You Don’t Need New Goals, You Need a Shared Direction

What if 2026 is not about setting new goals, but getting on the same page?

Most couples are not failing because they lack ambition. They are frustrated because they are moving in two different directions, with good intentions, but no shared plan. In this episode, Eugene and LaTanya break down how to reset as a team, reflect on what last year really did to you, and build a shared direction for the year ahead, without overwhelm.

If the idea of planning feels like pressure, we will show you a simple starting point that still creates real momentum.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why unprocessed years can quietly turn into resentment, conflict, and emotional distance
• The “tired, hopeful, or pretending” question every couple needs to answer honestly
• How to reflect separately first, then come together stronger (and safer) as a couple
• A simple framework to start planning today: 3 yeses, 3 nos, 3 habits, 3 anchors
• How to stop doing “resolutions” and start building a marriage strategy that actually sticks

Start here for 2026:

1. Three things you will say YES to together
2. Three things you will say NO to together
3. Three habits that will shape your year
4. Three people or rhythms that will keep you grounded

This is not about doing more. It is about moving together.

Download YearCompass and do it with us:
https://yearcompass.com/

If this helped you, do us a quick favor:
Like, subscribe, and share this with one couple who needs a reset going into 2026.

Comment below:
Are you starting 2026 tired, hopeful, or pretending?

Together, WE Win.

Chapters

• 0:00 Start With Three Yeses
• 2:43 Discovering Year Compass
• 6:40 Why Reflection Before Resolutions
• 11:20 The Hard Questions That Slow You Down
• 15:50 Individual Work Then Shared Alignment
• 19:45 Celebrating 2025 And Unprocessed Years
• 23:35 Tired, Hopeful, Or Pretending
• 28:20 Surrender, Faith, And Career Alignment
• 33:30 Finish Well And Embrace Seasons
• 37:40 From Roles To Identity
• 41:30 Money Shift To Legacy Building
• 46:05 Time, Boundaries, And Saying No
• 50:35 Joy Needs Language, So Does Pain
• 55:10 Parenting A Young Adult
• 58:55 Dreaming For 2026 With Intention
• 1:03:05 Accountability, Rhythms, And Meetings
• 1:07:55 Planting, Watering, And Consistency
• 1:12:05 Quarterly Reviews And Entrepreneur Life

Transcript

Start With Three Yeses

Eugene 0:00

That you can do hard things. And so, so if this is overwhelming and it's feeling overwhelming, and even if you grab this year's compass and it feels overwhelming, I wanted to help just frame this a little bit. So instead of writing this long list of goals, just maybe that y'all just sit down and you start right here. Just take three things that the both of you are going to say yes to together. Just start there. Just three things that the two of you are gonna say yes to together. Another one is that three things that you're gonna say no to together. Just start right there. Another one is three habits that will shape your entire year. So you don't have to go through eight, nine, ten things, but it's like, look, that year compass is a good idea, but we're not ready for that yet. So we're just gonna start right here. So again, three things that will shape your three habits that will shape your year. And then lastly, three people or three rhythms that will keep us grounded. So if you just start right there, that will help you to create some alignment and some consistency and some rhythms that you can check in on that. I am Eugene and I am Latanya. And we are the winning team. So we are, as we always say, excited. But this has been uh one of those contemplative moments. And um, you know, every year we always give y'all the the annual planning. Um I don't know if it's a actually it's just been a social media post, is what we've done. We didn't even do that social media post this year, but we just decided to turn this thing into a an entire episode of a podcast because we discovered something that was, you know, I'm gonna even venture to say, I was not gonna say life changing, but that might be too strong. But we discovered something called a year compass, and it it shifted everything for us. And so, you know, this episode is really just having us to think about what that or talking about what that year compass is and what it meant for us, and and we just decided we didn't want to keep it to ourselves that we want to gatekeep, we want to share with all of you too. So if you are a couple that's trying to get aligned and be aligned, and and how can two walk together except they agree? But what I think what I realized when I started to go, well, let me just back up. So, what the year compass is, is that it actually instead of you jumping into resolutions, because that's usually where most of us jump in as couples, instead of jumping in as I shouldn't say as couples, many people walk step into you know what their resolutions are as opposed to taking some time to reflect about the years past, and I'm gonna say not only the year past, but the years past, because what this document did is it asked some very deep introspective questions and many that I had never ever considered before. And so it's funny when we first start talking about doing it, and I've I've sent this to family members and friends, and and we've sent it to family members and friends, and it was like, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna do it tonight. I'll say, You're not gonna do it tonight. Because when you start reading those questions, it was like we we had been working on it for probably a week, and we were like, How far did you get down? And we were like, I'm still on page one because it's some questions that you just had not thought about. Yeah, and what we realized is that when you have unprocessed thoughts, unprocessed situations, unprocessed years, especially as a couple, sometimes though, when you haven't processed it for yourself, it could actually show up as resentment, as arguments, as mental fatigue, as you don't even understand why you're stuck. Because a lot of times when we haven't processed the things and the situations that have happened to us, then it causes us to not understand truly and have clarity around who we are and how we should move forward.

LaTanya 4:39

Yeah, I agree. And it was it was hard, like it was points where um, you know, I would do the the the pieces that felt easy, like if I'm bearing real talk, and um, and I am a I'm naturally a processor, like I I like to get in the process. I like what you think, how you think about this? Um, but when it was time to sit down and do this, it was hard. And it was questions that you would think would not be this hard, but it was things like what was your biggest um the biggest challenge, I think, this this year, or your biggest lesson learned. Like I know that was one that I was like, I don't really know. And I know I learned some lessons along the way. So it was really like these questions that again weren't really hard questions, but there were things that you really had to sit and if you if you're gonna do it well, let me say that. Um, if you're gonna do it authentically and you're gonna do it well, you had to like stop and really think about these and not just write something down quickly. Because even when I wrote something down quickly, I went back to it to be able to say, was this how I really feel, or was this just the easiest answer for me right now?

Why Reflection Before Resolutions

Eugene 6:05

I agree, and I even like the way it started because how it started, and for any of you that want to download this document, um, and and how we decided to do it, it's called Year Compass, YearCompass.com, I'll put it down here at the bottom of the screen. But yearcompass.com, and what we decided after we downloaded it, we decided let's do this separate and as individuals, and then after we do it, we'll come back and talk about it. And then after we talk about it, then we'll devise our plan for you know you know the winning team for 2026 going forward. What was great is the first section just asks you to reflect about your past year, and it asks you to go through your your calendar and really reflect about all that you have done week by week. Um, the important events, family gatherings, you know, friendly get together, significant projects, whatever it is, and it has asked you to write all of those down. And so it was telling people to go through their calendar, and we do manage by calendar, but I'm gonna tell you the thing that helped me was that I actually went through my my camera log. Yeah, and when I went through my camera log for the entire year and started to just talk about or just seeing some of the pictures of the things that we had done and accomplished, so many of the things that we've never even shared on this podcast. 2025 was an amazing year for us.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Amazing.

