Transcript of 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Relationships Forever | Jillian Turecki

Hey, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the School of Greatness. I'm excited for this episode because so many people struggle around relationships. I have been 1 of those individuals. For most of my life, I struggled.

And I think I was in 5 or 6 kind of long term relationships from, you know, my late teens to my late thirties. So for 20 years, I was in multiple long term relationships, and I just man, I struggled. And I thought I figured it out after every breakup what to do and that it wasn't my fault, and it was someone else's problem. And, man, was I wrong? And it took me, a lot of sadness, a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of harsh lessons through all these different relationships on what I needed to start shifting to attract harmonious love, to attract someone who was the right match for me, and really to become the person who was the right match for myself.

So it was not even actually about finding someone else who was right for me first. It was really about me becoming the person I needed to be in order to create healthy boundaries, in order to speak my truth, in order to feel safe. And then from that space, I feel like I really attracted an incredible person who understood me, who accepted me, and who saw me. But I wasn't even seeing myself in all my deficiencies until I started to do a lot of the work. And today, I'm sitting down with a powerful relationship coach and author Jillian Torecki for a conversation about love relationships and personal growth.

And she's got a new book out called It Begins With You. And in this episode, we dive deep into the incredible takeaways from her book as well as her life experiences because Jillian brings unique insights from both her professional expertise and personal journey, which is something that I love, including her experience with divorce and healing her relationship with her father that caused her a lot of pain in intimate relationships with men. We dive deep into the difference between lust and love and why you can't convince someone to love you and how to develop the self awareness needed for healthy relationships. This was something I wish I had 20 years ago because it would have saved me a lot of pain, and a lot of stress. But we all learn lessons exactly when we need to learn them.

So, unfortunately, I didn't have this podcast 20 years ago or this this content wasn't out there for me. So if you're here and you're going through a breakup or you just went through a breakup or you struggled in relationships, then I want you to know you are in the exact place you need to be. This is a synchronicity and a sign and a signal from the universe that you are in the right place, and I want you to get out of bed and paper and take some notes. She's also gonna talk about the critical importance of speaking your truth in relationships even when it feels uncomfortable and risky. And, man, do I wish I had this power, for 2 decades.

I was not able to speak my truth, and it was a massive cause of a lot of breakdowns. Then she's gonna talk about the essential truths that can transform how we approach love and connection. So if you've ever struggled in relationships and you wanna build stronger ones this year and beyond, this episode will give you the tools and the wisdom to create last change, and I am so excited for you to dive in. If this is your first time here, please click the follow button on Apple Podcasts right now or Spotify and leave us a review. When you follow and you leave a review, it really helps us to spread these messages for free to more people in the world who might be struggling or want personal growth.

So click the follow button, leave a review, and just go ahead and copy and paste the link to this episode and share it with 1 or 2 friends. Send it in a WhatsApp group chat. Post it on social media. Share it with a friend of yours that you wanna see continue to thrive in their relationships now and in the future. If there's someone you care about deeply, send this to them, and I'm excited to dive into this episode.

But, also, big announcement. If you haven't heard yet, my new book, Make Money Easy, Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer Life is coming out very soon. I'd love for you to order it, preorder right now. The link will be in the description below on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you're listening to this. Just click on that link.

It'll take you right to Amazon. Would love for you to get a copy of my book because 1 of the biggest problems that people have in relationships is around money. So if you wanna create a harmonious relationship with money and have better healthier conversations with money, with the people you're with, friends, family, and intimate partners, this book will give you the tools and the teaching you need to feel financially free and harmonious in your relationship with money. Make sure to check it out. It's called make money easy, create financial freedom, and live a richer life.

Without further ado, let's dive into this episode right now.

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My daughter, Ellie, had this ankle pain. We went to see VHI Orthopedics. They actually picked up on her fatigue issues. So they brought in a rheumatologist and just a few small tests, they realized that Ellie was celiac. So what was brilliant was that VHI had a pediatric dietitian ready to help manage her diet.

Really felt seamless.

VHI, because your health means everything.

I wanna talk about some of the stuff in your book.

Let's do it.

These are powerful self healing techniques to help us repair a relationship with ourselves and start building the rewarding relationships that we deserve. Again, you want 2 individuals to create a successful relationship need to be on a healing journey. Doesn't mean you need to be perfect or whole. Although, I would ask you, can you be broken and be happy in a relationship with someone?

So I think

we need people are broken and, like, have no wholeness at all? They're just, like, empty inside?

No. Definitely not. And maybe I think we need to define broken, but if 1 of the most valuable things that we can bring to a relationship is a sense of self. And that does not mean that you love everything about you. It just means that you have an idea of who you are and who you wanna be, and that you have a belief that in spite of the fact that you are not perfect and there are parts of you that are difficult, because everyone has difficult parts, you are still intrinsically worthy of being loved.

And I think that we are we would we do ours we would do ourselves all a big service if we just were just upfront about the ways that we were difficult. Like, hey. This is how I'm difficult. This is what you're gonna have to live with. Very upfront.

So 2 people who have no sense of self here here's what I prefer to kind of frame it. If you believe that another person is responsible for your happiness, if you believe that, you know, Eric Frome said this perfectly, and I'm paraphrasing here. You wanna need someone because you love them, not love them because you need them. The quote, unquote broken person is looking for someone to fill up that emptiness inside of them. They don't know who they are.

They don't have any sense really of themselves. They don't have any meaning in their life. And so they're looking for love in all the wrong people, because that's typically what happens. And they're looking for love in all the wrong people, and they're looking for someone to fill them up. They're looking for someone because they don't know how to fulfill their own needs.

