They STOLE my client!!!!

     On several occasions throughout my career, I have had business owners come to me with this 'scream', totally beside themselves with anger. Others were off the charts bat crazy over this happening. It was as though losing that one client was the make or break in their business. If that were the case, then their business strategy of having all their eggs in one basket was not a good one.

My question to this is, really? If a client can be stollen, you haven’t lost anything. You only want clients where trust and loyalty are reciprocated between the two of you.

No one can be stollen, and if you really examine this type of situation, you can see it differently. And, by the way, they were not 'stollen' if they left because they were dissatisfied with you or your services.  They left.

People have all kinds of reasons for choosing change, and it is not always for bad reasons. Sometimes things have shifted in their lives, their livelihood, and sometimes it’s just because they need a change.

My first business was a client-based business, and I worked hard to acquire all 300+ accounts. Because the success of the business was based upon retaining those accounts, I made sure all my employees were trained very well so that the quality of service was never compromised. I also made my employees sign non-compete contracts.

As it would be, one of my employees decided to try to ‘steal’ my clients to start her own business.  As she was approaching my clients with her proposals, my very loyal clients were calling me to let me know what was going on. I found it quite amusing that she thought she would get away with it. I fired her immediately.

She did, however, manage to get one of my ‘loyal’ clients, and good friend, to go with her services. I knew that it had happened, it could have infuriated me that a friend would leave to use someone she barely knew. I wasn’t mad, disappointed maybe, but not mad. I also had a very bad feeling that the decision my friend made would end up being a regrettable moment for her.

I went on about my business, not giving it another thought. Although she was one of my top paying clients, this incident didn’t wreck the train; the business didn’t run off the tracks. Her account was quickly replaced by someone who was on the waiting list. 

Several months went by and I received a phone call from the friend who had left my services. She asked if I would take her back as a client and explained to me what had happened. She went with my ex-employee because she was offering a lower rate for the same service. Unfortunately, my ex-employee also stole from her, and stole a lot.  The ‘bargain’ my friend thought she was getting, was not a bargain at all. My friend asked for my forgiveness, and I took her back as a client. The ex-employee, well, the police were involved. My thoughts and something for all to be aware of, people who steal business, will steal anything.

Being in business, especially client-based businesses, is highly competitive. Sometimes business owners lose sight of the fact that there are more fish in the sea than they will ever be able to catch. Some of those fish will make even bigger and better clients!

Yes, you’ve worked hard for the clients you have, and you will always have to work hard to keep your clients and gain new ones. It’s a numbers game! If you want to sit back and live off the clients you have, you can do that, but what happens when they start dying off, moving on, and have life changes? There is no easy route with this, you still need to work hard and get new fish, always!

Be prepared with real numbers and build into your business plan the percentage of lost clients you expect to have.  This is a real thing, it's called attrition. Look over your past records and start a spread sheet with names, why they left, and categorize them. Figure your percentage of dollar loss and the number of clients you lost during those years. Your average will tell you how many new clients/dollars you need to recruit each year to maintain your minimum base.  Any client you gain over the base is growth.

Retain!  Keep your clients informed and engaged so they don't leave!

1. ·        Check in with them regularly to see how they are doing. Phone calls, emails, texts.
2. ·         Ask them what you can do to serve them better.
3. ·         Remember their birthdays and the special occasions in their lives.
4. ·         Offer special incentives/gifts/rewards for their loyalty.
5. ·         Invite them to informational open house/parties for your industry.
6. ·         Keep them up to date and in the know!  
7. ·        Personalize notes/emails.

 

As you grow your client base, it becomes harder to do all the things above. It’s okay to solicit some help so that you don’t lose the personalized service they have grown accustomed to. There are many menial tasks that your children/family can help you with, like putting stamps on postcards.

If you have used this approach successfully, if/when they need to leave, they will let you know why. And regardless of why, or even if they tell you why, it is always up to you to graciously let them leave without harboring bad feelings.

 

Debra Lee | Author |Keynote Speaker | Blogger | Life Coach | Biz Coach

“It Is What It Is…But It Wasn’t A Tragedy” | “Making Wise Choices…the most important life skill to master”

 

Q & A with Debra | What Happens with your Digital Assets when you die?