Eugene 7:31

It was an amazing year, it was full of some life-altering bucket list checked off things that um that we're excited about. And we will put some of the pictures and things inside of here, but just just to kind of go through that. And so when I went through that, I mean, I probably looking at my list right now, there's probably you know 50 things on this list. And if you think about it's only 52 weeks in a year, so that's it was like something almost significant happening every single month, and and in some cases, every single week. Yeah, and one of the biggies that you know, we went to Africa, we haven't even shown y'all pictures online, we haven't talked about you know our trip to Rwanda, which was literally life-altering because it gave us a different perspective about God, appreciation, you know, gratitude, resilience, faith, forgiveness, forgiveness. It was so many things, and we're gonna talk about that uh maybe in a future episode, maybe on social. I don't know how we're gonna talk about it, but we will be talking about it.

LaTanya 8:34

Yeah. I think what this also did, like to your point around um doing this individually, I think that's where it had so much value because I think it would it's easy. Again, for the past few years, we've done a all right, let's talk about the gatewoods, let's look at these pieces, write this down, talk about money, talk about what you have done. All right, check, you know, and then it's we've done that at the beginning of January, check the box, and then in March, we like, what did we say we were gonna do? And so for um, for me, like I think us where the value in this is that it made us stop and and do this introspective view of of ourselves, um, because sometimes, you know, one person can be on a self-reflection and introspective. And again, like if you're like me and you're this processor and you you do a lot, you do that all the time, or if you're in therapy, you're processing all the time. Um, and if the other person they they are not doing that now, when you're now like, all right, it's 2026, I'm ready to hit it. I got these big dreams, big goals, big things for for me, um, or even for you've now did this introspective work for you all collectively, but you haven't invited the other person into the space, then that now makes the what's next even harder, I think. And so I think it's been a value to be able to do some self-reflective work first, because I think then when we are showing up as a collective, I can now hear like your thoughts on things, you know, because you especially like for you, I think with being an introspective, an internal processor, I think what this is even allowed me to do is to be able to see into you, into your thoughts. Um, and uh, which is great because then even when we sat down and we talked about this at the top of the year, we had to remind even one another about oh no, you did you did this, remember this? Oh, I think this was great. And so um sometimes we can't even see that for ourselves. And so I think it's just been good to just stop and um look for ourselves, but then to now be able to come together with both of these individual perspectives to now be able to build for what's next for us.

The Hard Questions That Slow You Down

Eugene 11:11

And I think we see it, but we may not understand the significance of it or the impact that we've had, that it's had that that event or that circumstance actually had on our lives. And I think this is something that some people have to really uh think about and process for themselves because sometimes we don't reflect because they think it's about reliving pain. Sometimes they don't reflect because they think it's about, you know, but what I realized in this process, and as you said, as you're in therapy, I am not. You process all the time, I just am thoughtful, but but don't process in an objective kind of way where someone is driving me to get to a conclusion about a thing. And so what this document did is it did cause me to say, wait a minute, what I realize that I've that I've been doing historically is that I've been very aspirational, thinking about all the things that I would like to accomplish that are external and outside of myself. But this document actually said, No, I want you to think about inspirationally what is inspiring you based on who you are. Yeah, and and so with that, and even toward the end of the year of me finally launching my LLC, yay! Gateway coaching and and consulting, but even from that, I didn't want to do that from a perspective of these are the things that I want to help other people do. The business is an extension of who I am. So, what what this time of reflection did is it said, All right, how do I remove the blockages and the barriers that's preventing me from being all that God has called me to be? That and even before you say being all that God is calling you to be, who is God calling you to be? Because who God is calling me to be should inform who I am as a man, it informs who I am as a husband, it informs who I am as a as a as a father and as a son and as a as an executive pastor and all of those different roles, but but I am not the roles that that I live and function within. And so what it made me do is it even made me go through an exercise as I was just processing. Is how do I describe myself? When people say, Hey, who are you? And you're introducing yourself, do I introduce myself according to the roles that I have, or do I introduce myself according to who I am, who God has called me to be? And it just made me to recenter because I want to function from that place and not from um that. So again, please download yearly compass. And I and again, it especially if you're married, yeah, you you have to do this exercise together because it really becomes like a couple's reality check. Yeah, because as you were just talking about, being in therapy, one person can really move on, but the other one can remain stuck where they are because they haven't named what's causing them to think the way that they think. Because how we think, as a man or woman thinketh in his heart, so is he. And so that really informs who we become as a person, and then it impacts our habits as we go. And so one of the questions that we were processing or thinking about that I'm asking now is you for 2026, are you starting 2026 from a perspective of being tired, being hopeful, or pretending? Before you answer, again, you know, we're still in January, and a lot of people are just starting off and thinking about who they want to become, what they want to accomplish, etc. And it's never too late to start again. And so, my my hope and and our hope and our prayers that this episode will really recenter or realign you so that you can instead of just naming a thing, you can even think about what made you name the thing that you named a couple weeks ago that you said this is what I'm gonna do. Like, why are you trying to lose weight? Why are is it just for losing weight? Is it for health? Is it for vanity? Is it for so that you can, you know, realize your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Like, what is the motivation or the inspiration behind what you're doing? And so, so I really want us to process and think about that. So as we've done this work to reflect, now we can sit here and say, all right, as we move forward, are we are we really starting 2026 from a place of tired, hopeful, or pretending? I'll ask you that first.

Individual Work Then Shared Alignment

LaTanya 15:40

For 2026, I am starting in a place of hopeful. Um I um in years past that I probably couldn't answer in either of these, probably more on the tired or pretending, um, as opposed to hopeful. Like probably in my mind I was hopeful, but then my actions were probably tired, and my emotions were pretending. Um, if that's a way to sum that up.

Eugene 16:19

Um, and so why do you think that that was?

