Today we’re going to take a look at the second habit in our series, The 7 (Sex) Habits of Highly Successful People.
Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind is based on imagination — the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default.
What do you want your sex life with your spouse to be like? Forget about fear, rejection, apathy, disappointment, busyness, and any other obstacles… if your sex life with your spouse were unbelievably amazing what would it look like? Be honest with yourself!
Maybe it’s difficult or painful to envision your “perfect sex life” because it seems so far from reality. We get emails from people all the time who are frustrated and disappointed with the sex in their marriage and are looking for help.
Or maybe your sex life is pretty good… but could it be even better? Do you have some unmet desire that you haven’t mustered the courage to share with your spouse yet? Or maybe you know that your spouse has given up on achieving her deepest desires because you’ve been holding back.
If either of these paragraphs describes your marital sex life, then this habit is for you! But before you can hit your target, you need to decide what you’re going to aim at.
So how do you pick a target? The rest of this post will describe a method for creating a Marital Sex Life Vision that will represent the target you and your spouse will aim for in your sex life. Here are a few Bible verses that talk about the value of setting goals, and remind us to rely on God’s purposes even while we plan.
But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.
Isaiah 32:8
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Proverbs 21:5
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
2 Corinthians 5:9
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’”
Luke 14:28-30
(If your sex life — or marriage — are in a bad state right now, you might be tempted to think something like “I just wish he’d never touch me again” — if that’s you, then this exercise probably won’t be of much benefit right now. For the purpose of this post we’re going to assume that both spouses want to have an unbelievably amazing sex life together. Otherwise see: “When All Else Fails, Try Tears”.)
Each spouse should begin separately, by writing down the elements of his or her Individual Sex Life Vision. Below is a list of topics your vision might address. Think of these items from the perspective of, “if our sex life were unbelievably amazing….” Don’t worry about being realistic — aim high!
- God’s purpose. What is God’s purpose for sex? What are God’s expectations for sex in our marriage? How will our sex life bring glory to God? What will God accomplish through our sex life? Your marital sex life is an important part of your spiritual life, so don’t set a vision without spending time in prayer.
- Freedom and boundaries. Do you agree with the Biblical rules and freedoms described in “Can we *BLANK*?” How will we protect our marriage and explore new frontiers?
- Emotion. How will our sex life make you feel? How will you feel before sex? After sex? Don’t just say “good” — name some specific emotions and feelings!
- Communication. How often will we talk about sex? How will we share our desires with each other? How will we share our reservations with each other? How will we each respond when the other shares something intimate?
- Frequency. How often will we have sex? How will you initiate sex? How often will you have an orgasm? How will we deal with obstacles, like health, kids, energy levels, time, and arguments? When will it be ok to say “later, but not now”?
- Decision making. How will we make a decision about sex when we don’t both want the same thing? How will we compromise? How will we negotiate? How will we follow through on our agreements?
- Novelty and consistency. How often will we try something new? How will we decide what to try, and what not to try? How will one spouse make a request for some sexual activity? How will one spouse respond to a request from the other?
- Specifics. What is your favorite thing we will do? What will we do more often? What will we do less often? What will be your favorite way to give pleasure? Receive pleasure? What positions will we use? What toys? What games? Be as specific as you can about the things that matter to you.
Feel free to use any format you want for your vision — as you know, we like making lists with bullet points! The post “How to Talk About Sex Before You Get Married” has more ideas you can include in your vision. Write as much as you can, and then spend a little time editing it down. You may decide that some elements aren’t important enough to include, or you may realize that you forgot something critical.
Now each spouse has an Individual Sex Life Vision! Great work. Each of you has something concrete to use when you’re talking about your sex life together. These Visions are fantastic personal tools that you can update over time as your desires and expectations change, and as you refine your thinking. They aren’t cast in stone, so feel free to revisit them periodically.
The next step is to share your Individual Sex Life Vision with your spouse. Take turns sharing your thoughts, and be careful not to interrupt or be dismissive. This is an intimate process, and your spouse is showing great vulnerability by sharing his or her vision. There’s no need to react while your spouse is sharing — just listen.
Now get a new piece of paper to begin documenting your Marital Sex Life Vision. After you’ve shared your individual visions, each element will fall into one of three categories.
- Agreement. Yay! Your visions are aligned. Write these items down in your Marital Sex Life Vision and underline them.
- Disagreement. It shouldn’t be surprising if your visions aren’t completely aligned, so don’t be discouraged. You didn’t marry a clone of yourself! Write down areas of disagreement by indicating the desires of both spouses in the Marital Sex Life Vision and put a star next to them. These are items to negotiate over later.
- Unsure. There might be elements in one spouse’s vision that the other spouse just isn’t sure about. Write these down in the Marital Sex Life Vision with a question mark next to them along with initial of the spouse who is unsure. The initialed spouse “owns” this question mark.
