Episode specific links:

Jimmy Fallon: The Tonight Show

Kahn Academy

Mo Willems Lunch Doodles 

Transcription:

Scott: [00:00:00] welcome to playing with fire, the podcast that turns challenges into habits, habits, into lifestyles and lifestyles. And to a better you, I am your host Scott Ricans. And here with me today is my astonishingly supportive cohost, Taylor. 

[00:00:16] Taylor: [00:00:16] That was sweet. 

[00:00:17] Scott: [00:00:17] We are committing to 12 months, 12 challenges, 21 days a piece.

[00:00:21] We're going to test new ways to live better together. It's time to uncouple our self worth from our net worth so we can all live a rich, happy and fulfilled life. And this month we've challenged ourselves with practicing gratitude. As of this recording, we are on day 17 of 21 and if you've been on this challenge with us, you'll know there are three levels to choose from.

[00:00:40] Taylor and I both chose level three, which includes writing in our gratitude journal once a day. Posting on social daily, smiling before every meal, writing a letter to a friend or a loved one, a coworker, whatever, every day, and delivering it. And finally, creating a gratitude station in your home. Level one and two have a descending amount of obligations.

[00:00:59] So we will discuss how things are going as we near the finish line. But we are also going to talk about this past week, how it's affected our lives so deeply. But before we do, I want to give some quick love to our sponsor for making this podcast possible.

[00:01:17] When Taya and I first started out on our fire journey, one of the first goals we set was saving up for a six month emergency fund, six months of expenses, always there when you need it. Once we reached our goal, we were surprised at the immediate sense of freedom that provided and to hold that money over the longterm, we wanted to find a home for our emergency fund that would allow us to combat inflation and make it super easy to access in times of need.

[00:01:39] And that's where ally bank came into our lives. Ally has fantastic savings accounts with very competitive AP wise and no monthly maintenance fees. Ally bank has been voted the best online bank by money, NerdWallet and bank rate, and they've been around for nearly 20 years. Their customer service is awesome and it's super easy to set up an account.

[00:01:56] Ally bank is a perfect fit for us and have also helped us make this podcast. We think they'd be a great fit for you too. So if you're saving up for an emergency fund, saving for a new home, whatever it is, consider opening an ally account today.

[00:02:15] so one heck of a 

[00:02:16] Taylor: [00:02:16] week. 

[00:02:19] Scott: [00:02:19] Yeah, it's been pretty wild. Yeah, it's been really, for us, it's been two and a half weeks or so when we kind of caught wind of the Corona virus, the coven, and that it was going to be serious and that we should start looking at it seriously. And when did we decide to socially distance ourselves?

[00:02:35] Taylor: [00:02:35] Last Thursday. So it's been a week and two days. I mean, let's just be honest. This doing this podcast on a Saturday. We're supposed to do it on Tuesdays. Yeah. And we both have just not been in a space to do it. And I said, when we sat down here, are we really doing this? 

[00:02:53] Scott: [00:02:53] Yeah. I forced myself to hit record today.

[00:02:56] Taylor: [00:02:56] Yeah. I think, I think it's just, it's a really emotional. Right. And I, I feel like everyone's going through it in a different way or the same way. 

[00:03:05] Scott: [00:03:05] Yeah. I mean, as I'm sure everyone has, we immediately had to figure out our situation, understand what we had for supplies, you know, in case we were in some kind of lockdown.

[00:03:18] We needed to act as if there was an emergency and we needed to be able to live in this house for months on end. And that was kind of a sh, a shocking, jarring realization. And so that was step one. And then step two and these steps were concurrent, was what are our parents doing? What are our loved ones doing?

[00:03:36] What are our family doing? What are our friends doing? And the social dynamics of people figuring out, no one wants to hear. That they need to plan for a global pandemic. No one ever wants to hear that. And if you weren't up to speed on it in any way, shape, or form, and someone just started saying that to you, you'd be, you would also feel like a, what?

