That is, I guess, my point is the why, their stress level, their own individual mental health, that's something they have to make an assessment on. They're grown adults. But it does confirm that the end result is when things get really bad, you and me and that little girl in there are going to have to suck it up

and deal with it by ourselves because we can't depend on any of these people. No, I understand that. That's all I'm saying. But there are people that will be there. We had people that drove five hours to be there. Yep. And by the same token, after Hurricane Ida, I mean, we had people that I only know semi-casually through this podcast that live, you know, two towns over, about 25 minutes down the road. And, like, they were at at I literally was getting messages saying hey

I've got my yard cleaned up do you need help or hey you know we don't have power either we're we're not a great situation either but like do you need do you need fuel do you need me tell you where there's a gas station open like we were having communication with people in the area that listened that we know we know through the preparedness world and that tells me it's like okay these are the people i can rely on to suck it up when things get bad these are the people who are either going to cave in on themselves or they're going to run and they're just not going to be there and like i thought you had a plan to bail to family in North LA. Isn't that the same thing? Yeah, Stuart.

But I guess what I'm saying is like, I'm using Hurricane Ida as an example of when things get really harsh, I've seen people have shown me who they are and I know who I can depend on and who I can't. Or better yet, I know what behavior I can depend on them for. Okay. Think about during COVID COVID the people who were like you know trying to watch out for their neighbors and the people people who were acting like morons that's all I'm gonna say about that okay uh okay yeah this one was totally for me.

I just think there's some things women shouldn't wear, like the weight of other people's expectations and judgments. I don't think it's just women. I mean, obviously, a lot of these are going to be geared towards girl and women because that's what I am. But stop. I do think it's important because I was talking to someone the other day about how I no longer care what someone's expectation of me is or what their judgment of me is. I say that.

And then to some extent, I'm always like thinking about, you know, what are they saying about me or whatever. But anyway, I think it's a good goal to have of not wearing other people's, the weight of other people's expectations and judgments. Yeah. I just say to hell with people. I'm going to be me. I know. I'm not that, I'm not there there yet but that applies to everybody except you your opinion of me matters to me yeah like this is this has always been the way I've arranged my life how

much I care about your opinion of me is directly proportionate to how important you are in my life so like random passerby on the street couldn't care less don't know who they are they're not gonna be in my life. So like random passerby on the street, couldn't care less, don't know who they are, they're not gonna be in my life for more than about the seven seconds it takes us to walk by each other. Don't care. The people who I wanna spend the rest of my life with, their opinion matters a lot.

Cause I hope you're gonna be here for a while. Same. Okay, two more, two more. All right, there's, okay, so there's this one that I'm, this is kind of like my wish for you from Raising Values for the new year. And then there's one more after this that I just was like, that's awesome. All right, blessings for the new year. This is, remember, from Raising Values.

May your Wi-Fi signal be strong strong may your snacks be plentiful may coffee never burn your tongue may dogs smile upon you may cats always choose your lap unless you're allergic may your house plants thrive and may your naps be always refreshing but above all else may healthy, happy, and unburdened by fuckery. I love it so much. I do wish all those things for my friends and family. I really do for the new year. Those are real blessings that I saw, and I was like, I love it. And then the next one says, it's probably not as funny.

I hope 2024 is filled with everything you deserve. Yes. That may not be a good or a bad thing for you. It's always a good thing from my perspective. Karma. Well, yes. But I hope 2024 is filled with everything you deserve. I mean that one so, so much for so many people. Like I,

it's like, it's like saying, I hope you have the day you deserve. I hope you have the whatever you deserve because some people don't, they don't deserve the good. And that like goes against everything in my, that just goes against everything I'm about in my life. People deserve good. They do deserve second chances. They do deserve to be treated fairly and kind and everything else. And something that we always tell Piper is that you don't have to be best friends with anybody. You don't have to be friends with everybody, but you do have to be kind.

And so, I don't have to be friends with everybody but you do have to be kind um and so i don't know i do hope people have the year that they deserve um i don't know where else to go with that i'm going to be the polar opposite what i believe that people deserve what they create for themselves like I I I'm that person that says I don't believe that on the long enough timeline anything is the result of luck anything is a result of chance I think that yeah I think that where a person winds up in their life or in this next year whatever is the end result of a series of decisions they have made. Now, this is not to say that chance or luck or whatever doesn't have an influence or can't tip the scales one way or the other, but it is to say that if you spend your entire life

eating junk food with crazy high blood sugar, you end up insulin resistant, type 2 diabetic in your old age, no one says oh how unlucky everybody said most reasonable people would say well you did it to yourself you ate like crap your whole life you did you did this to you if you look at a person who is broke and it's because they spent all their money then that nobody says oh it sucks that you're broke it's like no you spent all your money you you did this to you yeah as opposed to a person who like religiously saves and scrimps and tries to control their budget and just has a stroke of bad luck that's when a person says oh it's unfortunate that happened to you but it's an it's a rarer event that a person who does everything

right doesn't come out on top because of one twist of fate. Usually it's the twist of fate that tips the scale one way or the other, but it's the person who put the weight in the scale that put themselves there. So yes, I say, I hope 2024 is everything you deserve. Just understand that what you deserve is directly caused by what you create. So if you want good outcome, you have to do good work. If you want good behavior out of the people around you, you have to demand that good behavior. If you want, you know, whatever you want in your life, you have to come to an understanding that you have the ability to create that for yourself and you have to go for it and you have to do the work and let, let this day that we're all making new year's resolutions be kind of what we

talked about at the very beginning. It's not today's the day I'm going to turn my life around because you should have done that yesterday. But let today be the day that says this is the step on the path to the direction i want to go in and then start walking in that direction yeah i don't think it's hard i don't think the hardest part is making a decision to do something i think it's follow through following through with that decision and like valerie said up in the comments being consistent with it consistency is the only thing that's going to create the habit.

