T.E.A.M. : The sixth letter in S.P.R.I.N.T.
Your partner is your ultimate teammate in the game of life. The greatest teammates have one quality that is commonly shared: They make their teammates better than they would be on their own!!!
August 23rd, 1991 Will and I were at the alter declaring our commitment to one another as we shared our vows surrounded by amazing friends and family. It was that moment that we became teammates. It was that moment that we chose to be on the same team. We vowed to win or lose together, there was no other option. It now became unacceptable to walk away from each other feeling as though one of us had lost and one of us had won…we were in this together.
As we chose TEAM to be the sixth letter in S.P.R.I.N.T., we decided to break TEAM down into four areas. In order to move from Ordinary to Extraordinary, these last four themes felt crucial to us:
*Time
*Education
*Attitude
*Money
Time: Will and I have to take a real good look at time. Quality time and quantity time. Life is real busy for us. We have demands and careers that take us away from each other. Our main focus is quality time. When we get that time together, we choose to create undivided attention, so that we are able to produce positive interactions and connections.
Education: Knowledge truly is power. Learning and growing every day enriches your life. I am a true testament to this statement. Choosing to go back to school in my late forties was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was living a life where I truly “only knew what I knew”. I didn’t realize all I was missing out on. It pushed me to really look at the world around me and do my part to change it into something better. It has helped me build more opinions and extend my point of view on things in life. It’s not at all just about what you read in textbooks. Choose to live, grow and learn every day!
Attitude: Attitude is EVERYTHING! My children laugh and tease me for the big sign right on my living room table that reads, “Choose Happy”. The truth is, I truly believe it is a choice. This doesn’t mean that everything in life is happy or that hard things don’t come our way. This means, we have a power. We have a power to CHOOSE our inner dialogue, to CHOOSE to be grateful, to CHOOSE to be optimistic, to CHOOSE self encouragement, to CHOOSE to focus on what can be accomplished and to CHOOSE self motivation. We have a CHOICE to minimize self-pity and self-defeat. We don’t always have a choice or control over what happens, but we do have a CHOICE in how we respond.
Money: It is no secret that money is the number one reason couples fight and it is no different in my marriage. It has not been until recent years that we have really focused on our finances. We were introduced to Dave Ramsey and we are finally starting to gain ground. We came right back to TEAM and committing to the fact that marriage is a partnership. We had to stop making so many money mistakes and find common ground together. Over the years we have learned how to discuss our finances in a more productive way.
If you have made the commitment…you ARE on the same TEAM!