Hello and welcome to the Empowered Couples podcast. You're going to be hanging out with me,

Jocelyn Freeman, on one of our solo episodes. If you're new to listening, we take turns every

other week doing one solo episode and then one together. And today you and I are going to be talking

about those times when you feel like you're really trying to grow in the relationship,

but your partner isn't taking as much initiative.

And this episode will really resonate if you also feel like you've really been trying

to grow in the relationship, but challenges are still coming up.

So if you fall into those two places, this episode is really going to speak to you.

And my hope is that

by the end, you're encouraged. You feel like there is something you can do differently besides get

kind of down and discouraged. And I think this episode is important because so many of us, when we

go down this path of self-development, of wanting to work on the relationship,

wanting to gain skills, it almost can become at this point where we're so aware of the times

where we're not our best. Like sometimes, you know, quote unquote, ignorance is bliss.

But when we go down this path of self-awareness and relationship awareness,

we can notice when it's not as great. Whereas before it might have just become, you know,

normal like, oh, this is just how we are. And so I want you to know that you are on this journey

and it is a lifelong journey. It isn't a sprint. It really is a marathon to continue to grow

in your relationship. And so the first point I want to make here is that progress in anything

in life, right? You could apply this to progress in your health, progress in your business, progress

in your family. But really today in your

relationship, it is not a straight line. And so if you have felt like, man, we were in, you know,

...