[00:03:56] You're being a little crazy, right? Yeah. And so it was all understandable, I felt like, but the other side of it was like my dad was going in for knee surgery that like the day that we decided this was serious and we should start taking seriously. Yeah. And you know, that has its own complications where he has to do physical therapy after getting half of his knee replaced, and where's he going to be going to do that?

[00:04:19] And is that place going to be safe and so on and so forth. So also they're in different States and can they get home, you know, and if they have to be on lockdown, which California has now gone on a full lockdown of stay at home, it's like, you know, they're renting places right now. What happens when that.

[00:04:40] Releases up, you know, it's like so many things to consider and then school's out. So now we go from having school to, we now are homeschooling her. We both have to figure out how that works with jobs, what's going on with the jobs. It's just nuts. It's a lot. I mean, we feel grateful for. 

[00:04:59] Taylor: [00:04:59] It was a really good time to do the grateful challenge.

[00:05:01] Bam. Good planning. 

[00:05:02] Scott: [00:05:02] It is unbelievably wild timing considering however, it's also, you know, this global pandemic kind of through a bit of a wrench in our little practicing gratitude challenge plan, didn't it? Yeah. I, I'll be the first to admit full disclosure when it comes to this challenge. I'm very excited about it.

[00:05:22] Yeah, I agree. 

[00:05:23] Taylor: [00:05:23] And I, I, you know, like when we, before we sat down here, I was kinda thinking, have I been really good? Have I have, I have not been good this week. And I feel like the first three days I did an okay job. And then. I fell off the bandwagon. I've kind of struggled. 

[00:05:36] Scott: [00:05:36] I do. I do. Totally fallen off the cliff.

[00:05:38] Sorry, go ahead. 

[00:05:39] Taylor: [00:05:39] No, I was also just going to say, I do think there's some positives out there and in a time of where it seems like every single thing is not positive. And I don't know if you've seen some of these, but I kind of want to share some of them cause I think they're really beautiful. 

[00:05:54] Scott: [00:05:54] Okay. Yeah, hit me.

[00:05:56] Taylor: [00:05:56] Um, so first things first, let's talk about pollution in the 

[00:06:00] Scott: [00:06:00] world. Okay. It's getting better. Yeah. 

[00:06:03] Taylor: [00:06:03] Because nobody's driving 

[00:06:04] Scott: [00:06:04] right. 

[00:06:05] Taylor: [00:06:05] In major metropolitan 

[00:06:06] Scott: [00:06:06] areas. Yeah. 

[00:06:07] Taylor: [00:06:07] And even like, do you see that space picture 

[00:06:10] Scott: [00:06:10] of China? I did satellite, yeah. The satellite imagery of the CO2 levels going just completely dropping off.

[00:06:17] That's amazing. In the Wu Han area. Right. 

[00:06:20] Taylor: [00:06:20] Okay. See. And, um, kinda like we, we were in a, you know, natural disaster, what a couple of years ago together we were in a big giant flood out in Hawaii and a lot of the reef came back right when we were out there because they had shut down some of the roads, the major roads, and there weren't any snorkelers 

[00:06:38] Scott: [00:06:38] do you remember that?

[00:06:38] Right. 

[00:06:39] Taylor: [00:06:39] And that's happening again in a lot of parts of the world. In Venice, they had dolphins. 

[00:06:43] Scott: [00:06:43] I know that was, they haven't seen the bottom of that canal and so long and now, yeah, they're seeing all this life come in and it's pretty amazing. So that definitely was a nice little, nice little thing to see.

[00:06:56] You know, I don't know how you feel about that, but when I see that stuff, I also, I have like a short term excitement moment, but then also followed by like is w, you know. It's going to go back to the same eventually. 

[00:07:09] Taylor: [00:07:09] That's your pessimistic side. 

[00:07:10] Scott: [00:07:10] Well, I mean, the, the satellite imagery of Lou HUD's already back, like they're already turning it back up again, you know?

