Tag: problems

When you walk into your favorite coffee place in the morning, I doubt that the first thing on your mind is, "How are the coffee bean plantations doing today?" If you are a true coffee aficionado, you may know that your preferred beans come from Columbia or Nicaragua, but you probably don’t worry much about the well-being of the coffee growers.

But companies such as Starbucks, Keurig Green Mountain, Illycaffe and others who rely on coffee beans for their very existence and continued growth, do. Coffee plantations world-wide have been experiencing unusual fluctuations in heat, rain and other environmental factors, which impact the available supply of beans for—guess what—your cup of joe! And those companies are investing boots-on-the-ground, as well as substantial funds, to help local coffee-growers find solutions to their issues.

Who do you talk to the most in this world? I’d wager your spouse is pretty close to number one on that list. Despite that, we all find it difficult to discuss our problems with our partner. Whether it’s a problem we have at work, with our family, personally, or with the relationship itself. Talking about our problems is always a challenge.

Your spouse should be the first person you turn to when you need to get something off your chest, especially if they are the cause of the problem. Likewise, your partner needs to feel like they can talk to you about anything without the fear of you getting angry or judgmental.

We are all destined for love, so while the statistics for second marriages aren’t appealing it is possible to make a second marriage work much better than the first. Many people, when they have divorced feel they "failed" and fear the thought of "failing" again. In life there is no failure, there are only learning and growing experiences. When you have taken genuine and thoughtful time to heal after a divorce you develop yourself into the whole, loving and confident person you have always desired to be. This gives you the fighting chance to make your second marriage strong and one that will stand the test of time the second time around. Here are four practical solutions on how to make your second marriage work.

We are all blessed with two wonderful tools to help us through this exciting, sometimes frustrating journey called "marriage," which is a head and a heart. Each has a different function: your heart lets you know what you want—as in the phrase "your heart's desire," while your head helps you figure out how to get what you want.

When you use your head and your heart together and appropriately, it all works out great. Problems arise when:

You've had it. That's the sixth time this month the family car has been in the shop, neither you nor your spouse can handle it anymore. So what if it's a relatively new car, obviously you bought a lemon (and of course you've owned it beyond the darn "lemon law" period and the warranty has expired).

You decide, "That's it, I don't care what I have to do, I'm getting a new car" and you do! Immediately. Your spouse, assuming you know what you’re doing, rejoices! You plunk down the initial payment, using next month's rent to do so, and drive happily for the next few weeks until it dawns on you that you way over-committed yourself. There is no way you can keep up these payments and you wish you had your lemon back.

Recently, my home was besieged by termites—those winged creatures I like to call the dark harbingers of spring. This subterranean home invasion prompted me to reflect on other stealthy home invasions that can go on for years and can suddenly overwhelm a couple if they’re not careful.

The major deal breakers for many marriages: infidelity, secret spending (which empties the savings account) and abuse (physical or emotional) are common knowledge.

There is no doubt that a new baby is the most joyous, wonderful and probably most incredible event in a married couple’s life. When your first child comes, his or her arrival redefines you from a couple to a family. It truly bonds you for life in many inexplicable ways that are too big to be apparent right away.

However, even if you thought you were ready for this, and had figured out all the ins and outs, there are always some issues that cannot be anticipated. Besides feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and incompetent—at least in the beginning—it magnifies many issues that may have been problematic