They don't know how to have some meaning in life, and that doesn't mean that person can actually be sad and unhappy sometimes, but they have a sense of meaning in their life and a sense of of purpose in their life. Whatever that is. And so people who are broken have no they have no idea what gives their lives meaning. They are very divorce divorced from their bodies. They're not they're not connected to the Robbie.

Maybe there's just a lot of trauma there. Maybe there's just a lot of anxiety there. Maybe there's just a lot of well, I've been taught that another person is supposed to complete me. So I haven't been spending time developing my self with a capital s, because that's what another person's supposed to do. So trauma plays a big role, but also belief system plays a really big role or not.

So you have 1 person even or even 1 person, 2 people getting in a relationship like that, what you're gonna find is what is actually a codependent relationship or it's gonna be very unhappy. What they're they're gonna be fighting all the time because they're not they're gonna be trying to change each other, and they're gonna be trying to be enough for each other. Like I said, change each other. And so no. That is not going to be a healthy relationship.

You have to bring some sense of self. Even if you're 21 years old, you know, just some and and the thing is we're meant to get it wrong. We're, you know, we're meant to have some like messed up experiences. How are we gonna learn? But yeah, a sense of self like this is who I am.

This is what I want. This is what I struggle with still. This is this is what makes me kinda difficult. This is what makes me insecure. These are things that I'm working on, but but I also in spite of the ambivalence that I have towards parts of myself, I still kinda like me.

Mhmm. Because if someone doesn't feel like they're worthy of love and they enter a relationship, what do you think is gonna happen in that relationship?

Well, I don't like to speak in such black and white thinking, binary thinking because have I known people who really struggle to love themselves, find someone who loves them unconditionally? Yeah. I've seen that. I've seen that. And I've seen that in people, and those people just had some intelligence inside of them that was saying to them, choose the person who's gonna love you unconditionally versus what happens more of the time, choose the person who's gonna treat you in such a way that it reinforces your belief that you are not enough.

Wow.

That's more common, but it also can it is possible.

What do you what do you think is worse? Someone who chooses someone that reinforces the belief in them that they are not lovable and worthy of love, and therefore, that person reflects and treats them poorly, or someone who believes that they are not worthy of love, but somehow chooses someone to accept them fully and love them unconditionally, and yet they still don't believe it themselves. Which 1 do you think is more challenging?

Probably the the first one's gonna be more challenging. Because the most important thing is that you're being treated well in a relationship, regardless of where your self worth is. You're treating someone well and they're treating you well. If there's any scenario where someone is not being respectful, that's always the worst scenario in my in my view.

But there's something though like getting something you feel like you didn't deserve.

I know.

And it's like and like being handed a bunch of money that you're like, I didn't earn this.

But I did I did

died or someone gave me this, but did I really create the value to receive this and have this, like, guilt or this Absolutely. Sabotage it and then you don't value it.

Absolutely. All those things are true and can happen. But I have spoken. I remember I did speak to 1 woman and she said, you know, I'm just really lucky that he loves me.

But she doesn't love herself.

When I dug a little bit deeper, there were things about herself that she actually liked, but she did struggle.

But to say I'm lucky that someone loves me.

Yeah. I know. But at least she appreciated him.

That's good. That's good. But she didn't believe she deserved it.

But she loved him very much for loving her.

Well, that's good.

And I think that that's better than the other

better than being treated poorly.

That's better than the alternative, and she wasn't trying to sabotage or anything like that. You know?

I mean, here's here's the question then. You know, we're talk we're trying to talk about how to create more fulfilling experiences in our life, and and I think the greatest fulfillment comes in relationships. You know, we can create fulfillment alone, but really magic happens when you have fulfillment and shared experience with someone else

Yes.

I I believe.

With other people. It could be plural.

Yes. In your book, you've kinda got these these 9 different distinctions that can set you up for a healthy relationship. The first 1 you talk about, it begins with you, and that's why I wanted to ask you about worthiness. How can someone learn, you know, being having a capital self? How can they learn to develop more worthiness and deservedness of love if they never received it or saw it growing up?

A lot of those people that you just described have really good friends. And so they they know what it is to be loved through their friendships. Different story when it comes to romantic relationships. Hang around people where there's a lot of love. Hang around couples where there's a lot of love.

I don't know. Watch it in a movie even if you have to. Honestly.

Be around. Be close to it.

And also because every person that we come into contact with on a regular basis and even not on a regular basis is a mirror reflecting back to you, if you develop friendships and community, maybe you give back, maybe you volunteer somewhere, and then you build community that way, you are actually learning about your self worth and you're learning about yourself through these friendships and community that you've built. And that gives you a stronger sense of self. And when you get that stronger sense of self, then you start to you know, people start to respond to you and you develop these things and then you start these these connections and then you see, oh, I am I am worthy. I am. Like, I do this.

I do that. I do have a life. I am doing things for myself. I am worthy. And then with a bit of luck, that person has read my book and followed my work, and they realize that if they chew that choose the person who sees the beauty in them rather than the person who is reinforcing some old belief.

Yeah. Because it's also in the choice.

Sure. Sure. Something that you talked about earlier, and you mentioned before is kinda like this difference between lust and love. Yeah. You mentioned in your book that lust is not the same thing as love.

How do we know the difference between when we're experiencing or feeling lust versus meaningful love?

Yes. So I think that love is 1 of the hardest things to define. It's a very it's very undefinable in many ways, and and it's something that and I don't have all the answers. You know? No 1 does.

It's just like this is like philosophers have been theorizing on this for centuries. But what I do know is that 2 things. The love that you feel when you're falling in love with someone is love, but it's not the same as 2 years in. So the meaning, love changes. Love and the meaning that we assign to it changes.

