The Dilemma!

Couldn’t be a better set up for the What Would Jim Do Blog! Friday evening Christie and I went out for a movie and a meal. Our choice? The Dilemma with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Not a great movie but enough entertainment value for me to feel like our time wasn’t wasted especially when Christie asked me on the way to the car … “What Would You Do”?

So, here’s the setup. Vaughn and James are best buddies as well as business partners. James is married and Vaughn suffers from the stereotypical “guy who won’t commit” syndrome but has a girlfriend he is close to popping the question to. Isn’t that stereotype a little tired by now? James and wife are best buddies with Vaughn and his soon to be fiance and Vaughn even proclaims early in the movie that James and his bride are the perfect couple and that James is his hero!

Anyway, Vaughn’s character (while planning the perfect proposal scenario) inadvertently sees James’ wife making out with hotter, younger and tatted up dude (Tatum Channing) and later confirms that she is having an affair with him. A lot of different situations, predicaments and dilemma’s face our guy Vaughn as he tries to figure out what to do.

Tatum Channing ... "Zip" in The Dliemma!

Here are The Dilemma’s we will tackle today in “What Would Jim Do” …

1. Should Vaughn tell his buddy James and if so how?
2. Should James let his future fiancee in on the secret?
3. Should Vaughn tell his buddy that before he met his wife … Vaughn had a one night stand with her? A little plot twist and leverage the wife uses to try and silence Vaughn from spilling the beans!

Tough questions we have here! I have actually been faced with question #1 in my life and I would handle it today in almost the fashion I handled it the first time. Here is what I, Jim, would do;

First thing I would do is pray! (For those of you who don’t share the same world view as I do then just skip over this prat and read on.) I would pray for peace in the midst of the challenge, wisdom to know how to handle it and grace toward my buddy and his wife. Knowing what I do about failures in marriage, namely both parties play a part, I don’t want to handle anything with a judgmental attitude. I would also be 100% certain of what it was that I saw before moving forward with my plan.

Next I would share what I saw with my soon to be fiance and wife and seek their input. I wouldn’t want to start my new relationship off with a lack of trust and integrity born out of keeping important secrets to myself. The answer to #2!

Then I would meet with the wife, share with her what I saw and let her know that I intend to tell my buddy about it if she hasn’t done so herself within x number of days. Then I would tell her how sorry I am to see that “they” are struggling, offer up names and resources for marriage counseling (collected in advance), offer to pray for their marriage and offer up any assistance I can provide to walk with them as a couple through healing their marriage!

If he didn’t come to me within the agreed upon number of days for her to tell him, then I would tell him in the same tone of voice and with the same attitude of fairness that I used with her. Same would hold true if he came to me and let me know that he knew what was going on. Peace, wisdom and grace … above all I would pray for an attitude of grace to be in a position to help either or both!

So … what would you do? Agree? Disagree? Like? Dislike my answer? Comment below and let me know what you think so I can learn as well!

Oh … I forgot!!!!

Question #3? I have some thoughts but I will let you go first on this one! What would you do?

What Would Jim Do?

There are a number of people I like to listen, or read and pay attention to and one of my favorites is Larry Winget! Always straightforward (sometimes too much so for the thin skinned … be warned) I love his take in this blog about making New Year’s resolutions effective. My personal favorite is #9! Check it out and let us know what you think!

10 Ways To Make New Years Resolutions Stick

I get sick of all the New Year’s resolutions people make and then after about ten days, are completely forgotten. I’ve been in the personal development business for twenty years now and I’m just tired of it. “I’m gonna change!” My response: Bet you don’t. Harsh? Probably. Mean? Possibly. Realistic? Absolutely. People lie to themselves. Yeah, they lie to other people too but they lie mostly to themselves. The truth is that people don’t want to change. If they did, they would. And since they don’t change, it’s because they don’t want to – at least not enough to actually make the change. Because change requires work and people would rather do just about anything than work.

So here we are at that time of year where we pretend we want our lives to be different because a mark on the calendar says we ought to evaluate our lives and our results and fix them. Okay, I’ll play along. Let’s talk about resolutions. Here’s my list of ideas for you if you want next year to look different than last year. Click here to read the rest!

Thanks Larry!

4 Questions We Should Ask Ourselves To Have A Great Year In 2011!

Hey folks! We have just wrapped up an amazing year in 2010 with so many blessings and with God moving in so man ways! We expect that 2011 will be even more eventful but we aren’t just sitting around “hoping” it will be so … we are planning for it to be so. Christie and I just returned from a couple of days in Rockport, Texas on a little retreat where we asked ourselves 4 Critical Questions to make the most of what God has blessed us with! We want to share with everyone those 4 questions you can ask yourselves to make your 2011 a great year! The short version goes like this!

To have a killer year in 2011 ask yourself, personally and professionally, individually and collectively (family or business) these 4 important questions …

#1 – What did we do this year that worked? How can we do more of it or make it even better?

#2 – What did we do that didn’t work or deliver a solid ROI for our time and/or money? How do we make it worth our time or just get rid of it?

#3 – What do we want to try that is new?

#4 – What do we want to do that is big?

Last year I did a webinar for our business clients covering the subject … to check out the recording just click on the image below! Let us know what you think …

God bless each of you and make 2011 an amazing year!

Jim & Christie Jacobus