Celebrating 2025 And Unprocessed Years

LaTanya 16:23

Um I think for um I was just sharing even with you as I was reflecting over 2026 um for the first time in I don't know how many years um I didn't have a career goal on my on my list of like God, I'm I I need I got to do something else. This is making me tired. Um so like I would enter into the year, tired of whatever this career was. And not because it was bad places or it was just that I knew that I was in a place that I wasn't profiled or wasn't using my full, you know, capacity. And so then that probably led to some pretending, like, all right, let me figure this out until I figure it out. Um, but then what did that lead it, you know, lend itself to throughout the year? So just in a space of tire. And so for the first time, um, and again, when I say years, I mean years. You you know we've had this conversation annually. Um, but this time, not not so much because I'm also in a a place that's aligned with who I am, what I do, the skill sets I have, the passions I have, um, and just a great and safe place to work um right now. So for the first time, I'm I'm feeling hopeful in that regard, which then I believe is lightning loads because then I would feel my time in other ways. Well, let me just do this, let me build my business, let me, you know, serve, go hard with serving at church. Let me, you know, what is it that what else that we want to do? And so for um the first time, I feel like because I wasn't fulfilled in that space, um, and I had let that be such a heavy weight on me every year. Um, so this year I am. I'm feeling hopeful. Um, I'm feeling um aligned. Like now I can say, all right, um that box is checked, that's in its right place. But now what are the other things now giving, letting me look from a larger scope of the other things that are um that I've been assigned to uh in my life, and now be able to say, okay, well, now how do I work to get those things aligned? And I will say too, um, on that career piece, um, probably for the first time, I probably really believed and trusted God. I surrendered it. Um I I prayed long and hard. And not that I've in any of these shifts, I haven't, but I feel like it was even a shift in my in my prayer, in my commitment to putting scripture to this, even having people join me in in that in the prayer and in the process of that. And and my prayer continued to be God, these are the desires of my heart, but let me be okay with your will being done. And I think honestly praying that. Because I probably have heard that before like, but God, you really know, yo girl, you know, you know my heart, you know the same. It this ain't where he wanted me to be, but it was something about him me needing to see why I was there and revealing that. Um, and I've gotten some revelations along the way, even in places that were like pure cray cray. Um, but I even got the revelation in some of that. Um, but now to be able to honestly pray that, and that was a daily prayer. God, you know the desires of my heart, but I trust your will and allow your will to be done.

Eugene 20:32

Amen. And I, you know, and I I thank God for that process. We won't go into the details of it right now, but it was a faith, truly a faith-led process that got her there. And I felt her when she came with the request, but like, hey, I'm quitting my job and I don't have a new job. I knew that had to be faith and Jesus and everybody else, but it was not even an hesitation for me to say, okay, like because it was a very faith-led conversation. And so I too am feeling hopeful instead of tired and pretending. But I but it made me think when that word pretending was there, and again, y'all, this is the reason why you got to do the yearly compass because it gives you all of this thought and all of this processing comes out of when you do this yearly compass for yourself. But pretending, what I am hopeful because I feel like as well that I'm aligned in who I am for like not only for who I am, period, but in this season. Yes. And I believe that the the assignments that we have on our life, I think the discontent that you had in previous times was that it didn't align with who you are as a person and what God was calling you to do and where he's calling to take you. But I think sometimes, you know, we try to rush out of the seasons that we're in and rush out of the assignments that we're in, as opposed to embracing it for the purpose that God has for it while we're there. And then a lot of time, and if you remember, for the past maybe three years, what's been in our spirit, and we kept saying it is finish well. Yeah, finish well. So it's like instead of lamenting why God still has you there, it's like, no, serve wholeheartedly as if you're serving the Lord and not man and all these other reasons, because that's what causes God to say, okay, well done, my good and faithful servant. And as soon as you trust him enough to say, because think about the many doors that you had that opened, yeah, and the many doors that were closed. If those doors, if you would have walked through those doors, you could have remained in this season of discontentment. So again, this is the reason why reflecting about where you are and where where God is taking us is so important because otherwise, you could still be carrying those things that you haven't un that you haven't named into your next season, where this next season is supposed to be a season of striving as opposed to constantly being in grinding and survival mode. And so and the carrying is tiring. It's tiring.

Tired, Hopeful, Or Pretending

LaTanya 23:08

Like you, the you know, Erica Badu said it good. Bag lady, listen, you're gonna miss your bust carrying all that stuff. You're gonna carry when you carry too much into spaces that and keep reliving them. You keep going through the bags, you keep pulling it out and retelling that story. You will never, it will always be a space that's gonna hinder where you're where you're going all the time.

Eugene 23:36

And and this reviewing 2025 is not really about you rewriting history, it's not it's not a revisionist history, it's really about pulling from your past so that you can understand and and not repeat it. Yeah because if you don't name it or or come into it and understand, like why was I constantly in that season? And it's like, oh, I wasn't really trusting God.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah.

Eugene 24:02

And if I wasn't trusting God, then and I was leaning to my own understanding and I was not acknowledging him in all of my ways, that's why he wasn't directing my path. So so what we've done is we've said, all right, we're gonna really reflect about this. So the other thing that we did is we look back even every year, we've done this exercise where we ask ourselves four questions. Who do we want to be? Who, what do we want to do? What do we want to have? And how do we want to live? And so I even did some digging into those four questions for 2025. And not only do we do those, say those things, but then we attach a goal for each area of our life. And so when I say each area of our lives, we align it with uh from a spiritual perspective, we ask those four questions from a financial perspective, family and parenting perspective, a personal perspective, and then a professional and business perspective. We ask those questions. And so when we ask those questions, we then kind of go through and assess. But what I realized for me is that it's not that I didn't go through and track. I will, I didn't necessarily have an action plan for each of those areas. I did have a plan, but not an action plan that said, here's where I'm going three years from now, a year from now, therefore, here's what I must do weekly. And some of those instances I did, or it wasn't written down exactly. Now, I did accomplish something in all of those areas. I did, you know, many of the things, but it wasn't to the T. So this year I'm I'm actually trying to figure out a new system. It's a new, a new season. Yeah. So, you know, I I've used many apps in the past, and I'm not gonna name the apps because I ain't getting paid for those, but but I'm I'm switching to different apps in order to make sure that we can, you know, move forward in that.

LaTanya 25:53

And so and give ourselves just accountability um, because I think probably around June or July of last year, I said, Well, have we measured, you know, what we accomplished, like what we set out to do? And we have to like really ask ourselves, and Eugene often say, Well, Tank, we did a lot of things, but I am I am such a tangible person. Like I will print out our goals so that I can see them, and for me, because I need to keep it before me so that now I can hold myself accountable. And so even in moving into 2026, like that accountability and keeping things before me is is what's really important for me. And I feel like in order for us to move um, to keep moving forward, because it's now how do you hold yourself accountable? Because if we real talk in this, like life gets in the way. And so all the pretty plans you have when some life thing, good or bad, shifts you, now you have now pushed that thing to the side, and now whatever is right in front of you becomes pressing. And so um I would just challenge, you know, if you are you are planning on doing the year compass and then taking that and building a 2026 strategy, not resolutions, not not resolutions, but now what is a strategy for your life? We can we can understand strategy in every other place, but in our own personal lives. You understand when your job say you need a strategy for this. If you're running a business, you understand that you need a strategy for for running your business, but often we don't see our own selves, our lives, our family as needing a strategy in order for growth and moving forward.

