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Away We Go We Go follows the journey of Sophie & Jordan Epton, an American couple who moved to France with their 10-month old twins, and the crazy adventure that follows. We dive deep into what it's really like moving and living abroad as expats, interview others who have taken the road less traveled, provide travel tips, discuss how you can do hard things to change your own life, and everything in between.
A year and a half ago, we risked it all and moved to France. We'll be sharing about our life abroad, how people could do hard things to transform their own lives, and everything in between. This is Sophie and Jordan Eptin. Welcome to the Away We Go We Go podcast. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Away We Go, We Go podcast.
Sophie:I am solo today because Jordan has... Well, let's be honest, left me for dead with the twins to travel back to The States for a week. It just happens to be his birthday. And I'm like, this is your birthday present. He's wrangling these feral kids.
Sophie:I don't know what is going on. They were so amazing. Like the last month, they were such a joy to be around. And the last, like, I wanna say four or five days, we've turned a switch again and they are wild. So, you know, it makes sense that would all time out.
Sophie:I know that he'll be back to talk more about his crazy travels because he, of course, had quite the adventure getting there. So because this podcast episode is coming out on Jordan's birthday, I actually wanted to talk about something very special that we did just last weekend. So last weekend, Jordan and I planned for something that we don't nearly do enough. We stopped. We completely stopped.
Sophie:We left our kids with my parents for twenty four hours. And we went to go talk about our lives. It was not really about our to do list, not anything to do with the chaos of our day to day, but what we want our lives to really be. And we called it our twenty twenty six Summit. And it wasn't fancy.
Sophie:It wasn't perfect, but it was incredibly intentional. And I know that it's going to completely change how we're walking into this year. So today, I just wanted to pull back the curtain on what this summit looks like, why I think everyone needs one, whether you are dreaming about moving abroad or you're just trying to feel less scattered and more goal oriented in your life and how you can create your own starting exactly where you are. So buckle up buttercups, grab your pen and paper, and let's go. So for the last, I would say, five to six years, Jordan and I have been really, really intentional about how we plan towards the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
Sophie:It has been game changing for us. It has been kind of everything because we've taken the time to really look at, you know, what we've been doing, what we want going forward, and how we're going to get there. We've done everything from creating vision boards to just reflecting on the year, creating some really big goals. And I truly believe that because of what we've always done in the past, this is the only reason that we continue to move forward and achieve our goals in a fairly short timeline. This is how we were able to do everything that we did to move abroad and the way that we've been able to plan out our businesses and just all of these really important life things.
Sophie:Because especially if you have kids, a crazy job, you know, a mortgage, you're getting in your car every day to drive to work, whatever it is, like life can get really crazy and you can get stuck in just kind of the hamster wheel of it all. And yes, I even say that living in France because as much as I would love to say that every day I'm walking to a cafe and drinking wine because I have kids, because I have a schedule where, you know, we have to drive them to their school and we have to get work done in between all these times and all the things like our lives feel that way too. So I think it's just really important to create this very intentional date with yourself, with your spouse, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your friends, whatever it may be, to really take a pause, take a beat, and think about what you want your life to really look like and how you're going to get there. So Jordan and I knew that we wanted to essentially create a summit this year. This is the first time we've ever done something like this.
Sophie:We've heard other friends talk about it, but I think this year was the year that we were like, we have to do something like this because life is so crazy. And we have really big goals and plans that are happening behind the scenes that we want to work on and that will absolutely... Like we need space and time away from our beautiful but very energetic twins who require a lot of our time. So we actually ended up talking with my mom and I said, you know, could you watch the kids for an overnight? And by the way, can we also just switch places so we can go to your lovely apartment that's very quiet and just have twenty four hours to just talk, plan, write things down of it.
Sophie:They said, of course, yes. And so it was amazing because we were able to leave the kids with my parents and then we drove up to their house. And I think by the time we got there, it was 02:00 in the afternoon and we we were working from two to eleven at night. And we got a lot done. And so I kind of just wanted to break this down for you because it was just such a different experience being able to go beyond just your vision board, which I do think is extremely important to have these visions and write things down and have them in your mirror and all these things that help you to step into the person that you want to become.
Sophie:But to be able to have, to kick off the year with this much time is the best thing in the world. And by the way, we're only in January right now. So this can be done anytime. So I also wanted to say too, like there's nothing about this that's fancy retreat or luxury. Mean, you could obviously do those things if that is what motivates you.
Sophie:But I think at the end of the day, you just need space, you need intention, and you need time. And that's really the idea. So in terms of summits, I think that we all have big dreams, right? And we all think about things that we want to do. But until you actually sit down and look at how you're going to accomplish these things week over week, month over month, to get to your year, it sort of lives in this gray space, right?
Sophie:It's like, I want to get a new job or I want to move abroad or I really want to get in shape and work out this year. But literally none of that is going to happen until you sit down, decide what these finite goals are going to be, and then decide how you're going to wrap your calendar around us. That's really like the biggest thing because you have to align a lot of different goals, especially if you're thinking about personal or family or work goals. You have to make sure you're carving all of that out. When we first sat down, the first thing we did was a reflection of the year.
Sophie:So I think this is really important because you use that as data for how you want your life to be. So for instance, for me, one of my bigger goals last year and one that I completely failed at, like I'll be honest, was that I really have an addiction to sugar. Like it seems small, but especially living in France, there is sugar everywhere. The chocolate is amazing. The pastries, like all the things.
Sophie:My husband is the ultimate enabler. So he's constantly bringing home all of these breads and sweets and it's too much. And so last year, I started off back in April. I did like this... Our seventy five Hard, Hard seventy five, whatever it is, where you do like seventy five days and you have a goal and you hit it every single day.
Sophie:And so my whole thing was I wanted to walk 10,000 steps a day and not eat sugar. And that worked really, really well for me for about two months. I felt like really good. I felt like I looked like a healthier version of myself. I feel like I looked kind of like less puffy, all the things.
Sophie:But the problem was is that because I hadn't eaten sugar for two months, I went to London for my birthday. And like literally the sugar touched my lips during a high tea and it was... I was a goner. And so I feel like I just kind of slipped back into it and I didn't really have the plan that I wanted. And I think I went way too hard last year, whereas this year I wanted to be intentional about I'm allowing myself sugar like once a week for dessert, but that's kind of what I want to do.
Sophie:Right? So even just little things to very big macro things. You want to think about these things about what worked, what didn't, you know, be honest with yourself. Maybe there's something that you really wanted to happen, but it didn't happen in the way you wanted or you went for something, but it didn't quite pan out in the way you thought. So it's just good to reflect.
Sophie:And our motto too in this household certainly is fail forward. We're very much into it's better to try something, to fail and to learn from it and to keep going than I think to be too scared to put your toe in the pond of life and experience and adventure. Right? So that's the first thing. The other thing too, when you're really looking back and you're reflecting is where did you feel like you were the most alive?
Sophie:Like your cup was the most full versus what were the things that really, really drained you and made you really unhappy? And I think just being able to list out those things also brings a lot of clarification to what you want in your life going forward. The next best thing is to start thinking about your dreams and your goals and what you want to do for the year. So being able to just list out what are your top goals. List all the goals that you want in life, even if you think it may not happen in the next year, but we're going to take steps towards it.
Sophie:For instance, my mom, she was the one that originally inspired me years ago to always make a list at New Year's about goals and all these things. And this is where this kind of all kicked off. And I remember she told me that for ten years, she wrote down that she wanted to retire in France. And obviously it took ten years. It didn't happen year one, year two, year three.
Sophie:But because she wrote it down, it was constantly on her mind. Their lives started to slowly work towards that. They took the right jobs that allowed them to figure out their retirement a little bit earlier. They were really watching the market to see when they could sell their house and then be able to buy something here. Like all of these things, it just essentially, it just is sort of, like if you think about a radio, right?
Sophie:And you think about your frequencies that are coming in and out of a radio, humans are the same way. And I will die on that hill. We have a frequency, what we put out, and the more that we talk about something, the more that it's going to come back to us, right? So just think about that. Write down every single thing that you could think of that is just...
Sophie:It's a dream for you. And you know, like I said, no filters. You don't need to put a budget to it yet. Just what you want, whether it's something for your family, work and income goals, a location or lifestyle desire, like whatever it is, start writing that down. And then I think from there, you can decide what your priorities are that really matter for the year.
Sophie:Because you can look through everything and you can say, hey, I know that, like for me personally, one of the things I would always love, I've always wanted to own a house in Italy, like in Tuscany, because I spent my college years in Tuscany. I love it there too. And so it'd be like a little vacation home, right? For me, that's something that I will always write down as a goal, but it's not something that realistically, I probably think is going to happen this coming year. Although it's also good to set like crazy goals for yourself too, because when you...
Sophie:The crazier and more delusional you can be, the more that you are bringing into your frequency and the way that you're like moving through life. Right? And the faster you actually will get to that. But what I will say is it's best then if you really decide what your top three to five priorities are for the year, what matters most right now, and also what can wait. So just knowing there's certain things like we looked at all these different places that we wanted to travel to this year.
Sophie:But then we also looked at what are our goals this year, financially and work wise and with our family. And so there's definitely, you know, realistically, there are some places that we really want to go to, but that we'll have to put on, I wouldn't say the back burner, but just what we know that it'll probably happen in the next two to three years, not this year, right? So just thinking about those things and just being, you know, somewhat realistic. Again, I still am a huge believer in being delusional about your own life because the only cap that we have is what we put on ourselves. Right?
Sophie:But I also think that when you make decisions about what you're going to do, you're going to create freedom. So when you are also planning all of these things out, I want you to write down your answers to these five questions. And they're really important because I think sometimes in life, when there's hard things in front of us, it's our brain's way of protecting us by kind of like shutting down a bit. But if we really dig deep and we have time during a summit to sit in the quiet and think about what do we really want and what are we being open about exposing ourselves and being vulnerable? I think these are some of the really important questions because I think the more that you can be honest with yourself and reflect, the more that you can move forward in a really truthful, authentic way, which is so important, I think, to finding a lot of happiness and joy in your life and achieving your goals and all of these things.
Sophie:So question number one, if this year was successful, what would be true by December 2026 or whatever year you're doing this? But I hope it's this year. Number two, what are we saying yes to that we secretly want to say no to? This is a question that for me personally has bit me in the ass many times. There is a huge part of me that, you know, it's like you want to say yes to everything.
Sophie:Of course you do, because it's fun to feel like you're part of things or that, you know, if it's for your job, especially if you're owning a business or you're doing sales or whatever, certain things that are like coming in all the time, it's like you want all the wins. Right? But for me, I'm really realizing it now is that when you say yes to everything and you don't say no, especially when... If it's not like a emphatic yes, then it should be a hell no. Right?
Sophie:I've heard that many, many times and it finally clicked with me within the last, I would say like year or two, because what I would notice is I would say yes to certain things and then there'd be something else that came along that I really wanted to be a part of or whatever it was, but I'd already committed, over committed really to saying yes to something else. And so I think it's like the biggest point of this is that if it aligns with you and it's really important to you and your energy like can handle it, you absolutely need to do it. If it's a hell yes, you have to be a part of it. But if it's just sort of like an obligation or it just doesn't feel super aligned with where you are or especially like where you want to go, right? That's kind of hard to say no to certain things because you know your future and what you want it to look like.
Sophie:That can be really hard. But it's so important because the more that you're saying yes to things that are aligned with you, like the more that you are lining yourself up to move in that direction to become that person and achieve those goals that you want to. Right? Number three, what does our ideal week actually look like? This one is so important too because...
