Couples all over the world are proclaiming their love for each other. In many cases, that love is shown with gifts – diamonds, chocolates, teddy bears, and roses.

It’s the roses we want to talk about today. Do you remember the song Rose Garden, first popularized by Lynn Anderson? It goes like this …

“I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.”

Did that help you remember it? The song continues …

“Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes.”

Well, boy it sure is pouring right now! 

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Piling on

We face an economy that we haven’t seen before (or we were too young to really remember). And of course, financial disagreements are a leading cause of divorce as we discussed on a recent show.

When couples disagree, it makes a bad situation even worse. If relationship troubles get piled on top of financial challenges, it’s likely that the financial situation will only deteriorate more.

So you risk not only losing the roses, you may lose the whole rose garden! But there is a way to get the garden blooming again.

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My sister says something that I love … “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

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No one is an island. We all need key partners in life – personally and professionally. But the personal partners – whether you call them your husband, wife, significant other, life partner, mate, or something else – are the most vital part of our lives.

H.E.A.R.T.

So this Valentine’s Day, no matter what other gifts you exchange, give each other these give great gifts:

Help

Encouragement

Admiration

Respect

Teamwork

Help
We need to listen, really listen, to our mates. To what they’re saying and what they’re not saying. Because what they’re not saying may be more important.

They may be scared. They may be stressed. It’s important to try not to assume, to not try to read minds. Because we may very well assume the wrong thing.

Open up to your spouse. Don’t judge them. Be a refuge, a helper, in this time of storm.

Encouragement
We need to go beyond a willingness to help. We should actively encourage the person we love the most. Let them know that:

• You have every confidence in them.

• Together, you just know you’ll work through any difficulty you may be experiencing.

• You will stick by them through thick and thin.

Admiration
We’ll keep going … moving beyond a willingness to help and some encouragement. Do you see how we’re stepping into this?

You started out as a fan. Are you still? Brag about him or her now and then. Publicly. Out loud. You used to!

Hollywood portrays love mostly as a noun in the movies and on television. Love is something that just “happens.” But love is also a verb. It implies action. We sometimes forget that.

Respect
Once we’ve reached the admiration level, respect will come relatively easily. We are so careful about what we say to other people. But sometimes we fail to use the same filters with the person closest to us.

We see each other all the time so we just say what’s on our mind. It’s only human, but it can harm our relationship. We should treat our spouses with more respect than we treat anyone else. After all, they deserve it … they put up with us!

Teamwork
Now with the other four pieces of H.E.A.R.T. in place, we’re ready for teamwork. Make quality time for each other so your relationship remains strong. Work on your problems together. If opposites attract, use that to your advantage. Your two brains can find a solution that neither of you would have thought of on your own.

Teamwork really will make the dream work!

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Thanks so much for spending some of your time with us today. Join us next time as we talk about a group of people that is really suffering during these tough times. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00330-021309.mp3

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(Image in today's post by iprole)

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With this game, you present your fellow players with a choice. For instance, I asked Mary-Lynn which she would rather give up for a month – chocolate or her cell phone.

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That was a tough question, but I would give up chocolate. My phone is my mobile device; there’s no way I could live without it for a month!

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Hmmm … Mary-Lynn with no chocolate. I’d plan to be away that month!

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A fun way to keep a conversation going

When we discussed conversation continuers recently, we said that games are one way to keep a conversation going. This is a great example of a game you could play to do that. For example, you could ask … 

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Who would you rather work for – a boss who’s super-demanding or a boss who’s never around? Anita posed more great questions in her post.

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If you check out her post, you can see how I answered the questions she asked.

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A fun way to improve strategic decision-making

Decision trees are a great way to visualize possible business strategies, since a business can be thought of as a series of either / or options. Sounds like a ramped-up version of “Which would you rather”, doesn’t it? Question 1 leads to Question 2 and so on.

For example, let’s say you plan to start a restaurant. Play “Which would you rather?”

• Which would you rather open – a big restaurant or a small restaurant? Let’s say you choose bigg … with two g’s of course!

• Which would you rather be – part of a franchise system or an independent? You really want to create your own brand, so you want to be independent.

• Where would you locate – in a strip center or a free-standing building? You could do some research to determine which one seems to work better for restaurants like the one you plan to start.

We could keep going, but you get the idea. The reason you create the decision tree is to see the impact of your choices. For instance, if you chose “franchise” for the second question, they may specify whether you’re inline or free-standing.

A fun way to teach your kids critical entrepreneurial skills

Play this game with your kids and help them develop critical entrepreneurial skills! Just add the “decision tree” dimension one question at a time. So instead of asking your kids to think of one question, ask them to think of three – the initial question and a follow-up question for each of the possible answers. They’ll be thinking like an entrepreneur in no time!

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Next time, we’ll examine a highly-touted way to pay off your mortgage early. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

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(Image by sundstrom)