by Priscilla Hunt, Specialist in Marriage Enrichment
www.closecompanions.org
www.bettermarriages.org
New Year’s Resolutions sometimes get a bad rap. Often, they’re the butt of jokes and we get the message that we’re expected to fail after the first week of the new year.
But, Greg and I know that if you don’t have a plan, you surely will fail.
Your relationship is too important to just let happen. These tips will help you develop a relational plan for success in the new year.
- Take an honest look at your relational strengths and your growing edges. What are you currently doing well? What could use improvement?
- Set some personal goals for your own growth. Your relationship will be only as fresh, interesting and vital as each of you are as individuals.
- Share your individual goals with each other. This will allow you to better support each other as you strive to reach your goals – it allows you to encourage each other in the areas that you each find important. Is your goal to lose weight? Exercise more? Read more? Be more mindful about everyday life? Find more work/life balance? See your grandchildren more often? Whatever it is, you can be your partner’s greatest cheerleader!
- Look ahead – talk about where you want your relationship to go, what you want it to look like in the year ahead. Working together, you can make it happen.
- Based on this closer look, discuss a growth plan, an action plan, set some specific goals together for ways you want your relationship to grow.
- Write down your goals for your relationship, keeping them concrete and tangible. Post them on the refrigerator door or bathroom mirror to keep them visible and remind you of your commitments.
- Slow down. Breathe deeply. Focus. You’re not 2 ships passing in the night – you are a couple with a limited amount of time on this earth to make a difference in each other’s lives and, together, in the lives of others.
- Decide, consciously, to treat each other with love, respect, and gentleness. Decide not to reserve common courtesies only for those outside your relationship – share your best “you” with your partner.
- Take advantage of all the resources available at www.bettermarriages.org. Each week choose an article, a relational tip, a video, a book review, or a couple exercise and share it together.
And, now. . . seal it with a midnight kiss!