Why Her Emotions Frustrate You
Dave’s head is spinning. His wife just told him that she doesn’t feel like he’s on her team.
“Baby,” he says, “I work 10 hours a day, I do everything I can for us to have a good life.”
“Yes, that’s fine,” she says. “But I don’t feel like you love me.”
“What did I do wrong?” He asks her.
“Nothing,” she says.
Do you struggle to understand how you failed your wife?
If so, just know that there are millions of men who are in the same boat as you.
In his seminal book many years ago “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” John Gray spoke to this.
He explained a core difference between men and women and how they show love.
Essentially, he said men and women have different brains.
Men are logical. Women are emotional.
And yes, it can often feel like we are on two different planets.
Do you try to understand your wife logically?
If so, there you go, that’s part of the problem.
Due to a lack of advanced emotional intelligence in many of us men, we often ignore emotions and instead attempt to show our love through logic. We try to fix things.
Do you try to serve your wife by fixing and it often backfires?
A guy’s inner script typically goes like this – Tell me the problem and let me use my superior rational powers to make things better, sweetie.
He uses his rational powers at work all the time – in law, finance, business, engineering, science – and it pays off, but not at home.
“Well, then the other day,” Dave continues. “She said that she wanted me to take care of the food for the party, and then when I came home with everything, she got upset at me.
“I asked her why, and she says, oh because I didn’t do it right.
“Baby, I got everything you asked me for. I even had a list.” He scratches his head, mystified.
“That’s not the point,” his wife says. “Three people canceled and now we’ll have too much food.”
“Wait a minute, love. Is this about you being upset for me not getting the right food at the market or about people not coming tonight?”
“Why do you have to argue with me?” She says.
Dave has that “I can never win” look on his face.
And then it goes downhill from there.
Do you struggle to understand your wife?
Well, if so, consider Dave’s story. Maybe it’s yours too. Clearly, there were some illogical things going on.
Logically, Dave got it right, and maybe you do too, but still emotionally he’s on another planet and can’t see what his wife really needs.
Do you want to figure out what your wife really needs?
If so, check out the video below to see how your logic spins you into a place of helplessness with her and what to do instead.
“Dave,” I say, after he’s done telling me about the party incident. “Her upset wasn’t about you.”
“But why did it come out on me?” He asks. “I try to do my best for her and nothing seems like enough.”
“Emotions, Dave. Emotions. Tune into her emotions.
“Start learning her language. Decode her.
“She’ll pivot from food shopping to guests cancelling in a micro-second. And you’ll be left in the dust on the food shopping.
“She was upset about the guests, not you.”
“But…” he says. “It shouldn’t have come out on me.”
“I know, it seems unfair. But this is your chance to man up.”
“Try this, Dave,” I continue. “Say this to yourself.
“Her emotions came out on me. It wasn’t about me. I can be there for her.
“And I can say, I’m sorry, sweetie, that people cancelled. Let’s still do our best to have fun together.”
Hmmm… Dave looks up, thinking. He’s struggling to buy it.
“Ok, I’ll do my best,” he says. He gets it.
Changing his marriage is more important than being right.
In the weeks to come, Dave starts implementing and things improve dramatically with his wife.
Do you want to learn how to decode your wife’s emotions so you can experience less frustration and more joy?
If so, let’s have a quick chat. Men or women who want to learn more about men (that’s right, I am coaching women now).
A quick chat is a guaranteed, powerful conversation to give you meaningful insights on how to create the marriage you want.
And to be clear, talking with me is just an honest conversation, keeping it real.
I’d be honored to hear from you. Move into action and shoot me a quick email.
And for the men who aren’t ready for 1:1 coaching and still want to transform their marriage, check out the Men’s Relationship School. Reply “MRS Yes” to try it out and join your first call for free.