It morphs. It deepens. And love to me is not just a feeling. It's a choice. It's a habit.

It's an intentional practice. And I think that when we truly love someone, my understanding is we really want the best for them.

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I wasn't sleeping or eating well. I just wasn't feeling myself. I was chatting to some friends and 1 of them suggested I check out VHI Women's Health Clinic. I saw their women's health GP who connected me with a health coach for my sleep and diet and a psychologist for support. I was so relieved to have all these services in arms reach.

VHI, because your health means everything. Like their needs are actually as important as our needs. Not more important, but not less important. We want them we really like their best interests are our best interests. Like we really take their best interest to heart.

We want the very very best for them even if that means not being in a relationship with them. Lust is all the things that we feel when there's a lot of chemistry and we feel a a little obsessive and there's a lot of novelty and we can't stop thinking about them and we're like we feel like crate we feel crazy that crazy in love feeling is not love. That is lust. And I think that, a lot of people make these big decisions, like, let's move in together or, like, this person is the 1 for me, when really you are drunk, and you're drunk off of the chemicals in your body.

You don't know the person.

You don't know the person. They are a stranger.

Wow.

And that actually a true emotional connection actually takes time to build with someone. Like, you can feel that. Like, I'm sure after that first conversation, deep conversation that you had with Martha, you felt it. But I would even argue that that's like that that was still that was still very much lost and attraction. Like, a true emotional connection happens when you feel safe with someone and there's trust.

Yes.

And that it's it's the foundation. You know? It's it's knowing that it's knowing that an argument is not going to end your relationship. When you feel safe enough to argue with your partner, then you are I would say that is a very good measure of a good relationship.

Sure.

That you know that that's not it doesn't mean that it's gonna blow up. It's an argument. And you know what? You're supposed to argue because you have to sometimes be very reminded of the fact that you are not in a relationship with someone who a projection of your ideal. You are in a relationship with an autonomous person who has their own beliefs and their own mind, and sometimes they're stubborn or sometimes you're stubborn.

And that creates that creates chemistry by the way. A little bit of arguing creates a can can create a little bit of chemistry because you're again, you're reminded like, oh, like I can't control this person. You know, like they are their own person.

Sure.

So love and the understanding of love, I think it's something that, we all have to learn. You know? That it is a choice and that lust there's no choice in lust. Lust is a very out of control fun feeling, but you're not choosing to lust over someone. It's like it's taken over you, and a lot of people confuse the 2.

Is lust a sign of a a wounded person?

No. It's a sign of a of a person with a with a beating heart. What's a sign of an immature person is someone who thinks that lust is love. And that's not to put anyone down. It's just it's we're we're all in that we're all

They believe they're the same thing.

We're in it together to grow and to to deepen our understanding of what it is to love ourselves and love another human being. Like, we're all in it together trying to learn this. Immature person thinks that is so attached to the lust part of the gay getting to know someone.

The feeling part.

The feeling part. Exactly. And not the practice part.

What's the difference between the practice and the feeling?

How can I love this person more? How can I transcend my ego right now when I just wanna walk away when really what I have to do is the more loving thing to do? Because sometimes to make a relationship work, I believe 1 of the things that's really important is that you have to be in service of the relationship. So sometimes you have to do what's best for the relationship even if it means having a very uncomfortable conversation. You have to care so much about the relationship that you have with this person that you're willing to, like, do something that might not be that comfortable.

That's love. Right? Again, paradox, gray area, tons of it, not binary. You know? But what I say is, like, sometimes you just have to sometimes fighting for love is not fighting for a relationship that's wrong.

It's showing up as the person you wanna be in a relationship.

Mhmm. Even when it's not perfect.

Yeah. Or just by saying maybe if I show up better, the relationship would get better.

A 100%. Friend of mine said I'm paraphrasing this, but he said, you know, if you treated the person at the beginning of the relationship, at the end of the relationship Yes. It wouldn't be the end.

Tony Robbins.

Is that what he's saying? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's like, it's true. It's like, if you treated the person in the beginning of the relationship, you know, the same way you did at the end

Taking for granted.

Yeah. You it wouldn't be the end.

Yes. It's it's it's exactly true. In the beginning, we're marketing. We're sales. We're not taking each other for granted.

So lust, you know, I have many stories in the book of of, people just being like, I love this person. This person is for me. They never had a difficult conversation. They don't even know what each other's needs are. They're not even trying to meet each other's needs, but they're so obsessive about the other person.

They think this person must be the 1. No. They're still a stranger, but what's happening is that you are being so yes. And there's a spectrum. Are there wounded people who get so enveloped by the lust stage and they can't see past it for sure, but it's a spectrum.

1 of the 9 hard truths you talk about is you must speak up and tell the truth. And I think that's something that I learned the hard way, many times. And, you know, 1 of the things I tested, I guess, with Martha is I'm just gonna be fully honest about everything where the things that I used to say and then pull back on because women would react and cry or get emotional or whatever it is about my past, which is like, if this person can't accept my truth, why am I gonna choose to wanna spend more time with them? Why am I gonna invest in a, you know, a committed relationship with them? We don't need to be together.

It doesn't have to work out and that's okay.

Okay. So 1 way that that people that men will trust women test women. Let me give her the hardest truth about myself in a way that's really really harsh and let's see if she reacts. As opposed to sometimes there's certain truths that we need to share and we have to do it in a way that's somewhat artful, so there's a soft landing. So let me do it really really harsh, See if she has any reaction.

She's not from me, then bye bye. That's 1 way they meant to yeah.

