An Uncluttered Life

This is episode 126 of the Married with Luggage Podcast, and today we’re talking about what it’s like to live in very close quarters with someone you love.   We're back. After a month enjoying cooler weather and amazing food in Galicia (northwestern Spain), we are back in the south and getting reacquainted with our microphone. Today's episode we're sharing our thoughts on living in an RV with 2 cats for a few weeks and what we learned about each other and ourselves in the process.   After living out of our backpacks for several years, we thought this would be a piece of cake. Park next to the ocean, eat some great seafood, and make new friends with the other RV campers. We’d get a good taste of what it was like to own a tiny house, or even prep for our own future road trip across the US and Canada.   Is that how it happened? Stay tuned to find out.

The Married with Luggage Podcast never takes a vacation. But Betsy and Warren do! Over the past few weeks we've highlighted a few of our most popular past episodes, and today is your last peek into the archive. (Well, unless you just go to our website or to iTunes and listen to them yourself.) This episode is all about buying a house in Spain: why we did it, what it means for our lifestyle, and how we feel about our evolving dream. This episode drained our servers a bit when it published, and we think you'll understand why. 

The Married with Luggage Podcast never takes a vacation. But Betsy and Warren do! This month we're highlighting a few of our most popular past episodes, and today's is called 'I wrote a romance novel.' You know why? Because I did! If you're thinking of writing a book or any endeavor where you don't quite know all the steps, this episode will show you how we moved forward into this new genre with a lot of energy and not much else. And if you're interested in the romance books, you can check them out at BetsyTalbot.com/books. Now let's get started.

Treating your relationship like a lab rat isn't as weird as it sounds. You track what happens, learn from your mistakes, and improve over time. As nerdy as it sounds, you can improve your chances at love by paying attention to what you're doing right in the quest for love...and what you're doing wrong. In today's episode, we start by revealing some of our more geeky relationship rules, lessons we've learned through trial and error: Our annual love contract Why we ask the hard questions of each other BEFORE the shit hits the fan How we used a pen and paper to save our marriage

In today's conversation we reveal our own personal struggles with a lagging libido and one approach we've used to help rekindle the spark. We're talking about how erotica can provide a fun addition to the bedroom. This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes ever. We are enjoying a few weeks away from the microphone and hope you like this look back at a great show.

Imagine us in the studio, bullet points ready for a quality conversation about living your best life right next to our coffee cups, ready to create a quality podcast for you. Then imagine everything going to hell, a huge fight, and one of us walking away to cool off. Ever feel that way about something you're trying to build? An intense need to quit, to drop it, to find something easier? We felt that way this week, and instead of giving in, we left the microphone on and talked about it. This is the rawest episode of Married with Luggage to date, and if you struggle with wanting to give up when the going gets tough, this episode is for you.

Have you ever talked yourself out of a great idea? Spent weeks researching a new endeavor, never taking any action towards making it a reality? We thought so. We've been there too - stuck trying to find all the answers & determine every possibility before taking the first action. Paralyzed by the unknown. In this week's episode we're talking about analysis paralysis, the over-thinking that stops you in your tracks before you even take the first step. We share the business idea that that has vexed us for years and the tools you can use to move past the research phase and get to making your big idea become reality.

Over the last 12 episodes we've shared with you the habits and actions that work in building your dream lifestyle. But we didn’t come to those conclusions without a LOT of trial and error. Since making the decision to start living our best lives we have made a host of mistakes and missteps. We don't always share them, but today we're coming clean.  This is episode 123 of the Married with Luggage Podcast, and today we're talking about what we've done wrong on the path to living our best life. This might be our longest episode ever!

Wow, we can't believe that we are already at the last step in our Life the Best Life Series. Over the course of the last 3 months we've identified what should be removed from your life, created a list of what you want most, delved into your native tendencies, and given you jump start to take control of your finances. Each of these steps is designed to create a practical guide you can use to create the life that you want today. We know because we used these exact same steps to create the life we are living today. Which brings to today's episode. The funny thing about dreams is that as you reach them what you desire shifts and grows bigger than you can imagine. In fact, just by saying you are committed to living your best life (way back in Step #1) you have opened up possibilities that were not there before. By asking yourself one simple question you are going to ensure that you can achieve your best life possible and keep living it for years to come. Come on in to discover the secret. This is episode 122 of th

Before we left to follow our dream and travel the world, we were not in our best shape. Far from it, in fact. This is one area we both wish we had focused on more leading up to creating our best lives. Today we're sharing the challenges that being out of shape can have as you move towards your best life. Plus, we share actionable steps you can take to gain back the energy in your life to go after what you want most. Reaching your dream is meaningless if you aren't healthy enough to enjoy it, or if you can't enjoy it for long. This is the 11th step of the 12-Step plan we call, The Best is Yet to Come.

