Before we get started, check out this news article on the current state of divorces, counseling, etc., as influenced by current economic conditions. It's downright scary to see how many people are unhappily stuck together because they think they can't afford divorce or even counseling!
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/business/Wanting to divorce but unable to afford it.html
That article was in 2008, and I don't have to tell you that things are even worse today; a Google or Bing search for "can't afford to get a divorce" still turns up dozens of current articles saying the same thing. Being able to get along with someone you'd rather not even be around, let alone live with, is becoming a pretty valuable survival skill.
One thing that caught my eye in the linked article was how these people who seek counseling because of the expense of divorce are looking at 1,000 or more for 10 or more sessions. Most of my readers never need counseling, and the few who opt for having me coach them have only rarely required more than one session of a single hour. Un-freaking-believable. I was flamed on another forum site by some guy who said that he was a counselor and was appalled because I gave specific advice. If it takes others ten to thirty sessions to get things on track and it takes me one (and I've had more than one caller tell me that they got more done with me in one hour than in thirty sessions with a counselor), I can see why that might upset him - and his banker. ;-)
By the way, in the end he ignored my advice to leave a woman who obviously had no love or respect for him, as evidenced by the way she chronically abused and demeaned him, because he found that by deceiving her, his situation became tolerable, and that in his estimation, deceit was the key to a happy relationship. I didn't bother responding out of respect for the owner of the web site, who tries to help people, while this guy was just looking for validation of his mistakes and lack of both manhood and integrity instead of a solution.
Come to think of it, if you want to see what I say to people in trouble outside of these newsletters, drop by our forum, http://forum.makingherhappy.com, and see for yourself, and see what's happening as a result while you're at it. You may well see something that will help you right now, too! If you have your own issues you want help with, just register and post; registration is not required to read, but is required to post because anonymous posters tend to contribute nothing but spam and links to malware, plus the occasional troll remarks to start a fight.
Getting into today's lesson, as many of you already know, one of my acquired talents and favorite achievements is that of being a chef. The fact is I'm a "very alpha male" and therefore not only a leader, but also a consummate do-it-yourselfer, the most secure route to the independence that every alpha male demands, and a man who loves good food as much as I do needs to be able to create it at will, because unless you live in New York City, there are more places to get an average or bad meal than there are to get a good one.
(As a quick aside, New Yorkers are probably the only people on Earth that I envy as a whole, because in my experience, you just can't find a bad meal in New York City. I've literally had better food from a NYC street vendor's cart than I've had at restaurants in other places. A bad restaurant isn't going to survive very long in a densely populated city with commercial real estate prices and rental rates as high as they are there. If you love good food, a vacation there is worth the stay just for the food!)
Getting back on topic, I was making omelets for breakfast this morning ("guy omelets," loaded with pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, etc. - use your favorite pizza toppings!), and it hit me how much has to be just right for the eggs to set right, and how that equated to a relationship.
If you add too much water or milk, they don't hold together and you'll end up with runny scrambled eggs. If you let the mixture reach too high a temperature by leaving it in the pan too long, the proteins "spasm" and force all the water out of the eggs, giving you rubbery lumps sitting in water. Too much heat quickly will cause them to scorch and burn. Like baking anything that turns into a set foam (omelet, cake, biscuits, etc.), it's a matter of chemistry and physics, and you have to have the right amount of everything to make it perfect, and getting close will get you something very good.
It's the same way with relationships. Think about the things required to keep a woman happy:
You need to be sensitive to a woman's emotional condition and have good communications skills, but if you over apply either you end up being regarded as and treated like a girlfriend.
You need to project a strong leader-like personality, but if you cross the line and come off as controlling, you're toast, unless she happens to be particularly needy, in which case you're in a codependent relationship, one of the worst kinds.
You need to have a good sense of humor and know how to have fun and make her laugh, but if you do it too often, you're an over-aged adolescent clown, not "her dream guy who can be so much fun and makes her laugh when she feels bad." (She really will get bored with too much comedy.)
