This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - Relationship Red Flags with Monica Berg | 275
Episode Date: January 27, 2025How good are you at telling the difference between a fling and the real thing? In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, we’re diving deep into relationship red flags and how to spot them early to ...avoid future heartache. Our guest, Monica Berg, author of Fear Is Not an Option, Rethink Love, and The Gift of Being Different, brings her unique insights to the conversation. Monica co-hosts the Spiritually Hungry Podcast and serves as Co-Director & Chief Communications Officer for Kabbalah Centre International. Known for her authenticity and fearless approach, she encourages us to recognize our extraordinary potential while navigating the complexities of relationships with compassion and clarity. Let’s be honest: even the best relationships have rough patches. They require courage, honesty, and a lot of self-awareness. The key is paying attention to what people show you consistently—it’s usually more telling than what they say. Ignoring red flags only invites future heartache. The relationships we choose, whether romantic or platonic, are powerful reflections of the life we’re building. If your relationship is one where both people are winning, keep putting in the work, keep communicating, and keep choosing each other. And if it’s not? You know what needs to be done—move on. Connect with Monica Berg: Website: https://rethinklife.today/ Books: https://rethinklife.today/books/ Podcast: https://www.spirituallyhungrypodcast.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/monicarberg74 FB: https://www.facebook.com/monicaberg74 Related Podcast Episodes: Do You Believe in Love? with Arielle Ford Connecting To Your Inner Love Coach with Nicole Moore Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I am Nicole Khalil and I wonder how good are you at telling the difference between a fling
and the real thing?
Our guest today poses this question and I got to tell you my track record pretty much
a dumpster fire for the first 99% of my relationships.
The one time I did get it right, I got it really right.
And I don't know if that was just dumb luck
or that I'd gathered so much evidence on what didn't work
that when Jay walked into the picture,
it was like a neon sign flashing this one, you idiot.
And let's be real, most of us are way better
at spotting red flags in our friends' relationships than we are in our own.
You know what I'm talking about, right?
You're sitting across from your friend, listening to them question every tiny detail, like does he really mean it when he says that he's busy?
Or they're wondering if they're expecting too much and wanting basic level of respect.
Or hoping for the millionth time that someone will change or grow out
of some sort of behavior and you're sitting there staring at your friend and trying to
figure out the nicest way possible to say, move the fuck on.
There are red flags everywhere, but he's a good person, they say.
I mean, sure, compared to sociopaths and convicted felons, he seems great, but I'm not concerned
about his volunteer resume or where he's going in the
afterlife. Is he a good person to you? Not just in those rare moments where he doesn't suck,
but does he treat you well consistently? Do you feel genuinely happy like more than once a month?
Would you want your best friend, your sister, or your child in that same relationship? No? Then I
say move the fuck on.
But we don't say that.
We listen and we make sympathy eyes
because A, it's not really our place
to tell people how to live their lives
and to make their decisions for them,
and B, because it can be a fast way to damage a friendship,
and C, we're often guilty of projecting
what we would do onto others, and we could just be wrong.
But as someone who must have had many friends who were biting their tongues with my previous
relationships, I think I would have appreciated somebody looking at me and saying, what, and
I cannot stress this enough, the fuck are you actually doing?
You can and should do better immediately.
Do not pass go.
Do not collect $200 or in my case, continue to pay for everything while these people try
to find themselves.
So this is me doing a little bit of both
on this episode of This Is Woman's Work,
because it's not my place to tell you how to live
or who to choose.
Frankly, I'm not even close to an expert.
But I do want you to know that you deserve a relationship
that lights you up, that challenges you in the best ways,
and supports you living your truth and your purpose.
Not just when the stars align, but most of the damn time.
So today, we're going to talk about relationship red flags so we can all spot them just a little
bit better.
Our guest is Monica Berg, the author of Fear Is Not An Option, Rethink Love, and The Gift
of Being different. She co-hosts the Spiritually Hungry podcast
and serves as the co-director and chief communications officer
for Kabbalah Center International.
