Marriage Archives – Page 16 of 23

Cooler temps, changing leaves and pumpkins are all around! With the seasons changing, this is not only the perfect weather for getting outside, enjoying family and pumpkin spice everything, it’s also the best time to sit down and evaluate some of the habits you’ve picked up in your marriage.

People don’t get divorced and say “I know exactly how we got here!” Usually, it’s more like “I don’t know how we ended up here.” I do. Habits. The small day to day habits that started and snowballed.

Habits like picking up your phone in the evenings instead of intentionally connecting. Putting off adult time or date night because you’re too tired or too busy. Putting the kids and their events above your marriage.

The way to fix or prevent this from happening is simple. With the turn of the seasons, sit down one afternoon or date night and have a conversation. Be open and honest with each other.

1. What is your vision?
Post-pandemic, last quarter of 2021, what is the vision for your life, your family, your career? Think big picture here. What do you need to focus more of to really propel forward? Is it more time as a family? Would cutting some of the extras from your budget to become more financially secure help? How about getting a coach to help your marriage and provide a more stable home life? Do you need a community or a different circle of influence? Would a mindset shift be the ticket?

Hear each other out. If you both have different ideas of what would help, can you combine efforts to do both? As this is a big picture vision, it’s important to think broad here. Don’t try to take on too many smaller tasks. You’ll end up overwhelmed and the small tasks won’t be seen through. Small and simple is best here.

2. Boundaries
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, I’m sure I sound like a broken record with this one. However, a breakdown in a marriage/family happens because of a lack of boundaries. What do you need to say no to? What do you need to set limits on in this season moving forward? When you visualize where you want your marriage and family to go, what isn’t there? Sometimes moving forward means leaving “the old” behind.

3. Roles
As you’re reflecting on the vision and the boundaries, also think about what’s working and what isn’t. What roles do you play each day? What hats do you wear? Are these roles adding to your life or your stress? I often have couples do an exercise called work | rest. Think about all the things you do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Make a list of those according to whether they are work (energy taking) or rest (energy giving) for you. Now compare that list with your spouse. What is on their work list that’s rest for you? Can you take that chore now? What is rest for them that’s work for you? Switch things up as necessary. For example, bedtime routines are work for me but rest for my husband. When possible, that’s a role that he takes on to give me a break. What roles can you add, take away or change to give everyone more energy, stability, and happiness in the home?

I realize this doesn’t sound super sexy but having a conversation around these three topics will certainly lead to more sexy time and give you the energy you’ve been looking for! Running a home and a successful marriage is a lot like running a business. To be successful, hard conversations need to be had, revamping what isn’t working and ramping up what is takes reflection, effort and mindfulness.

As always, if you need help with these topics, I have space available for pop-up sessions and the back to basics program covers a lot of this as well. There are a couple spaces left in that program too! Cheers to your marriage!

Your coach,

Kameran

You know in a traditional wedding ceremony where the officiant repeats the bible verse Mark 10:9 “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate”.

I have always loved that part, thinking that it was a way to keep people from coming between the bride and the groom.

What if that verse isn’t just meant to keep other people out of our marriage though? What if we are the ones separating our own union?

For example, do you ever feel like your spouse spends more time on their phone than they do in conversation or connection with you? When you wake up in the morning, do you scroll social media before you even say good morning to your love?

I recently heard Kevin Hart say that his world was rocked and he had to reprioritize his life when he was told that he was “married to his job and dating his family”. Is work coming between you and your spouse?

Growing up, I had a friend that lived across the street and her mom and dad always put each other before the kids. Even at 7 and 8 years old, I noticed and admired that. The concept of putting your spouse’s needs before the kids is commendable and rare. Of course, there are exceptions like if you have an infant that needs fed or whatnot. For the most part though, do the kids come first or second on your priority list?

One of the reasons I divorced my first husband was that he could never set the boundary with his mother when she called and asked for money or didn’t respect the boundary I had set. Are in-laws intruding in your marriage?

Here are some other possible “intruders”:

outside hobbies and interests (hunting season anyone?)
TV
Friends
Addictions
Affairs
Church functions

What you invest the majority of your time in directly correlates to what you value most. If you put more time into your phone than you do connection with your spouse, your value is not on your marriage but on the highlight reel of other’s lives.

Reflecting on those values and the time put into your marriage, if you find yourself saying “Well, life just happened”, chances are that the bond you have with your spouse is fragile.

So how do you get out of the habit of valuing the wrong things?

Understand that your marriage is only as strong as the value you put on it. If you want a Target brand marriage, make a couple tweaks but mostly keep doing what you’re doing. If you want a Louis Vuitton marriage, you’re going to have to pay a higher price.

Meaning, you’re going to have to lay out a plan. That might mean no phones in the bedroom, no screens after 9 PM, setting boundaries with family, friends, work, etc. Getting help with addictions and affairs or your marriage as a whole. Cutting out what is lower on your list of values and starting new habits that give meaning and priority to what’s most important to you and your goals.

Take another part of the marriage ceremony, the “forsaking all others” into consideration. Forsake what is coming between the connection you and your spouse have.

As always, if you need help with this or feel that you and your spouse aren’t aligning on what you value, email me at coaching@recognizingpotential.com and let’s do a pop-up session together to help you get on the same page!

Cheers to your marriage!

Your coach,

Kameran

P.S.- have you signed up for the Good to Great! The 31 day marriage challenge yet? It isn’t your typical “send a cute text” challenge. This is a deep dive into continuous issues, healing and building of a union. Every day you’ll get a short audio lesson, a devotional and some connection challenges do complete emailed directly to you at 5 AM. You’ll spend every day in October in the word, creating a better you and a better marriage. $31 for 31 days!