Surrender, Faith, And Career Alignment

Eugene 27:54

And so when you when you're processing that, we just want to give you some of those questions. Um, when you start, that's it within the yearly compass. When you think about your past year, there's there's a a section or a page. I'm only gonna give you these and you can go and do it for yourself after this, but I'm just gonna state these questions so that you can see just how deep it is. But um, the six questions. Number one was what's the wisest decision that you've made? Number two, what's the biggest lesson that you learned? Number three, what's the biggest risk that you took? Number four, what's the biggest surprise of your year? Uh next one, what's the most important thing I did for others? Another one, what's the biggest thing that I completed? And so when you start processing those questions, it's like, you know, what it what are you most proud of? You know, who are the three people that you influenced the most? Who are the three people that influenced you the most? What what what were you not able to accomplish? You know, what was the best thing that you discovered about yourself? And what are you most grateful for? And again, that's only two of the pages that's talking about 2025. And so when you really start to dig into those questions, and I would say I I actually got up one morning, no phone, no nothing, into my office, silent. And it like for a couple hours, I was just sitting there processing those questions. Yeah, and after we talked about it, it was a couple of them. We was like, Yeah, I have nothing for these three questions. And I've been thinking about this for hours. No music, no nothing. It was just me and my computer and just thinking about it. And so it still took a little while in order to process that.

LaTanya 29:39

Yeah, it probably only took me two weeks to do this because I picked it up, put it back down, picked it up, um, put it back down. And, you know, again, I think as the hard questions came, I wanted to be distracted. Like I wanted to like, oh, let me pick up my phone and see what's on here. Um, and I had to like stop myself a few times and just say, no, focus, and and just do an evaluation of like, but why? Why was that when this became hard? Why did I want to go do something else that wasn't hard? So like I processed a whole lot of other things with that too, as well. But again, it was, it was, it was great to reflect and and even still, like, I'm still going back. I probably have a couple of sections that I just have not answered yet. Um, and really sitting with why haven't I answered those and what's making it hard? But so great to be able to do this and be able to now look at, you know, ask yourself questions that sometimes you might want to ask someone else these questions. And you know, you are deep with somebody else. But when it's time to be deep with yourself, you don't, that's not, that's not what we want to do. So it's it's just been interesting to be able to do that.

Eugene 30:56

So a question from 2025, and we'll proceed because oh the but but the same is that I've done a great job of getting through 2025 in this year compass, but I haven't finished everything for 2026. I've done a lot of work on who I am and how I'll show up as an individual, but then what does that mean later in there? I haven't done those yet. But question for you is that when you think about this now from a marriage perspective, where would you say that we have grown based on what we've gone through in 2025? And even if it was uncomfortable, where where did we grow?

LaTanya 31:32

Yeah, where I think one for sure where we've grown um is what I'm calling financial management. Um we've we've been because we had to do something intentional and make an intentional investment in it, because again, I think the finances are one of those things that are on our list every single year. Okay, we're gonna pay off debt, we're gonna pay off debt, we're gonna pay off debt. And now we are moving to financial management. And so it's not just about debt, it is about planning a long-term plan for our financial lives. And for so long, I think, and I I know this is a growth area for me because for so long, I was like, I don't want to talk about this because it's the same thing. And and we've made strides, but I felt like it was the same conversation. We got to pay our debt, don't spend no money, we can't do nothing. And I was like, I don't, I don't, I'm done with that conversation. Um, so but we had to be intentional about doing something different, and something that's kind of drastic, you know, that the investment was a was was yeah, we hired a new a new financial planner and a new tax strategist. Yeah, and that's helped us tremendously, and and like opened our eyes to things that we have heard about, but now we're now educated about.

Eugene 33:08

And how does it apply to us?

Finish Well And Embrace Seasons

LaTanya 33:10

And how does it apply to us? And we've had you know financial planners in before, but now I'm even looking at how do we plan for for wealth and not just that. So for me, that was probably one of the biggest things as a couple that that I feel like that we've grown. And then I would say this the podcast, um, the podcast was hard for me for a while. Um, I think just you know, wanting to make sure that we're always vulnerable um and authentic and authentic. Like that is my number one word. Like, I don't want to be somebody that I'm not, you know, because soon as you create a persona, people want you to show up in that. And that ain't who God made me. I'm gonna be Latanya, Elizabeth, Gatewood, and to the day I die. And so I want to make sure that when we are now talking about marriage and talking about family, um, that it is from the authentic place of us and not anybody else. Um, because soon as you you're somebody else, soon as the switch turns off, or you show up in a space as your real self and not what people see, then now people get to judge and speak into you. We're gonna always be the gay woods, and this is what you see, is what you get. Um, but I think it was always just also just trying to find my place in rhythm in that. There's that that word again, that rhythm and um building content and how to contribute to content. And um, but because I think so often I was in a place of tired. I was in a place of not necessarily pretending, but I was probably always just tired. Like now this was something else that I had to now commit to. And so now once we were able to reflect and see what we actually did and accomplished, I was like, oh, we did do that. And so um, I think that even recharged me to be able to say, okay, God, what else and where else, and how else do you want to show up with the podcast?

Eugene 35:27

I agree. I think we're in a different season. So I would answer the question the same way. Financially, I think it helped just being on one accord. I've always been the person to manage the money, but but I think what we've done this year is we've moved beyond budgeting and even money management, the way that you explained it, but it's actually now legacy, wealth building, um, and even preparing for retirement. And so I think that that's a different muscle, it's a different mindset. And what I love is that having another person come in and say, look, these are y'all areas of opportunity, and here's where you all need to be on one accord. Um, I pray and wish it would have happened sooner, but I think that, you know, when I say happen sooner, I'm talking about in our youth because there were, there were, it's a mindset shift that you you learn and you create patterns and you you start to get in this grind mentality as opposed to really having this mentality to trust God and in all of the areas and then being a good steward over what God has given you. Um so I think that that's what has truly truly helped. We're in a different season, and based on the season that we're in, um, it's refreshing to be doing this with you and moving forward.

From Roles To Identity

LaTanya 36:46

So and we grown grown. Like we have to milestone birthdays, yeah, and so like bruh, we're we just out here grown grown. And so you we cannot continue to do and move and operate the way that we were at this phase of our life. Like, and that that's really where I think that's hit me and even shifting um how I show up in spaces, how I'm using my time, um, who I'm spending my time with, what I'm spending my time on. Because what I'm also realizing in this milestone birthday, time is the rarest commodity that I have. And if I am giving you my time, I want to make sure that I am getting a ROI on it. You know, and that um that you are, I'm investing in you with my time. And so I want to that I want an investment back. And I want to make sure that again, where God has assigned me and that and how he wants me using my time there is really important. So I think that has for me been a huge part of shifting thought process, is because I'm grown grown, and it's time to really shift from just living in the present to living, um, as you mentioned, living a legacy.