Today we're talking about how to make your money work for you instead of the other way around. This is the tenth step of The Best is Yet to Come Series, an exploration of the building blocks to create your best life, no matter what your age. There are a lot of ways to manage your money, but it won't do you a bit of good until you change your mindset. Becoming the boss of your money instead of a slave to it will revolutionize how you think about your life and the possibilities for the future. If your money doesn't align with your lifestyle goal, then you'll never reach it. Simple as that. And today we're going to show you how to bring your dreams and your reality into alignment inside your wallet.

Last episode we talked about planning your year, listing those small and large goals that will make your life measurably better. But guess what? You can’t just list them and wait for them to happen. It takes some work! In today’s episode, we reveal the practical system we use to accomplish everything from a trip around the world to writing a book to getting fit enough for a 300-mile hike. It’s not rocket science, but it does take some personal propulsion. Once you learn this system, you can use it for everything you want to do in your life. "Your big goal has to be reflected in your daily activities.” ~ Betsy Talbot

Do you find yourself every new year identifying a list of "resolutions" to embark on something new only to discover a couple months later you've given up on each and every one? This was us for the first several years of our relationship. We'd announce big plans and then do nothing to make them a reality. Then in 2009 we make a switch. We started implementing an annual review of our lives which has changed everything now is the foundation for how we can accomplish so much each and every year. The best news is you don't have to wait until New Years to create your own annual review. You can start today. In today's episode we're sharing the secret we use every year to plan what we're going to do for the year ahead and how to use the idea in your own life.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about removing toxic people from your life and filling your circle with great people who’ll cheer you on. Have you ever heard the saying, you're most like the five people you spend the bulk of your time with? Well, if those people are not the kind to wish you the best or support your dreams, then it’s gonna be pretty damn hard to create the kind of life you want. Limiting your time with toxic people and learning how to draw great people into your life is key to creating your best life.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about what makes your partner tick and how that insight can transform your relationship. For the first several years of our relationship, we didn't really know each other. We thought we did, of course, but we didn’t have a clue. Because of that, we fought about things that weren’t really fights and created problems where there weren’t any. Last week you got to know yourself. In today’s show, you’re going to do the same with your partner.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about knowing how you’re wired so you can create a lifestyle that fits you perfectly. Have you ever thought you really wanted something, then you got it and hated it? Many people aren’t clued in to their core preferences, tendencies, and irritants, so it’s no surprise that we often make the wrong decisions. Imagine knowing what makes you tick, avoiding what works against you, and humming along like a Porsche at top speed on the autobahn in every area of your life. When you know yourself really well, you can!

In today’s episode, we’re talking about experimentation, which is the fourth step of the 12-Step plan we like to call, The Best is Yet to Come. Cultivating an attitude of experimentation is key to creating your dream lifestyle. Saying yes to experimentation is a smoother path to your dream than saying no until your dream comes to you delivered exactly as requested with a bow on top. (Hint: that never happens.) Experimentation and documentation will help you further refine the kind of life you want to live…and may even take you in a direction you never expected! 

In today’s episode, we're talking about how to take action on that list of things that detract from your life so you can have more room for the things you want. It feels good to vent/gripe/bitch about what’s not working in your life. “Getting it off your chest” is all about removing that weight at least temporarily. But if you don't actually remove those negatives, you'll continually have to get it off your chest, and before long you'll wonder when you became such a negative person. You don't want that to happen! What set us up for success in creating our ideal lifestyle was reducing and removing everything that diminished our life, work, and relationship. It didn't happen in one fell swoop, but it did happen with focused effort.

While it feels damn good to vent about what you don’t like in life (like we did in the last episode), you can't move forward without a direction.   What set us up for success in creating our ideal lifestyle was what it looked and felt like. And we couldn’t do that with big, lofty goals we couldn’t visualize. We had to get small first so we could think big, and that’s where we created The List. In today’s episode, we're talking about what your ideal lifestyle looks like, from breakfast to bedtime and everything that happens in between.

This is episode 111 of the Married with Luggage Podcast, and today we're kicking off The Best is Yet to Come: the 12 step plan to reclaiming the joy in your life. The first step focuses on admitting what you don't like about your life so you can do something about it. Join us and take the first step to reclaiming your happiness.