You need to project self-respect and groom and dress in a manner that does so, but if you go too far with that, especially if you go "metrosexual," you become conceited, fussy, spend more on skin and hair care products than she does, and you're fun to shop with but nothing else (GIRLFRIEND AGAIN!), not to mention getting all the attention that she wants when the two of you go out.
You need to be a friend and companion, but if you take that too far, you become "just friends," and a "nice guy," somebody she wants to watch a chick-flick with, not somebody she wants to have come into the house, sweep her off her feet, and ravish her. Just another relationship for her to have to manage, and women manage a lot of relationships, actively. And, regrettably, you'll also be someone who can't stand up to her, and hence, in her eyes, someone who can't stand up FOR her.
There are a lot of people touting a lot of ways to instantly get results, and as men, we tend to try to make each thing we hear about be that one magic thing we've been missing to make everything wonderful again. We heard women wanted a man to be "nice" and "sensitive" back in the 1980's. We gave up on being the men that our fathers taught us to be and started being wimps who cried in front of their women while watching a movie.
What they wanted was for us to be real men, treat them as someone we liked (nice) instead of taking all their money and beating them up and then leaving them for one a little younger, and to be emotionally aware enough know that there would be times when they would be upset for no apparent reason, and other times when they needed to talk to somebody, and that busting through the door yelling "I'm home! Where's my damned dinner?" wasn't going to work out very well for anyone involved.
You don't need to know every little thing there is to know about women, but there are some very important things that you do need to know if you ever want to be happy with one or more of them. And there again, it's not just one thing you'll need to know about, but a mix of things: compatibility, communications, emotions, mentality, needs, wants, and reactions, just to name the big ones. And then you need to throw into that mix everything that makes the women in your life (wife, daughters, sisters, friends, wives of friends, coworkers, wives of coworkers - there are probably a lot more women in your life than you realize) individuals, their idiosyncrasies that will endear you to them if you notice and appreciate.
With all these "mixes" going on, it sounds like you need a HUGE cookbook, doesn't it?
Well, no, you don't, and no, I'm not going to drop that "recipe for a happy marriage" clich'e on you. It's as much like a balancing act as it is like cooking. However, you do need to learn a few things because there are several aspects of your relationship that you need to master and manage.
But! That's not to say that you need a dozen books on psychology, several on communication, a few on seduction, a bunch on female physiology and sexual technique, one on women's history, etc. Yeah, that's a mixture, too, but it's a lot of overkill, and quite frankly, since a lot of women think they want things that they really respond to quite negatively, it's also going to be pretty confusing.
There is an answer for you, though. It's not a freebie, but you can easily afford it, no matter what your situation (if you can afford a computer and Internet service, this is pocket change). It's not a magic pill, but it's a regimen you can easily swallow. It's not likely to turn your life upside down overnight, but some of my readers have stopped their divorces cold within less than a week of receiving it, and over the course of several weeks after that put things back on track and then went on to make them better than they've ever been.
Some are going more slowly, taking a few months, because sudden change just isn't in them (you know, the detail-oriented sort who take the time to check and double-check and study everything before taking action), but even if you are one of those people, what's two or three months compared to extending your marriage as much as thirty or forty years, and making it a great marriage instead of a trap that sucks the life out of you?
Or worse, what are two or three months compared to the years you might continue to be unhappy and/or alone, or stuck with the wrong person, if things continue the way they're going? Not much, not much at all. Let's see, three months study and self-improvement for 30 years of happiness. That's a 12,000% return, and unlike the stock market, you're in total control of whether that investment pays off, because it's based on choices you make and actions you take, not the choices and actions of others. And I don't even want to try to compute the percentage gain if you only have to spend the two to four hours required to read a book and hit the ground running!
Your answer is at http://www.makingherhappy.com. It's called "THE Man's Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage," and from what my readers and I have seen, it has that which will cure what ails your relationship, if you do nothing more than read and apply it. Don't tell anybody I told you so, but just between us, it's a whole lot of fun, so get to it now, before you do another thing!
In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!
David Cunningham "Being a man is something to which one should aspire, not something for which he should apologize." --David Cunningham
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