Why This HGTV Star Wants His Kids to Focus on ‘The Joy of the Journey’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Chip Gaines wants to focus on “the joy of the journey,” and he’s passing that mindset down to his five children.
“For me, the reward isn’t when I make it to my destination. It’s how I rode out the waves,” he wrote in the latest issue of Magnolia Journal. “How many times I was willing to take big swings even if it meant losing my footing. How often I dared to pivot not for the sake of danger but deep delight.”
He continued, “While there’s nothing inherently wrong with moments of comfort and reprieve, sometimes I worry our world has put those ideals on a pedestal. Happiness has started to look like ease and success like finish lines. I already know these types of images will be fed to my kids every day of their lives. I don’t want them to have an unrealistic or discouraging grasp of the alternative: the joy of the journey.”
Chip’s wife and business partner Joanna recently wrote about their journey as the couple juggled their home business empire, HGTV show and parenting their children — Drake, 19, Ella, 18, Duke, 16, Emmie, 15, and Crew, 6.
“Balance, or the idea of it, became a destination, a finish line, and yet this promised land always felt just out of reach,” Joanna shared. “It didn’t seem to matter how often I reorganized my schedule, chose this over that, or simply said ‘no.’ There were very few seasons that felt like I’d nailed it — like I was flourishing on every front in brilliant, shimmering unison.”
Now, she has a different mindset, rejecting “rigidity” for “the things keeping us steady.”
“I now believe it’s the things that keep me steady that will move me forward, which for me looks like belief that runs deep,” Joanna concluded. “It looks like time spent taking in beauty. Good connection with the people closest to me. It’s being true to how I’m built, meaning I won’t give myself a hard time for working a long day as long as I also make time for a moment of sheer delight.”
READ MORE: HGTV STAR IS ‘MORE INTENTIONAL’ ABOUT FAMILY TIME AS KIDS GROW UP
The couple recently spoke about their marriage and how, after 25 years together, they’re still finding new ways to spend time together.
“We joke that we’ve known each other for 25 years and we’ve never once worked out together,” Joanna told PEOPLE. “Last year I said, ‘Chip, let’s start working out because I want to be young for the kids.’ I feel like every choice I make now will affect me at 70, and I don’t want to wait until I’m 70 to be like, ‘Oops I need to fix some stuff.’”
She shared that the couple have committed to a workout routine that they do together.
“It’s been fun — we’ve done so much together in the past that it’s like this whole new stage in our marriage,” Joanna said.
READ MORE: JOANNA GAINES WANTS YOU TO ENJOY EVERY MOMENT WITH YOUR GROWING KIDS — HERE’S WHY
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