[00:07:17] But anyway, what positive. On a positive note. Air travel's absolutely going to come to a hall or already has. Yeah, I know they're, they're a big polluter too, so there's definitely going to be some, some positive things that come out of this. I can't wait to see what those are, and those are things that we shouldn't, we should hang on to.

[00:07:38] Taylor: [00:07:38] I feel like you and I have both gone through like really good days and really terrible days this week, so I think that's super normal for people. 

[00:07:47] Scott: [00:07:47] Yes I did. Okay. So it is. Okay. And I also wanted to say that if you're following along on this challenge with us and you've also fallen off the wagon like we have, that's okay.

[00:07:57] It's okay. 

[00:08:00] Taylor: [00:08:00] I will say we really have implemented, especially around the dinner table, cause that's kind of our meal together. Yes. Now every meal is together. Who am I kidding? Jokes. Nope. Too soon. But. I think today we went on a really nice outside hike and little Jovi. When we sat down, she was like, Oh, don't forget 

[00:08:17] Scott: [00:08:17] what you're grateful for.

[00:08:19] I know, 

[00:08:19] Taylor: [00:08:19] and I was like, Oh, is that good? She was like, I'm grateful for this wonderful meal and this wonderful walk that we had as a family today. 

[00:08:26] Scott: [00:08:26] What are you about you mom? The gratitude challenge has absolutely permeated through our life. The gratitude station is out in the front door still. They're going to stay that getting as much usage, which is odd, so we might want to reconsider the placement of the gratitude station.

[00:08:38] Okay. But we do love that thing. I love the dinnertime. Gratitude is smiling before the meal. We remind ourselves to do that every day, and we kind of have a bit of like a family grace, basically. Right? A time to be thankful for the food that we have in front of us and amongst all the other things that we're grateful for that day and to share those together.

[00:08:58] So we weren't doing that prior. We, you're just getting right into it, eating that food and having a good time. So that's been nice, I think. Yeah, and I personally really want to continue with the gratitude journal. It really does help. I feel the same way. I 100% wish I could go back and choose level one or two and not three because 

[00:09:19] Taylor: [00:09:19] overachiever.

[00:09:20] Yup. Yeah, 

[00:09:21] Scott: [00:09:21] it didn't work in my mind. I was going to post on social daily and I was going to do all that, and I was gonna write these letters and I kind of knew that the letters would be tough, but I thought maybe if I did a bunch of them, I'd feel good about it and no, it's okay. It's been bad. 

[00:09:33] Taylor: [00:09:33] I feel like my, my note giving this last week really took a nosedive.

[00:09:36] I was really getting good at the note thing. 

[00:09:38] Scott: [00:09:38] Yeah. 

[00:09:39] Taylor: [00:09:39] But I'm like afraid to go to the mailbox. I got to be honest. 

[00:09:42] Scott: [00:09:42] Of course. I don't think you should go to the mailbox if you can help it. 

[00:09:46] Taylor: [00:09:46] I think our mail is overflowing. 

[00:09:47] Scott: [00:09:47] Yeah. And so we've got a couple of days left. Let's finish strong. Let's finish strong.

[00:09:52] That's right. I think we could, we could use this more more than ever. And maybe hit and record tonight and talking about, this is a nice reminder that we need to get back on the train, on the practicing gratitude, because we have fallen off that wagon. But the good news is that GiveWell. Is 

[00:10:07] Taylor: [00:10:07] raking in our money.

[00:10:08] Scott: [00:10:08] Yeah. They're getting some residuals here. Good. 

[00:10:11] Taylor: [00:10:11] I love that. 

[00:10:12] Scott: [00:10:12] Glad we can. It makes me feel better. Personally. 

[00:10:15] Taylor: [00:10:15] Yeah, I mean, is someone else's when my selfish, 

[00:10:18] Scott: [00:10:18] yeah. My, yeah. My precious self is, is being, is feeling good because of Goodwill's getting a little bit of money for my misgivings, but Hey, I liked that system a lot.

[00:10:31] So I wanted to wrap back to the earlier episodes with practicing gratitude where we talked about some of the studies that have suggested that a daily gratitude practice can help you sleep better. Become more social, get sick less often, lose weight, reduce aging of the brain. Like I said, increased wellbeing.

[00:10:49] All of 

[00:10:49] Taylor: [00:10:49] those things stopped during the coronavirus. 

[00:10:51] Scott: [00:10:51] Yeah. Yeah. Those things are rough right now, but I'm wondering if prior to the global pandemic, if you have any thoughts or feelings or or anything, did you see any results on that front? I 

[00:11:05] Taylor: [00:11:05] feel like I look younger. No, my birthday's on Tuesday. Everyone 

[00:11:09] Scott: [00:11:09] happy birthday tag.

[00:11:10] Taylor: [00:11:10] I feel young. 

[00:11:11] Scott: [00:11:11] Yeah. Oh, happy birthday week. 

[00:11:14] Taylor: [00:11:14] I don't know. How's party? 

[00:11:16] Scott: [00:11:16] Woo. We don't even have any cake mix. Sorry babe. I know you do. I, I gotta say this one thing that I'm grateful for real quick. Yeah. When we saw this coming, I thought I was a little crazy for doing it, but I went to the grocery store and I picked up 10 ocean rolls.

[00:11:33] and  and then you individually wrap them and we froze them. And I just can't tell you how grateful I am that we have a supply of ocean rolls 

[00:11:41] Taylor: [00:11:41] to celebrate me on my birthday. Is that where you were going with 

[00:11:43] Scott: [00:11:43] this? Are you excited to have an ocean role? 

[00:11:46] Taylor: [00:11:46] I feel like you're the ocean roll like King, 

[00:11:48] Scott: [00:11:48] but you like them, right?

[00:11:49] I mean, the cardamom and the pepper, they're good. What's your favorite thing? 

[00:11:53] Taylor: [00:11:53] Banana bread. 

[00:11:55] Scott: [00:11:55] I couldn't find it either where it was they didn't have 

[00:11:59] Taylor: [00:11:59] it anyway. I don't know. I honestly, I really feel really mentally exhausted and I don't even remember what I felt like two weeks ago. I know. That's how I feel like that's the honest answer.

[00:12:11] I 

[00:12:11] Scott: [00:12:11] know. I'm the same way. I definitely haven't been sleeping well. My God, I've been sleeping 

[00:12:15] Taylor: [00:12:15] terrible. I 

[00:12:16] Scott: [00:12:16] kind of to, we haven't been allowed to be social, I sure as hell. Hope we all get sick less often. I don't care if I lose or gain weight right now, I'm definitely not reducing aging to the brain at the moment.

[00:12:26] I doubt, you know, our, our wellbeing is in flux, but you know, most of us will get through this. Most of us will get through this. This is going to suck. There's no doubt about it. But there is an end to this and that's something we have to grab ahold of. We can be so grateful 

[00:12:41] Taylor: [00:12:41] that technology can be our friend.

[00:12:43] And we are able to have that connection with people and have space for that. Even when times are hard. 

[00:12:48] Scott: [00:12:48] You had a little, uh, conference call girls night the other night, right? I did. 

[00:12:52] Taylor: [00:12:52] I had, I was supposed to go out on Thursday night for my birthday and instead we had eight girls on the phone and we, we use this cool app called house party.

[00:13:01] That I think is for teenagers that I'd never heard of, but no, it was fun. It was so fun. Like I literally laughed so hard. I cried the entire time and we sat there for three hours on the phone and played games and laughed and 

[00:13:14] Scott: [00:13:14] yeah, I left you alone. And when you were finally done, you came over and you were like, my face muscles hurt.

[00:13:18] Taylor: [00:13:18] Yeah, it was good. So I feel like, you know. Starting to play in that kind of stuff. It's good. It's good for the soul. 

