“Being deliberate about improving our relationships can help most of us, especially because left to their own devices, most relationships become less fulfilling over time.” —Eli J. Finkel, author of, “The All-or-Nothing Marriage.”
Every Sunday, my friends Mike and Rose get together for their “Lover’s Summit.”
This is their second marriage. They have a blended family with teenage kids, busy careers, dogs, cats, a mortgage…
They are busy! And they are determined to do a great job parenting and being lovers to each other.
Each week they sit down and go through their checklist:
- They check in with each other on their upcoming week’s schedule.
- They discuss where they want to take their next trip.
- They plan their weekly date night and lunch together.
- They check in on their finances.
- They resolve issues they were too busy to discuss during the hectic week.
- And they get feedback on the one thing they are working to improve in their relationship with each other.
Right now, Mike is working on not looking at his phone while he’s with Rose. She wants more of his presence and attention.
The thing Rose is working on to improve their relationship is giving Mike more physical affection.
It’s funny that him giving her more attention and her giving him more affection are their priorities in their relationship.
Because in this video, Relationship Resolutions, my advice to married women is to shower affection as much as possible when recognizing your partner for doing something good.
And my recommendation for men was to encourage their woman to accomplish something she thinks is important (a signal of attention).
RELATIONSHIP RESOLUTIONS
You can see by watching this video that affection for men and attention for women are pretty core desires, so much so that Rose and Mike naturally found that this was where they needed to put their effort to increase their marital happiness over time.
If you’re in a relationship, you’ll be happy to know that Mike was kind enough to share his Lover’s Summit checklist.
Here’s our lover summit agenda:
* Schedule
* Quarterly weekend getaway
* 2018
* Q1 – Mexico?
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* Annual trip
* Go through this week/review last week
* Weekly date night x 1
* Weekly summit x 1
* Weekly lunch x 1
* Finances
* Finance check-in
* Issues from the week to resolve
* Regular check-ins
* Mike – looking at the phone
* Rose – more physical affection for Mike
If you decide to follow Mike and Rose’s Lover’s Summit, let me know how it works for you.
They’d be delighted to know they spread love through their strategy.
