How you might be sabotaging your bottom line.

You love what you do.

You’re good at it.

And sometimes—it’s hard to admit, and maybe you’ve never said it aloud—it’s more rewarding to be at work than it is to be at home.

My wife, Rivka, openly admits that oftentimes she feels more gratified doing what she does as CMO for our company than being a wife and a mother. In fact, both our business and our marriage were in a bit of a recession until we closely examined the state of both, measuring their ROI, and then creating a strategy for future growth. After taking a good hard look, we used the following two principles to double our ROI in both.

Feel the fear and do it anyway. For many business owners or high-level executives, being at home is not as rewarding as being at work. Work can be more exciting, more fulfilling and less emotionally taxing than home life. The deals, the clients, the camaraderie with coworkers can pale in comparison to another fight about the in-laws or complaints from your spouse about everything you’ve done wrong.

It’s no wonder you work long hours and avoid being home. Even more repelling is the fact that being around your spouse can cause a lot of discomfort. As in most relationships, your spouse probably pushes your buttons and triggers issues you would rather not deal with. Yet, as successful leaders know, what we fear most is usually what we need to tackle first to grow. Otherwise, we plateau.

If you want to double your business ROI, feel the fear and do it anyway. Don’t avoid the most important relationship in your life. Your spouse serves as a mirror for you, so it’s in your best interest to pay attention if you truly want to grow and succeed in business and all of your life’s endeavors. Your spouse is a “built-in” business partner—your life is about achievement and you enjoy learning from the best to reach those goals. Sometimes coming home is a let-down after a day of mental stimulation.Yet, don’t underestimate your partner.

Because your wife is a stay-at-home mom or your husband is a blue-collar worker, because you are more advanced professionally than your spouse doesn’t mean that he/she is not a match for your emotional intelligence. People are not the sum total of their work abilities.

Your mate is still the same person you fell in love with years ago, the person you could talk to for hours. He/she didn’t all of a sudden depreciate.

Your spouse is an untapped resource for your business and so much more because he/she was your biggest advocate when you first started out and has the ability to be your rock.

Crunch the numbers. Maybe your spouse doesn’t annoy you or you have no problem seeing them as an equal, but you are spending time at work because of financial pressures. If you are working overtime and rarely at home, know that achieving your money goals is not about killing yourself. In fact, working smarter, not longer and harder, is what will get you paid what you are worth.

Design a life and a business that make the income you want, without deluding yourself that your paycheck has to equal your hourly efforts. When one couple decided to attend our marriage retreat to refocus on their marriage, which had gotten stale as they built a successful real-estate firm, they were finally able to double their business and move cross-country, leaving their old firm behind, which continues to support them. Had they not learned the tools for safe communication, they would never have been able to converse with each other about their hopes and dreams for the future and make them a reality.

Taking a moment to breathe and focus on what’s really important, your marriage and family, will enable you to be more financially successful than if you continued to burn the midnight oil for fewer returns.

Evaluate your marriage and business ROI by looking at these two “hacks.” Your marriage is your business’s biggest asset and CEO success starts at home.

By Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin,
MS, LCPC

Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin, MS, LCPC, is a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist (Advanced Clinician) who works with couples via intensive marriage retreats and online “Marriage School.” To learn more about our private and group retreats, visit www.TheMarriageRestorationProject.com