[00:13:25] Scott: [00:13:25] Was it a, was it, it must be a different dynamic than like taking that same group of people and going out for the night. It's kind of saying, okay, 

[00:13:32] Taylor: [00:13:32] I feel like the beginning, like the first 20 minutes, 

[00:13:35] Scott: [00:13:35] we were all kind of like, 

[00:13:37] Taylor: [00:13:37] then I feel like, you know, we drank enough and then it was, we're back to the old, back to the old 

[00:13:41] Scott: [00:13:41] slosh.

[00:13:41] There it is. Right on. Well for all of you falling along with this challenge. We will be wrapping up this challenge fairly soon. I think we need to do 

[00:13:50] Taylor: [00:13:50] a couple polls from the gratitude jar before we say goodbye to gratitude as a challenge and pull out some of the ones that. 

[00:13:57] Scott: [00:13:57] I've been in her house. Let's do it.

[00:13:59] Taylor: [00:13:59] I'm reaching in the jar. My first one was my handy has been awe because you made a really cool garbage can  this week. In the time of us being home, 

[00:14:11] Scott: [00:14:11] I posted a little video of you. In the cabinet helping me with the measurements for the door. It for, I wish everyone listening to this could have seen the look she gave me just now, cause she's not as social.

[00:14:24] So she didn't know that I shared that. 

[00:14:26] Taylor: [00:14:26] I can't believe you shared that. That was like me in my pajamas with no makeup on. 

[00:14:29] Scott: [00:14:29] I know, but it's dark in the car. Cabinet. You can't see any of that, but you can see that you can fit in the cabinet, which is amazing, and that door went in so snug first try. That was pretty amazing.

[00:14:40] Taylor: [00:14:40] Yeah. I'm going through a lot of these, and a lot of them are Jovi's and it's like cookie food mom, which is very sweet. Right. That's awesome. I don't know what this one says. It's like, 

[00:14:54] Scott: [00:14:54] Oh, feel better. Feel better. 

[00:14:56] Taylor: [00:14:56] Oh, she feels better. Cause she, she was sick this week, which was also very stressful. Feel better.

[00:15:01] That's so cute. Okay. I'm really glad we're going through these eye food. 

[00:15:06] Scott: [00:15:06] Food. 

[00:15:06] Taylor: [00:15:06] That's also Jovi. Jovi has done a lot of these, right? 

[00:15:09] Scott: [00:15:09] Yeah. She's better at it than we are. 

[00:15:12] Taylor: [00:15:12] Yeah, I think so. Hold on, I'm getting to some good ones. Oh, this one says my friendship with Jovie Taylor and Scott Love Leah as a friend of ours that was here.

[00:15:21] Scott: [00:15:21] Oh, I'll go. Thanks, Leah. A long time ago. 

[00:15:24] Taylor: [00:15:24] Comedic relief. I'm really, I'm really, really grateful for a 

[00:15:28] Scott: [00:15:28] flexible job. Yeah, that's a really big one. That's a big one right now. Yeah. You're already remote. 

[00:15:33] Taylor: [00:15:33] I was already remote and I feel like you and I have been remote together for about three years, and so we know how to live with each other.

[00:15:41] Yeah. The state of work. We've 

[00:15:42] Scott: [00:15:42] never heard that out. 

[00:15:43] Taylor: [00:15:43] We've never had a four year old while we're doing that, but we're making it work. 

[00:15:46] Scott: [00:15:46] Oh wait. You know, we have here and there. Not to the extent that we are now, I feel for people who are setting up home offices right now, trying to work from home in the house because it is difficult.

[00:15:57] I mean, I would typically try to leave the house, go work at a coffee shop or something because it makes me focus. It makes it easier for me to trick my brain into starting my day. As opposed to staying home working, you know? Yeah. So there are definitely a lot of little tricks to the trade to, to staying focused and feeling motivated and all that.

[00:16:16] And the other side of it is, I honestly, as scary as it is right now, one little, one little positive thing I can spend is I've sort of taken the role as teacher, you know, for homeschooling Jovi. And that's been really fun. You're a great teacher. It's been wonderful to spend that much time with her to watch her learn to find new things to teach with.

