Family isn't always the mum, dad, two kids and a dog we were taught to picture growing up. In this episode we open up about our own families, the ones that don't fit the mould, and what we've learned along the way.

We talk through:

• Our own family stories, the blended, the complicated, and the chosen
• Why sometimes less contact with family actually means a better relationship
• Setting boundaries with people you love, and why that doesn't make you a bad daughter, son or sibling
• What kind of family we hope to build for our own future kids

This week's challenge: think about the people you consider family, blood or not. Be a little nostalgic. Reach out and tell someone you love them.

This week on The Together Effect, we're recording from the road (literally, we're UK-bound as this drops) and unpacking the thing that's quietly shaping everything else in our lives: habits.

We talk through:

• The Atomic Habits compounding effect, why getting 1% better each day makes you 38x better in a year (and 38x worse if the habit's a bad one)
• The habit loop: cue, craving, response, reward, and how to use it to actually build something that sticks
• Habit stacking, how to attach a brand new habit to one you've already nailed
• Motivation vs discipline vs habits, and why only one of those three will actually carry you through the hard days
• The honest stuff too: doom scrolling, old gambling habits, drinking to numb a bad headspace, and how fast a good habit can unravel when life gets busy
• James Clear's two-minute rule, the easiest way to start literally anything

Plus, the question we leave you with: what do your habits say about the person you're becoming?

This week's challenge: pick one habit you want to build. Give it two minutes a day. That's it. No pressure, no guilt if that's all you manage. Just start.

Follow along with our UK trip at @thetogethereffect.

Tomorrow, we board a plane for 28 days around the UK, and in this episode, we're taking you behind the scenes of how we actually made this dream a reality.

We talk through:

• Why this trip has been years in the making, and what finally made it happen
• Our honest take on planning 14 cities in 28 days (and why we wanted it that way)
• The money-savvy hacks that saved us hundreds, Shopback cashback, flights vs ferry, and using AI to plan our itinerary and find the best suburbs to stay in
• What we're most looking forward to, from Everton matches to Louise's birthday in three countries

This week's challenge: if there's a dream trip you've been sitting on, pick it, work backwards from the cost like we talked about last week, and make it happen. Send us your UK tips and hidden gems in the DMs, we want to hear them.