Sophie:And we'll get more into this in a moment, but your calendar is everything. Like when I say that my most successful moments of my life have been because I live and die by my calendar, it's the truth. And especially when you start adding on, you know, if you have an intense job, you start adding on kids, you have other responsibilities that take up time, whatever it is, and it makes your life extremely, I would say, contained in all these different things that you have to figure out where you're going to carve that time out and really protect your calendar. It's so vital. It's so important.
Sophie:So just being able to speak to what does your ideal week actually look like? Because the more that you can kind of design and plan for that, the more it's going to start transforming into that. Right? Number four is what kind of parents or partners or friends do we want to be this year? I think that one thing, especially when you talk about your dreams and your goals and who you want to become, so much of it can get wrapped up in, you know, like a work goal or an income goal or a fitness goal.
Sophie:Those are all extremely important. And trust me, I go over those every single year. But one thing that's really changed for me, especially since becoming a mom is I really think about like, do I want my children to experience this year? Whether it's how I'm reacting as a parent or whether it's something that I want to plan for the family to do or whatever it is, I think it's really important that you think about those things and think about what also in your world, in your schedule, and your goals is going to support that too. And then the last question I think that's also really important to ask is what's the brave thing that we're avoiding?
Sophie:And I can't speak about this enough is that when you know, everyone knows, you have that, whether it's a gut feeling or that little voice that's speaking to you and it's under the surface, it's part of your like conscious, subconscious, it's always there. But you know that if you were to listen to it, it would require a lot or it would be scary to jump into this space of the unknown. Whatever it may be, it's really important that you be vulnerable with yourself and you think about that and you confront that part of you. Because what I've noticed with essentially anyone who's done this, myself included, is that when something is even like starts as a whisper, but it's a constant whisper in your life about something that you want to be doing, you need to listen to it and you need to confront it head on and you need to figure out how you're going to do it. It's so important.
Sophie:And the people that I know that have done this have transformed their lives because they're so much happier listening to that little voice inside of them instead of pushing it away, even though it may mean a lot of work or stepping into your fears and being brave and all of those things. So it's... Yeah. I would say if you can take a minute to pause, write down these questions, and then really take some time to think within these and reflect. So then once you have a lot of this really nailed down, You're writing all this down.
Sophie:You have a much more clear picture of the goals that you want in life, the things that you want to leave behind in the year past, what you want to move forward to in this coming year. The next thing that you want to do is really look at your calendar. You need to do a huge calendar audit because your life, like I said, if it's not on your calendar, you're not making a date with yourself, you're not committing to yourself in all these different ways, it's not going to happen. You're not going to have these consistent appointments that are happening over and over and over again, which is also really important to our brains that when we say we're going to do something, we do it because it's our brain taking note of that and being like, I am this person. Right?
Sophie:So the first thing that Jordan and I did, which I thought was important, is that we looked at our calendar and we thought about the personal goals that we wanted to achieve with our family. And we made dates on the calendar for that. I think that when you're working and you're planning all these big life goals, starting a business, whatever it is, traveling with your family or spending, you know, maybe you want to spend more like movie nights together or whatever it is. If you're, you know, solo and you want to have more time for yourself and go get your nails done more or go hiking three times a week or whatever it is, right? But it's really important that you carve that out first because if you don't, I feel like it's going to fall to the wayside just in terms of everything else that you will obviously put on your calendar.
Sophie:So for us, that one of our big goals this year is just a lot more travel with the kids. So we're going to start out small starting in February and try to get them on several train rides every month for little day trips. They're definitely getting on more flights this year, including a big flight back to The United States. We'll see how this all goes, but we're doing it. But just putting those things in, that's really important.
Sophie:And then also, we made a goal this year that we, you know, we work out at home a lot and we... Especially I feel like after COVID, I tended to want to work out more at home and I got into that mindset. And so it was kind of hard for me to break out. But Jordan and I both talked about it and we were like, we really want to join a gym this year. It's been forever.
Sophie:It's been six years since we were part of a gym since COVID, and we quit our gym membership. And because there's just things that, like, we know we've plateaued on, and and also it would create almost a little date for us three times a week. We wrote that down, and we wrote down the days and the time that we wanted to go. And it's been amazing because we scheduled it in. We scheduled in when we would go to get our gym membership.
Sophie:And we have been really consistent so far in going three days a week. It's been phenomenal. And it just makes us feel so good already. And for me, I know that this is because we're doing all of these things and we're creating these appointments with ourselves. This is something that we're not going to drop because we didn't just say it out into the stratosphere like, Hey, we're going to, you know, work out more.
Sophie:We'll figure it out. No, we're creating concrete steps, actionable steps and time in our calendar that we're getting this done and scheduling this out. So just things like that, really important to do for yourself. After you get those personal goals, travel, whatever blocked out in your calendar, then you want to take all of those other goals that have to do more with your work, bigger life goals, whatever that is. And that's when you're going to take more action within your calendar for that too.
Sophie:So what this often looks like, let's say for instance that you are maybe working a nine to five and you want to start a business, it's looking at your calendar and you are carving out time. So maybe it's after work, you might have to do more nights. Maybe you schedule an hour a night to do X, Y, and Z to help further your career or further a move to a different country. It's just figuring out how you're going to time them really well. And for me, something that was really clarifying was that when we did this, because one of my biggest gripes is just how my personal calendar has felt really wonky in the last year.
Sophie:So essentially because Jordan would do drop off in the mornings for the kids, which takes way too much time, you guys. It takes like two hours right now with traffic and we're trying to figure it all out. But... And then it takes two hours for me at night. It really takes a huge chunk of our day away between that and then scheduling everything else we wanted.
Sophie:What I really figured out was my new schedule. And so I was able to look at like the things that I know I need to work on, my dream things that I'm working towards, and then just more practical things like keeping up with emails, the things that don't require quite as much brainpower. But so what I decided to do for myself was I had two hour block in the morning that I consider my power hour. My power hour essentially is time where I get up and I really work on the things that I want to move the needle forward on. Right?
Sophie:I'm working on things that I am dreaming about and working on. This is the schedule that actually makes me feel really aligned and it's going to be different for everyone, right? Whatever your schedule is with work and everything else you have going on in your life, you are going to take the time to figure out what looks good and feels good to you. And then you can create everything from there. And we put everything in Google Calendar.
Sophie:It has made such a difference already. It's only been two weeks, but I feel like it's going to continue on through the year, like I said, because we're making appointments and it's... It's awesome. So just think about those things and really deep dive in. And then the last thing that was really important that we did was we looked at where we are in January and where we want to be in December.
Sophie:And we literally created a playbook of month to month, quarter to quarter, what that all looked like and the steps that we were going to take in order to achieve those things. Now, I know it can potentially feel a little bit overwhelming to design what your whole year is going to like. But just think of it as this living, breathing idea that can change and expand and move when you need it to. But the idea is that you are putting in what you think needs to happen every single month in order to get from point A to point Z. Right?
Sophie:So for us, we really looked at, in January, we need to get this done to move the needle forward. In February, we need to get this done to move the needle forward, and so on and so forth. I think it also makes it so that when you're thinking of a really big goal and it can feel... And I think that's one of the things too that can kind of turn people off from wanting to go for it, is that there's a lot of fear about, especially if you have a really big goal, really like wild thing that you're just like, I don't even know how this is going to get done. Well, this is, I think, how it really does get done is that you create small, actionable steps every single day consistently.
Sophie:And by looking at the calendar during your summit and looking at what needs to happen each month to get through the year to get you to December to make this a reality, you essentially can take whatever those steps are, and you can also input them into your calendar in a way that you can make sure this week we're going to focus on this. This week we're going to focus on this. If you can take the time to just really focus in and really create something, you have a literal blueprint, a roadmap for where your life is supposed to go for the rest of the year. And you've done so much of the work to set yourself up. Right?
