The EXTRAORDINARY Family Life Podcast

If you’re feeling lonely in your marriage, like a roommate ‘with benefits’ instead of partners, best friends, and lovers, then you’ll want to listen to this episode! We received this great question from one of our podcast listeners:  “ I’ve been listening for a long time.  Thank you for your podcasts, and for championing greatness in personal and family living. Because of your podcasts and recomme...

If you're NOT a new parent, you still want to listen to this episode -- because it may help you to understand WHY you have the current relationship you do with your children and/or your spouse because of things that happened or did NOT happen during the baby and child-rearing phases ! But this episode came in response to this question which we received: "My husband and I have been married for a li...

"I have a follow-up question to podcast 264 . Greg talked about kids being more autonomous, but that you don't want your spouse to be autonomous. This is a new concept to me. What I've heard (from [well-known life coach]) is that since you can't control circumstances that you need to change the way you think about them so that you are OK with your circumstances instead of being di...

It's easy to get stuck in a rut and to fill that your days blur together... especially while raising a family. So how do you change that? How do you have more happiness, meaning, and joy in the day-to-day 'to do's that otherwise feel so pointless and mundane? That's what we discuss in this episode. Despite the 'Instagram perfect' image of what your 'dream life', mig...

This week's question came from a member of Rachel's 28-Day Challenge who said: "I really struggle with trying to do everything . I feel like when I was doing the M1 (Marriage Level 1) Challenge my marriage was great. But I can't keep it up on that level while I'm trying to focus on my kids. And when I f ocus on my kids then my husband feels neglected . And if I take time for m...

We received this via email: " I read the book The Untethered Soul and I understood that the main idea is letting go of our thoughts and just feeling the emotions and letting them be . Realising some kind of detachment to them.  But I’ve found it really difficult to do that. I get stuck in some thoughts in my head regarding my husband ... I have arguments in my mind with him ... I’ve tried to...

This week's awesome questions come from wives asking, "What do you do when your spouse tells you that you need to get a backbone and manage your own emotions when you tell him that the demeaning way he looks at you is hurtful during a disagreement? He is only trying to give me a firm "no" in response to something I wanted to discuss, but the way he looked at me was cold and inte...

"One thing I did have a question about is teaching kids finances and even talking to my spouse about it . We have no communication when it comes to finances . My husband is an entrepreneur businessman and very smart and I don't know a lot about that so I just let him deal with it. It's not the best situation but it has been this way for our entire marriage. We both want to be better a...

I received this excellent question in my Instagram DM "How do you decide which scientific research to listen to? Particularly when it comes to health-related topics like what is healthy to eat and what is not? It seems there is a pretty consistent message in science and research to avoid highly processed foods and sugar. But on the finer points with things such as seed oils, carnivore diet, i...

This week's topic came from Rachel's recent experiences with their 13-year-old son who has been very motivated to help out around the house lately (because of very specific strategies, which she shares in this episode). AND she also received this question from her Family Systems & Charts community. "Hello there. I just started your chart system and we had our first meeting this we...

"Thanks for this episode . I wanted to get in touch to ask if you could share any advice for when your kids were younger and babies? I run a food business and recently had my first baby. I am struggling to manage the disparity between my big ambitions for my life and my reality. I want to be more capable... I want to take my business to the next level (which includes raising investment) I wan...

"I'm writing to tell you both what an inspiration you've been to me over the last year! I've listened to almost all your podcasts and am working my way through the family systems and charts course . All your information is clear and practical , and it's made a huge difference in my level of overwhelm and what our family has been able to accomplish. My husband and I are taking...

As a follow-up question to a recent episode about helping your spouse 'show up' or invest in your extraordinary life , we were asked: "I love listening to your podcast. I'm a stay-at-home mom of four and I homeschool. I really wish I could live a little more extraordinarily as your family does, but alas, I have a spouse (who I of course love!) that doesn't feel the same. I des...