Authentic and fearless, Monica reminds us
of our extraordinary potential and pushes us onward
with compassion and understanding.
Monica, thanks for being our guest, and I have to ask,
what are the signs that you found the one,
and what are those red flags that should tell us to run?
That's a great question, and when it comes to relationships,
there are so many things that come to play, right?
It's not just chemistry.
It's not just even finding somebody
you kind of are interested in and growing that.
Then there's things like fears that come up, our baggage from previous relationships, financial issues, worries, doubts, there's just so many things fighting styles.
And so often, you know, I think people focus on some of the things that work, and they kind of lose focus on all the other things, because this is the closest they've come to a serious relationship
or this person might be a keeper or might be the one. I would say there's three things that a person
must have in my opinion and I would ask these questions. Are they kind? Are they generous?
And do you share the same values and morals? Because often, if we really are honest with
ourselves, we can identify what is something we're attracted to that we're only viewing with our
five senses, how they look, what kind of lifestyle we have, how they make me feel.
And rarely do we really focus on the bigger picture. So it's the 1% reality versus the 99%. So 1% is 5 cents
is all of those things that make us feel good in the moment. 99% are the things that really
last, right? It's going to be something that keeps you growing together. So I'll give you
three examples of red flags. And there are many, many other ones, but I like these three
because they're not so obvious necessarily. So if they speak warmly about their ex,
do you think that's a red flag?
Some would say yes.
But the way I see it is that it could
be a sign of emotional intelligence.
If they're speaking warmly of their ex,
that means they have the maturity
to look back at that relationship,
even if that wasn't the one.
To say that we had a history together, it was good,
it was bad. But to be able to have that perspective had a history together. It was good, it was bad,
but to be able to have that perspective
that it's not all bad.
I would see it as a red flag
if somebody spoke about their ex too often,
or if they spoke negatively about their ex very often.
So for the most part,
I don't see it as a problem if they speak about their ex,
or they could show a sign of majority.
Another red flag,
they have never been in a serious relationship before. One might think, well, yeah, could show a sign of majority. Another red flag, they have never been
in a serious relationship before.
One might think, well, yeah, that's a red flag.
What's wrong with this person, right?
Or is this person unlovable?
Or is there some deep, dark secret I don't know about?
But you could consider maybe this person spent
all this time so far really working
on the relationship they have with themselves
so that they know what they really want,
so that they can cultivate themselves and enter a relationship from a place that is of abundance
and growth and knowing of self, right?
Which then they have so much more to offer.
Another one is that they talk to their mom and dad often.
And I'm sure for many they might think that this is not a good thing, but I think it's
an exceptional quality when somebody is able to respect where they came from, show appreciation
and gratitude, and really have a healthy place in their heart for that relationship.
Now, of course, if it's a toxic relationship, I would say no, right?
But all things considered, I would say that that is a green flag. So I
think it's about not, it's about asking many questions after we notice certain things and
really getting to the bottom of why that behavior is being exhibited.
I like a unique perspective on things that I think we often think of as automatic red
flags and just the reminder that there are a lot of different ways to see the same
thing. So being curious and asking some follow-up questions so we don't misinterpret or misread
the situation. As you said, somebody who's never had a serious relationship, you might
go, oh, they're afraid of commitment. But if you ask some questions, you might find
it's a totally different and maybe totally appealing reason.
And I also want to say that it's not a black and white situation,
red flags. Again, that's why it's important to ask questions.
I want to give you an example of a couple I worked with,
and they're also in my master class called Rethink It Love.
And it's a story of Jenny and Tom.
So they were high school sweethearts.
He was very popular at school,
and she felt good in being with him.
She loved him and he loved her,
but there are a lot of things that she liked that he offered her.
Again, he was the captain of the football team.
Her parents and her siblings were all very academic.
There was a lot of pressure on her for what she should be,
who she should become.
She should be a doctor also like her parents. But Tom never put any pressure on her. He loved her as she was and
he accepted her completely. And she was really excited about that. The fact that he had a
small drug problem, she kind of overlooked because again, he was giving her so many things
that she wasn't getting in the other areas of her life. And it was something she desperately
needed or felt she needed at the time.
So when she went off to college, he moved with her,
even though he didn't go to college, he worked.
And then they got married and they had children
and his drug problem increased
and his ability to support her in any way,
whether it was emotionally, certainly financially
was not happening.
So she got fed up.
But she didn't really understand or see fully
what was happening until one day she discovered
that he had been filming her while she was taking showers
so he could sell the tape so he could
pay for his drug addiction.
So there are warning signs for sure, right?
But we often overlook them because we, right?
Where are we at for her, for Jenny in that moment
at the beginning, she wanted something opposite
from her family, right?
She didn't want the pressure.
She wanted to be able to have somebody say,
no, you don't need to be a doctor if you don't wanna be.
Instead of dealing with the stress first hand
and directly with who she needed to, which was her parents, she went and she devoted herself
to this person that she knew if she was paying attention,
that there were really a lot of red flags along the way.
Some version of that story, we all know someone.
And I just wonder, I think we all experience pressure
to get married and find the one and all of that,
whether that's from our parents or family members
or social media or movies or whatever.
I think women experience that at a higher level.
What part do you think that pressure plays
and us trying to turn somebody into the one
versus saying, huh, that's curious.
What I really like about this person is this, this, and this,
or how they make me feel, or where they fill a gap
is this, this, and this.
I'm gonna keep that in mind for future relationships,
but there is this, this, and this
that just absolutely does not work.
So this person can't be the one.
And like, I know that's a far too logical approach to love,
but what is it that has us think we have to
change somebody versus collect the information to find the right person down the road?
Yeah, I think as long as we're focused on external pressure, we're going to make the wrong
decision probably because it can't come from that place. This knowing, as you said,
when you finally met your partner,
it comes from a feeling within,
but you have to know who you are.
You have to know what you believe and why.
So you can at least be honest with yourselves.
I think we make a lot of mistakes in relationships
because we shut that off a long time ago,
and we really raised the volume of external.
What did they think I should do? What did they think I should do?
Who did they think I should become?
What does my doctor say about my biological clock?
There's all these like timetables that we feel
we have to meet and we have to adhere to
or we're gonna miss out or the opportunity's gone.
And I don't think men get that feedback.
So I think it's a lot of internal pressure
we put on ourselves based on external things.
If we can pause and say, okay, well, why do I want the things that I want? And what am I afraid of if
I don't have it right now? What's the great loss or what will I suffer? Right? I think it really
starts and ends with the relationship you have with yourself. And to really build that, to know
yourself, you have to start being honest with yourself. You might not like that voice, by the
way. Maybe the voice that you have is not a kind one, right? But at least if you start to know yourself, you have to start being honest with yourself. You might not like that voice, by the way, maybe the voice that you have is,
is not a kind one, right? But at least if you start to hear it,
you can change things. And then from that place, you'll be able to say, okay,
you know, a lot of times I hear people like the first date, second date,
did they like me? What did they think of me? Especially from women.
I wonder if they'll ask me out again, are they going to call me? And I'm like,
this is not a job interview.
When you went out with them, how did you feel about this person?
Did they make you feel good?
Did you enjoy the conversation?
Do you think this person is a kind person?
Do you think, imagine the worst day of your life,
how would this person show up for you?
Those are the kinds of questions we should have.
So it's really just flipping how we are approaching
relationships and again, where's the pressure coming from?
So you gave us a few red flags that we often think about
and a different perspective.
Are there any red flags that you're like,
these are the ones that you should really be
paying attention to?
I would, I would say lying, cheating.
Lying is a big one because what is it
that they're trying to hide?
And if they're lying to you,
they're certainly lying to themselves.
So that speaks to character.
Cheating is a close cousin.
Why did they feel that that was necessary to do?
Why didn't they feel strong enough to have the conversation?
And that's not a deal breaker, by the way,
but it's definitely a point to stop and say,
okay, is there something that I was doing
that made this person uncomfortable?
Or is it really just their character and who they are?
Because I think it takes two people.
Yeah, and I think other things like gaslighting,
I mean, any kind of manipulative behavior
and a test to a person's character, I would
really stop and pause.
And again, that's why those three questions, you know, are they kind, are they generous?
Do we share the same values?
That goes a long way.
Yeah, I'll also add one that became my biggest red flag, in addition to the ones that you said, was this feeling of that I needed to
make myself smaller in some way in order to be with them or be appreciated or accepted or valued
by them. I found that pattern in my relationships where I didn't feel like I could fully be me.
I couldn't want the things that I wanted. I couldn't be big and bold and all of those
without feeling some sort of either competitiveness
or concern or something like that.
So I think those are really good ones
and just paying attention to our own patterns
and what we might inadvertently create in relationships
or what doesn't work for us.
Any thoughts there?
I think spirituality is really important
to have in a relationship.
It doesn't have to be the same and it's not about religion.
But if a person is practicing a spiritual study,
they're going to be open to the idea of change, growth,
becoming evolved, becoming a better version of yourself.
So for instance, if you're in a relationship
and the person and you are feeling small around that person,
is it that you are making yourself small or is it that the person that you're in a relationship and the person and you are feeling small around that person, is it that you are making yourself small
or is it that person that you're with wants to control you
so that they feel bigger, right?
So again, it's not black and white.
I would get to the seat of it.
And then if they realize that if you're able to articulate,
look, this pattern's not working
and they're open to changing and saying,
wow, that's the last thing that I wanna do.
And they're open to doing the hard work together, then it's not a deal breaker. But if you have somebody
who has no interest in changing and it's my way or the highway or I love you, but I want
you to be this other version of you that I think would be better, that's a real problem.
I see things come up where there's something called the Golem Effect and the Michelangelo Phenomenon.
So the Golem Effect is that let's say you have a slab of clay and your partner wants
to now mold it into something and he wants to make you into the version that he thinks
you should be, right? There's going to be a problem if that doesn't match who you want
to be, right? The ideal that you have for yourself.
Michelangelo phenomenon is being able to see the art that's already in that clay and help
chip it away, but it's already there.
It's already shining.
It already appears and it's in accordance into what you want, right?
It's two very different things.
So I think that, you know, with some of the things I wouldn't say, okay, this person has
this quality. I'm concerned about it. I would always give the person a some of the things, I wouldn't say, OK, this person has this quality.
I'm concerned about it. I would always give the person a benefit of the doubt.
Maybe they had a relationship with their parents that was modeled, that was not a healthy one,
to get to the bottom of it. But if a person's willing to change and to grow,
then I think that some of the things that seem like a red flag can become a green flag.
that seem like a red flag can become a green flag.
Okay, when we think of red flags, we often think of another person's behavior. What about red flags for our own behavior? So I think of examples, you know, like where we carry
our baggage from previous relationships into the next one, or stalking or Google searching or checking phones or invading privacy,
or there's like a lot of things that I think are signs
to us that we're doing that we might not be
in a healthy relationship or not in a relationship
that serves us or at the very least
that we have some work to do on ourselves
in order to even begin to create a healthy relationship?
What are your thoughts there?
Exactly, because we have to be careful not to blame somebody else for the state we find
ourselves in.
So if you're in a relationship where you feel so insecure that you have figured out their
password and you're checking their text messages and doing all kinds of behavior that maybe
you would never do, then is it that this person really isn't the one for you?
And then you have to really ask very specific questions.
Why do you feel desperate?
Why do you feel insecure?
Is it something that they are saying or doing?
Is it because they really are not that interested in you
but you're trying to make the relationship something it's
not?
I mean, there's so many different scenarios.
Or is it because your last relationship you were cheated
on and you never want that to happen again, right?
So first you have to gather information, gather content,
right?
Then you have to be able to take a step back and say,
okay, what is real here?
Is it this or is it this?
And then from that place, you can decide, okay, no,
this is my issue, right?
It's baggage from the past.
And I'm going to make a real effort to change it.
It's not who I want to be.
It's not serving me.
If it's not you and it's the person you're with, then you have to ask again hard questions. Why am I settling?
What am I afraid of? And again, I think it's so important. That's why one of my books,
Fear is Not an Option, fear gets in the way of so much. It's usually in the driver's seat.
And we're not even aware of it because we're just responding to the feeling
rather than stopping and say,
okay, even though this feels real,
what's really going on here?
I often say to people, whenever they come and I say,
I really want to find the one,
how do I find my soulmate?
Just such a loaded word anyway.
I always say, instead of looking for the one,
work on becoming the one.
So if you're honest with yourself,
I'm sure you're gonna find things that you don't love,
right, and start to work on those things
because where you're at, if you start to work on this,
you know, evolved, elevated version of yourself
you wanna become, then you're going to be able to attract
that same level of soul, right?
But if you're not working on that
and you're still stuck in all of these patterns,
patterns, who are you going to attract?
Not somebody up here, you're gonna attract somebody
who meets you where you're at.
And that's why this kind of work is so important.
I'm curious your thoughts.
I've seen this pop up quite a bit recently for some reason,
but the idea of that you need to love yourself first
in order to be loved.
And then there's people who are saying like, that's crap. You don't need to love yourself first in order to be loved. And then there's people who are saying like, that's crap.
You don't need to love yourself first in order to be loved.
And there's sort of this like debate going.
Any thoughts on that?
Cause I have an interesting opinion, but I'm curious yours.
I think that because it's a half truth.
You need to love yourself to be loved
the way you desire to be loved.
Okay. You'll be loved, but what kind of love is it going to be loved the way you desire to be loved. Mm-hmm. Okay.
You'll be loved, but what kind of love is it going to be?
And is it something that's going to be healthy?
Is it something that's going to be fulfilling and nurturing?
So the whole reason that it's important to love yourself
first is because then you're not going to settle.
You're not going to accept things that you know
are not good enough.
You're not going to be in a relationship
that is painful or abusive.
You're going to say, okay, I love myself
so fully and completely.
Not only do I love myself today,
but I also know where I want to go in five years from now.
I know who I want to be and what kind of life
I want 10 years from now.
And I'm fully deserving of that.
And so then you start to look for a partner
that is actually exactly what we just said,
that same kind of, is able to offer you what you desire.
But if you don't know what you want,
how can you expect to receive it really?
You will be loved, but what kind of love?
Yeah, so I love that take on it.
And my thing is like, why wouldn't you wanna love yourself?
Like, okay, yeah.
What's the problem with it exactly?
Yeah, right.
Yeah, you can be loved by somebody else
and it might not be ultimately the way that you desire,
but I don't even understand the inclination
towards questioning that,
because wouldn't we want to,
shouldn't we want to love ourselves?
Shouldn't we want both?
But if I can say, and I'm not judging anybody,
I don't even know who said the quote or whatever,
but I think if somebody has a problem with that saying,
it's because on some level,
maybe they really just don't feel worthy of love.
And that statement, the way it sounds,
is supporting that false belief
they have about themselves, right?
So I think we're saying the same thing,
but I think it's important if you feel triggered
by that statement, you know,
maybe there's information there, you know,
and a clue that it's important to look within
and where you're at with that.
Well said.
You talk about the ultimate relationship killer.
What is that?
Not being able to communicate effectively.
And again, this is why the theme of what we're talking about
is really knowing yourself,
because if you know what you believe
and you've taken the time to really explore that,
then you've removed the shame of wanting
and therefore you're then able to ask for it, right?
And if you're not receiving it,
you're able to articulate yourself in a way
that again is elevated.
So this important, you know, this knowing is so necessary
because it helps with everything,
and especially in relationships.
I often talk about the ABCs of love,
and that is to discover the want behind the words.
I think when we fight, often we're looking at,
we're just hearing what they're saying,
and then we're reacting to that, right?
And often what they're saying, especially if we're fighting
and we haven't learned fighting styles
or communication skills or know certain things
that should never ever be said, right?
If we haven't taken the time to really explore that,
then we hear the words and we're like, how dare you?
Then my ego is fighting with your ego before you know it.
All we both want is to be heard and seen,
but nobody's able to do that.
When you pause and say, okay,
I know I heard what they just said was very hurtful, was
very rude.
What is it that they really want?
What is the want behind the words?
It's such a great, powerful tool.
It sounds simple, but try practicing in the moment when you're really angry.
If you're able to do that, it actually diffuses the situation, and then you're able to put
yourself in the other person's shoes more empathetic and ask different questions.
I love that because it's very rarely the thing it's what's underneath the thing that we are arguing about or that is ultimately driving into the extent that we understand that.
I think we give ourselves so much greater of an opportunity to support and connect with each other.
Are there any things we should never say
or do in our relationships?
Thousand percent.
We should never say always.
No absolute words.
We should also never say never.
And I think that, you know, it's really interesting
because some of the research I've done
is how men and women communicate differently.
And my firstborn, I have four kids, is a boy.
I have two sisters.
I never had brothers.
So I didn't really understand men.
And my husband is very emotionally intelligent,
but even at the beginning of our relationship, you know,
it takes time, everybody.
It doesn't matter how spiritual you are
or trying to be evolved, there's so,
ego's ego, we all have it, right?
I didn't understand how emotional men are
and how sensitive they are.
And in fact, even more so than a lot of women,
I think that, because we were talking about the feedback
we've gotten externally, I think boys get the feedback that it's, you know, don't cry,
you know, or don't do you're acting like a girl or so being emotional or being sensitive
early on, there's this is not a good thing for them.
Right.
So I think often women think that they're not.
But in fact, they really are.
They're just not showing it.
I think the first thing is that, for instance,
when you say, you're such a slob,
you never pick up your clothes,
or you never do anything around the house,
or I'm always cleaning up after you, right?
What they hear then is they think,
wait, I took the trash out last night, she didn't see that.
I'm not appreciated.
Or the other day I made the bed.
And what happens if they hear that enough,
they start to drown you out because they
need to choose themselves.
It's self-preservation.
When boys are little, boys want to be becoming to their mothers.
And girls want to become like their mothers.
Of course, we deny that when we become teenagers.
Like, I don't want to be anything like you.
But that is kind of how it is.
And what happens when boys then become men
and they are in relationships, that goes on
to the person they're with.
So imagine if they don't feel becoming to us
by the words that we use, the language we use,
then eventually they just don't listen.
And then when we get frustrated, my husband or my boyfriend
never hears me, right?
It's such an important, I think, thing to talk about
because I don't think we realize
how much influence we have over them.
They don't show it, but we do.
The other thing is never go below the belt.
I've heard people say horrendous things to one another
and like glass that's broken,
you can put it back together again,
but it's never going to fit the same way. And there's just certain things never to say, you know,
I've heard people curse their partners out. You know, you're acting just like your mother,
and I hate your mother, or be a man. You know, just that. Yeah. No. Yeah. There are things you can't take back.
It chips away.
It chips away at the relationship for sure.
One last question.
It's a big one.
So I'm not sure it's the best last question,
but the compromise versus sacrifice.
How do you know when to give in or when to give up?
Like, I think a lot of times those two words get conflated for a lot of women.
Any tips on recognizing the difference?
I love this.
And it's actually, it's going to be a really straight answer.
And you're going to be surprised with how easy it is to differentiate between the two.
It's also in the masterclass and in my book.
So compromise is the ability to listen to both sides. That means that we're
having a conversation and I want something and you want something and we're pausing and
we're both being able to listen to both sides. The rule of compromise is that we have to
see who it's more important to. So for instance, I'll give you an example. When my husband and I were first
married, I was in utter shock with how messy he was. I'm a Virgo. I was like, oh, it's
not, it's just not going to work. So we fought about this for a while. And then I realized
I don't want to parent him. And he's not listening to me anyway. And I remember after much contemplation,
I remember having the thought that I'm going
to buy a chair for our bedroom.
And he can put all his clothes, because he was just like, he'd take it off and it'd
just like be on the floor and it would stay there unless I picked it up.
