Book 155 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Become Multi-Lingual

Book – The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman

Book Description: Marriage should be based on love, right? But does it seem as though you and your spouse are speaking two different languages? New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse’s primary love language—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch.

By learning the five love languages, you and your spouse will discover your unique love languages and learn practical steps in truly loving each other. Chapters are categorized by love language for easy reference, and each one ends with specific, simple steps to express a specific language to your spouse and guide your marriage in the right direction. A newly designed love languages assessment will help you understand and strengthen your relationship. You can build a lasting, loving marriage together.

Reflection:

I love my wife!

We had a lot of fun listening to this book together and making the experience incredibly interactive. The 5 Love Languages isn’t a long book, but we made it one with all the pauses and conversation to talk about the idea of love languages, each love language, importance of communication, and discuss how we feel and what is / isn’t important to us.

What I enjoyed most about this experience was the conversations that reminded me of how much I have in common with Felicia and why I fell in love with her in the first place. We certainly are 2 opposite people with unique perspectives on life, but when it comes to stuff that matters…we’ve always been united.

The thing we connected on most about the 5 love languages is that we HATE labels and categorizations of humanity. I can’t tell you how many times I chuckled when I would see Felicia get frustrated after we paused the audio book to discuss the content because I knew exactly what she was going to say because I felt the same way. She would say, “This one blends into this one, which blends into this one, etc.” I would chuckle because I 100% agreed. We both equally hated that there were only “Five” love languages in which each person was supposed to fit nicely into a little box.

This book made building a successful romantic relationship seem a little too easy. Each of you has a primary love language and if you identify and speak it than life will be happy.

That isn’t how people or life work in our opinions. People are multi-dimensional!!!

Felicia and I both found a little of what we liked and didn’t like about each of the love language descriptions, and it was fun sharing our thoughts with each other. Neither of us would officially declare a primary love language at the end of finishing the book and I actually loved that. What mattered to both of us was communication and understanding what matters to our significant other and life partner. What mattered was the conversation, being heard, and being understood.

Felicia and I were united in our shared path forward after finishing this book, and that was to strive to become multi-lingual. While we were out on a walk listening to this book and debating what our primary love language is or isn’t, I asked her, “What would be the first thing you would do if you moved to a foreign country and didn’t speak their language?” Her answer summed up this whole experience in my opinion. Without hesitation, she said “I’d learn their language”.

Being individually understood is what humans are really all about. Learning to listen, hear each other, and then treat people they way that they want to be treated is the real secret to a successful relationship. Anyone remember “The Platinum Rule” we talked about from Option B? It is not easy to do for any of us, but I can guarantee you that you will have a fantastic chance at a successful partnership in whatever area of your life (romantic, business, family, friends, etc) if you are able to master this.

Learn to be multi-lingual and you will open lines of communications across the human spectrum.

Question: What would be the first thing you would do if you moved to a foreign country and didn’t speak their language?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman