Divorce

Someone sent me an article which essentially describe the seven things that you must not do should you get into a divorce situation.

Briefly, the seven are:

1. Forcing Your Kids to Take Sides

2. Using Your Attorney as a Therapist

3. Spending $10,000 to get $1,000

4. Taking a Laissez Faire Approach to Your Case

5. Refusing to Mediate

6. Demonizing Your Ex

7. Jumping into a Rebound Relationship

While I must admit that the article is very professionally written and make a lot of human sense, I am just so troubled by it.

Why? I just feel that discussion on divorce is a self fulfilling thing. The more we talk and think about it, the probability of it happening increases accordingly.

In our group, we literally ban the D word from the vocab of all the couples that came across our paths. There are many words that are banned in a marriage relationship but the highest in the list is definitely the D word.

I'd rather be focusing on the 1000 things that you must do to ensure a fulfilling, satisfying and happy lifelong partnership.

In any event, divorce should never be an option as a start. That's why we should do our very best to go into a marriage relationship prepared.

TMPC run 6 Graduation

Time really flies. We had our party with many meaningful testimonies of lesson learnt. It is our prayer that they will be lifelong lessons to the couples and more importantly spur each one of them to continue to cherish each other all the days of their lives.

The Marriage Preparation Course run 6 started last Saturday

Run 6 started last Saturday. We had 9 couples who registered.

Congrats to each and every one of the couples who have decided to invest 6 Saturday afternoon to build a stronger foundation for their marriage.

The 3 Secrets of a Billionaire

I recently read an article titled How to be a Billionaire by Shaun Rein who writes for Forbes on leadership. How cool is that?

In his article he shared how he and his team interviewed many really rich folks. The team then narrowed all the various findings to three secrets of the truly rich that most of the people they talked to said had helped them get to where they are:

The first two are:

1) They are never afraid to fail.

2) They look creatively at problems to find new revenue sources.

What really interest me is the 3rd secret!! I have taken the liberty to copy and paste this portion of the article (and I hope the author is ok with it)

3) The third secret of the truly rich is that they marry well. I don't mean they find a rich heir or heiress to wed, though that might not hurt. Rather, most of the truly rich we talked to, especially the self-made ones, told us that having a good spouse had been critical to their success. Starting a company or running a conglomerate takes a lot of sacrifices. The stress can be a killer. Having a good spouse to support you and, most important, believe in you as you struggle to the top is critical.

Many of the rich we talked to had been through long patches of poverty. They rented rather than bought their homes or took out triple mortgages to get cash flow for their start-ups. Some spent years working out of the garages or working double jobs to pursue their passions. Some made it big but then lost it all before bouncing back again. Make sure you find someone who believes in you and is willing to accept the hardship it takes to get to the top.

Food for thought!!

TMPC run 5 Graduation Party more pix

Courting couples shared their key learnings. We also had the Support Couples sharing words of encouragement to their respective courting couples.

A lot of sharing from the heart.

A special word of appreciation to Reapfield for graciously letting us use their training facilities FOC. Also special thanks to all the Support Couples for their dedication and committment.

Next run - in March 2010.

TMPC run 5 Graduation Party 1

Time flies.... the course ended yesterday

n we came together to celebrate the commitment demonstrated by the courting couples in wanting to start well.

PREPARE Program

All couples who signed up for the course are required to complete the PREPARE exercise. This is a questionaire designed to help the couples learn more about themselves, their partner and their relationship.

It can identify some of the strengths in their relationship and problematic issues for them to discuss with their partner. It encourages the couples to discuss these issues which they will typically avoid till after marriage.

The results are not intended to predict your chance for marital success or to determine when and whether you should be married.

This is not a "test" and there is no right or wrong answer. The usefulness of PREPARE depend on the couples' willingness to respond fully and honestly.

The results are confidential and the support couple will run through the results with you and help you work through the key issues. In our experience it produces positive change in the key aspects of the relationship.