Talane’s Blog of the Week, June 18, 2007

Automate Your Weekly “Date Night”

This tip is one I got from a girlfriend of mine who has been married 7 years and has two children. Her husband is a Major in the marines and frequently travels. They took my tip of having a weekly date with your spouse and automated it. It is so obvious that I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Instead of calling every week to find a babysitter for your date night, put the sitter on a standing order. They have booked their sitter for every Thursday night. Now, they have a sitter in place and they only need to think of where to go or what they want to do.

This is a much better plan for two reasons: 1) it makes going out once a week easier as there is one less thing to organize and plan; and 2) if her husband is traveling, she still has the sitter coming so that prompts her to think of something fun to do with her girlfriends, like go see that chick flick. Or she can go out for a nice, long run. If she didn’t have this standing order in place, then she would be more likely to think “my husband is away so I’ll stay in and do the ironing.”

The system has worked beautifully. I like it because, like all good systems, it makes it easy and encourages you to do something good for yourself that you otherwise might not do.

One of my clients has resigned from her job and is giving up her nanny so I suggested she get a one or two sitters for the two nights a week she was already used to having her nanny there. Her initial plan was to simply call the sitter as needed, but we both knew the end result would be that she’d have less time for herself and her husband. If you are too tired to organize something, it is less likely to happen when you need it the most.

Now, you may not need to hire a sitter, but there’s something in your life you love to do and you don’t do often enough. What can you automate this week to make your life easier and more fun for the rest of the year? What does this have to do with attracting what you want? Very simple, the more time and space you have, the easier it is to attract something new.

Warmest,
Talane