Q & A With Debra

First, what are digital assets? Digital assets are anything that is not in tangible, physical form. Most people have several digital assets:

• ·         Email Accounts
• ·         Subscription Services
• ·         Music and video assets
• ·         Picture and document storage
• ·         Gaming assets
• ·         Social media content
• ·         Websites
• ·         Financial Platforms & Banks
• ·         Cloud Storage

When it comes to digital assets, the fate of these assets after death is a topic that has gained attention in recent years. The laws regarding digital assets and their inheritance are still evolving, but there are some steps you can take to protect your digital legacy.

One of the key challenges with digital assets is that many of them are password-protected or subject to the terms and conditions of specific websites and companies. If the provider has a plan in place for your digital assets after death, it is best you comply with those procedures to make sure you are achieving your goal with that account.

State laws are also just popping up when it comes to digital assets. You will want to make sure that your estate plan is consistent with state laws. The state law may have an affect on your terms and conditions and terms of use with your service provider.  With digital assets growing every year, protecting them properly is critical.

Here are a few things you can do to protect your digital assets:

• Include digital assets wording in your estate plan.
• Create and inventory of every place you have data or files with passwords. Don’t forget the cloud storage, email accounts, social, online banking, PayPal, websites, etc.
• Provide instructions. Clearly state your wishes, i.e., delete, transfer, and to whom.
• Consider a digital executor. Appoint someone you trust who will be responsible for managing.
• Review privacy policies. Know your platforms.

Facebook is a popular platform for many. They have a program where you can request your account to become a memorialized account for you or you can request deletion of your account. You need to dig through the buttons to find where to set this up in your account settings.

Do not assume that you own everything stored digitally. Account credits, frequent flier points and cryptocurrency are typically transferable to your heirs. Movie and music libraries, phone apps and email accounts are typically not transferable, since you may not own the content and are only a permitted user. You and your estate planning attorney should review any user agreements to protect your rights concerning these accounts.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a way of owning the original version of a digital file, such as a piece of art, a GIF, a video, or an audio recording. You can think of the NFT as a secure digital lockbox holding a unique digital file. NFTs are logged using a digital ledger called blockchain, which provides a secure way of verifying authenticity and ownership. However, like cybercurrency, NFTs require a password or a distinct key to gain access, and both the NFT and the underlying digital file can be lost if an owner’s trustee or executor doesn’t have that information.

While this is largely untested in the courts, adding language that specifies your wishes with each of your accounts is a good idea. Make sure you have an estate plan that includes your digital assets. Taking proactive steps to address the fate of your digital assets can help ensure that your online presence is managed according to your wishes after you pass away.

Sources: Bing & Legal Zoom, Kiplinger Personal Finance

Debra Lee, Author | Keynote Speaker | Blogger | Biz Coach | Life Coach

 

The Choice to be Joyful and Grateful

     Simply put, many folks are not living with joy in their lives. I often wonder what is holding them back. Why is there no light in their faces, no excitement in their voices? It’s almost like an epidemic running through our society of late.

One thing I have observed is that people are surrounded by a bunch of whiners, gripers, and complainers every day, and in all aspects of their lives. This type of behavior can come from people at work, church, home, the news, and social groups just to name a few. Sometimes, we are surrounded by these people by choice, other times, not so much.

When we are constantly encircled by negative spirits that inject toxic thoughts and opinions, it can’t help but influence our minds. This kind of infiltration will eventually turn us into whiners, gripers, and complainers too.

Another thing that I have observed is that folks feel that their happiness is dependent upon external factors. “Someone or something will make me happy!” They keep waiting for the compliments to come, keep waiting for people to come to them, they have a continuous “want” for acceptance from anyone, and they grasp at every opportunity to try and fill that gaping hole of hunger that they have.

And others that I have observed, have the “do more, be more, have more, obtain more stuff” syndrome, that I call, I-want-itis.

The picture-perfect life is always within grasp, and it is always in the future. Living in the “someday” proves not to be obtainable and it is accompanied with statements like “I will be happy when…”

I-want-itis people are blinded to the fact that a $30 purse will hold just as much junk as a $300 purse! That a $15 pair of shoes serves the same purpose as the $150 pair. We know this stuff, about stuff, but we find ourselves in a cycle of abusing and bruising ourselves with all of these wants that are impossible to obtain in most cases.