I wouldn't say it was harsh, but, yeah,

you know, I'm not

saying That's the way people text.

Actually not relating it to you, but your story reminded me of something. Sure.

Sure. Yeah. That's good. But I think you must be up and tell the truth. I've had so many conversations.

And listen, if I would have gotten, you know, married in in my twenties or early thirties, I would have been I think I would have been screwed in marriage because I didn't do a lot of these things you're talking about in your book, and I didn't have the courage to say exactly what I wanted in my future relate in the future of my relationship or at least the the vision I had.

Yes.

It was always to keep it as fun, lustful, and adventurous, I guess Yeah. As possible. Right? How do we keep that chemistry going? Those good times rolling.

And anytime there was frustration or sadness or, like, challenging conversations that were, like, there was a reaction in a negative way or just an emotionally challenging way. And with a where I felt like I was disappointing the person, I had a big people pleaser in me. Right?

Yes.

So, okay, I wanna make them happy. So how do I just make them happy? How do I make this situation happy?

Yes.

And it and it made me lack the courage to be like, you know what? This is my truth. I'm gonna tell it to you in a loving, compassionate way. And if that doesn't work for you, then we might have some we might have to make some challenging, choices, yeah, for, like, the future. And maybe these good times aren't gonna roll anymore.

And that was, like, always hard for me to do.

I know. Because you didn't want you wanted to be enough.

Of course. Yeah. And I wanted to and I wanted to make it work, and I cared about these people and, you know, all that stuff. So it was like, it's it's really hard to be to end a relationship where you feel like, oh, but there's so much fun. Things are good.

But when you tell the truth earlier on in a dating experience and just being very honest with the person about your past, present, and where you wanna be in the future.

Yes.

If someone's not in alignment with you, then you should not be together.

Absolutely.

And and I think you can find out about alignment by both parties speaking up and telling the truth about everything. There was another book that we we went through, Martha and I, when we were dating called 8 Dates, actually.

Oh, The Gottman's.

It was powerful. Yeah. And it was uncomfortable. I mean, it's like a lot of uncomfortable conversations. And it's kinda like each date is about, like, 1 about kids, 1 about money, 1 about marriage, 1 about, like, whatever, these different situations in life.

And they're I mean, the questions might have felt like overkill. There's, like, 50 questions around each topic, and I was like, gosh. These are just, it's not enjoyable to speak about these things. Yes. And really be honest about it and, like, oh.

And have her ask me the question and look at me, like, how is she gonna receive this? I'm, like, oh, man. I gotta really show up and be honest here. Oh, okay. Let me, like, breathe through it and, like, take a break and come back.

Like, it is uncomfortable.

Yeah. Very much so. Listen. I didn't tell the truth either. You know, that was a very, very big part of, my pain in relationships.

Yeah. That's I mean, all of these truths are are both based on my professional and personal experience. And,

What was the truth that you didn't share?

There was a lot. The truth of how I felt about things. The truth about, my concerns over certain things. The truth about what was really painful for me, the truth about my trauma, the truth about my, how how something made me feel. So you

weren't willing to reveal yourself.

You know, it's interesting. I think that I felt very vulnerable in that relationship, but I don't think that I was truly very vulnerable.

You felt vulnerable, but you weren't being vulnerable.

Yeah. I felt I felt, and I think a lot of people aren't vulnerable because they feel too vulnerable. Like, they feel too scared. Right? And so I don't think I was very vulnerable.

And also I didn't take a stand when I needed to take a stand.

You didn't have boundaries.

I didn't have the strong enough boundaries. Absolutely not. I wasn't I didn't want to rock the boat because I didn't want the relay I didn't wanna be left. I didn't want the relationship to end. And you have to be willing to rock the boat.

You have to be willing to ask the questions that scare you and listen to the answers that scare you even more because for a relationship to be worth keeping, you have to risk losing it sometimes. Like, sometimes it gets to that point where it's like, I have to risk this not working out. Because if I don't, then I'm just staying in something and putting a band aid over it. But I've worked with many couples where, you know, they were married for years and they just weren't telling the truth. Again, they didn't wanna hurt the other person's feelings.

It was too vulnerable. They didn't know how to have these conversations. And once they started really telling the truth to each other, that's when they were able to heal.

Yeah. And you come together stronger after that.

Absolutely. The truth is really important. Like the important truth. Like this is how I feel. Like sometimes it's a really direct truth.

I love you, but if these 2 things don't change, I don't know how to be in a relationship with you. Like, sometimes it'll get to that point.

Yeah. I I almost feel like you shouldn't get in the relationship until you know the person of what you're wanting to change. Like

But sometimes things come up. Sometimes things come up. People change. Things happen, and you have to be willing you know, things can

come up. Be flexible too for sure.

They well, you just have to be aware of the fact that sometimes things come up.

I think the more you can have these honest conversations earlier I mean, listen. There's gonna be things I'm gonna keep learning about Martha forever. Right? New things about her constantly. Yeah.

But when I say I feel like I I know 80 to 90% of, like, at the core, what she values

Yes.

Based on what she's communicated to me, I feel like I know that. Yes. And because we've had multiple of these conversations and because I feel like I'm intuitive and discerning enough to, like, read the energy. Now she could be lying to me about certain things. She could be hoarding stuff.

And at that point, it may be a deal breaker later in the case be like, oh, you lied to me. You said something completely different, and you lied about it. Like, you weren't being honest. That's a bigger problem than, like, you changing this 1 thing. It's like you just were not honest with me.

Yeah. Of course. So it's

There were a lot of lies in my marriage.

Really? Now did you have the conversations before the marriage?