[00:16:36] The Khan Academy has an amazing free app for anyone that's trying to do this. There's a lot 

[00:16:41] Taylor: [00:16:41] of free resources right now. 

[00:16:42] Scott: [00:16:42] There really are. Yeah. We were watching Jimmy Fallon's first said tonight, show in quarantine, which was oddly sweet and amazing. Right? Yeah. And I highly recommend them. It's him in his house.

[00:16:54] His kids are running everywhere. You can see it in his face that he doesn't care, but he kind of cares and he's like, it's, it's really funny. And his wife's got the camera and it's really raw. I loved it. And in that, he, I think the first or second episode he interviews Lin Manuel Miranda, the Broadway superstar.

[00:17:12] And he was talking about. Also homeschooling his kids, and he mentioned that they had all become expert doodlers because they found this lesson with Mo Willems, the doodler M O. W, I, L, L. E, M, S, I think. Willems Mo Willems. And he's, he's doing this doodle class and it's amazing. And he's, you know, using like numbers to create faces and he's, he's got away, he is meant to be a teacher of this stuff.

[00:17:42] So I, I put that on for Jovie and we learned how to duel, do some doodling and do you remember that? Yeah, she did. Awesome. Crushed it. Yeah, it was so cool. So it's been fun to find that stuff. Those are a couple of little resources that we found, but yeah, I'm glad you read through some of those. That's awesome.

[00:17:57] I love the gratitude station. I needed, I was going to say, you need to put some more in there. I need to write more of those. Yeah. I've been on DEFCON dine with his eye. I've been terrible. Honey. I've been terrible with this challenge. I feel like you've tried. I can't believe how bad I've done it. The challenge, I thought I would crush it.

[00:18:16] Been crushing some challenges this year, and this one is not going well. Yeah. Anyway. Well, I'm sure you all have been doing challenges and you're probably doing a lot better job than I am, so if you happen to be doing them. And there's anything that you like or have enjoyed. We've loved seeing the stuff you shared.

[00:18:34] If you have anything else to share, please share it with us. We love seeing it, the gratitude stations, the gratitude walls. It's just so much fun. We've had some gratitude letters left at our doorstep before that was uncouth. It's been nice. And that leads us into our next segment. What is the internet saying?

[00:18:53] That's my new favorite segment. 

[00:18:54] Taylor: [00:18:54] What is the internet saying? What? What is the internet saying on a positive front? 

[00:18:57] Nothing 

[00:18:58] Scott: [00:18:58] about the coronavirus. This specific segment is geared towards our show in our community and our, our group of people. So specifically the Facebook group mostly, and yeah. I just want to give a quick shout out to

[00:19:10] Billy Considine constantly. Hey Billy, he wrote, excited to join this group. I checked out playing with fire from my local library and it was my intro to the five movement. That is my favorite. I am so excited because that is a big reason why we wanted to do this, was to try to continue to open those doors for people to find what we found, and this is my second favorite thing, and.

[00:19:32] Maybe my favorite thing that he wrote. He wrote. Since then, I've been bingeing content from mr money mustache and choose fi. Perfect. Hashtag grateful. So good. I'm so excited for him. I know that feeling. We did the same bingeing and I'm jealous. I'm jealous that he's bingeing mr money mustache and choose fi right now with fresh eyes with restaurants.

[00:19:51] It is a good time. We might want to go revisit some of that stuff because it's a great time to do that, unfortunately, but it is. It's a great time to to know. No, why you spend money and what you spend money on, and getting your finances in order and understanding how to invest that money so that you can take control of your finances.

[00:20:10] I'm grateful for you, Billy. Thanks for writing that. That's awesome. And thank you, Doug. Thank you, Doug Nords if you're listening Nords the Nords man, the military guy, Doug Nordmann, he's a great friend and he and Marge were out over in Portugal and we were doing Chautauqua last year and he came and joined us in Hawaii when we were there.