This much-needed episode addresses something we've been concerned about, thinking about, and researching for years regarding ADHD/ADD in adults and children . Based on our own experience (having at least 3 kids with ADHD, and at least one of us -- Greg 😁) and experience gained by working with thousands of clients -- plus the added perspective of traveling to 50+ countries which provides a loo...

In this episode, Greg and Rachel Denning answer this question: "Wondering if you have advice for someone who has been trying to pour everything into life/marriage to make it extraordinary but the spouse is not showing up and 'being the man' as Greg has defined. If they try, they relapse or it seems like the bare minimum is done. It has been years of this and it feels like it’s holding...

On Instagram, I saw a reel that stated " Myth: Sex is a need. Fact: Sex is a desire, not a need." "All of us can live without sex; we cannot live without water, food, or belonging." I had to disagree and responded: "It depends on how you define 'need'. For survival, no. For connection, bonding, and love -- yes, it's a need. Can you imagine if you're husband...

A member of my 28-Day Challenge coaching program asked: "I'm curious: what do your kids do for work or how do they learn work ethic? Our oldest is almost 16 and starting a job this summer which is flexible (thank goodness) but as much as she and our family go places we are trying to make sure we're home for part of the summer so she can get hours at that job and earn some money! I kno...

"I wanted to know what you guys think about screen time ... I stopped letting my son (6) watch but then we reintroduced it as my husband said that if it’s in a foreign language it can be beneficial exposure to the language ... We limited it to an hour, but I feel like it is too stimulating and it affects his behaviour. It feels like that is all he can think about sometimes. I haven’t read muc...

It wasn't too long ago that I would have been hesitant to make such a bold statement -- that wokesim is a dangerous cult. That's because I have many beliefs that are in line with the underlying viewpoints, such as open-mindedness, acceptance, and tolerance. But after lots of study, research, and observation over the past year or two, and, being presented with multiple 'case studies&#39...

In this unique episode, I'm sharing a coaching session from my ⁠ 28-Day Challenge ⁠ because Greg is currently trekking to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro with four of our teens and a group of 18 other people. In this coaching session (recorded live) we answer questions from members of the group such as: my husband says he feels I don't respect him because the house isn't clean when he gets...

"I am wondering if I can expect more from my kids than I expect from husband ? He has ADHD so he "gets distracted" easily and spends hours a day looking at news stories with his phone. Can I expect my teens to go on a phone diet [aka device fast] even though my husband is a poor role model ? My husband hates nagging, I realized early in our marriage, and we have argued many times in...

If you're like me, then there's probably been a time when you've felt like this : "...you're convincing me [to change my life]! And I know I have some development to do, but I start to feel so much lack sometimes when I listen to your episodes! 😉 Like there is so much to do and change that it seems it will take too long and we are starting so late ...stuff like that. I also n...

First, let us start by explaining what we're NOT saying in this episode. EVERY family should not homeschool. But *most* families should (we explain what that means). And NO, homeschooling does not automatically guarantee certain outcomes. There will still be TONS of work and intentional effort involved to produce the desired results. However, if you have an elevated vision of what you want you...

As we begin the New Year and pursuing new goals, this timely episode shares a real-life *happening now* obstacle to pursuing our dream (to buy a chateau in France) -- getting stuck and stranded in Casablanca, Morocco. We walk through WHY obstacles and roadblocks to your dreams happen , what to do about them, how to handle them in-the-moment, and most importantly, how to overcome them so you can co...

As we record this we're sitting in an Airbnb in Tangier, Morocco , living yet *another* of our family's dreams -- to road trip from Portugal to Morocco. Before this trip is over we'll travel from our home base in Portugal to the Sahara Desert in Morocco, having visited Ronda, Grenada, and Cordoba, in Spain, and Tangier, Chefchouen (the Blue City), Fes, Volubilis ancient ruins, Meknes,...