{"id":4069,"date":"2015-03-30T23:15:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T23:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heartsdesireintl.com\/?p=4069"},"modified":"2015-03-30T23:15:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T23:15:37","slug":"making-and-keeping-agreements-are-keys-to-strengthening-your-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/making-and-keeping-agreements-are-keys-to-strengthening-your-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Making and Keeping Agreements Are Keys to Strengthening Your Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Gladys Diaz<\/span><\/p>\n

\"man<\/a><\/p>\n

Monday was my first day back after a week off for vacation, and I\u2019m excited!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always this way for me. I used to dread<\/em> having to go back to work after being on vacation. I would think of reasons\/excuses to give my boss for not having to go in that first day. I\u2019d dread looking at my inbox and having to deal with everything that didn\u2019t get done while I was away.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was then\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, however, I absolutely love<\/em><\/strong> what I do and I love the women I work with, and, since it doesn\u2019t seem like \u201cwork,\u201d I have to be really aware of how I manage my time when I\u2019m on vacation so that I can really take time off to relax, replenish, and renew my mind, body, and spirit before heading back to the office.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the concerns I get from professional women is that they fear their partner won\u2019t understand and feel comfortable with their drive and determination when it comes to their careers. They worry that their partners will somehow feel \u201cthreatened\u201d or intimidated by their success.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why one of the ways I create harmony between my work and personal life is by making agreements \u2013 both with myself and my husband.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

See, my husband knows how much my clients mean to me. He knows that, if they are in the middle of a crisis in their relationships, it wouldn\u2019t sit right with me to just ignore them because I\u2019m on vacation. He also knows that I\u2019m in the middle of planning two huge projects, and, if something came up around them, I\u2019d need to at least be aware of it in order to delegate the issue to someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

What my husband also knows beyond a shadow of a doubt is that he and the boys<\/strong><\/em> mean more to me than anything else<\/em><\/strong>, and that I consider the time I spend with them precious. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, before <\/em>going on vacation, we agreed on what our days would look like and what I would do to manage anything that might come up regarding work. This way, rather than being on the phone checking email all day long, I had had certain times designated when I would check in, look to see what I needed to respond to, and the rest of the time was 100% family fun time!<\/span><\/p>\n

By creating and honoring an agreement about what I would do\/not do while on vacation, I took 100% responsibility for my happiness and for the work that would\/would not get done that week. I also sent the message to my husband and kids that they are my priority and that, after those few minutes when I did work during the day, they had my undivided attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of this agreement, I didn\u2019t have to feel \u201cguilty\u201d about answering or not answering an email. I kept to my schedule and did everything I could to be present with and enjoy the time I spent with my in-loves (my term for \u201cin-laws).<\/span><\/p>\n

The even better <\/em>part was that, because my intention was to be fully present with my family and I was willing to work a little harder and longer the 2 weeks prior to vacation, I actually had very little<\/em> I had to attend to work-wise during the week! (It\u2019s just like it says in one of the books I finished reading while on vacation, The Alchemist<\/span><\/em>: \u201c\u2026when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it\u201d!)<\/span><\/p>\n

In this case, the universe, my family, my team, and I conspired to make sure that I had a fun a restful vacation! But it didn’t “just happen.” Like everything else in life that it is important, it took setting a clear intention and planning!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A relationship is a partnership<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating agreements with your partner is one of the essential keys to making that partnership work. When making agreements, keep these things in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Only promise what you fully intend to fulfill.<\/strong> It\u2019s important that you determine what you are willing to do and that you fully intend to honor the agreement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Keep the agreement.<\/strong> Even more important than making <\/em>an agreement is keeping <\/em>the agreement. In honoring the agreement, you send the message to your partner that he can trust you to honor your word (in this case, as well as in the rest of the relationship).
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      The truth is that the majority of the problems in relationships can be traced back to one or both of the partners not having kept a promise or agreement that was made.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

      Does this mean you\u2019ll never<\/em> break a promise or that you\u2019ll keep every single <\/em>agreement you ever make?<\/span><\/p>\n

      No.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The goal, of course, is to strive for that. But, if you fail to keep an agreement, follow these steps.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Acknowledge that the agreement wasn\u2019t kept. <\/strong>Don\u2019t ignore the broken agreement or pretend as if nothing happened. Honor yourself and your partner by acknowledging how the agreement was broken.<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Apologize for whatever you did on your end to break the agreement.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
      3. Make a new agreement <\/strong>(keeping in mind that you fully intend to honor it this time).<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
      4. Do everything in your power to honor the agreement.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Your relationship is the most important partnership you’ll ever have.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

        While this doesn’t mean you won’t have other partnerships or projects that are important to you, it does mean that striving to make that partnership work needs to be a daily priority.\u00a0 Making and keeping agreements is one way to make sure your partnership works!
        \n<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Questions?\u00a0 Comments?\u00a0 Let us know below!\u00a0 We love hearing from you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        by Gladys Diaz Monday was my first day back after a week off for vacation, and I\u2019m excited! \u00a0 It wasn\u2019t always this way for me. I used to dread having to go back to work after being on vacation. I would think of reasons\/excuses to give my boss for not having to go in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,16,17,22,27],"tags":[42,47,57,68,70,80,87,105],"class_list":["post-4069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication-2","category-hearts-desire-international","category-love-2","category-marriage","category-relationship-advice","category-success","tag-communication","tag-dating","tag-hearts-desire-international","tag-love","tag-marriage-2","tag-partnership","tag-relationship-advice-2","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartsdesireintl.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}