Congratulations on learning (at least) ten new things about your partner. I should add a disclaimer here. This program isn’t a checklist. Each weekly challenge is a building block. You don’t throw away the blocks when you’re done with them. You keep using them. Keep adding to them.
As we move into a new challenge, keep learning things about your partner. Keep writing them down. Keep using them intentionally to build and deepen that connection.
Listening and recalling go a long way.
Now, for your new challenge.
This week, make a core memory. This is especially important for new relationships or for relationships that are being rebuilt.
Not only does creating a core memory give you something to reminisce about with your partnerin the future, it gives you intentional time together. See how I used that word again?
Go to a show, see a band, walk through a festival, watch fireworks. Cook dinner together at home.
No, this is not an invitation for sex.Do the fucking dishes.
Go to a pottery class or cooking class. Learn something new together. Go on a coffee shop crawl and try each shop’s signature drink.
What’s most important is that your day isn’t rushed. If you go to an event where public decency dictates that you be quiet (like a movie), be sure to tack on something afterward where you can talk about it and listen to what your partner thinks.
If, at any point, you start thinking about these challenges as something youhave todo, rather than something youget to do,it’s time to stop and reevaluate whether you should be pursuing this relationship.
For more resources, check out the BetterYou series, theLeading Manpodcast, or schedule a one-on-one coaching call with Ryan Ford.
6
RYAN
MR. RIGHT, MEET MISS RIGHT-NOW
Staring at my phone felt like watching the detonation timer on a live explosive. I tried to tell myself I was antsy for Willow to text me back because I needed to get a little further into The Ford Method before she left town. But truth be told, I just wanted to talk to her.
I loved talking to her.
That girl was hellfire and sweet sunsets; aflame in every way.
Usually, I encouraged program users to take on one challenge every week. But with Willow preparing to leave the city and move as far away from me as possible, I needed to get this show on the road.
This may have started as a dare. A wager. A bet. But two dates and a little text banter, and I already knew she was like no other woman I had ever met.
I had a certain . . . effect on women. I was aware of it, and I occasionally used it to my benefit.
Ladies loved the tattooed guy who wore glasses and still lived with his mom.
But that wasn’t where the money was. The money came from men who didn’t want to take relationship advice from a stuffy,sweater-vest-wearing schmuck who spoke like he was giving a graduate lecture. But they would listen to the guy who kicked his feet up on the desk, slumped in his chair, and spoon-fed tips on how to be a decent person using sports metaphors.
That was the guy Willow hated, but that guy was effective in reaching the target demographic.
I just needed a little more time to show her the difference between the two sides of my life.
Which was exactly why I was currently waiting by the phone for a pretty girl to call, like I was in middle school.
The phone buzzed, and I nearly fell out of the living room recliner.
Future Wife
We’ve seen each other every day this week. I think we can go one day and survive.
Didn’t like that response. Not one bit.