Regardless of what category we fall into, one or all, we miss the opportunities to be thankful for what we have been blessed with!

There are many benefits to living a grateful life. People who practice this daily take better care of themselves and seem to be protected from negative emotions in times of extreme losses. Health benefits can include better immune systems, sleeping better, and it benefits the heart and mental health.

People who live with joy in their lives have better social lives. They are better friends to others because they focus their attentions outwardly to those in their lives and show a genuine concern for them.

Let’s move on and look at two words, Contentment and Complacency.

Contentment comes from within, it is a state of mind, and it is a choice. It is a state of happiness and satisfaction. It’s not what you have, but how you feel about what you have that makes the difference.

Complacency is a feeling of being satisfied with how things are without the want to try to make them better. Complacent people are easily satisfied, quick to make excuses, and oftentimes are referred to as slugs.

There is a difference between contentment and complacency. We are never to stop growing and learning. A complacent person becomes prideful and unteachable. They stop dreaming and stop pushing, they just stop and eventually lose their joy.

C.S. Lewis states that the great problem with human beings is that we are far too easily pleased. We don’t seek pleasure with nearly the resolve and passion that we should. So, we settle for less.

I often wonder, from my observations, if Christians sometime don’t fully believe Jesus when he says there is more blessedness, more joy, more full and lasting pleasure in a life devoted to helping others than there is in a life devoted to our material comfort? Matthew 6:19,20

We are not called to be complacent. We are called to keep our eyes on the goal, keep the goal, work towards that goal, and run towards the goal. While doing so, we are to be content with what we have, be grateful for what we have already been given, while we are achieving new heights.

Colossians 3:15-17 Paul writes:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in work or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1.     Be content – let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts

2.     Be thankful – remember the good things God has done in your life

3.    Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly – Begin everyday with the word.  He will give us a humble attitude that helps us to appreciate what he has done.

4.   Sing to God with Gratitude in your hearts – be grateful for the one who has given you a hope and a future.

5.  Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus – It will keep you thankful during the most daunting times!

6.   Give thanks to God the Father through him (Jesus) – Jesus died for us!

 

Look up! Giving praise to God and being thankful to God, will help us to recognize and appreciate the littlest of things, and the simplest of tasks. It’s not always about the big stuff! When you begin to recognize and are thankful for the small stuff, wow! Then when the big stuff happens, you’re going to appreciate it even more!

By looking up to heaven and staying focused, you will also begin to measure your successes differently. Remember that be more, do more, have more syndrome? This will change and fade away!

You might struggle in the beginning of this journey by not being able to recognize what you need to be thankful for, so ask Him to open your eyes! He will do that for you!

Once He has revealed these things to you, it will change your life! Be thankful, serve Him with a grateful heart, then make sure you take care of what He has given you!

After looking up, we need to move horizontally outward to others.

Remember that you are blessed by what God has given you, be content, reach for heavenly goals, and share your riches, God’s gold, with others! A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles to take place within you and outside of you, so give away the good stuff!

1.     Associate with the right people – don’t give your pearls to swine -cut down on the amount of time you spend with the “negative nellies” in your life. Let them observe that you will not stand for gossip, or malice or any negative thoughts, once you quit partaking in that foolishness, they will weed you out! Negative people don’t hang with positive folks because they don’t want their party to get rained on.

2.     Say thank you as often and as much as you can. – in person, send thank you notes, a simple email, or phone call or text.

3.     Appreciate everything that people do for you and show it. – even for the small things, that may be all they have to give.

4.     Be thankful for the people God has put in your life. – even the EGR’s! (Extra Grace Required) They are in your life for a reason, so learn from the experiences!

         ·    Are you being taught patience or a new skill level with how to handle people, are you learning about boundaries? Are you being blessed by knowing someone? Have they changed your life for the better?

5.     Serve others with a grateful heart. – Grateful Heart, please! And do all work and service work to honor God.

6.     Set a goal of improving at least one person’s life a day! – help someone in need, who can you smile at, greet warmly, listen to, encourage, pray for.