[00:20:28] Yeah. And 

[00:20:29] Taylor: [00:20:29] we actually kind of joined him cause he lives in Hawaii. 

[00:20:31] Scott: [00:20:31] That's true. That's a very good point. Thank you. We joined him over there and he was so gracious to give us time. And he mentioned on the Facebook group that Honnalei had a little incident again, another flood. Yeah. And I didn't know that.

[00:20:47] I had not heard that. That has not made the news. Obviously there's been some things competing with it, so I'm really glad that he shared that with us. And fortunately, the our friends that are over there, they're okay. And it sounds like everybody's okay and that is a resilient community. We saw that firsthand.

[00:21:01] We were a part of that when they had a major flood a couple of years ago when we were there. And it's just crazy that that's happening again. Hopefully they can find some ways to fix that river issue and a cause that they get a lot of rain over there. It's one of the radius places on earth, and that's not going to stop.

[00:21:17] So I hope they figure that out, but we send a over to a huddled Lake also, real quick. We've had over a hundred people sign up for stick. That's awesome. I think that's incredible. That's so cool. I didn't know if anyone would use it and I hope people are liking it. I'm curious what people think about it.

[00:21:32] Yeah. Just about the app in general? Yeah, the app in general. What's working for them? What's not. Cause stick is incredibly open to feedback. They want it, they're craving it. It feels like they're there. It's been such a joy to work with them. So we would love your feedback. If you are using stick and you have been using it to stick to your challenges, we're curious if it's working, we're curious what you find, right?

[00:21:54] Wrong, good, bad. Let us know. We can let them know and hopefully we can continue to improve the apnea experience and these challenges in the future. So. I think that's awesome. I love it. And if a hundred people actually downloaded the app, there's probably a whole bunch of other people that have loosely done some grit, gratitude stuff and just didn't feel like they needed the app.

[00:22:10] Totally. So that means it's worthwhile to hit record. 

[00:22:14] Taylor: [00:22:14] Yeah, there's more than four. And I feel like that's more than our parents. That's when I feel like that's a win. That's right. Yeah. Cause we just want to spread the love. 

[00:22:21] Scott: [00:22:21] That's all we want to do. Yeah. Well, if you're joining us on this challenge or if you haven't yet, please follow us on Instagram at play with fire co or join our Facebook group, facebook.com forward slash plan with fire.

[00:22:31] We'll get you to do our page. And from there you can find the group and sign up for stick that stick with two Ks and a Ford slash playing with fire. If you'd like to take these 21 day gratitude challenges on for yourself, you can do it anytime. It doesn't matter that you're listening to this a year from now, a month from now, you can sign up on stick and take a 21 day gratitude challenge on your own.

[00:22:53] And we recommend you do because we've loved it, other than the times that we haven't done it at all. Yeah. And all the info you need to get started will be in the show notes. Let us know how things are going so far, please. And finally, I would say, you know. We are definitely going to do another challenge.

[00:23:10] There's no question about it, but we are going to take a week off. We need to, we feel like we need a week. Yeah, right. Yeah. We've got some stuff. We've got to take care of this. This thing's crazy, and we're going to take at least a week. Let's say that because it sounds like we're gonna be stuck in our homes for a while and things are going to get gnarly.

[00:23:26] But I think for now we just need to kind of see how things shake out a bit. Right? Totally. Yeah. But you and I have decided we're going to really look at our list of, of future challenges, and we're going to try to find one that works really well 

[00:23:42] Taylor: [00:23:42] times. I'm excited. 

[00:23:43] Scott: [00:23:43] Yeah. Well, don't share it yet. It's going to be a secret.

[00:23:46] Yeah. So we love you guys for listening. Thank you so much. It's re, it's been so fun to do this. And even though we were dreading hitting record tonight, because of all of the craziness going on in the world. By the time we're done recording right now. I feel like I feel good that we did. Yeah, me too. I'm happy we did.

