So I bought a practically brand new 50” Plasma TV from my neighbor the other day.  Since my neighbors were moving to over 1000 miles away, they didn’t want to ship the TV for fear of damaging it, so I was able to get a great deal.

Since the kids big TV had just recently went out in their game room, my wife and I thought it would be a great idea and an easy transaction.  Once I got the TV over to their room and got it set up, I was very impressed with the clarity and the other bells and whistles it had.

I eventually found myself casting a clear vision of this nice TV being placed in my office and switching my existing 42” flat-screen to the kids game room.  I shared my thoughts with my bride and her hair-trigger response was not very loud, but it was clear.  “We bought that TV for the kid’s game-room and that’s where we should put it.  If I would’ve known you were going to swap it for the one in your office, I wouldn’t have wanted to get the TV in the first place.”

I must admit that I was a bit caught-off-guard with her response so I chuckled a bit and began to plead my case in hopes that I would be able to justify my intentions and eventually win her over to my side.

Well, this tactic failed miserably.  I believe it actually caused her to dig her heels in even deeper to her steadfast position.  Since I could see that I was not going to win the current battle, I figured I would call a deferment-truce so the dust would settle on the issue, then I would bring it up as a topic of discussion at a later date.  She agreed.

Day one passed, then day two and finally when day three rolled around I got a bright idea.  I went to the store and purchased a wall-mounting kit for the plasma screen and I then felt like I was ready to revisit the issue.  I was confident that she would be willing to concede and give over to my wishes if she saw that I had already committed to a pricey, wall-mount purchase, But, NOPE!  She quietly fired back her rebuttal with clarity and conviction as if our last discussion was still fresh in her mind.

I thought to myself, “Ughhhh!!!  I’ve got to win this one because I really want that TV mounted in my office.”  So I fired back with a new justification and then tried to down play her seriousness about the issue citing that this was really no big deal.  She still would not relent.  So, again I postponed the discussion to another day.

The next day came and I was sitting at home in my office and my wife was at work, so I thought to myself, “Now is the perfect time.  I can just do the swap and install the mount while she’s gone and she’ll just have to accept it when she discovers it.” 

Then it hit me… In that very moment of conception of my devious plan, I realized that I should pull out what I call my “Significance Scale.” This scale is simply designed to establish a definite level of just how important something is to one person when compared to another. After doing this, I quickly realized that my wife’s level of commitment to this particular cause was wayyyy more serious than mine.

As a result, I took the TV wall-mount back to the store and decided to relinquish my desire to win in exchange for making my bride smile. Later during dinner I told her about my actions and she replied, “I’m glad you did that because I was ready to go to battle again…” We both then shared a good laugh.

You see, I wanted that TV in my office, but I didn’t really need that TV in my office. I’m so glad that you don’t have to be special to get through these hairy moments in marriage, you just have to be equipped with some good tools and techniques to help you get through the tough times of troubles and struggles.

So, I encourage you to find you a good resource today and get on your way to making your relationship GREAT!

(Our Book:  *** Bread Crumbs to Making Marriage Great ***  Coming Soon…)

Blog:   www.MyCouplesCorner.com