Eugene 38:14

And I think I think that's vital as well, because in this season, there will be times where we will say no. And saying no is not just about no for the sake of not wanting to help someone, um, but but but I think in this season where we are, it's like God is telling us, no, I'm calling you to to be on assignment, and that means sowing seeds of time, talent, and treasure in areas not for the for the sake of return, but for the sake of it being fertile ground. And so if it's not fertile ground, not not that it'll be return for us necessarily, but the but we have to be good stewards over what God has given us because we're in a different season of our lives, and um, we don't want to just be throwing seeds because our kids' kids are the is the are the people that we're trying to create this inheritance for. And so, you know, I just want to be on assignment as opposed to just out here doing stuff because that's what's gonna make us be tired. So I think that again, uh as a couple, when you're thinking about this yearly compass, it's so important that you all are taking this, that you're writing it down so that you'll be in a space to actually share and feel safe to share what one another or learn, you know, will learn about yourselves. And so that's my prayer, man, is that you know, and I know sometimes people will say, I don't got time to be asking all those questions, I don't got time to be going through all that. But it's like when when you when you say things like that, whether it's the husband or the wife, you got to really think about like what's causing you to not want to make your life better. And your marriage is your life. Yeah, so what's causing you to not want to make yourself better? Better so that you can move forward. And moving forward is so vitally important because you don't want to necessarily get stuck in the past. That's what this is not what this thing is about. It's about how can we say, okay, yes, that's what's happened. That that is what happened to me. That is what you did to me. That is what happened. But what's needed for us to move forward? And that that comes from being able to name those things that you're so grateful for. And then even naming the hard stuff, but only naming the hard stuff for the point of making sure that it's not being a blockage for what you need to do when you go forward.

Money Shift To Legacy Building

LaTanya 40:38

Yeah. I I think um with that too. I something as we were preparing for this, um, I saw something that said um that joy deserves language and not just a memory. Like I love that for so many reasons because I think what we and and I feel like we've probably talked about this, the the difference between joy and happiness uh a lot, um, but that joy back to what we were mentioning earlier around that this really gives you this internal introspection, introspective, inspection, spectrum. Both, both, okay. Looking inside yourself, how about that? Um, and that that's where joy comes from. And so, like, how do you talk about and name the things that bring you joy? Have you? Have you done that? I'm gonna ask you that question. Have you um how do you name the places that bring you joy as opposed to it, even just being a memory? Because you do a really great job of like capturing memories and taking pictures and and that, and then we were able to go back and look at it like, oh, we remember that feeling. But like, are you in this season, how will you um give joy a language in your life?

Eugene 41:54

Yeah, I I think it's really it's really thinking about it from the perspective of everything that I do has to be an extension of who I am and not because I'm doing it solely for the sake of other people. And I think the reason why I was tired in previous seasons is because I was doing it from a place of people pleasing and making sure that everybody else was happy. Yeah. And so when you say joy, it was the joy of other people that was that I was really trying to ensure as opposed to doing it as an extension of who I am. Yeah, and then that's what refuels me at the same time. Now, of course, you know, I'll be happy because they were happy, but it's like if you're trying to do that for every single person that's around you, eventually you're going your tank is going to be empty.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Yeah.

Eugene 42:48

But if you're doing it out of an extension of who you are and what God has called you to do in this season, then all of a sudden you're in God's will, you're in his assignment, and you're you're being fueled while at the same time doing it for other people. And so I do, I do realize that I, when I'm in a moment, and a lot of times I don't know, somebody was asking me about like our date nights, and like they feel like I got my camera out the entire time like this. It's like, no, I'm very strategic. I might record as we're walking up to the door, I might record when we are, you know, walking through the door. Like in my mind, I kind of am a producer or a director, and I kind of map out the shots I need to get. But when we sit out at the table, yeah, we at the table and it's just us. Yeah. Now, when we walk away, it feels like I've had my camera out the entire time. But if my my camera might have been out a total of five five minutes of the two hours we were sitting there. And so, so I've just learned that this is a moment that I want to capture that I don't want to forget because I am a person who is nostalgic where I'll go through my my, especially on the airplane. I don't know why that's such a a time, but I will go through my Google Drive and and I'll I'll see pictures and I've organized my phone based on your face and everybody's face. And I can go through and just look at all of the moments and seeing you happy, seeing Micah happy, Brandy happy, my mom, my dad, you know, all of the people that all of the times, you know, that, you know, um, like even me recently, I was looking at, you know, uh the pictures and didn't realize the joy of even being in Baby Bear's wedding, you know, like all those things because when you're in the moment, sometimes you miss it. But again, that's the point of pictures and videos. And so I try to make sure, and I find that I'm not ever in the picture because I'm always the one taking the picture, but and you don't like the way I take pictures. Well, that's because you get half my face and you don't get the whole thing. But but you said joy deserves language, but I but I think, and I keep harping on this, but I think that it's important that pain actually is important to name as well, because and and not necessarily to give it language and please not to to sit in it. But but here's the reason a lot of times some of us have resentment, we have resentment or unforgiveness, and we don't even remember why. So the the purpose of reflecting sometimes is so that you can forgive yourself, forgive other people, but to let that go so that you can make room to be able to name the joy, to be able to say we don't even allow ourselves to be and to have joy sometimes because of the pain that we've experienced in the past, and people that we're not even in a relationship with anymore. And so I really pray and hope that we can that that going through this year compass, it may be long, it may even be painful, but but I pray that God will give you the strength to get through it so that you can say, you know what, because of this, I'm letting this go. And here's what I'm gonna do for 2026 and beyond.

LaTanya 45:58

Absolutely.

Time, Boundaries, And Saying No

Eugene 45:59

So um when you think about 2025, you know, is there a particular challenge that you had that actually that you would say that changed you? Um and I I can say one that for me, if you wanted some time to think about it. But I think for 2025, for your for those of you who are parents, making the shift to parenting a child or adolescent to a young adult is a is a big shift. And so for me, one of the most challenging things that I had was being a father instead of governing my son to guiding. And this has been a process that I've been on for several years, but but again, processing that even through the the 2025, um uh the reflection of looking at his internship in Minnesota. When I start looking at you know his accomplishments and him growing as a as a man, I'm like, wow, this this boy is about to be 21. And just reflecting about you know how I'm so proud of him. But my my me being as proud as I am could cause me to want to continue to govern his life as opposed to, as we've had him repeat for many years now, that my future is my responsibility. And if it's his responsibility, he has to live in that. So being okay with that my son is 21 and I need to back up, and and that I'm also not defined by my role as a father, that I can rest assured that God has me and go spend the time on creating and developing and whatever time I now will have back that I was completely devoting toward governing his life, I don't have to do that anymore. So that was a big shift for me.