No. I mean, we had some conversations. I don't wanna make it out like it was Yeah. Yeah.

But they were surface probably. They were really trying to be deeper, but they were like I

mean, we would talk about we I mean, we were it was immaturity. It was wounds. It was like lack of self I mean, I thought I was like this, like, incredibly self aware person getting and I learned so much. Also because I had, you know yes. I had had abusive relationship, but the relationships before him, like, I'd been in a very long term relationship that was beautiful and lovely and respectful and healthy.

Why did you get married in that 1?

I was too young. I was too young and, you know, we the relationship because I didn't know anything really about relationships. We were just we were just really good to each other, but it became more of like a friendship. It was just sort of like it became more like, you know, friendship and

Yeah. How important is timing in a relationship?

Like wrong right person wrong time?

Yeah. Or it's yeah. Exactly. Like, it's the right price and wrong time or

I think oftentimes when it's

ready or whatever. Yeah.

I often think that, wrong time, wrong person. Again, I'm not god. I don't have all the answers. No 1 does. Are there are there people who maybe found like, met each other, it was the wrong time, and then they met each other again, and they got married, and everything's great?

I'm sure that exists. More times than not, oftentimes it's not a timing thing. It's really something else. But we get caught in the fantasy of what it could have been. And, you know, who's not to say that maybe you would get together and it was the right time and then it would just fall apart a year later.

You just never know. And yes, to echo your point, having these telling the truth, having these really important conversations beforehand even if, like, your adrenaline and is going off in your body and your palms are sweating. Like you have to have these conversations. They are so incredibly important and I know that they're scary. I don't wanna have them either.

But they are the game changer so you have to tell the truth. You have to tell the truth. And a lot of people who are afraid who that they're not enough, they go into pleasing. They're afraid that they're gonna be abandoned. They're afraid that are they're gonna sometimes it's facing the truth of who someone is and what their relationship is, and we don't wanna face the truth.

So we have to tell the truth. We have to face the truth. It is always, always gonna be easier in the law.

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Yeah. And speaking about the truth, if a woman is going out and dating, right, and they they've dated a bunch of different guys, but they finally meet a guy. They're like, oh, this guy's different, and he's you know? Not only does he, like, check off all the things on my written down list, but, like, I feel emotionally safe. We're just connected.

We have similarity. We have alignment in so many places, and this could be an amazing relationship for me. But then a month or 2 down, he just says, you know what? This is not working out for me, and he's dating other women and starts to date someone else. What should a woman be thinking or feeling in that experience when most of the times you hear women saying that they're devastated, they're heartbroken that this guy didn't choose them Yeah.

And they think something's wrong with them. Instead, what should that woman be thinking or saying about that situation?

What my dream would be. What if it, you know, Jeanne Nevada was like, what would be your wish for these women? It would be, okay. Cool. On to the next.

Why is it so hard for women to do that?

It's so hard for people to do that because, you thought you met someone and you've and your feel love is a completely irrational feeling. It's not rational. You know? If we met someone, we'd like them. You compound that maybe for that woman.

She's in her childbearing years. She her clock is ticking. She wants to build a family. That's like that's her dream, and she meets someone. It's great.

And then all of a sudden, like, wait. What did I do? You didn't choose me? Like, what what's going on? Often in those scenarios, they, people put their eggs in their in 1 basket a little bit too soon, and they think the person is just great.

And part of, you know, part of what we have to do in the beginning, and this is so hard. Everything I'm saying is easier said than done, nonetheless, it needs to be done. What's so hard is we have to kind of well, when we meet someone, we're excited about them. I don't I don't wanna reign. I don't want anyone to reign on anyone else's parade, but process your enthusiasm.

Have a conversation with yourself, like, well, this feels really good. This feels really promising. I feel really excited. So you're connecting with what you feel emotionally. And then say, and I also know that this could also not turn out to be anything.

And instead of me getting attached to the outcome, I'm gonna really enjoy this feeling that I'm feeling right now, but I'm going to use some discernment here because I still I don't know this person's character. I understand I have the wisdom and I've been learning from all the relationship experts here and there. I understand that it takes time to really get to know someone. It takes time to see if we're in alignment. So I'm excited to learn more.

And that's sort of what we have to start talking how we have to talk to ourselves. Right? If someone is just not interested in you, 1 of the things that make us very resilient in life is the ability to accept that rejection. And that rejection is a part of life and that we are not gonna be for everyone. This is in work, professionally, business, personally, which is not for everyone.

How boring. Right? I mean, if we were for everyone, then we were then we're chameleons and we're we're, like, trying to be for everyone. So, the worst thing you can do, and this is what people do and what I talk about a lot. Oh, you're not choosing me?

Let me let me do something to get chosen. Let me change myself. Let me not tell the truth because I think I love this person, but really what I feel is just some loss and I'm attached to some fantasy of what could be because I just don't wanna be alone anymore, and I'm really deep down very afraid of being alone. I'm very afraid of not having children. All these things you don't have to be ashamed about.

These are real legitimate fears. Get in touch with them, befriend them, understand what you're going through emotionally, and stop strategizing to get some Joe Schmo who you don't even know who probably is not right for you. In fact, definitely isn't because they're not choosing you to choose you. Go for someone else.

Yeah. 1 of your 9 hard truths is you cannot convince someone to love you.

Never. And that's also in a relationship. You know, I spent 2 years trying to convince my husband to love me.

Really?

I felt that way. Yeah. I there it it was more subtle. You know, there were just things that he was pulling back. Right?

So I was just like, what can I do differently? How can I what lie can I tell? Not an overt lie, but, like, what truth can I withhold

to him more

Yeah? To keep him.

