Today I share three important lessons I learned from my wife of 20 years.

1. My Wife’s 3 Incredible Gut Punches
Today I would like to share with you three lessons I learned from my wife. I call them her incredible gut
punches. They are the key to the success of our marriage of 20 years.
In today’s ultra-competitive environment our success and advancement is based on our on individual
ability or achievement.The growth of social medias such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin plays a
significant role in relevance of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in our new world. These are
key differences between the haves and the have nots, high income and lower income. It the difference
between rich and poor!
There are other important factors that contribute to success.MargarentWente in her article in The Globe
and Mail on Sunday titled “Victorian values for the 21st century” alluded to the fact that in future there
will be a lot more work requiring as attention to detail, good interpersonal relationship skills, ability to
work in teams, calm and steady temperament.FareedZakaria in a commencement speech at Harvard
University in 2012 that is posted on Youtubenoted that intelligence, hard work, discipline and courage
are the virtues that has been honoured and rewarded for thousands of years. The key point is the
factors for success have not changed.
After 20 years of marriage I have learned three incredible lessons from my wife which are equally
important to success. The first lesson for me is the importance of self-regulation. My wife punches me in
the gut every time when it comes to self-regulation. Self-regulation is the processesthat enable you to
guide your goal-directed activities over time and across changing circumstances.With each challenges
my wife faces I cannot help but admire how her process of self-regulation is initiated to make
adjustment. She is able to swiftly adopt or even change direction to ensure that our goals are on
target.Take for example this morning when we arrived at the Brampton GO Train Terminal for her
7.20AM train to Toronto Union Station and learned of a train derailment. While my initial thoughts were
okay let us head back home, she promptly said let us find the next GO Station that where the train are
still in operation.
The second important lesson for me is the importance of conscientiousness that is the importance of
being thorough, careful, or vigilant. My wife kicks me in the butt with her innate desire to doing a task
well. As a 21st
century working mother she is efficient, organized, neat, and systematic. She has a high
level of self-discipline, carefulness and thoroughness and self-organization. My wife is incredibly
organised. On the other hand I leave my clothes all over and I can never find my socks. My tendency to
think carefully before actingis my wife’s interpretation of procrastination. In my chaotic and
disorganised world my wife is like 911 or 1-800-HELP! My wife has an incredible ability to multi-task. She
is like the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra with her grace, elegance and diligence.
Speaking of diligence, my wife cracks my nuts when it comes to diligence that is steady, earnest,
energetic application and effort required to achieve specific tasks.Catching five minutes of Toronto
Maple Leafs opening game against the Ottawa Senators is like being a sluggard. My wife is diligent when
it comes to perform goal oriented tasks. She isattentive, persistent and consistentwhatever sheset out
to do.

2. The three incredible lessons relevant to success that I have learned from my wife of 20 years are the
importance of self-regulation, conscientiousness and diligence. What have you learned from your
spouse?
Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well
as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor. He can be contacted by
email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog
http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter
@mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.