Matter of Facts: Being Thankful

[00:00:00] Alright guys, it is probably like the most repetitive, stereotypical topic to do this time of year. But I posed the question to both Andrew and Nick of like, what are y'all thankful for? And I think that, you know, like Gillian and I talked about on Raising Values this past weekend, like, it's really important, always, but especially at times when things like when it seems like nothing's going right, that we count our blessings.

[00:00:26] So what's going to follow for the next couple of minutes is just me and Nick and Andrew, my co-hosts, telling y'all in our words like what we're thankful for, what we are valuing right now, what we're treasuring. And I mean, I would encourage y'all to ask yourselves the same question. Share it amongst yourselves in the patron group, share it amongst yourselves in the Facebook group. I will probably poke my head in and see what y'all are thinking about.

[00:00:50] But I think what's most important right now is to, you know, just kind of take that moment to check in on yourself and ask, what are you thankful for?

[00:00:59] Hey everybody, Andrew from Matter of Facts Podcast.

[00:01:03] Phil had a good idea to hop on and just kind of explain or talk about Thanksgiving or what we're thankful for.

[00:01:14] But yeah, I'm thankful for the Patreons. You guys definitely knock it out of the park with supporting us every single month, week, day, whatever it is.

[00:01:26] You guys really help support the show and without you guys, this would not be possible at all.

[00:01:31] And you guys, without you, would it be possible with everything that we've accomplished this far, even though we're still pretty small.

[00:01:40] It's been about eight years. But I'm also thankful Nick. He has been knocking it out of the park as well.

[00:01:47] I've stepped away just for some personal reasons. I got a lot going on in personal life.

[00:01:53] I've just been busy with work and everything. And yeah, just been really busy.

[00:01:57] So I, unfortunately, I haven't been around very much. Hopefully I can come back and do a couple shows again here shortly.

[00:02:06] But I'm also thankful for family, my friends, all that I've got in life.

[00:02:13] Josh and Karina, you guys are always there when I need you.

[00:02:19] Been great, great friends. Fun to get you guys into the prepping world.

[00:02:24] And, you know, Uncle Randy, Aunt Doris, you guys have always made it fun to kind of hang out.

[00:02:33] And you got me into the prepping world. So that's always a good time.

[00:02:37] But I just want to thank my girlfriend, Maya.

[00:02:40] She's been really inspirational, really pushes me to do something that I want to do.

[00:02:47] Really pushed me to pursue other avenues that kind of led out of this and hopefully make something of it.

[00:02:57] But, you know, if I forgot you by name, don't feel left out.

[00:03:02] I'm extremely grateful.

[00:03:04] Phil, Gillian, and everybody.

[00:03:07] So really appreciate all the friends that we've made, that I've made along this.

[00:03:13] And hopefully it keeps on going and we'll see where it takes us.

[00:03:16] I hope everybody has a good Thanksgiving and talk to y'all later. Bye.

[00:03:20] Hey, everybody. Nick here.

[00:03:22] Phil had a pretty great idea.

[00:03:24] Wanted us to come on for a couple of minutes and talk about what we're thankful for.

[00:03:29] Given the Thanksgiving Day and all that.

[00:03:34] First of all, I'd like to say thank you to all you guys.

[00:03:40] This has been a lot of fun.

[00:03:42] Getting to come on here once a week and have a chat, talk about interesting things and get feedback from you guys.

[00:03:48] I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would have.

[00:03:54] That said, I cannot truly express the gratitude I have for my friends and family.

[00:04:06] My family's always been extremely supportive of myself and the rest of each other.

[00:04:14] My friends as well.

[00:04:18] It is not something I talk about a whole lot, but I have a pretty extensive family in this area.

[00:04:32] And we see each other a lot.

[00:04:35] This year, we had some losses in my wife's family.

[00:04:40] And they'll be missed, especially coming up here for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[00:04:46] I hope all you guys are able to get home to see family.

[00:04:52] If you still have family around.

[00:04:55] And if not, hopefully you can get together with some friends.

[00:05:00] Depending on what time you're listening to this, I'll probably be at one of our Thanksgiving celebrations, of which there are several.

[00:05:09] So, I will probably, if it's late enough in the evening, I may be in a turkey and gravy induced coma, which is just fantastic.

[00:05:26] Hopefully, this finds you all very well.

[00:05:30] And sorry we don't have an episode this week.

[00:05:33] We're going to be coming back next week.

[00:05:35] Don't know what the topic's going to be.

[00:05:36] We're going to have to sort that out.

[00:05:39] I'll talk to you guys then.

[00:05:40] Have a happy Thanksgiving.

[00:05:41] Now, the list of things that I'm thankful for is going to sound eye-rolling, sappy, and very, very stereotypical.

[00:05:53] But, like, I'm really thankful for my family.

[00:05:56] My wife has been instrumental in pushing me along this journey as I've been podcasting and doing content creation and being an author.

[00:06:08] And she's supported me throughout my career.

[00:06:11] She's supported me in everything I've ever tried to do.

[00:06:14] Like, there's, you know, the two of us came to a conclusion very early in our marriage that we both have, we both had goals.

[00:06:22] We both had things we wanted to accomplish.

[00:06:24] And when the load gets a little heavy, we're both there to support each other no matter what it is, no matter what it takes.

[00:06:32] So that each one of us can achieve everything we've set out to achieve.

[00:06:36] And she has, we, we, she and I could debate for hours about who's gotten the better end of that deal.

[00:06:43] But I can say that, like, I would not have been able to do half the things I've done over the last eight years in this journey without her constantly there to give me the encouragement I need when I'm feeling defeated or to give me some gentle guidance when I'm a little lost.