Satisfied with

everything. Exactly. And it was subtle. It wasn't every moment of every day, but it was but it was there. It was there.

Wow. How does that feel when you're trying to convince someone to love you, but they're not receptive to it?

It feels like a self betrayal. It feels like you are, abandoning yourself. What I would like for people to do, and I know this is much easier said than done, and obviously, if it's an involved relationship like a marriage, it's a journey and it's a process. You don't just wake up 1 day and say, okay. Let go.

Letting go is a process. But ultimately, where I want people to arrive to is if you think that your happiness is somewhere else, I'm not standing in the way of that. I'm not standing because you could convince someone short term to stay, but you will always know that you are holding them hostage emotionally in some way, and it'll never it'll feel terrible.

Yeah. It's not fun. And it's like, again, having the discernment to fight for the relationship

Yes.

Versus letting go when someone's not choosing to love you in return.

It's very, very complicated, Louis.

And you might have been thinking, well, I'm fighting for this because we're married and we love each other. So

I'm gonna

fight for this and try to do what I can

It's very

complicated. Betrayal, abandonment, lack of boundaries, people pleasing, or whatever was you're experiencing.

It's very complicated, Louis. It's like, you know, sometimes it's like maybe your partner is going through a mental health crisis, and so they're pulling away. So you're like, I'm gonna fight for this because we what we have is so special.

Or their parent they have a they lost a parent or something, and they're going through something.

It's tragic. Yes. And you're like I'm gonna fight for this. I know that they're it's complicated, you know. And knowing when to stay or to go these are these can be very hard to decipher.

But ultimately, you know, I talk about choosing yourself, and that really it's got nothing to do with the other person. It's really about understand like, what is the life that I must lead? Like, how when has it been enough? What has the line been crossed to the intolerable? And, like, so knowing and sometimes you don't have to sometimes you don't know until you're actually in it, but I do think a secret weapon to dating is really having an a clear understanding of what's what is the intolerable for you and tolerate the rest.

Yeah. That's tricky though also because it's like the analogy of the the frog in the boiling water or something. Right? It's like it gets hot in water, but then eventually it just it can tolerate it because it's getting, you know, hotter and hotter, but then it it never jumps out. It just

Yes.

Exactly. Well, that person then needs help with a coach or a therapist to get them to understand what actually is intolerant.

Yeah. They need an intervention.

Yeah. An intervention. Exactly. Correct.

It's tricky though.

Yeah. It's all tricky, but I think that but, yes, it it's all tricky, but and it's definitely trickier for people who have a history of toxic relationships and trauma. But that doesn't mean that you can't you can heal, you can change it, you can learn, you can do things differently, but it does mean you have to change some things.

100%. What would you if you could go back to before you were married

Yes.

And if you could only do 3 things differently to either set the marriage up to be more successful when you've got married or realize, oh, we're not alignment, so I'm gonna actually remove myself before getting married. What 3 things could you have done differently?

Well, there were there was a massive red flag that I outlined in the book, and there's a couple more that I what I could've done differently was paid attention to those red flags and and said, you know, I mean, we have a lot of fun together. We're very compatible. We are, in some ways, like, 2 peas in a pod. There's a lot of chemistry, but

But lust is not love.

But lust is not love. And, what what just happened was something that I just can't ignore. Right. So that was something, being more being more honest, having some more kinda sit down honest conversations about things. But I just I just didn't have the tools and the maturity to do it.

Yeah. Most people don't have that in their teens or twenties or even thirties.

No. They don't. Some people don't have in their forties, honestly.

Even until it's almost like until they experience enough pain, then they say, okay. Not that did I experience pain once Yes. But I've experienced it multiple times now.

Has to change.

Now I gotta wake up.

Yeah. A sad thing that I see a lot in the comment section is a lot of people are just saying, well, there's just no point in being in a relationship or relationship sucks or I'm never gonna be loved again. It's like, oh, I just wanna give that person a hug and just say to them, like, you know, don't you see this is like that's not the answer. That's just your fear. That's just your your sadness.

Yeah. I have a a friend who is very well known, very extremely successful and well known and been married and divorced, has, you know, has older kids and and things like that, and has a lot of prospects. Let's just say that. Right? This person.

But they and I asked them and they're they're they're older. And I asked them 1 time ago, you know, why even be in a relationship when, you know, your kids are older now, you've got your, you know, your mission, your purpose, you're doing so much with that, and you've got great community and friendships, like, you've got a lot of great stuff. Why even be in a relationship? And they were like, because that's that's the whole purpose of life. You know?

It's, like, to be in great relationships. You know? And it's more than just friends and community and work and it's like you wanna be able to share these moments with someone on a deeper level than just, you know, having fun times with people, and, you know, little affairs as you might call

it. Yeah.

Like, a couple 2 month affair with this person, another 2 month affair with this person.

Draining your energy everywhere.

Yeah. Investing, but then pulling her out and then investing again. It's just like it's exhausting. And I think it's worth investing in to do these these 9 things that you talk about in your book, which ultimately, they're just gonna make your life better. Whether you're with someone or not, they're gonna make you better.

Absolutely. Regardless of your relationship status. Exactly. A 100%.

And so and by you saying even if you say, okay, I don't wanna be in a relationship. I don't wanna work on these things with myself, by loving myself, by learning how to speak up and tell the truth to myself and to other people. By, like, doing these things, you're just gonna be a better human being. You're gonna be more attracted to someone who's in alignment with you as well.

A 100%.

And hopefully, you'd be more safe and ready when you feel that alignment.

