So, what about you? If you’re a married professional you should have one, or at least have one available to you. What else would you call a select group of truly marvelous, smart, and caring professional women gathered for the simple purpose of inspiring and strategically supporting each other’s “dreams” for their personal life at home?

I call it a dream team. Please don’t tell me you have no dreams for your home life! You wouldn’t dare tolerate such nonsense in your business or career. A career or business without strategic goals won’t accomplish much of anything worthwhile, and you know what–neither will a marriage. Our marriages need the fresh winds of aspiration to keep them alive and growing too. As professional women, we tend to be happiest when we’re in a place of fruitfulness. This fruitfulness can be easily seen in our attitudes about our marriage and family life…it really shows up there, doesn’t it?

Well, having a dream team helps us to cultivate the fruitfulness so essential to our happiness at home.

Happiness has become quite a paradox for so many of us, hasn’t it? As Matthew Kelly says, you and I know the things that make us happy. And yet, we don’t do those things.

Why? Because we’re just too busy. Here’s the real irony–we’re too busy trying to be happy!

If your marriage has taken a back seat to the demands of your career, your parenting, or anything else and you know it - but aren’t sure how to give it the priority and time it deserves on a daily basis - a dream team can provide inspiration and dunamis you need to rejuvenate your marriage, yourself, and your family life!

This month I am starting my Inspirare Mastermind Group. The name Inspirare, comes from the Latin meaning of the word inspire which means to breathe life into another.

Six professional women will join me in this private mastermind group to experience a re-invigoration of their marriage relationship, personal renewal, and to break through old habits, attitudes, and expectations that have held them back. The group will encourage, strategically support, challenge, and hold each other accountable to achieve their individual goals.

You can benefit from this if you want to unlock your potential to thrive by:

• Honestly assessing your relationship
• learning to communicate more collaboratively
• experiencing greater emotional intimacy
• dealing more effectively with personal and relational concerns
• caring for yourself and your partner more intentionally

If you are ready to love and be loved more deeply than ever before, this dream team’s for you! I invite you to start living a bigger, more satisfying reality in your marriage relationship now, before the rush of the holidays, before the end of the year… doesn’t that sound worthwhile?

You, your partner, and children are so worth it…

Contact me to discuss joining this dream team.

Note: There will be two mastermind groups consisting of a maximum of six participants per group. The first 6 people to sign up will receive a complimentary copy of New York Times Bestseller, Matthew Kelly’s inspiring book, The Rhythm of Life–an early Christmas gift for giving your relationship the priority it deserves!

I have always enjoyed working to the sound of music in the
background, both at home and in the office. Upbeat tunes
make the mundane more tolerable–like the weekly
cleaning up of this, that, or the other in our busy home. My
kids benefit when I rise early on weekends turn on the
tunes and create our favorite family breakfast of hotcakes
with a variety of trimmings (bananas and walnuts or pecans
adds the finishing touch for mine). My husband benefits
because music energizes me. I’m collaborative and ready for
just about anything (he’s usually the first up in our house
with coffee to go). And, I benefit because it stimulates me to get up and moving, exercising, dancing, singing, etc –and it charges me emotionally!

The health benefits of music are well documented. There are so many ways we can benefit from music in our life. Music therapy services are widespread. The American Music Therapy Association has a FAQ page on their site that answers common queries about this fascinating field of work. Nursing homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and schools are just some of the places utilizing music to heal and comfort those who are hurting.

Need to shift your attitude? Try turning on your favorite song or instrumental piece. Josh Groban has a beautiful song titled You Are Loved on his CD Awake. It does wonders for my mindset when I have one of those tough days. What kind of music uplifts your soul?

In this week’s Interpersonally Speaking ezine featured article I talk about the reality of being unhappy in marriage. As I said in the article, this topic of unhappiness in marriage has been calling out to me for several months now.  Perhaps because of a growing observation of how little my favorite professional ezines and other publications address marriage dissatisfaction as an issue of concern for the professional woman.

In fact, I’ve noticed how little if ever the word marriage is even mentioned or spotlighted as an important part of the professional woman’s life. Yet, the word relationship and professional woman are often often intermingled. It’s as if there is something unacceptable about being professional and caring about your marriage…or even loving your married life.

Has it become acceptable to love your work, career, or your relationship, committed and otherwise–while even mentioning marriage as something valuable that contributes to a rich, full, and satisfying life–and is worth enriching has quietly become unacceptable? It seems that when marriage is mentioned it’s lost in lesser significant commentary about an unsuccessful marriage.  Here’s what’s really interesting. When successful women are interviewed well they offer a glimpse into a successful home life that provides the foundation for the success they enjoy professionally.

The real tragedy is that too many professional women are excelling in their career while secretly suffering in their most significant relationship at home–their marriage.

If as professional women we can:

• reign in pride for the sake of listening to opposing views in the interest of finding solutions
• set aside the resources and incorporate the time needed to plan properly
• assess and address areas of weakness
• take risks for clearly defined reasons
• persist
• surround ourselves with people who support, inspire, and challenge us
• be aggressive in the pursuit of that we deem worthy of us

What would become of the unhappiness that plagues too many of us if we took this mindset on for the good of our marriage? Sustainability in marriage could go a long, long way with just a tad bit of the genius that propels us forward successfully in our professions…

What do you think?

Are you presently unhappy in marriage? Do you have a plan for long-term sustainability in your marriage? You can. Be intentional about your happiness and your marriage! Get a plan. You, your partner, and your marriage deserves nothing short of that. My new exclusive Excellence in Marriage coaching group for professional women starts up in early November. I’m running two and each is limited to just six participants. See if this is for you. Here are the details.