Depending on how many stars and question marks you have on your Marital Sex Life Vision, you might want to take a break. You’ve already done a lot of work just getting to this point, so don’t feel compelled to finish this exercise all in one sitting. Each spouse might need to think about the areas of disagreement, and particularly any question marks that belong to him or her.
When you’re ready to continue, the first thing to do is deal with the question marks. Each question mark should be resolved by the spouse who owns it. If the owner now agrees with the vision element created by the other spouse, remove the question mark and underline the element. You’re done — it’s a new area of agreement. If the owner decides that he or she disagrees, then they should write down their vision for that element along with a star — you’ve got another area to negotiate.
Now it’s time for the negotiation, but the good news is that you’ve already done some of the hard work. The steps to a successful negotiation are:
- Know what you want. Done!
- Say what you want. Done!
- Compromise to reach an acceptable agreement.
- Be content to receive what you agreed to accept.
You did the first two steps when you wrote your Individual Sex Life Visions, so it’s time for step three. For each element of disagreement, you’re going to have to talk about your vision:
- Are there any parts that are not essential?
- What are you willing to give to get what you want? This can mean compromising on one vision element to gain more on another.
- How can you bless your spouse by giving him or her something they want?
Remember: the point of negotiation isn’t to convince the other person that your desire is better! You don’t need to change your spouse’s mind in order to reach an acceptable agreement. In fact, negotiations often break down because both parties get so focused on changing the other’s mind that they get angry and frustrated.
For example, let’s say that Spouse A wants to have sex every day, and Spouse B wants to have sex once a week. It would be easy to argue about who is “right” and which is “better” for the marriage, but it’s unlikely that either spouse will genuinely be convinced. So just skip all that. Recognize that each spouse wants what they want, the desires are legitimate, and you don’t have to want the same thing. You’re trying to reach an acceptable agreement! If “about three times a week” is acceptable to both spouses, then they can agree to that without either spouse changing their individual vision.
Negotiation is tough, and sometimes it’s hard to resist the urge to give up everything you want in order to avoid conflict. Similarly, it can be tempting to push your spouse to give up her vision in favor of your own. Being loving doesn’t mean being a push-over, and it doesn’t mean “winning” at the expense of your spouse. Give a little, get a little, and show Christlike love.
It may surprise you to learn that there are several passages in the Bible that talk about negotiation, and particularly the importance of honesty and fairness in the process.
Honest scales and balances belong to the Lord; all the weights in the bag are of his making.
Proverbs 16:11
Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
Genesis 29:15
Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Samuel 24:18-25
Hopefully you’re able to reach agreements that are acceptable to both of you on all your starred items. (If not, come back to them in a day or two and negotiate some more.) Write your agreements down on the Marital Sex Life Vision and erase the starred individual elements that led to the negotiation. These agreements are now part of your Marital Sex Life Vision, and it’s time for perhaps the hardest part of negotiation:
Be content to receive what you agreed to accept. The Marital Sex Life Vision isn’t permanent, but we suggest that you try living with it for a while before reopening any negotiations (at least six months). Update your Individual Sex Life Vision as often as you like, but do your honest best to live up to and accept the agreements that you made in your Marital Sex Life Vision. If you’re having trouble being content, recognize that the shared vision is probably very close to the best possible arrangement you can make with your spouse (as long as you were both acting in good-faith throughout the process).
Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.
Proverbs 25:14
Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Matthew 5:37
Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
Amos 3:3
You didn’t get exactly what you wanted, and neither did your idiot, short-sighted, unimaginative, selfish, lazy spouse. I’m kidding of course! You’ll never convince your spouse to want exactly what you want, nor vice versa. Now that the two of you have negotiated acceptable agreements and created a Marital Sex Life Vision, it’s time to move forward and make this vision a reality — which will be the topic of the next post in this series: Put First Things First.
Do you and your spouse have a shared vision for your sex life? Do you know the target you’re aiming at? Leave a comment and let us know.
We actually already started doing this a little over a year and a half ago. My list is around 168 pages long with a table of contents! LOL. But it’s more than just a list, it’s each item organized with similar or related items, and an organized discussion of:
—any Bible verses which may be relevant to the topic
—detailed definition of the item to be sure we’re on the same page as we talk
—explanation of the why this is important to me
—some ideas to promote success (several links to articles you guys have written, thanks)
—some questions I have about potential challenges (I can only guess if she doesn’t say), so we can work on overcoming them together
—her responses to the discussion and my questions
We talk through these slowly so we can really get an understanding of where each other is. And some things go more quickly when we closely agree, while others take longer to talk through where we don’t totally agree. Sometimes we just have to keep moving and give time to think or work on building a new habit, etc.
Anyway, it has made a big difference over the last 1-2 years, and I highly recommend it!
That sounds amazing! How often do you talk about your vision together?
It varies. We try to do a little bit at a time a few times a month. Interspersed with reading articles or listening to podcasts, etc.
Cool, thanks for sharing.