So, yeah. Yeah, but consistency is also something that has to be given some grace as well. There's going to be days. Look, I remember. He's like hitting hard with this, live it up. It's the holidays. No, but hear me out. Do you remember it wasn't long ago that you and I both got rocked with the cold? And I remember, yeah, I know you're still with the cold and I remember yeah I know

you're still fighting it but I remember really I remember you were very up you were very frustrated for a while that like we couldn't go walking and it's a we neither one of us was in a condition to be keeping up with our normal exercise routine but I pointed out to you I'm like but over okay so there's a there's a theory that basically says on a long enough timeline, anything is inevitable. You know what I'm saying? Like if you run this cycle of today's a day enough times, then the impossible becomes possible because there's been so many permutations of it. The tiniest chance becomes inevitable.

inevitable. So my way of looking at our exercise journey is on a long enough timeline, if we continue this, then the week we took off for the cold, the two weeks we took off for Christmas, the whatever, it's not going to matter because on a long enough timeline, we'll get to our goal. So it's not about, oh, I failed because I took a week or two off for Christmas. It's about, I'm going to see this through to the end of my life. And over that long of a timeline, we're going to succeed. Yeah. So that gets in the whole, whole, another hour long discussion about like mentality and how you emotionally compartmentalize things. But that, that's, that's my perspective.

But I just say that like, yeah, I hope you get, I hope everybody gets what they deserve. But what you deserve is based on the work you do. And I think a lot of people get it in their heads that, I deserve this thing that I didn't work for. And then my answer is, if you didn't work for it, you don't deserve it. Yeah. Agreed. And don't let that be a downer, guys.

That just means you've got work to do. Everybody does. Everybody got work to do. Everybody does. Everybody has work to do, but most people will cry about sitting on the bench rather than get out on the field. True, true. Do we have any announcements? Just the usual ones. I mean, Prepper Camp, today is the last day for tickets at this rate on january 1st they will go

up i don't know how much it's usually like 10 or 15 bucks a ticket uh if you haven't gotten them in the last three months with us screaming ever since thanksgiving get them i don't know what to tell you you just like to wait till the last minute um women who prep conference yeah i gotta get on that um yeah the women who prep conference what was going on my hair is in april and i will be um i will be talking about things be a part of it but yeah my brain went um i will be talking about prepping with kids and how to incorporate your children into the whole prepping lifestyle and um that again that's in april it's an online event you do have to purchase tickets for it um and this week coming up so i have i still have a

week off from work that's going to be my focus so if you follow me on Instagram there's going to be some affiliated links on there that will actually turn some revenue for me a little bit so if you are interested in the prepping lifestyle and all the different things that go with it or even just some of the things not all of them there's going to be tons and tons of speakers. There's going to be prizes and all that stuff. Uh, and I think we're even doing a live Q and a, so you can be a part of that. So you can ask us questions and we'll answer them in real time. Um, but anyway, so that's the women who prep conference and on Instagram, you can follow them on Instagram.

The name of the Instagram page is Women Who Prep. And, again, I'm also, you know, always want to highlight Allison in this. She is the one who's bringing this new conference to this whole stage of prepping lifestyle and everything. And she runs her page, which is this prepared life. And it's an amazing, uh, where she is in her preps. It's just like mind blowing. Um, and I think it's, uh, I think it's really awesome. So there's that. So Prepper Camp, Women Who Prep Conference, and I don't know what else I think that is probably it it is but you know today is December 31st tomorrow is the start of a new year I would just tell everybody take take a minute turn everything off think about

what direction you want to go in and what what is the first step down that path and that is your New Year's resolution. And then, you know, whether you write it down or tell your best friend or do whatever, install a little bit of accountability and go for it. Cool. Thank you all for joining us today. It was weird, and I apologize for that. It's always weird with me and Phil anyway. But anyway, I got here right on time.

Right on time. Right on time. Anyway, I hope you all have a great rest of your day. And have a happy New Year's Eve and all that fun stuff. Even if it means that New Year's Eve is going to be at 9 o'clock on your couch in your PJs. That's cool. eve is going to be at nine o'clock on your couch and your pjs that's cool we're gonna go watch our neighbor down the street um blow up his uh children's inheritance that he does every year we do not even buy fireworks because his display is so magnificent every single new year's eve so

And Happy New Year. That's all. Yeah. That's all, folks. Bye, everybody. All right. Thanks for joining us. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Thank you.