LaTanya 47:44

Yeah, I think that was still one of the questions that are the blanks was the blank for me that I'm still um wrestling with because I if I'm honest, 2025 didn't have a lot of challenges for me. Like, and again, you know, not to live in the past, but like, you know, so often every year we were talking about health challenges. Every year for me, um, for quite a while. It was some health challenge, and and some things came up, but nothing like what we have had, you know, in the past. And so, like when I'm really sitting and reflecting over 2025, I am celebrating a lot of the experiences that I was able to have with family, um, that I was able to have with um with you, um, that I was able to have um even personally, you know, with myself. And so I feel like it's and and not that my life is perfect, but I didn't feel like there were as many challenges as I've had in the past.

Eugene 49:01

Amen. And praise God. Yeah because I felt the same way New Year's. I don't know if it was New Year's Eve service or sometime pastor was preaching and talking about that, and he was like, maybe you've gone through this, and maybe you've gone through that, or maybe you've gone through this. And I was like, I've not gone through any of those things. And so I was just praising God and thanking God for a season and where this is where we are. And even in my prayer in the name of Jesus is that even if you know we've learned, we have had many seasons, years and years and years, decades uh or decade of seasons where we didn't have enough. Um, and so my prayer is that that helped us to learn what it means to be content.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

Yeah.

Eugene 49:43

And so, so even as we you know move and start dreaming about 2026, I want to dream about it. I want to dream big but with no pressure. And so if you start thinking about 2026 and all that we've gone through, you know, what would you what would feel different at home? So if 20 if in 2026, when you think about this, if it went well for us, what will feel different for you at home?

Joy Needs Language, So Does Pain

LaTanya 50:10

Yeah, that's a good question. Um I think like if I had to give it a word, it would be um one would be lighter. Um because so often I feel like there were just burdens, like again, financial health, um, even you know, what is Micah's life gonna be like? Like, and not that he is a burden, but like the weight of that and and wanting to make sure that we're supporting him and that. And so um I think that would be one would be lighter. Um, I would also say um purpose driven, um with what I know is on the the docket, you know, what I know that we've been talking about, um it feels very purpose-driven, and that at the end that this year at the end, we will have fruit of it. It just won't be the tree. It will be a fruitful tree, and that is purpose-driven and a sign and on assignment for us. Amen.

Eugene 51:39

Yeah, I said, you know, fully shifting from surviving to trusting God, but I mean, we you know, we do it, but but but my whole point is just being consistent and intentional and doing all of the things that God has said do. And so it's not like if we say we're gonna post a podcast every 14th or every two weeks, it's done. If we say we're gonna budget and do this, it's done. If we say we're gonna whatever it is, just showing up and doing the everything consistently, but then as you said, intentional, you said it purposeful, I said intentional because it's just that it's aligning with who we are.

LaTanya 52:16

And I would add the other piece in this too is like not being afraid to hold one another accountable. And so, like sometimes those are hard conversations, like, okay, well, where are we with with this? And and some of it goes back to how we ask the questions, you know, that that communication piece. Um, but this has to be a year if things are really going to shift the way that um we've been prayerful over, that we've um, you know, we believe God has given us insight on, we gotta now make sure we're holding one another uh uh accountable for for that. So making our meetings, like not letting anything interfere with those meetings and that time together and um and even asking each other questions, okay. Well, what's going on in the business? How's that going? You know, or Latine, have you got some business lately? Mark Smith usually asks us that question. Um, but I I think it's just important to, you know, build accountability. And even with that said, that that accountability may not just be with the two of us. Like who else can do we trust that can be a part of this accountability system for us as we are now continue to move forward to building legacy?

Parenting A Young Adult

Eugene 53:38

And that was one of the the things that we wrote down for our 2025. Um, every every one of those areas that I mentioned earlier, financial, spiritual. We said we would have an accountability partner outside of ourselves for all of those areas. And so, you know, our new financial planner and all of them, that's that's for surely financial, but we said business and professional, like we've named people, but we just haven't set up those regularly recurring, and it could just be a dinner date. Yeah. Just to and you know, send it out. Now, I did take you know many of the things that I had and I did forward it to Mark. I'm still waiting on him to send me his, but I did forward it to him so that he would see it. Um, but again, another thing is, you know, even how we show up on social media, you know, not to consume, but to to do what God has called us to do. So that's good. And so I think, I think, you know, we just had this brief conversation, but as you're going through this um year compass, you know, dreaming together, it actually builds emotional safety because when you're planning and you're thinking about it, like the enemy is going to resist it. But you got to understand that where there's no vision, the people prep perish. And so, even me talking to the husbands now, like we are the ones that are supposed to be the head of the household, supposed to be the the husband, the band of the home. And so where there's no vision, the people perish. So when you start thinking about, you know, why why would your why is your family not leading you? Maybe it's because you haven't given out a detailed uh vision for where your family is going to be 10 or three years, 10 years from now, three years or five years from now, one year from now, and then the steps that you need to take in order to make sure that that's accomplished. So, so just make sure that um that you not only have a vision, but you know, it's very important that we're able to turn that vision into a shared action plan.

SPEAKER_04 55:33

Yeah.

Eugene 55:33

And that's where when you say accountability, a lot of times we have money Mondays, we have all of these things that we used to do consistently, but we stopped doing. And even a shared action plan of recording the podcast on a regular basis, and not just for us, we praise God for all of you who are following, who come up to us, who talk about how these episodes are helping you. Because we even had to shift our mentality that it's not about we are not influencers, by the way. And people keep calling us influencers, it's like, no, because I had to even God had to check me the other day as I was praying about it because I don't want to get into an influencer mindset of watching how many people like the video or et cetera. But let me tell you how God shifted me in that is he said, Hey, what about the thing that I told you to say? He said, if you went to one person and you had a conversation with them about what I told you to say, and that advice helped turn around their life, their situation, their marriage, their whatever, that one conversation, would you consider that to be impactful? I'm driving in my car. I'm like, yeah, that would be great. It's like, so why do you care about one million views versus one view when you post a video online? Yeah, if that one person watched that video and it had the impact on them and on their family, who knows behind them the generations of people who will be impacted because that one shift happened in that particular person. So I think what happens is that when we talk about a turning our vision into an action plan, we're trying to immediately measure the fruit as opposed to taking the seeds that come from it and just planting the seeds in all of the places. And then what we do is we're trying to look for the fruit, and God said, No, I told you to plant, I told you to water. And he said, if you just keep planting and watering, if you keep planting and watering, then God will bring the increase in ways that you can't even imagine. So for us, that's why I'm like, we got to be consistent, we got to be intentional, we got to plant the seeds, we got to water. And I think if you do that, the the principle of sowing and reaping is true. If you sow little, you reap little. So I think that all that God is calling us and telling us to do, the harvest that we'll reap, as long as we're being aligned with him, it'll happen. But do you have an action plan? Are you consistent and are you intentional? Is the thing is the same thing.

