February is the month for romance and the ideal excuse to turn the spotlight on your marriage. Once you implement these 8 steps, your intimacy will be the envy of the playground!
1. Synchronize Your Schedules
Sure it’s tempting to send email late into the night while he falls asleep in front of the TV, but if this sounds familiar, you need to change this pattern. If you crawl into bed at the same time as your spouse each night, sex is an option. If you don’t, it is completely off the table. Your goal is warm bodies cuddling every night.
2. Make Your Husband Your Gay Best Friend
In the best marriages, spouses are best friends. Your husband should have the most intel on your life. Do you have good news? Tell him first. Bad news? Tell him first. Leaning on your husband leads to greater connection and intimacy.
3. Do Bite-sized Check Ins
Over a glass of wine or a cup of tea, make time to have a 20 minute check in each day – morning or night. Keep it to 20 minutes or your partner is less likely to want to do it tomorrow. The daily check-in results in intimacy because it literally holds your life together and insures you are on the same path.
4. Have a Weekly Date Night
Set up a weekly sitter so that date night becomes as much a part of your schedule as work or school. And remember that date night is not for problem solving. If you are doing your bite-size dailies, there is no need to use date nights for anything but fun. Trade off the planning responsibilities and enjoy.
5. Create Your Dreamables
Remember when you first met and the two of you giddily talked about your vision for the future? Just as a growing company periodically rethinks their plan, at least once a year you want to dream with your partner. Look 3-5 years ahead, look 10 years ahead. Think about careers, kids, travel, health, and money. Dreaming together is a great reminder that you are a team. Dream achievable – set a vision that you can aim for and get to.
6. Settle on a Sex Quota
Every couple is different and you need to do what works for both of you. Talk to your spouse about how much you each want to be having sex, meet in the middle and aim to achieve it! Getting in touch with each other’s desires will help you meet one another’s needs.
7. Fly Solo
The two of you need to do a couple’s trip without kids at least once a year. Even two days at a local hotel will rejuvenate your marriage. And go guilt-free because taking some time to intensely connect will benefit the whole family upon your return. It is hard to be an unhappy kid with two happy parents.
8. Be United
As parents you are faced with hundreds of decisions on a weekly basis and if you don’t discuss issues as they arise, they can create wedges between you. The more you communicate about your philosophies and styles when the kids are not listening, the better a team you will be when they are. Getting on the same page will erase a lot of the natural tension that comes with parenting. Support one another and your marriage will thrive.
by Samantha Ettus
We all like to think of summer as a blur of beach balls and barbecues but once the weekend comes roaring around it can also be filled with pressure to make the most of it. Here, six experts offer advice on how to maximize your summer weekends:
1. Reconnect with Your Partner
Sexologist Logan Levkoff suggests that you, “Be affectionate. Kiss. Really kiss. Optimize the time you have together. A little goes a long way. We often kiss cheeks and talk “at” and not “to” each other. Avoiding that will help you to reconnect.”
2. Make it Family Time
Parenting expert Michele Borba recommends, “Get the kids more on Forbes…
When young women ask me how to have a successful career and a family I tell them to pick the right guy. Easier said than done – especially if you don’t know what to look for. If you want a successful career, a happy home and a solid marriage then let’s hope you aren’t looking for the perpetual dreamer, the hot but unavailable guy or the guy who’s throwing money around. You are looking for an intelligent, kind hearted, loving, open minded man who knows how to make a commitment and stick to it.
So if we all know what Mr. Right looks like when we see him then why do so many of us marry Mr. Wrong? Because most women are not thinking far into their futures when they fall in love. They are thinking about Mr. Right Now instead of Mr. Right Always. At a dinner party I was recently seated across from a non-profit executive. She mentioned that more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Each time I have worked with Olympic athlete, Summer Sanders, I have been inspired by her life as a former gold medalist turned TV personality and mother. In this interview, she shared with me an unusually candid look into how she manages her life as a working mom.
You and your husband both work. How do you manage it together?
It took a while to find our dual career groove, but I have to say we really focus on Team. Erik and I stopped keeping score a long time ago because it never leads anywhere positive. When we get overwhelmed we try to refocus on family happiness as our goal.
How do you cope with mommy guilt?
I used to have really bad mommy guilt. I would cry and my heart would actually hurt. Last winter, I would tear up when I saw a pillow pet in the airport when I was traveling for work. Now I don’t feel the more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Let’s take a break from talking about your brand at work and discuss how the key themes of personal branding impact your personal life. Here we take your brand on a date by applying your corporate skills to dating.
1. Smile A Lot
We would all prefer to do business with the one smiling rather than the one pouting. Same goes here. The woman who gets approached most isn’t the knockout with the sexy outfit, she’s the approachable one wearing the smile.
2. Put Your Best Face Forward
Invest in a professional headshot for your social media presence regardless of whether you are dating online. Have makeup and hair done in preparation for the shoot and bring three outfits to get a variety of looks. No cleavage and no suits. Use this photo for all of your social media presence or online dating. Unless you are in college, you are too old to use a photo that includes your more on Forbes…