The Superlatively Yes Podcast · Tanya Smith and Jennifer McCroddan

Survival Mode, Moving Forward, and So Many Alarms!

·40 min·2 clips

Tanya says she had been living in survival mode since the end of May.

1. The Superlatively Yes Podcast opens its seventh season with Tanya and Jennifer McCrodden talking about survival mode and self-acceptance in 2025. 2. Tanya hosts Jen, who has been on the show since season one and is now a certified life coach. 3. The episode asks what moving forward looks like when New Year’s resolutions feel too rigid and self-defeating. 4. Jen reads a letter to Tanya that turns their friendship into a list of repeated phrases, including “What would Dolly do?” and “For the love of Nancy Reagan.” 5. Tanya and Jen laugh about being the ones who need “all of the help in all of the ways,” which frames the friendship as mutual support. 6. Jen says self-acceptance in 2025 includes being an ambivert, not writing a novel, living with a rustic pie crust, and accepting gray hair for other people but not for herself. 7. Tanya connects the letter to a broader cultural reaction against the “New Year, New You” mindset and the pressure of a 12-month improvement plan. 8. Jen says she wants to learn, grow, and heal, but not keep up with every ounce of water, vitamin, and self-help rule. 9. Tanya and Jen discuss age and wisdom, with Jen saying she would not want to go back to being 20 or 30 because of the thought patterns that came with those years. 10. Jen introduces four suggestions for navigating forward, and Tanya treats them as mindset shifts rather than strict resolutions. 11. The first suggestion is to understand what you are doing, what you are not doing, and why you feel the way you do. 12. Jen references the “five whys” and says people often skip self-inquiry because they follow expert voices instead of checking their own inner state. 13. The second suggestion is to embrace the season you are in, a line Tanya says she wrote in Reframed in 2020. 14. Jen links that idea to Trace Adkins’s “You’re Gonna Miss This,” saying there are joys and beauty even in difficult times. 15. The third suggestion is that mistakes will be made, so people should plan for discomfort, prepare for hard conversations, and use resources ahead of time. 16. Tanya adds that not every hard moment is self-made, since fender benders, loss, and other people’s choices can land in your lap. 17. Tanya then shares a story about a 1995 physical-education class, a principal, and a gym-rule list that had to be rewritten without “no” or “do not.” 18. That story supports Jen’s point that acceptance and clear guidance work better than harsh rules when trying to change behavior. 19. The conversation is conversational, personal, and coaching-oriented, with Tanya and Jen interrupting each other, laughing, and using real-life examples from home and family. 20. Listeners who like practical self-help talk from friends who know each other well will likely enjoy this episode, while listeners wanting a tightly scripted show may skip it.

As heard by us

A warm, practical conversation about staying steady when life gets loud.

Superlatively Yes returns for its seventh season with Tanya and Jennifer McCrodden in a calm, plainspoken conversation about getting through days that feel noisy, inconvenient, or just plain hard.

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Why you'd press play

For when you need calmer reactions and a little less spiraling.

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