Dreaming For 2026 With Intention

LaTanya 58:06

Yeah, I agree with that. And and you know, as I've mentioned even earlier, like what is our because I'm I like I like the plan. I like a plan. I love a plan, I love a system, I love a plan. Um, and even just now, like we again, we started naming things, but um now being committed to our um committed to that plan. So what does that look like for for us? And I can name a few of those things, like um, we're looking at our plans on a quarterly basis. So coming back to our vision, um, the year compass, um, coming back to that strategic plan. Because now that we've done the year compass, now we're saying, okay, now that strategic plan that you usually, strategic meeting that you usually see us have, now we're going into that differently. Um now we're going into it um with a different perspective. Um, and now being able to say, how can we make it intentional? So looking at our plans on a quarterly basis, um, again, starting that strategic meeting, having that strategic meeting and writing down the plans. We write them down because that's now how we can commit to them. Um, because if you don't, you just out here talking about some stuff. First of all, you're not gonna remember. And again, we said we've meet we've reached a milestone. We we're not remembering. We're not if it's not written down, it's just like it didn't happen, you know. Um, and like that's from our calendars to our budget to again, these plans. So um some of that uh money Mondays, uh, we we've committed to that. We've even, I feel like we've shifted it from money Mondays though to something on Saturday. I like a theme too, but like the beginning of the month, we talked about we would talk about our budget and then looking at it again at the end of the month. That might be a more intentional, longer meeting. But now looking at that real quick.

Eugene 1:00:04

Sure. Because remember, money Mondays, so I look at the budget every day.

LaTanya 1:00:10

I don't.

Eugene 1:00:11

But money Mondays is for when I need to give her an update. And so, so you, the two of you may have a different rhythm.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:20

Yeah.

Eugene 1:00:20

And so if the two of you have a different rhythm, whether it's Monday, whether it's the thing is Saturday, I look at it every day in order to make sure that I'm staying on top of it, to make sure that it's, you know, all the money, the cash flow that's coming in and what's going out, that it all aligned, that bookkeeping is happening, not only from a personal perspective, but for my business. She's doing it for her business. So it's like to me, I gotta look at it every single day to make sure that it's all aligned. And so now the rhythm that she's talking about has to align because she wants to sit down and have a meeting about it so that she can work through so that I can explain it or I can give an update the way that she receives it. But if for me, it can be a passing conversation. It's only because I'm digesting it every single second of every single day. So I have a different level of understanding. So y'all got to make sure that y'all figure out your rhythm because otherwise, you will find yourself, and this is not only for finances, this is for every area, parenting, house chores, whatever it is, you will find yourself bickering and arguing more so about what the intent behind something versus the actual thing, meaning to be on one accord and to have, you know, financial abundance. So I just wanted to stick a pin there for a second because we we're glossing over as we're talking about, you know, how we do our money Mondays or Saturdays or whatever the case, but that don't mean it's easy. That means there's a lot of work that went into getting to the point of being a money Monday. A lot of work that went into getting to the point to say, okay, it can't be Mondays anymore. Because it that I know that sounded good, but Mondays don't quite work. It needs to happen on Saturday morning before this, or oh, we said first Saturday. First Saturday. Yeah, we said first Saturday every month because again, that's that's a day where it's free and the budget kind of is the same, so we don't have to do it every week anymore. In the beginning, we did it every week. Now we do it monthly. So, but we hated it, but it got us to the point where we can only have to do it Monday and or once once a month, monthly. So you got to start thinking about that for all other areas, and I'll talk about that in a second. Yeah.

Accountability, Rhythms, And Meetings

LaTanya 1:02:30

Um, and I just a couple other things that I named, just kind of now with our next steps, because it's not just now, again, as I say, enough about just doing this, but now what are the action items around it? So some of the other things is that we'll check in on our monthly basis around our businesses. So both of us have um have businesses, and uh, and so now even shifting to being okay to say that we're entrepreneurs. Um, for the longest, I wouldn't accept that. That wasn't a title I was accepting. I was just out here because I liked it. And so now I'm like, no, I'm an entrepreneur, and so I have to move in that um in that arena. So now checking in with one another on a monthly basis around how's your business, what's going on, um, because that does impact our household. That is something else, yeah, especially scheduling. That is something else that's taking up our time, but also a space that um we believe God has called us to. And then the last one, I don't think we've talked about this, but just like a quarterly assessment. So, like in this, um, and that can be during one of our monthly meetings, but like quarterly, where are we? How are we doing? How are we to Miami or something? Listen, I can do that, I can do all the things. It does not have to be here. Yes, a quarterly retreat somewhere, and but I think you even that's a great point to that is that sometimes you got to get out of the routine, and we found that that was helpful for us. Like, we can't do this in this house. No, we're too distracted in the house, we got to go someplace else, and so, but again, that quarterly assessment, because again, how are we doing? Um, you get a performance review at home. I mean, at work, you get that quality check-ins at work. Why don't we want to do that same thing for our household? And so I I feel like we are now committing more to that. Um, and it may be hard, and we'll check in with y'all like we need not one of these things, or we did, you know, because we're speaking life into it, um, but also giving ourselves grace where life comes in, but also saying, though, these are the things that naming the non-negotiables because we gotta be able to now stick to who and where God is moving us.