And again, I just wanna reiterate, it's just it's not it's not perfection. It's not perfectly healed. It's just it's telling the truth. It's being honest about who you are and what you want and seeing if the 2 of you have what it takes to build something together and to raise your standards of free raise your standards of yourself and of another person.

I do I don't like it when someone has high standards of their partner.

And not for not for themselves. Yes.

Can be flawed and imperfect all day long.

Yes. No. It had you know, we can say we can get really clear about what we want in a partner. We can know exactly the kind of relationship we want, the values, all of that. But if we're not willing to search deep inside ourselves to discover the ways in which we have to show up in order for that relationship to be possible, we are not going to be any closer to the relationship we want.

Mhmm. You've got these 9 different hard truths, and and 1 of them is also you must make peace with your parents.

Yeah. Yeah. That's gonna be an interesting 1 for people to read.

Why do you think we need to make peace with our parents, in order to have a healthy, loving relationship with a partner?

So 1 thing that I explained in that chapter is just I because I wanna put it out there. I don't believe that you have to forgive a parent that abused you or sexually abused you or anything like that. So I don't think, yes, you have to reach some level of peace with your past and work through therapy. So I do I do put a disclaimer in there that I do think that there are certain circumstances where I do not I don't, you know, I think people who overcome that kind of thing, like those are the heroes to me. Those are not those are not survivors to me.

They're heroes. And it and when I work with people like that who've gone through something like that, I try to help them see the hero in inside themselves, not just the survivor. But I never ever ever suggest, like, you know, reconnect with this.

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Yeah. Because being sexually or physically abused by a family member is probably gonna be 1 of the most psychological, you know, fracturing, damaging things that could ever happen to anything. Right? Yes. Outside of, like, I don't know, watching someone murder someone that you care about in front of you, like

Or suicide.

Something like that. Yeah. Those instances. But someone that you came from who is then sexually or physically abusing you

It's horrendous.

It's gotta be, like, fracture you emotionally and psychologically, spiritually, and physically.

Or if it's the family friend, but then the family your your family did not protect you.

Exactly. There's a fracturing of the mind that happens. There's different fractures in the mind if your parents are fighting all the time, if they get divorced. There's all these different fractureings where it's you have to reclaim these parts of ourselves. Yeah.

You know, these wounded parts of us. It's the IFS system. It's like reclaiming the internal family system and and which is weird as it sounds because having a re having a reparenting that wounded self inside of you.

To feel more whole. To feel more integrated.

To feel

more integrated. And so it's not forgiving necessarily people that have done these things, which I'm hearing you say, if that's your choice, but you do say we have to make peace with these parents.

Yeah. Well, because so let's put that aside. Most people are actually just pissed off with their parents or have a troubling relationship with a parent. There's no abuse, but there's a troubling relationship. There's stuff there.

And our our relationships with our parents in childhood, they show up in our adulthood. Most people will marry their mother or their father, and sometimes it's not a bad thing. It's not it's not like they're really like the good parts or like you have a great relationship with them. But oftentimes when people are not doing this self awareness work, they end up marrying, like, the parent with whom they struggled the most.

Wow. Because they wanna fix it or they wanna repair that?

Yes. Well, there's again Familiar. Whoever really figures this out will get the Nobel Peace Prize. But and but the the various theories in the psychology world is that they're trying to 1 is trying to then replay and rehash a scenario so that they can the unconscious is trying to heal it. Why it ever really happens, I mean, that sounds like a good theory to me, but, you know, we're all very much a mystery still.

Right?

Yeah.

So I had a very complicated relationship with my father, a very troubling relationship with my father. He recently passed away. He was, a very famous psychiatrist in his field, wrote a book, called The Difficult Child, and that was based on me.

Oh my gosh.

And yes. Wow.

Yes. That's interesting.

He wrote it in the eighties.

That's complex.

Very complicated. But because

he wrote a book based on you being a different difficult child.

And the difficult child syndrome. So like that yeah. So that did a number on me for sure. But but it's in but but I'm all it's all good. But my father, was a very brilliant man, a very brilliant mind, but suffered from severe mental illness.

So he had he was a great psychiatrist, but he had severe bipolar disorder, like the most a very extreme kind.

Swings. Big swings.

Yeah. And he, didn't and he also was had he was a narcissist in the true sense of the word, not in the way that is thrown around all the way. He was truly a narcissist diagnosed. And, and so he wasn't diagnosed when I was a child. So he self met and because he was a a psychiatrist, unlike a psychologist, is an MD.

They go through medical school. So he could he just self prescribed all these different medications, and he, you know, drank. And so he was, a ticking time bomb. And my mom my mom was an amazing mom, but which which is no fault of her own, but what she modeled to me was being an like, having no self worth.

No boundaries.

I mean, she was raised, you know, in, like, the fifties sixties in South Africa. She's not an American, you know, like, the they're very different culture and time and and and about women, and so it's all different. So she's in a relationship where where there was a lot of emotional abuse. A lot of emotional abuse, a little bit of physical abuse. And my father, I was very afraid of him.

He never laid a hand on me, but he was you never knew what mood he was in.

Yeah. I know that feeling.

Never. So and so 2 siblings can say can grow up in the same home, but have a very different childhood. I was a very, very sensitive child. I picked up on everything. And I think that maybe also when I was born, their marriage was, like, particularly bad.

So I learned hypervigilance. I learned how to walk on wipe on eggshells. I learned, I was just when they announced that they were getting separated and he was moving out, I was relieved and happy. Most kids are very upset when their parents are divorced. I rejoiced.

Yeah. Me too.

You too. Yeah. So there you go.

I was, like, hoping it was gonna happen way sooner.

Yes. There you go. And so because I found him very scary. He had a very dark energy. And so most of my life, even to my young adulthood, I was just avoiding him.

So I was like the classic avoidant in my relationship with my father. And and what happened was because I didn't know I was so afraid of him and I didn't know how to assert myself and I didn't know how to have boundaries with him and I didn't I didn't have that sense of self. He did something that really pissed me off when I was 21 years old. I just graduated college, and I made a decision to never answer his phone again call again. So I ghosted my father.

For how long?

Almost 15 years.

Ho.

And so I know firsthand the impact of estrangement. And I thought, well, if he if I just don't and my mom hated him so that, you know, she didn't even try to encourage any sort of relationship. I thought if I just if he just wasn't in my life and I didn't have to deal with him, I would be okay. But little did I realize that the impact of estrangement is actually quite profound, and it's and it's very unhealthy.

Yeah. Someone being alive, but you not being connected to them.

And it and he and even though there was some a lot of manipulation and narcissism, you know, it's 1 thing that this the healthy thing to do is to learn how to relate to him differently with some boundaries. What I did was not the thing that was healthy for me. It was survival, but it what I'm what I'm trying to convey is that it was not without serious consequences. And it's not like not having him in his life in my life, it didn't eradicate the impact of what it would have on my relationships. So I ghosted him, but I was just haunted by his ghost.

Wow.

And so part of me going through that relationship with my husband and my mother dying and having to really grow up, I had to, for me, growing up was you don't have to be afraid of this man anymore. He's he can't harm you. You're not a you're not a little girl anymore who can't defend herself against dad. You have a voice, and you can use it, and you can have boundaries. And so I swung in the opposite direction, and then was like it was all ego.

And I explained this book, all ego. Like, you can't and my the book is very little about me and a lot about more other people, but this part I do talk about me. I was like, you can't talk to me like that, like that kind of stuff. And then I realized, okay. Now I swung in the other direction.

Where can I come into the middle? And it was around the time that he was really old, and I started and he apologized about the book, and I started to think, you know, I don't have to be afraid of him anymore. Maybe maybe I can know what it's like to forgive. And maybe I can start to see that the apple doesn't fall far far from the tree, and there are certain wonderful things about him that I actually inherited. Wow.

And then when he died I got to heal that even more and so that's part of it. It's a long story, but yeah that's part of it.

Wow.

So making peace. And for some people it's just making peace with the fact that they wanted you to be a doctor, but you're really an artist And that's so and that you can still be an artist and your parent can maybe still love you, you know, and you can have these difficult conversations with your parents if you're able to.

Yeah. It's powerful. The book, It Begins With You, the 9 hard truths about love that will change your life. Make sure you guys get a copy or 2. Get 1 for a friend who's also going through maybe a challenge in their relationship or who's single and struggling, so they can have the tools to support them in their life as well.

You've got an amazing podcast. Jillian, I love podcasts. A lot of great stuff. Your your content on social media is amazing as well. But where should we go to support you for this book?

It's your website. Right? It's the main place?

Yeah. So it's jillian terreki.com/book.

Okay.

Cool. And it's all there.

I'll have everything there for you.

Yeah.

Very excited for you. I hope people get the book and read it because it's gonna be extremely helpful for them.

Thank you.

And, if someone's watching, feel free to leave a comment of your biggest takeaway below on YouTube and post about this on social media. Make sure to tag Jillian as well wherever you're sharing this out, and send it to 1 or 2 friends. Yeah. Send it to 1 or 2 people and say, hey. Let's talk about this.

What did you learn? Share it with them. Couple final questions. I think I asked you this before, but I'll ask you again. It's a question called the 3 truths.

Yes.

So imagine you get to live as long as you want, but it's your last day on earth and you have to take all of your work with you. So we don't have access to your book, your content, this interview, it's gone. But on the last day, you get to leave behind 3 lessons of all of your experiences in life, and this is all we would have to remember your content by. What would be those 3 truths for you?

That x that you're crying over is not as amazing as you think they are. Find something that lights you up and put your energy into it. It could be small, it can be big, anything that gives your life meaning, you're not gonna be happy all the time. But as long as you have something that feels meaningful to you, it's going to make feel life worth it. And then 3, call your mom.

Tell her you love her. Maybe that's not for everyone or call your best friend or call your sibling. Tell people that you love them because, you know, life is fragile.

Yeah. Don't call your dad?

Call your dad. Call your dad. Call your mom.

Yeah. Yeah.

Call your partner. Like, tell them how much they mean to you. Don't don't put that off because I lost both my parents. I lost my step parent and I don't live in the regret. I really do.

I I practice a lot of self forgiveness and I know that my mom would really not like it if I was, like, obsessing over this. But there's so many times that I wish that I had said certain things that I didn't say, and you don't get that other chance once they die. So, Colin. Yeah. Not really profound today, but that that's what came to my mind.

I appreciate you for creating this and for putting this out there. I know how hard it is to do a book. So I'm grateful that you have experienced so much life and sadness and suffering from many different relationships so that you could have the wisdom and the tools to share with us. So I appreciate you for your work and your your service for helping so many people in relationships who are struggling and hopefully have more harmonious relationships. Final question, what's your definition of love?

It is something that when you give, it makes you a better person, and when you receive it, it makes you stronger.

Thank you. Jillian, thanks for being here. Appreciate it. You.

Powerful.

I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you wanna make it easier, you wanna make it flow, you wanna feel abundant, then make sure to go to make money easy book.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following, and stay tuned to the next episode on the School of Greatness.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.

I really love hearing feedback from you, and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you if no 1 has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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