[00:07:01] Or sometimes just to get me out of my own headspace.

[00:07:04] Like, some of y'all that have met me and talked to me a lot, like y'all know, I'm a very introverted person.

[00:07:10] I'm very, I, I, I spent a lot of time debating things in my head.

[00:07:13] I overthink things to the most incredible degree you can't even imagine.

[00:07:18] And Gillian's usually the one that's there to tap me on the shoulder and say, dummy, you know what you want to do, just go do it.

[00:07:25] She's, she's there to give me that gentle kick to go and do what I, I know I want to do.

[00:07:32] I just can't sometimes figure out how to do it or what the right way to do it is.

[00:07:36] So, to prevent me from falling victim to decision paralysis, I owe that a lot to my wife.

[00:07:43] And, you know, my daughter, she's, she's grown up in a lifestyle that a lot of her friends haven't.

[00:07:50] She's grown up in a family that's not like a lot out of the people around her.

[00:07:54] And I have to admit, it's been kind of interesting to see, it's been interesting to watch her figure out, like, what, which of dad's crazy lessons she takes to heart and which she doesn't.

[00:08:06] But she's always patient with me.

[00:08:09] She's always willing to listen.

[00:08:11] She's always willing to at least hear me out and then make her own decisions, which, frankly, is all I ever wanted from her.

[00:08:17] Like, I don't want a clone.

[00:08:19] I don't want Phil Jr.

[00:08:20] I want a young woman who makes her own decisions and is willing to see them through no matter what the cost is.

[00:08:27] And if she does that, she's already accomplished everything I ever wanted out of my daughter.

[00:08:33] And it's, it is interesting as she progresses from childhood into young adulthood to get a glimmer of who she's going to be going forward.

[00:08:44] But I'm just tickled to death she's let me come along for the ride.

[00:08:49] Um, I'm very thankful for my extended family.

[00:08:53] Some of y'all are included in that.

[00:08:55] Some of the listeners, a lot of the patrons.

[00:08:57] I mean, I talk to y'all more than I do, you know, my, my actual brother that I grew up with a lot of times.

[00:09:03] Um, y'all have been there to simultaneously encourage me and occasionally kick me in the butt when I'm, I'm misstating something or overlooking something.

[00:09:14] There are a few of you who I can good naturedly take when y'all call me like a dumbass or a moron or I can take the criticism because I know it comes from a place of.

[00:09:28] I know it comes from a good place.

[00:09:29] I know that y'all are trying to encourage me to like do whatever this thing is I'm doing the best I can.

[00:09:36] And it would be so easy to like reject those opinions I immediately disagree with and bury myself down in my little echo chamber so that everybody just, you know, whatever Phil says goes.

[00:09:51] But y'all don't do that with me.

[00:09:54] Y'all, y'all call me on my shit.

[00:09:55] If I, if I mess something up, if I overlook something, there's a handful of y'all that are always there to tap me on the shore and be like, hey dummy, you forgot something.

[00:10:06] And even if I don't say it often enough, I really do appreciate that.

[00:10:10] I value it.

[00:10:13] It's kind of a, it's kind of like the, it's favorite uncle, older brother energy sometimes, but I really do value it and I appreciate it.

[00:10:22] And other than that, you know, my family, that extended family, like the things I'm the most thankful for are all of the various blessings.

[00:10:32] Things I know my family has had over the years.

[00:10:35] You know, we're, we, we've worked very hard to progress our careers.

[00:10:40] We've worked very hard to, you know, manage our finances.

[00:10:44] We've worked very hard to do things, quote unquote, the right way, what we felt the right way was.

[00:10:50] And we've certainly profited from that.

[00:10:52] I am not a person that likes to use the word luck very often because I think that to call something lucky kind of overlooks all the hard work that went in along the way.

[00:11:03] But my family and I have been very blessed.

[00:11:05] We're very comfortable.

[00:11:06] We're not rich.

[00:11:07] We're not wealthy people.

[00:11:08] We are not, you know, spur of the moment, go to on, go on a European vacation type of wealthy.

[00:11:14] But we have everything we need.

[00:11:15] We have everything we need to be comfortable.

[00:11:19] We don't, we, we, we've never been in the position or we haven't been in a position in a very long time where I've had to wonder if I have the money in my checking account to cover groceries for the week.

[00:11:29] And I know there's a lot of people out there that are in that situation.

[00:11:32] And I always want them to be the recipient of the blessings I've had to not be in that position ever again.

[00:11:41] So it's for those reasons why at moments like this, it's kind of hard for me to put in words all the things I'm thankful for because the things I'm not thankful for makes a much smaller list.

[00:11:53] I have a great life and it's been the result of a lot of hard work, surrounding myself with a lot of good people who give me great direction.

[00:12:02] It's been the result of coming from a family of people who broke their backs to teach me everything I needed to know to be an adult and gave me all the tools I needed to go and make my way in the world.

[00:12:17] So if I have to say I'm thankful for one thing today on Thanksgiving Day, I'm thankful for the people whose shoulders I stood on to get where I am today.

[00:12:27] And I will forever try to remind myself not to forget that I had to stand on their shoulders to get where I am.

[00:12:36] So I told you it was going to be sappy.

[00:12:39] It is.

[00:12:39] That's the way I get around the holidays.

[00:12:41] But, you know, I hope you're spending this day with your family.

[00:12:44] I hope you're spending this day with the people you care about and you love.

[00:12:47] And we will talk to you all another week.

[00:12:49] Bye, everybody.