I recently attended a beautiful wedding. It reminded me how nice a wedding can be without stressing over so many of the elaborate details. As a groom, I had to remember the day is essentially all about the bride, but we can work together to keep the day as stress free and financially sound as possible. Here are some tips on how to minimize wedding stress: If you can’t pay … [Read more...]
Doing These 3 Things in Your Marriage Just May Help You Live Longer
There are times in our lives where we get caught up in the routine and the mundane. It’s easy to live our lives and relationships on auto-pilot. We get up, have breakfast, make sure the kids get to school and we go to work. The weekend comes, we sleep in, maybe grab a movie, go to church on Sunday and then rest on Sunday afternoon to prepare for the grind on Monday. Life … [Read more...]
3 Actions You Must Take Before Giving Up on Your Marriage
Most of the articles I write on the topic of marriage deal with cultivation, nurturing, and protection of the relationship. Indeed, especially with marriage, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. Generally, good maintenance of your relationship is going to produce a healthy relationship with long lasting results. Unfortunately, some relationships are beyond the … [Read more...]
Fathers: 3 Reasons Why Money Ain’t Enough – You Must Actually Be Present
I was watching a video of one of my favorite motivational speakers, Eric Thomas, a.k.a ET the Hip Hop Preacher and something he was talking about stayed with me. He mentioned that he had just dropped his daughter off at her ACT exam after he had been up late the night before. He was talking about the fact that being present in his children’s lives is something he must do … [Read more...]
Men: These 3 Moldable Character Traits Will Help You Effectively Change Your Life and Lead Your Home
Men sometimes struggle with leadership in the home because of all of the complexities of a household. Things ranging from blended families, to finances, to career decisions are among the complex issues that need an insightful committee chair and responsible decision maker. As a coach, I study what good leaders in business bring to the table, because I think it translates … [Read more...]
Why Being A Hypocrite To Your Own Values Can Destroy Your Relationships
A client recently had an interesting conundrum: The client was struggling with believing something she was doing in her relationship was not up to her standards, but she continued the behavior to satisfy someone else. She was struggling with her value system. Many of us struggle with our value system because we haven’t addressed what we hold as our own personal … [Read more...]
The First Year of Marriage Does Not Have To Be The Hardest
My wife and I just completed our first year of marriage. People told us that the first year of marriage would be difficult. I never put much thought into the notion because I knew from the beginning marriage is going to require work. As long as we were willing to commit to put in the work, I knew we would be fine. Consequently, we have had a great first year of marriage! … [Read more...]
Honesty – How to Make Sure Your Word Is Your Bond In a Relationship
There are so many well intentioned men in the world. I understand why I hear so many stories of what a man tells a woman, but then ends up in disappointment. It’s not always so much that he lied blatantly to her, but what he omitted may have been pretty important. As men, when we are developing relationships, we want to show a woman we can lead and be the best person we … [Read more...]
Why You Should Try Walking a Day in Your Spouse’s Shoes
I was having a conversation recently about how some of us waste our time and talents by taking them for granted. By not being in tune with the blessing God has for each of us. I got a lot out of the conversation, but the most important thing I received, I would like to share with you. Looking at someone’s talent on the surface is just that—it’s on the surface. It’s the … [Read more...]
Singles: How to Know When to Draw the Line on Your Relationship
This one is for singles out there who continue to run into challenges during the dating process when it comes to deciding what is tolerable for their particular relationship. None of us are perfect, so I’m not addressing each imperfection. But, it’s imperative to strive to be the best significant other we can be as we are working toward marriage. I continue to hear others … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Support Your Spouse’s Dreams, Even If You Don’t Understand Their Vision
One of the key elements in our relationships, that we take for granted, is the ability to support each other’s dreams and goals. Being supportive of each other is often the foundation of how we build our lives together. I want to share three ways that you can can support your spouse as they execute toward their ambitious goals. 1. Encourage Them People outside of our close … [Read more...]
When You Marry for Better, But it’s Always Worse
It seems lately many of the themes of my interactions with couples and individuals in relationships has been about reconciliation. It’s challenging to decide when is enough simply enough. It’s equally challenging to make the conscious decision you are going to fight for your marriage, no matter what. The real question is always how you decide what is important enough to you … [Read more...]
Dictatorship or Democracy? Are you Leading Your Family or Ruling Over Them?
One of the things I have learned in married life is how important the decision making process is. When we are single, individually, we are the only person who has to deal with the consequences of our actions and decisions. Once we are married, we have to consider the thoughts, needs and desires of others. We also have to look even deeper to how the decision affects the … [Read more...]
Men: 3 Attitudes that Are Causing Stress in Your Relationships
There will be always be a certain amount of stress in all of our relationships. No two people are ever going to agree on everything. And there are also other challenges that we face in communication and intention as well. But with that being said, there are also certain attitudes that we, as men, have that cause undue stress in our relationships. So I want to offer three … [Read more...]
Do You Play the Blame Game? Who is Really at Fault for Your Relationship Struggles
I heard a psychologist talking about the fact most of his clients can’t get out of their own way. I experience this with my clients in coaching as well. The psychologist message caused me to ask myself this question: Who is to blame for relationship struggles, someone who initiated the issue or how the other party responds to it? This is a tough question where relationships … [Read more...]