Our relationship with our partner plays a huge role in our wellbeing and engagement at work. In my book, A Higher Branch, I rank love as the second priority you should have in life: health first, love second and family third. The reason for this is simple: love gives us energy: it ignites our passions and makes us happier and more productive both at home and at work. This is because as humans, we all have an innate desire to be attractive and be attracted to someone. So in life you have to pursue love with the same passion and intensity as you would any other goal because love completes us and defines us. Expressing love also awakens a power and energy so strong that it lifts your level of performance in all areas of life to that of extraordinary. It connects the power of your mind with that of your heart and unleashes a source of immense creativity and imagination.
It doesn’t take much to nurture a loving relationship. Here are 5 personal tips that I use in my life. I would love to hear yours.
1. LOVE GOES TO WHERE LOVE IS. Loving another comes from the same part of our heart as loving yourself. If you don’t love yourself, you’re incapable of loving someone else. You love yourself by working on yourself as a person: by eating well, exercising, relaxing, pursuing your ambitions at work, nurturing your friendships, and creating your own wealth. When you love yourself, you’re going to attract someone to you.
2. LOOK AND FEEL ATTRACTIVE. Everyone has an innate desire to be wanted: to be attractive and to be attracted to someone. So look and feel attractive: take pride in your appearance, dress up, and wear clothes that suit your personality and body-shape. You might not always feel good but if you look good, people may compliment you and that will instantly boost your mood.
3. SCHEDULE INTIMACY. We live in a chaotic world where you cannot rely on spontaneity. So if you want a great relationship, schedule intimacy. Send your partner a calendar invite right now! And be cheeky and creative.
4. GO ON DATES. Pack a picnic, spend an afternoon in the park, have lunch together if you work close to home, see a movie, read a book together, it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money but it nurtures your relationship and keeps the love energy alive.
5. DO LIKE ANDRE AGASSI – FOCUS ON YOUR PARTNER’S POSITIVES. A lot of relationships break down because we start to focus on all these things that begin to irritate us about the person, when in reality they were always there. They’re irritating you now because you’re focusing on them and if you have a negative mindset, you focus on what you don’t have instead of what you do have. No one’s perfect, you aren’t perfect, are you? So focus on your partner’s positive qualities.
When tennis player, Andre Agassi married Stephie Graf, whom he loves dearly, they put a blackboard in the kitchen and Andre, who wakes up before the family, writes what he loves about her on that black board. So every morning when Stephie wakes up, she goes down to the kitchen and is greeted with a positive note like: “I love the way your hair falls over your eyes, or I love the way you laugh or the way you ate that mango.” Everyday it’s something different and everyday it reminds them both why they love each other.