Tuesday, April 25, 2017

6 Tips To Help You Achieve Work-Life Balance

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by Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam
Your partner is upset with you because you no longer have time for your family. Your relationship has been characterized by unhappiness, quarrels, and stress. Your work has been so demanding lately, you’re on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. So what do you do? Throw in the towel? Or try to fix what has been broken?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Teamwork in Relationships - Lessons from The Amazing Race TV Show

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One of the unscripted TV shows that I really enjoy with Myne is the Amazing Race. For those who many not know about the series, it involves couples – who may be siblings, spouses, friends or workmates – taking part in a competition where they perform various tasks in various cities around the world.

Amani and Marcus Pollard (2011)

Why do I like The Amazing Race so much? Well, I like the competition angle, wondering who will finish their stage of the race first. I also find it amusing to see how the couples perform some of the wackier tasks. And then, I like seeing the relationship dynamic between each of the couples, and how they work together to accomplish the tasks that they are given.

This will be the third season we've seen. As we watched this past one, I started to realize that watching it was like a couples’ therapy session for us. The different characters on the Amazing Race TV show – as individuals, as a couple, and partners in a team – provide good material for Myne and I to discuss about attitudes to life, love, and working together.

Seeing the couples certainly showed me that no relationship is the same, or perfect. They all have unique and flawed relationships especially when they're very different in temperament. You have one person being very laid back, and treating the whole affair like a pleasure jaunt, while  the other is highly competitive and engages in lots of strategic planning. When two people like this are on the show, expect to see some fireworks as they drive each other up the wall. There are some couples that act so antagonistically towards each other that you’re left wondering if they're really couples and how on earth they agreed to go on the programme in the first place.