Planting, Watering, And Consistency

Eugene 1:04:43

So when you think about the year compass 2026, I'm just gonna give you one page from 2026, and then I'm gonna frame this for you, and then we're gonna wrap up. But uh when you're thinking ahead, it talks about you know what your next year may be, but it's asking you to take a look at your life and decide your goals for each of the following areas that I'm talking about. So one, your personal life, two, your career and studies, three, your friends and community, four, your relaxation and hobby and creativity, five, your physical and and health, your physical health and fitness, um, your mental health and fitness is another one, and then your habits that will define you, and then what will a better tomorrow look like? And so when you're thinking about all of those things, it's just saying, What would I love these three things? I will love these three things about myself is another statement that it says. I am ready to let go of these three things. And again, this is what you're doing for 2026. Another one is I want to achieve these three things the most. And then another one, these three people will be my pillar during rough times. And and it's something about deciding beforehand so that when you get into a situation, you already know what your go-to is going to be. And then another one, I will dare to discover these three things, and it could be about life, or and I would venture to say, even about yourself, if you've never really done this type of introspective work. And then lastly, you know, I will have the power to say no to these things. And so, again, that's another one where you have to decide that beforehand. Because if you haven't decided it beforehand, it doesn't give you the guardrails and the parameters. But you just said something key a few minutes ago, and I want to reiterate that. Like when we're talking about all of this, you're listening to us talk about this, and we're 23 years in Mary, but through this introspective process that we're talking about that you're seeing on the other side of this podcast, this is overwhelming. Like it is overwhelming, and it could feel like it's way too much. But I hope that you understand. And if y'all look at us and you're watching this and you value the relationship that we have, you can absolutely see that it's worth it. That it's worth it, and so you have to be willing to do the hard work in this season. A statement that just keeps reverberating through our house is you can do hard things. And I want to say this to you all that you can do hard things. And so, so if this is overwhelming and it's feeling overwhelming, and even if you grab this year's compass and it feels overwhelming, I wanted to help just frame this a little bit. So instead of writing this long list of goals, just maybe that y'all just sit down and you start right here. Just take three things that the both of you are going to say yes to together. Just start there. Just three things that the two of you are gonna say yes to together. Another one is that three things that you're gonna say no to together. Just start right there. Another one is three habits that will shape your entire year. So you don't have to go through eight, nine, ten things, but it's like, look, that year compass is a good idea, but we're not ready for that yet. So we're just gonna start right here. So again, three things that will shape your three habits that will shape your year. And then lastly, three people or three rhythms that will keep us grounded. So if you just start right there, that will help you to create some alignment. Um and instead of checking in on this, this page, this document is probably like 20, 20-some pages. So it's 20 pages. So again, the year compass is a lot. But so if if that feels like a lot, just start with those those four things, the three areas of the four areas of the three things. So um we're excited. I know that we've been going at this episode for a little while, but um the one thing that I'll close this out on is that it's it's gonna ask everybody else, and I actually would add this to the three things that I'm asked that I just asked y'all to do, but if we had to give our life, and I know I'm probably cheating a little bit based on our let on our on our what's on our chest, but if you had to pull one word in order to say this is the word that's that I'm gonna focus on for the year, and this is a question that's inside the year compass too. What would that word be for you?

LaTanya 1:09:28

Oh yeah, mine is is alignment, yeah. And I um I was every year I pick a word, probably for the past four years um since being in therapy. And um, my therapist and I at the top of the year were just was just processing all that had gone on. We were processing 2025 and looking at 2026. And therapists do. Uh everybody do. Uh-huh. Everybody do. Um, and so she she reminded me of my words. My words, the first year I was working with her was execute, the next year was intentional, the next year last year was pivot, and this year is alignment. And so I was like, wow, how all of those now execute, intentional, pivot, pivot, alignment. And so how now all of those, and we both paused and was like, wow, um, how now that's gotten us to uh alignment and the work, and she had to even remind me of the work that I had to do each year in that, um, that now has gotten me to align alignment.

Eugene 1:10:42

If you look at those four words, execute, intentional, pivot, alignment. That is the process of becoming.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:52

Yeah.

Eugene 1:10:52

You execute, you gotta do the work, but what work are you doing? And so you you determine that I gotta be intentional about these things. Yeah. And then when you start being intentional about those things, it causes you to pivot. And then once you pivot, you become aligned with who God has called you.

LaTanya 1:11:11

That's it.

Eugene 1:11:12

That's the whole thing. That's it.

LaTanya 1:11:13

Come on, preach, boy. Make sure you give me my um acknowledgement.

Eugene 1:11:17

No, that's really good.

LaTanya 1:11:18

Yeah, so it was it was like fascinating that we got to that point. So alignment. That is that is where it is.

Quarterly Reviews And Entrepreneur Life

Eugene 1:11:26

Mine is, mine is, it was discipline. I've been saying discipline, but I've also been saying consistent. And so um what I did is I spent December and I just, December, and I just been, you could say alignment, but it was just, I felt like I had gotten aligned with this is who I am, and this is who God is calling me to be in this season. But then what's the extension of that? Then what does that look like? And so you know that I sat down and I said, you know what? I I've been posting, I started off three years ago posting based on, you know, who I am. I'm a coach, I'm a consultant. I can start doing that, but I'm like, you know what? There's so many other things that I am, and I'm not only that. And so I was like, all of my content that I've been putting out silently and around here, I'm I'm being the coach and the consultant on the phone, but but that's not how I'm showing up online. I'm showing up only as a husband, which is fine, but it's only a husband, but that's not the full breadth of who I am.

LaTanya 1:12:30

You're a good husband.

Eugene 1:12:31

Oh, thank you, baby. Um, but I said, you know what? There's there's the extension of who I am, and people are pulling, there's an opportunity for me to spread that out. And again, not from an aspirational, not for a social media influencer. That's that's not the reason why I did it. But it was like, I have to be consistent because I've been trying to do this for years, and I just have not been consistent. So I'm just trying to make sure that all areas of my life are aligned with who I am and that I'm not being pulled in you know various directions. So once I know what God is calling me to do, just be consistent in doing those things. So, but that that creates alignment. So I think that that's important.

LaTanya 1:13:14

So pick your word. Pick your word. Yes, pick a few of these.

Eugene 1:13:18

I thought you was telling me, pick a word.

LaTanya 1:13:20

No, no, I'm not no no no no. No, you did. Um, but we encourage you, choose a word. And and maybe you just start with that, the word. Uh, and then some of these other um, like the three habits that um you name, because it if this isn't something that you've done on a regular basis, even from an individual perspective, um, it can feel hard, it can be uncomfortable. Um, but it's okay to press yourself and push yourself and press press your way, as the old saints will say, into um into who you who you are. It's worth it. You're worth it in the end. Okay.

Eugene 1:14:02

Well, we we're sure that this may turn into another episode. I mean, uh, and again, even if not an immediate episode after this one, we will be checking in with you via episode or uh through social media. But if y'all have questions, y'all can find us. Again, your compass is here. You can download the link. But we thank y'all. Please like, share, follow. We we say that all the time, and many of y'all watch, but many of y'all don't like, y'all don't share, y'all don't follow. Um, but even if it's not something that you um it just helps us out to get the word out, it helps us to continue to do what God has called us to do. So we would appreciate your help if you would like, subscribe, and then follow, please. But again, another episode of the winning team. We appreciate y'all, and we out peace.