7.     Simply put, Treat People Well - Content, happy people are not jealous or envious people! They do not have a critical spirit that runs people down. They treat and serve others with joy and delight and are very uplifting souls! They want people to be successful and even more successful than themselves!

Joy in doing good and to others is final joy in God, because the ultimate good that we are always aiming for is to 1) display the glory of God and 2) to expand our own joy in God to others.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 ~ Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

And in the middle of the storm James 1:2-4 tells us to consider it pure joy, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance, which will make you mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The more that you have matured, the more you realize exactly how much you have been given to be thankful for and you LOOK for things to be grateful for. You LOOK for the positive, you LOOK to do the positive, and you LOOK up to heaven and say THANK YOU!

You are thankful for the Hope in your heavenly future, and you are grateful for God’s abundancy that He has given you. The most natural response to having all these things is joy, peace, and contentment.

C.S. Lewis wrote – “It is a Christian duty for everyone to be as happy as he can.”

Personally, I treat delight and joy as a duty.

Let Christ be your treasure chest of holy joy!

 

From the Lecture Series for “Making Wise Choices”

Debra Lee | Author | Keynote Speaker | Blogger | Biz Coach | Life Coach

“It Is What It Is…But It Wasn’t a Tragedy”

“Making Wise Choices…the most important life skill to master”

 

Q & A with Debra | How to deal with those who seek attention at presentations.

 

Question: I am with an MLM (multi-level marketing company) and do presentations to groups of women. I don’t know how to handle someone who wants all the attention and keeps interrupting. Please help. ~ Anonymous

The answer, well, you can go Classy or Sassy! Read below!

 

Ahh, yes, the interrupter. The attention seeker. There is always one in every group. And if you don’t get that person under control, the time it takes for you to do the presentation will run over, leaving the other guests disappointed that their time was not valued.  And ignoring it doesn’t work.

The attention seeker constantly takes over the conversation diverting a story to talk about themselves. The motivation is usually ego-driven where attention serves as validation of some kind.

It doesn’t take long to figure out who the attention seeker is in a group. They can have a know-it-all attitude and try to beat you to every punch line or the training you are trying to relay. They might have a negative spirit and come as Debby Downer voicing their opinions loudly. Others just like to be the life of the party by cracking jokes or making fun during the presentation. If you are a teacher, you get this!

I have done presentations for years and have learned a technique that usually works well in all cases.

When the disruptive person makes themselves known, and they are starting to suck all the air out of the room, I slowly make my way to standing behind them while I am still presenting. I ask questions of the group so that I know that everyone is looking at me. Which in turn has them looking at the troublemaker seated below me.  A lot of the time, this will stop the craziness.

However, not always. If it keeps up, still standing behind them, I place one hand on their shoulder. This almost always does the trick. They now have the entire group’s eyes on them, and I have validated the attention seeker, their needs, by holding them in place with my touch as they attempt to interrupt. My hand gets a little stronger or placed more regularly on their shoulder with each attempt. The hold doesn’t have to stay in place for very long, as they usually get my drift. They also don’t like you speaking from behind them.

I’ve only had one case where this did not work, and it was a doozy!!! Sometimes you have to be a little sassy and aggressive!

At one of my presentations, I had a rather large lady in attendance. The other women in the room tried to avoid conversation with her and eye contact because she had quite a mean spirit. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had my hands full. Yes, she was a bully. This was during my Mary Kay presentation days, and she was being loud and obnoxious. When it came time for her to wash her makeup off with one of my very clean, very sterilized cloths, she rudely and mean spiritly asked, “How do I know where this cloth has been?”  I quickly answered her with seriousness, not a smile on my face, and with a dash of my sense of humor, “I washed my dogs butt with it!”

The room got quiet. She was a big woman and there was a look on her face. I didn’t know if she was going to come up swinging or what. But what happened was totally unexpected! She busted up laughing, and laughed so hard that she broke the chair that she was sitting on!!! Everyone came together to help her up and got her another chair.

I’ve had enough life experience to know that her mean spirit came from pain. Pain in her life. After she left, the other ladies were cheering me on! They said that everyone was afraid to stand up to her and just tolerated her. They couldn’t believe what I did!