I believe in you and your marriage…

I recently read a really wonderful article by Peggy Vaughan that aptly captures the power of female connections. I’m thinking about this more of late as I listen to the needs of professional, busy women who give exponentially day in and out to others. Sometimes the investment in others exceeds the investment in ourself. I’m about to launch a coaching group and a mastermind group just for the married professional woman who wants to take some time to invest in herself.

More on that to come…

Click here for that wonderful article I mentioned by Peggy. Enjoy!

Wow, talk about juggling…the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of business networking events coupled with family events, website revisions and new resources, along with planning for an upcoming seminar. Despite the hectic pace I’ve managed to get some reading in–a real delight. Well, that’s a quick update about where I’ve been…

How about you?

I am thrilled with the national discourse that Governor Sarah Palin’s presence has invoked with regard to the unique roles women juggle. We are well into the reality of the dual role women carry out in their home life and work life. I firmly believe that each of us is called to share our gift of self in specific ways in this world. Some women are called to focus exclusively on the home front and do so magnificently. Some are called to focus exclusively in work outside the home. And, others answer the call to share their gifts on the home front as well as in the work world outside the home via a career.

I recall years ago trying to figure out where I could best share my gifts. I believed that I could be very content exercising my gifts as a stay-at-home mom exclusively. And as I tried to do this from deep inside, I had a keen awareness that I had been “entrusted” with gifts that were to be shared on the home front in my roles of wife and mother–and with the larger world outside my home through a very particular kind of work.

I really struggled with this trying to justify and explain to friends who were either full-time homemakers, or moms working outside the home to add to the family’s income–not on a career track of any kind. As much as I loved and respected my dear friends, I knew my path veered in a slightly different direction–one that I came to recognize as that of juggling career, marriage, and a family. I knew I had been “called” to make a gift of myself at home and in the workplace as a business woman.

At the time I had no role models within my social network or sphere of personal influence. So I read as much as I could about the lives of women leaders in a variety of sources and saw myself for the first time. They were my peers. They had answered the call and pulled together the support necessary to respond.

I had one child at the time and knew that I loved being married, a mom, and making a difference in the lives of others through my work. All were very important to me and satisfied my sense of my vocation in this world. Discovering this and coming to terms peacefully and joyfully was one thing. Making it work the way I thought it should turned out to be quite another! In time I learned that it could work and work well with love, wisdom, skill and faith. In the special report, High Achieving Women and Family Life Success I share much of the wisdom involved in making this lifestyle effective.

And now as an experienced professional woman juggling marriage, family, and a wonderful career I am thankful for the priviledge of making a gift of myself in this manner. It is very satisfying, demanding, and rewarding. And, I think those of us who have heard and answered this amazing call bring the genius we have as women into the various arenas outside the borders of our home making our community, culture, and world a better place for all of us.

As professional women we have much to give and to be proud of…what do you think about the self-giving genius of professional women?

I’m back from an ugly upper respiratory virus that visited my daughter then me….

I ended up canceling the Inside Look at Relational Prosperity in Marriage teleseminar because my voice was so badly affected that I couldn’t speak. What I did though for those who signed up was to offer some of the content from the event in the form of a 5-day mini e-course called Prosperity in Marriage. If anyone would like a copy of it email me your request.

In handling yourself well in your relationships what would you say is your highest behavioral priority? I think that’s a good question. For me I believe thinking before acting is crucial. So, I work at not reacting to what I hear, see, or feel.

Sometimes, others are so prone to diving in with a response or action that they become impatient, suspicious, or even annoyed by the perceived “lack of response.” I try not to let the behavior of others dictate my behavior. This can be challenging, especially if the other person is very demanding with their body language, attitude, or speech.

Still, what you and I do is up to us. We get to decide our own actions when we are ready. And, that helps tremendously!

Just a quick note. I created a special relational prosperity audio presentation for the Inside Look Teleseminar, which I rescheduled for Wednesday, August 13th. The free audios are available to you now, just click the “podcasts” tab above or here to download you copy. Enjoy!

 For anyone who’s ever said in a moment of sheer frustration, “Is this all there is to it?” this post is for you…and the answer is, absolutely not! If you’re dissatisfied with the way things are in your marriage relationship use that dissatisfaction in ways that can actually benefit you and your marriage.

Here’s what I mean.

1.) If you’re angry about something that has happened, is happening, or that you expect to happen–don’t just be angry…what else can you do other than feel a particular way about it (in this case, angry)?

2.) If you need something from your partner and he shows no interest in fulfilling this need, consider what it would really require of him…what you’re really seeking from him, and whether or not this is a legitimate expectation.

3.) Emotional closeness is a high priority for married women today, and believe me it’s very important to the health of a marriage in many ways. Here’s the rub, and there is a rub…too often we want to be the receiver. We don’t want to take the first step (for many reasons, for sure) and instead wait for what we believe we deserve from our partner. And, there are times indeed when we are deserving of certain actions, but the most powerful and transforming actions come when we take steps independent of what is deserved. We do them purely as an act of love.

So, the next time you’re tempted to say or hear a friend say, “Is this all there is to marriage?” you can know that marriage becomes what we make of it—and because we are truly intended for more in this very special relationship, our marriage relationship, the real question has to be, “What’s keeping me from taking steps that would transform my marriage into more of what it can be?”

The answer may surprise you. Maybe you honestly don’t knowwhat’s standing in your way. If you could take an inside look at prosperity in marriage would you? I’m hosting a teleseminar that will do just that. You can read about it here. Join me there and learn what you can do to experience much more satisfaction in your marriage!