We have now reached the last week of October and maybe you're already feeling stressed about the upcoming holiday season. Well, to help you prepare I’ve got a few tips on how you can take the time to improve your relationship in November.

And then, for the Distraction of the Day, which is near the end of each episode, I’ve got a story, from football, that’s going to make Amy cry. I saw this video over the weekend and it was filmed right after a major victory, for a major school, from a major Heisman candidate and it had nothing to do with football.

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Show Content:

Amie M. Gordon, Ph.D. "When life gets busy, relationships often get ignored. Sometimes you don't even realize it is happening until weeks go by and you finally take a moment to really look at your partner and realize you feel disconnected from them. Even the best relationships require attention. If your relationship could use a boost, here are three quick things you can do this month to put a little spark back into your relationship and make your partner feel loved."

1. Express your thanks for something unexpected
2. Do something fun together
3. Take some time to reminisce
4. And what would Amy add as a tip?

You can't treat your relationship like a smoke alarm when the batteries run out. The only reason you know the smoke alarm has run out of battery is because it starts beeping incessantly. And the noise is so annoying that you run around the house confused and frustrated trying to figure out the source of the problem and you can’t find any batteries so that just makes you more upset and sometimes you just get so angry that you let the smoke alarm beep itself out and die. Wouldn’t you save yourself a lot of effort if you just checked the batteries on your smoke alarm before they started to die? Wouldn’t you save yourself a lot frustration and anger if you didn’t neglect your smoke alarm until there was an issue?

Your relationship is a lot like a smoke alarm. You shouldn’t just be responding to it when there’s a problem. You have to take the time to check in, recharge, and reconnect so that you can actually enjoy your time together. Don’t let yourselves fall into the trap of only spending time together when you ‘have to’. As so many of us know, spending time with someone because you ‘have to’ isn’t as fun as spending time with someone because you want to. I encourage all of you this month to make the time and put in the effort to recharge your relationships. See for yourselves if these small change will make a difference.

Remember that spending time with your spouse shouldn’t feel like work. Make it fun! Make it something you look foreword to week after week. Reconnecting with your spouse doesn’t have to be complicated, it just has to be enjoyable.

Distraction of The Day

Here's where I succeed in getting Amy to cry.  Fathers matter! Rick McSorley inspires son Trace McSorley, "He's always been the guy that I lean on when things have gotten tough," McSorley said. "My rock -- that's who my dad is to me. In that moment, him being able to come down and say those words were huge."