What happened next was even more amazing. She reached out to me and ended up becoming one of my best customers and was always excited to see me. I wasn’t afraid of her mean façade because I saw the real her through her pain. We had real conversations and connected on a real level.

You must read the attention seeker well and with a little finesse and tact, you can get them under control and win them over while keeping your time and presentation intact!

Happy presentations!

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Debra Lee

Author | Keynote Speaker | Biz Coach | Life Coach | Blogger

Learn from a 102-year-old lady who may be cooler than you!

Iris Apfel ... the accidental icon

 

     My Fashion & Biz Hero is Iris Apfel…102 years old and still rocking it!!

I have always admired the career of Iris Apfel. I don’t know much about her personal life, but she has always encouraged women to be who they are. She helps women feel beautiful and the aging woman stand out in style.

A little bit about her career: She is an American businesswoman, interior designer, fashion icon and actress. In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear it. She has become a fashion icon, she signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97, and she was featured in a 2014 documentary called Iris by Albert Maysles.

I remember back when I was in fashion school and when I was teaching makeup technique/application, we were always told that when you got older, you needed to tone it down a bit. Softer colors, mute colors, basically, look your old age. I’ve defied that, and even hearing the voice of my mother in my head, “you need to act and dress your age”, I never bought in to it.  I’m not that.

Iris is quoted as saying, “Life is grey and dull. You may as well have a little fun when you dress and amuse people.” 

“You have to work at [developing style], find out who you are and what you can handle, whether you get upset if people look at you, whether you like a lot of stuff, whether you’re comfortable being a minimalist,” Apfel says. “Copying someone else’s style is not being stylish. Style implies attitude, mostly, and originality. And if you don’t have those two, well, you’re done.”

Another reason I like her, she is opposed to the “insane obsession with youth in this country” and is solidly—and hilariously—against plastic surgery. Unless “you have a nose like Pinocchio or, God forbid, you’re in an accident or fire or something,” she thinks the aesthetic risks are just not worth it. “You pay all this money, you go through all this pain, and you don’t know what you’re going to look like when you get finished. You could come out looking like a Picasso painting.”

“We used to go to parties in Palm Beach and my husband would look around and say, ‘Baby, you’re the only one here with your own face,’” Apfel says.

I love Iris and her wild flare for fashion, bright colors, her overachieving layering of beads and bobbles and her iconic large eyeglasses.

 

Here are the top 10 lessons from the lady who may be cooler than you!

1. Don’t obsess over your age

“You’re here. Embrace it. I say put your experience to work, to give something back to other people.” 

2. Pick a partner who celebrates your successes

3. When something excites you, go for it

“Most people would rather just go with the flow; it’s much easier. But it’s not very interesting.”

4. To stay young, you have to think young

“I hold the self-proclaimed record for being the World’s Oldest Living Teenager and I intend to keep it that way.”

5. Care about your own opinion above anyone else’s

“I don’t dress to be stared at; I dress for myself. When you don’t dress like everyone else, you don’t have to think like everyone else.” 

6. But don’t isolate yourself, either

“Here’s the critical part: I know I’m not an island, but rather part of the main… Fit in first and then step out. There is a difference between being perceived as original and being accepted, even loved for it, and being perceived as different and resented for it. You can have your cake and eat it, too.” 

7. Money doesn’t buy success

“If you’re happy, have found love, are surrounded by good people, doing what you like and giving back to others, that’s success. Selling your soul for a buck is not worth the real price you pay — not to me, anyways.”

8. Style is not about spending money

“Style is not about wearing expensive clothes. You can have all kinds of money and have no style at all.”

“I’m just as happy to wear bangles that cost me three dollars as I am to wear valuable pieces — and I like to mix high and low, putting things together to wear as the spirit moves me. When you try too hard to have style, you look uncomfortable, like you’re wearing a costume, like the clothes are entering the room before you do. If you’re uptight, you won’t be able to carry off even a seemingly perfect outfit. If that’s happening, I say abandon the whole thing. It’s better to be happy than well dressed.”

9. Start new endeavors with one small step

“You only fail if you do not try.”

“I never thought that I couldn’t do something because I was a woman. I wanted to start a fabric business, so I just figured out how to do it. Sometimes you just have to take action, even if it is a small step.”

