Shannon and I very rarely spanked our kids when they were younger, (We might start now that they’re older though ), more so because we just never really saw the need for it. This new study is very interesting, saying that spanking should never be used as a form of punishment, what do you think?
Read the article here.

I was privileged to be on a call this last week with Lisa Nichols, star of The Secret and Oprah guest. and multi-milliondollar business owner. She was nice enough to give all of us some amazing “secrets” to success.  Once again everything she said, even though it was based on business, it can easily be translated to your relationships. Here is want she said!

1. Expand your possibilities 

Remember that what you are offering people has the opportunity to change their lives!

2. Set aggressive goals

If you set aggressive goals and you fall short, you will of at least worked as hard as you could instead of playing in mediocrity.

3. Outline your plan

How are you going to show up? What are you going to do, specifically? Don’t just leave it up in the air. There is no such thing as accidental success.

4. Duplicate success

Be a copycat. Success leaves clues, catch some. Find others who were successful and follow them.

5. Serve, serve, serve

When you work on being cooperative instead of competitive you will get more of what you want faster.

6. Plug into your big team

They are there to help you get what you want.

7. Find and identify your leaders in your team

When you find them, focus on them and making sure you feel and understand the possibilities.

8. Report and celebrate your wins

 When you celebrate the success, they will want to duplicate that success again! Passion and excitement is contagious.

9. Be willing to do it all wrong before you do it all right

Watch out for paralysis of analysis. Perfection is not coming, but excellence is on it’s way!

10. Write a letter to yourself about what your life will be like in one year

What will you and your business look like in 2010? What if it was…

In 1979 a large passenger jet with 257 people on board left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back. Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 28 miles (45 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were. As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before, and they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late. The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.

It was a terrible tragedy brought on by a minor error-a matter of only a few degrees. consistently going to bed  together. If one of you is staying up to be on the computer or watch television or hanging out with friends while the other goes to bed, you are slowly but surely going off course. It might not feel like it at the beginning and you will be happy to justify it but the more you keep this practice up the more potential mountains can come along and before you know it your relationship has crashed.

As I talk to more and more couples, especially some whom have been married for a good period of time, I hear this same scenario more often than once. It usually goes something like this, “We felt we were doing just fine, then one day we woke up and things were different.” or I have heard this a lot lately after someone attending my events, “It wasn’t until you showed us what to look for that we realized where we had let it slide.”

When we don’t check in with each other (Instruments) on a regular basis we can actually be fooled into believing we are doing just fine in our relationship. Due to the normal feeling that can come from getting into a routine in your marriage your sense of approaching danger (volcanoes) can be masked by the simplest and seemingly most normal of things (clouds).

An simple example of this is the practice of not

Do yourself a favor, watch your instruments. Know your true heading and stay on course. Everyone needs a little adjustment once and a while. It a great thing to realize you are off target, that way you get the chance to correct it and get to the desired destination.

Come to the next Business of Marriage 2-day workshop on April 16 & 17, 2010

In the last few weeks and months the pathetic behavior of Hollywood husbands like Tiger Woods and Jessie James and their lack of any moral compass or character has been all over the news. The media has been more than happy to display the demise of these families at first scolding it, then undoubtedly eventually have some “expert” on talking about the illness or addiction these looser have and how they should be forgiven for their lack of self control.

Well today news broke, albeit very quietly, about a different kind of Hollywood celebrity. Actor Neil McDonough (Desperate Housewives, Band of Brothers, Minority Report, Forever Strong) was fired from his new series where he was earning about $1 Million Dollars for actually having the courage to stand for his values. Not even willing to “act” like a man who sleeps around.

ABC, the producers of the show, first claimed they let McDonough go due to a casting decision. Now it is leaking out that it was because of his refusal to perform love scenes on the show. Something the network was well aware of since the actor had the same stance during his season on Desperate Housewives.

As far as the weak casting excuse, I have personal knowledge on that. Besides seeing his great talent in his lengthy body of work, my wife’s best friend, Jennifer, was an assistant casting director on the Band of Brothers series he was cast in by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks. I still remember her raving about this Neil McDonough guy and what an amazing actor he was. She would tell us casting stories of how he would do one scene and have everyone in the room in tears afterwords because of how powerful he was.

When I was in the film industry as a make-up artist there was a saying some people on set would use to justify fooling around with others on set, be it actors or crew; “On set, doesn’t matter.” I saw many married men and women fall into this flimsy excuse in order to have trysts with others.

Neil is a practicing Catholic, husband and father of three who definitely knows who he is and what he is willing to stand for. A man who would literally loose a million dollars, than compromise his values. What a great example he is to his kids.

With all the Hollywood mis-direction of values and an attitude of “watch what I say, not what I actually do” I give huge props to Mr. McDonough. I only heard about this because it was on the FOX news radio program this morning. As of this writing, it was nowhere to be found on the Yahoo, MSNBS and CNN main or Entertainment page. (As a matter of fact CNN’s main story was of how Charlie Sheen, serial adulterer, wants to leave his show) I had to google it in order to find anything about it.

Unfortunately I can’t find a facebook page for him. However, page or not I am definitely a fan.