So I'm like, this is your chair.
I don't care.
Pile it up, pile it high, all your clothes for the whole week.
Come Friday, just hang the clothes up. Because what we realized, and I didn't know this
about myself either, and certainly I,
since I didn't know it, I couldn't communicate it to him,
I realized that beauty makes me feel good, right?
Clutter makes me feel very agitated.
And I didn't realize, I thought it was just a preference.
It actually affected my mood.
If I wake up and there's a vase of roses or flowers
next to my bed, I actually wake up differently
than if there's not.
I always need flowers next to my bed,
but that's when I started realizing
that my mood was different depending on my environment.
Or if we traveled and I had a view of something beautiful,
it affected me.
So once he realized, in this case, compromising, this situation situation that was more important to me because it wasn't affecting him one
way or the other. So he was able to lean into me, but I also leaned into him.
Sacrifice is when you have to give up something that you deeply value for somebody else. And
when we sacrifice, we always give away more than we expected to or wanted to. So I have
a perfect tool that helps in the moment
when you don't know if you're compromising or sacrificing. It's called Now and Later.
So I want you to think of you have a situation and when you're trying to decide what is the
right thing to do, ask yourself these two questions. How will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes?
yourself these two questions. How will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes? And how will I feel about the decision in 10 years? So for instance, and this is a big one, let's
say one person decides not to have children, big one, right? Because their partner doesn't
want in 10 minutes, you might say, okay, well, I really love this person. I'm okay with this.
But in 10 years, if you know that you're going to regret that decision, and you know that, right, we all have
that moment of truth, then that's a sacrifice. And it could be different things also. It could be
moving to a different country or how you raise your children or whatever the case may be.
If you know that you're going to have deep regret, because the pain of regret is one of the biggest
pains because you can't go back. The opportunity is gone, there'll be other opportunities,
but that specific thing is not there.
So it's one of the biggest tools
and it always works to be honest.
Monica, that was a phenomenal answer
and thank you for providing that tool.
I think good example all around.
If you are listening and you wanna learn more
about Monica and her work, and I'm sure you do,
you can listen to the Spiritually Hungry podcast, or you can go to rethinklife.today. That's
the website and there's the Rethink It course available. Monica, will you just tell us quickly
about the course?
Yeah. So it's a masterclass on relationships. It's six different series, but you buy it
in one package.
It has a couple that I worked with very intimately throughout all of the series.
It has real life audience members that are participating.
We're workshopping many, many tools, just like this tool of compromise versus sacrifice.
So you're getting bite-sized nuggets, but very practical application on how to create
the relationship you want.
And part of it is also focusing
on the relationship with yourself.
Incredible.
Okay, it's rethinklife.today is the website
and that's where you can find the Rethink It course.
Monica, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay, friend, if you're anything like me,
you may be rethinking a few of your past relationships
or feeling relieved that you finally got it right.
But let's get one thing straight. Being in a relationship that's good for you, Maybe rethinking a few of your past relationships or feeling relieved that you finally got it right.
But let's get one thing straight.
Being in a relationship that's good for you, where both people are growing, thriving, and
yes, winning, that's the baseline.
We're not talking about settling for somebody just because they don't completely suck or
waiting around hoping they'll magically evolve into the partner you need.
Let's face it, relationships, even the really good ones, have tough patches.
It's not always easy.
It's not green flags all the time.
And it can take work along with courage, honesty,
and a whole lot of self-awareness.
But people will show you in so many ways,
on so many days, who they are.
Your job is to pay attention
and to believe what they're showing you,
even more than what they're telling you.
Because if you ignore the red than what they're telling you.
Because if you ignore the red flags, you're only inviting future heartache.
At the end of the day, the relationships we choose, romantic or otherwise, are some of
the most powerful reflections of the life we're building.
So if you're in a relationship where both of you are winning, keep doing the work, keep
communicating, keep choosing each other.
And if you're not, well, you already know what I'm going say. Maybe move the fuck on, because that is woman's work.
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