10. Don’t pretend you are younger than you are

“There’s nothing wrong with wrinkles. When you’re older, trying to look years younger is foolish, and you’re not fooling anyone. When you’re seventy-five and you get a face-lift, nobody is going to think you are thirty.”

Gotta’ love Iris! She is my inspiration to age well and stand out in style!

Sources Wikipedia | CNBC

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Debra Lee

Author | Keynote Speaker | Biz Coach | Life Coach | Blogger

Learning to Love the Person you found ♥

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the person you found!

 

     Over the years I have heard women complaining about their relationships with the men in their lives. One case in point, a woman came to me several years ago and exclaimed that she was going to divorce her husband!

Now most people know not to come to me with their problems if they don’t want to hear the truth. I’m just leaving that here.

I looked at her and inquired as to what was going on. Her complaint: she was upset because her husband was not stepping up to the plate to be the spiritual leader of the family.

I was a bit annoyed with this person for her immaturity, but I kept that to myself. I asked her some questions to help her process her rant.

“How long have you been a Christian?” To which she answered, “All my life.”

“And how long has he been a Christian?”, I inquired. “A few years”, she shortly answered.

She basically answered her own solution to the problem but was too stubborn to see the resolution. She was expecting him to give what he didn’t have to give!

He hadn’t reached the spiritual maturity that she had, mainly because of time. And she was not willing to work with him to help him reach that level. She wanted instant gratification in her marriage of four years: a husband that would lead the family spiritually.

I simply told her that she would need to be the spiritual leader of her family until he gets there! She didn’t like my answer. I told her to go back in there and make it work with her Chrisitan husband. I also reminded her that she was barking up the wrong tree by approaching me with this. She knew that I’m married to an agnostic, and if I told her that if I can make my marriage work, then she should be able to make it work with her Christian husband.

So many times, people are looking for that PERFECT partner. REALLY?? There is no perfect partner. Yes, you can find someone who has a lot of the same interests as you, but no one will ever live up to the expectations of perfection.  

There are people who think they can CHANGE a person into being the perfect partner. Don’t even go there.

There are people who think that they can CONTROL and SUBMIT a person into being the perfect partner. Nope.

GUILT someone? NO!

Only a mature individual can meet their partner where they are today, now, accepting who they are. Whenever a person tells you or shows you who they are, believe them. Don’t try to change them or even think that you can.

Getting to know a person well, while you are dating and before you get too far into the relationship, will help you determine what they will have to offer to the relationship. Learn what they are gifted in, their limitations, expectations, their love language, and be okay with it or move on.

If you have determined that you can live with the traits that the other person is displaying, and you want to move forward, then you must learn how to love the person you have found. This is how couples who have been together for years make it work. As your relationship ages, you basically become melded together. You put the other person first, learn each other’s body language, know what the other person is thinking, their needs, AND CAN WORK THROUGH THE TOUGH STUFF!

A rolling stone type person may call this ‘SETTLING’.  Settling for less than, instead of continuing the search for someone who would be a better fit and can meet needs better. You know, someone who will give more to a relationship than the “rolling stone” wants to give, and with no tough stuff! 

I call it DEVOTED and COMMITED. Devoted with unwavering love from the heart, with a commitment from the mind, to love that person, that imperfect person, through all the growing experiences and those crazy curve balls that life constantly throws!

No relationship is perfect. Needs will not always be met, happiness will not always exist, you will not always be joined at the hip, as the saying goes, and things will get in the way. Life happens and your relationship won’t always be pretty.

You’ll find yourself in different corners at times. Coming together and meeting in the middle to resolve issues is a real thing! People just don’t know how to compromise, settle a dispute by making concessions, anymore. Everyone wants to keep score and be right.

Simply put, relationships take work, hard work from both parties. It takes skills in communication, patience, devotion, and commitment. Relationships challenges us to be better together, and they are to be handled with care, grace, forgiveness, and love.

To love the person you found is a wonderful gift.

Love is…

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

♥

 

This article does not pertain to anyone who is being abused, mentally or physically, in a relationship. If you have found yourself in this situation, please reach out for help and find safe shelter.

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Debra Lee 

Keynote Speaker | Biz Coach | Life Coach | Author | Blogger