Yesterday, my wife was very upset with me. I tend to block off all barriers to communication when I am engaged in my work. This ability to stay focused and disciplined has produced some accomplishments; however, it also occasionally causes riffs to occur between my partner and me.
In addition to sharing breakfast with each other at least once a week, my wife and I also coordinate our schedules to work out together for two hours. This exercise date serves as another time for us to talk and to share the benefits of a healthy activity together. Yesterday, I promised to go on our weekly walk, but my tunnel vision on my work interfered with my ability to see my wife and her needs.
For the last couple of weeks, I have obsessed over the creation of my course, Personal Development 100 (PD 100). The online video course is designed to teach others the fundamentals of creating positive self-awareness, instilling gratitude practices, establishing goals, maintaining healthy activities such as exercise, and cultivating leadership skills. It includes an entire set of brief lectures reflective of my current work in personal development, alongside inspirational videos that I have made over the course of two years.
PD 100 was a project that took a considerable amount of time, effort, and concentration to produce. On the day my wife and I planned to exercise, it also happened to correspond with the deadline I set for myself to release PD 100.
My wife and I possess mutual respect for each other’s work. But occasionally I get consumed and neglect her feelings.
I always aim to do my best with her and my children, however, similar to other men, I am not perfect and make mistakes. That particular day was an example of how I allowed my obsession with building my business to get the best of my ability to also remain considerate of my home responsibilities.
After waiting an additional hour and thirty minutes to exercise, while I finished changes to my site, my wife decided to leave. She left the house and said “fine” as she slammed the door. When the door shut, I knew she was upset. I quickly finished the task I was working on, grabbed my shoes and went out to catch her. In her rage, she decided to run instead of walk. That left me with no option other than to run after her and attempt to catch her stride.
I found her about six blocks from our home and tried to apologize. At first, she didn’t want to have any part of what I was offering through my words. The former version of myself would have taken that as a reason to walk away and sort through my feelings alone. But from the personal development research I have done, I decided to stay and hear how I made her feel.
I’ve read extensively about the importance of remaining present to listen to your partner whenever these types of relationship challenges occur. While she talked, I listened, and I didn’t interrupt with any interjections in my defense.
Personal development is about creating success in our private and public lives.
It’s about making consistent, disciplined efforts to be your best self at home and in the workplace. There are occasions when you have to stop work to be successful at home. Through personal development, I have learned it is important to invest in your business and imperative to invest in the people who are a part of your reasons to pursue your business.
If you’re interested in the other strategies that can help you achieve success in your personal and business relationships, check out the concepts and strategies I teach you in my course.
It’s important to me that I help other men realize their full potential.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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