GoodGuys2GreatMen Video Podcast

What to Do When Your Wife Complains

Dan Dore & Steve Horsmon • 4m 0s • 12 November 2020

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What to Do When Your Wife Complains
Video overview: If you keep complaining about your marriage in your head, to your friends or under your breath around the house, something important is trying to get your attention. The problem may not be that you’re unhappy — it may be that you’re staying passive about what you want. This video is about the common cause of marriage dissatisfaction and how a man can start turning it around from the inside out.

Complaining is easy.

I know that sounds blunt, but it’s true.

It’s easy to sit in your own head and replay everything she does wrong. It’s easy to tell yourself she’s cold, distant, critical, ungrateful, uninterested, too busy, too tired, too negative or too hard to please. It’s easy to tell a friend, “You wouldn’t believe what she said,” or “I can’t win with this woman,” or “This marriage is just not what I thought it would be.”

And sometimes, brother, the complaints may be pointing at something real.

Maybe the marriage is cold.

Maybe the affection has gone missing.

Maybe she is sharp with you.

Maybe the sex is gone.

Maybe you feel like you’re carrying more than your share.

Maybe you feel unseen, unappreciated and tired of trying.

I’m not here to tell you those feelings don’t matter.

They do.

But complaining does something sneaky to a man. It makes him feel like he’s doing something when he’s not. It gives him a little emotional relief without requiring him to take any real ownership. It lets him stay frustrated, stay right, stay stuck and keep looking at her as the reason his life feels the way it does.

That’s where men get trapped.

A lot of marriage dissatisfaction comes from a man living in the gap between what he wants and what he is actually willing to lead.

He wants more affection, but he doesn’t make clean invitations.

He wants more respect, but he keeps betraying his own standards.

He wants more sex, but he brings pressure, resentment or wounded energy into the conversation.

He wants more peace, but he avoids hard truth until it leaks out as irritation.

He wants more connection, but he spends more time complaining about the lack of it than creating the conditions for it.

That is not a character flaw.

It’s a pattern.

And once you see it, you can change it.

This video is about that turn. The moment a man stops using complaint as a place to live and starts using it as a signal.

If you’re complaining, ask yourself, “What am I wanting that I’m not owning?”

That question can sting.

Because it moves you out of victim mode. It stops you from simply pointing at her behavior and forces you to look at your own leadership. Not blame. Leadership.

What do you want?

What have you not said clearly?

What have you tolerated while pretending you were fine?

Where have you chosen comfort over honesty?

Where have you made her responsible for the life you haven’t decided to create?

Most men don’t like those questions at first. They would rather stay in the familiar story that says, “If she would just change, I’d feel better.”

I get it.

But that story makes you weak.

It puts your happiness, confidence and energy in her hands. It makes your wife the gatekeeper of your emotional life. It turns you into a man who waits, watches, resents and complains.

That’s not the man you want to be.

A stronger man listens to his complaints differently. He doesn’t shame himself for having them, and he doesn’t let them become his identity. He uses them as clues.

“I keep complaining about no affection. What am I doing with my own affection?”

“I keep complaining that she doesn’t respect me. Where am I not respecting myself?”

“I keep complaining that we don’t have fun. Where did I stop bringing fun?”

“I keep complaining that she doesn’t appreciate me. Where have I been giving with a hidden contract?”

That’s where the work begins.

Not because everything is your fault.

Because your power is in your part.

You cannot control whether she changes today. You cannot make her softer, warmer, more sexual, more grateful or more playful by complaining. You cannot nag reality into becoming the marriage you want.

But you can change the man you bring to the marriage.

You can become more direct. You can become more honest. You can stop pretending you’re fine when you’re not. You can stop using resentment as a substitute for courage. You can decide what kind of romantic, sexual and emotional life you want and begin acting in alignment with that vision.

That is the inside game.

And most men were never taught it.

We were taught to work hard, provide, solve problems and keep moving. So when the marriage feels disappointing, we either try harder on the outside or complain harder on the inside. Neither one creates the deeper confidence, clarity and leadership that actually changes the emotional weather.

This video will help you see your dissatisfaction differently.

Not as proof that your marriage is doomed.

Not as proof that she is the problem.

Not as proof that you’ve failed.

But as an invitation to wake up and ask, “What do I want, what am I choosing, and who am I becoming while I wait for things to change?”

That is a much better question than, “Why is she like this?”

Because once you ask it, you stop being helpless.

And brother, that’s where a man starts getting his power back.

Stop living in complaint

If you keep feeling disappointed in your marriage, we can help you slow down and see what your complaints are really pointing toward. You don’t have to stay stuck in blame or resentment — you can get clear, take ownership and start leading yourself differently.

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About the Hosts

Steve Horsmon & Dan Dore | Certified Professional Men’s Coach

Steve Horsmon and Dan Dore have spent over a decade supporting good men who are confused, frustrated, and afraid that their marriages and families are falling apart with no idea what to do about it. We've both experienced the same emotions that you're going through now. We know what it feels like to try all the mainstream try harder, be nicer advice while watching things continue to get worse. And that's exactly why Goodguys2Greatmen exists. Since 2012, we've coached thousands of men through some of the hardest periods of their lives; marriage breakdown, emotional distance, sexless relationships, fears of divorce or separation. We focus on practical solutions to help you survive some of the most challenging and painful experiences that a man can go through. This podcast is for men who are done waiting for their life and relationships to improve and are ready to make some bold decisions so that you become more calm and confident and start moving toward what you really want.