Coffee Talk #138: Couple Goals

It’s Tuesday! Grab your cup and let’s start talking.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d say hello from Madera, California! We’re calling this our home base for the week, as we explore three different National Parks: Sequoia, Yosemite, and King’s Canyon.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’ve started going LIVE with our coffee chats: check out Fit with Aundra on facebook to see all the videos. I’ll mostly reference our coffee chat, with a few extra (uncensored) additions.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’ve got National Parks on my mind, for obvious reason. Each year, we try to visit at least one National Park together. How did this get started? More info in the video.

Overall, we’ve visited 9 National Parks, and will have 11 under our belts at the end of the week! There are now 59 designated National Parks, and that sounds like a super fun challenge. We love to alternate coasts, to get a really different environmental perspective each year, but it doesn’t have to happen that way. How do we choose the next one? We have this awesome “Our Adventures” Map that we display in our living room and we literally just pick a new one. I have a few in mind that I want to visit in the next few years and we’re already making plans for our next Parks trip! I love planning our trips together. We have a special rule: we can’t leave one trip without creating plans for the next trip. It gives us something to look forward to, and keeps us dreaming and planning for future adventures.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d talk to you about Couple Goals. I’m no relationship expert, but I can tell you this – I’ve 100% met my match and we have an amazing partnership. I realize every individual and every couple is different, but I’ve noticed a few themes, from my experience, and from observing the relationships of others, that make things work.

5 Ways to be Couple Goals AF

1. Be Your Own Person. It can be super cute when couples do lots of things together. It can also be annoying. I know our relationship would not be so awesome if we weren’t first individuals and second a couple. It’s important to respect the other person’s needs and desires, but it’s even more important to respect your own, and to communicate those needs to your person.
2. Have Designated Alone Time. Crucial! I’ve met people who really don’t like being alone, but you’ll have a better relationship with another individual if you each get some space. It’s important to have separate hobbies and goals. I love sharing my day and adventures with my husband, and it’s even more fun when he hasn’t heard about them, so I can really tell a story!
3. Travel Together. I often share with others that I knew Johnny was my match after we took our first trip together. From day one, we worked so well together, enduring traffic, a freak thunderstorm during our drive through Connecticut, and we both had interest in viewing the same things at our destination. We’ve learned each other’s travel requests, must-haves, and breaking points by going places together. Extra tip – if you’re trying to determine if someone is a good match for you, go on a trip together! You see someone for who they are (it’s harder to hide things on a joint trip), and being together in a new place helps create a bond with the other person.
4. Have at least one Joint Goal. It’s so much more fun when you have something to look forward to, especially together. Our couple goal is to visit every National Park. A couple goal can be anything, as long as both individuals are equally interested and invested in making it happen.
5. Make the other person’s day easier. This is a tougher one, and requires communication (especially listening and observing). We each have our “jobs” in our relationship and at home, but how amazing is it when the other person does your job for you? For example, a very simple one – Johnny cooks, I clean up after dinner. Sometimes, he’ll say “I’ll clean, you go do that thing you need to do.” That’s relationship magic. Learning the other person’s relationship/love language will be the key to unlocking this one. After all, isn’t the point of being in a relationship to help make life better for the other person? Maybe that’s the ultimate couple goal! Find the person you want to make a better life with, and someone who will reciprocate that for you.

Off to explore more National Parks! Enjoy your coffee.