[00:24:03] Okay. If you're enjoying this show, please tap the subscribe button on Apple podcasts. Overcast, Google podcast, Stitcher pod bean, PocketCasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening and consider leaving us a review. That would be amazing. Okay. You ready to go wash your hands and hit the hay? 

[00:24:18] Taylor: [00:24:18] Yes, I really am.

[00:24:20] Scott: [00:24:20] I love you.

[00:24:24] Yay.

How this works:

Each month, we will explore a new mental, physical or fiscal challenge, together. With beginner, intermediate and expert level tiers and built-in accountability, there will be something for everyone. It's time to uncouple our self worth from our net worth so we can all live a rich, happy and fulfilled life.

I’ve teamed up with my beautiful wife and friend, Taylor, to take on these challenges and experiment together. I should let you know, she is reluctant, slightly nervous and maybe a little annoyed about this whole thing. So, this should be a good time. We are committing to 12 months, 12 challenges, 21 days a piece. We are going to test new ways to live better, together. 

So we hope you join us each week as we learn, improve and break things. We will take inspiration from many sources, but we’ve leaned on James Clear and his lessons from his book, “Atomic Habits” to guide us in constructing these challenges. 

Starting next week, we will be announcing the first challenge. Here’s how this will work. We’ve modeled each challenge around the Habit Loop. There are 4 phases of the Habit Loop, The Cue, The Craving, The Response and The Reward. According to James, “The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits.” 

So, we will cue up a problem you likely face in your daily life, motivate you to crave a solution, develop the plan to respond to this problem with a solution and by accomplishing this response, reward you with a new habit! To be more specific, I’ll cover each week in more detail. We will use the first challenge we have planned, “Gratitude” as an example.

Week 1, we will setup and discuss practicing gratitude, how it works, how it applies to our lives, why it’s important, and various experts take on gratitude. This is known as the Cue. We will make it abundantly clear and obvious why adapting gratitude habits will be a good use of your time. We will discuss what we are looking forward to, our concerns, how you can join us, what, if anything, you’ll need to participate, and additional listening and reading opportunities on the topic at hand.

Week 2 will Cue the challenge, rules, specific levels (Beginner, Intermediate, Expert), tips and strategies and announce our personal plans for the challenge. We will also kick off the challenge on social and Stickk, our preferred accountability platform. This is the kickoff!

Week 3, we will bring in an expert or discuss our own findings, or both. We will cover how we feel, what’s working, what’s not, and ask you to weigh in as well!

Week 4, the final week, we’ll celebrate our success! Review our pros and cons, and decide whether to make it a habit or not, discuss what we’ve learned from the experience, how we’ve benefitted (or regressed). All the things! We will also share ways to continue with the challenge, and turn it into a lifestyle choice if you so choose. 

Each challenge will run 21 days, with a week break in between. 21 days is widely misinterpreted as the length in which it takes to develop a habit. The reality is, a habit can be formed anywhere from 18 to 254 days, depending on the person, environment or habit in question. In other words, we likely won’t be developing these habits into action in 21 days. This whole experiment is meant to be a launching pad. I keep hearing about new ideas, trends, diets, practices that are designed to improve your life, but I often feel these go in one ear and out the other and end up as a stack of “I should be doing this”, eventually making me feel even worse about all the things I SHOULD be doing, but am not. This podcast is aimed to take that pressure off, and gives us a place to give those things a shot. Eventually, we hope to redefine ourselves as fear facing, norm busting badasses.

Join our Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/playingwithfire/

Create an account on Stickk at https://www.stickk.com/playingWithFire and join us as we take monthly challenges head on!

Watch our documentary today!

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Playing with Fire showcases a growing subculture known as FIRE, that embraces frugality and financial optimization to achieve financial independence. Follow one family’s journey to acquire the one thing that money can’t buy: a simpler — and happier — life.

Visit our website for more in-depth information about the podcast and FIRE: Financial Independence Retire Early: https://www.playingwithfire.co/