Sophie:I think about this analogy, starting a routine, whatever it is, it's not about the actual routine. It's about almost like getting your shoes on, tying your shoelaces, and going. And so I think if you have your calendar so well planned out to the point where you just... It's not about you making a decision and thinking about if you need to do something. It's literally just looking at the calendar and being like, okay, this is what's on the calendar today.
Sophie:This is what I'm working on. And it creates a lot less friction for your brain to be like, oh, I don't know. What are we going to do? All this and that. It's just like, okay, this is what we're working on.
Sophie:And even if it's hard, like I'm going to figure this out. So that... That's something that Jordan and I have done somewhat for years. But this year, we did such a deep dive on it. And I'm so excited about what we've created going forward for the next year.
Sophie:And I think it's going to be extremely helpful in changing a lot of our lives and our goals. And I think the thing too, that if you do this for yourself, you're going to surprise yourself with not only what you come up with, but how, in a lot of ways, easy it's going to feel once you really break it down. It adds so much to your life. And some things can be surprising to you too. Like when you really question and you go deep with yourself and you ask yourself what you really want, what you really don't want, maybe there's going be a goal that you didn't expect to prioritize, but you're like, oh, actually that's really important to me and it's going to bring a lot more joy to my life.
Sophie:And also just the more that you can find clarity and feel that emotionally, the more that you are going to connect with how you're timing things and how you're getting your goals done. And I think there's so much of it that can bring like huge sense of relief and excitement to your life. And of course, when you step into big goals, it's our brains way of protecting us by pulling fear up. But truly, when you think about anything amazing that was ever accomplished in this world, it didn't happen because someone knew what the fuck they were doing. It's because they decided to take the first step.
Sophie:Right? And so I think once you plan this calendar out and you take the first step and then you take another step and another, you're proving to yourself that this is who you are. This is where you're going. And it makes it much easier to get to that goal that you're wanting. So for all the listeners out there, I challenge you to create your own summit this year with some simple steps.
Sophie:So obviously, we went through what is really, I think, a great way to deep dive into it. But essentially, it doesn't have to be this grand thing that feels almost like maybe even obligation, whatever. Make it fun. Pick a date. Protect that time.
Sophie:It's a date on the calendar. You're doing this. If you're doing this solo, I think it's so much more fun to do it with a friend too because then you're both held accountable to each other. And then choose a location. Now some people would say, choose a location, can even be your living room.
Sophie:But I beg to differ. I think it's really good if you can, of course, if you can afford it or you can figure out a way to do it, like, get away. Go somewhere away from your house because your house is like there's too many familiar things. And I feel like when you're going through such a deep dive into yourself, it's good to be in an environment that is quiet, makes you feel good that isn't home because it turns your brain on in a different way. And you're less distracted by what's already happening at home.
Sophie:And then bring a notebook, bring a laptop, whatever you need, along with all these questions, and then bring an open mind with yourself. I think just being able to do this work and to plan this out is one of the greatest gifts that you can possibly do for yourself because it's being disciplined and creating these moments, these appointments with yourself, being consistent. It is the greatest form of self love that you can possibly have because you're showing up for yourself. It's easy to show up for everyone else. It's much harder to show up for yourself.
Sophie:But I think when you can create, you know, a true roadmap for yourself for the year, it really makes it so much easier to have that consistency with yourself and to keep building yourself up in that way. It's the best thing ever. I feel like when it comes to this summit, it's going be life changing for us this year. I hope that you can do it too. And it's life changing for you.
Sophie:Some words that I'll leave you with is that life doesn't really change generally by accident. Of course, those things can happen. You never know. But when you're moving through life and you think about what you want and how you want to achieve it, it happens because it's a plan. You know, your life is worth a pause and your dreams are worth a plan.
Sophie:So I will leave you with that today. I'm happy to answer any questions about it. So pop in the DMs on Instagram or TikTok if you want to know a little bit more about what we did for our Summit. So guys, thank you so much for your time today. I hope this was inspiring.
Sophie:I hope that you feel like you want to create a Summit of your own. And I'm really excited to hear from you and see what the transformations are this year. Happy 2026, the year of the fire horse. Let's go.