Infidelity Strategy: How and When to Wait

You discovered your partner is having an extramarital affair. Do you blast? Are you unsure of what to do? Do you waffle, sometimes confronting (maybe getting a little loud!) and sometimes quietly accommodating, hoping this will "win" him her back?

These are hugely important questions that impact the course of your healing and your capacity to change the flow of the affair, if indeed, it can be changed. Your goal is to have a sound strategy that will give you most quickly what you really want.

You want no knee-jerk reaction that will dig your hole deeper, do you?

And, believe me, the answers to these questions are not clear cut. They are complex.

Let's talk about waiting.

I had a coaching call with Sue (part of my audio tape series) in which Sue described beautifully the three stages of waiting as you cope with marital infidelity.

The first waiting is usually for your spouse to change.

You are hoping either that you will wake up and find that this was nothing more than a bad nightmare (part of the shock of discovery) or that s/he will see the error of his/her ways and become sane once again.

Typically, you focus on your cheating partner and/or the other person. That's all you think about. That's all you feel. It consumes you!

Now let's be realistic here. If you have a marriage where you are invested, emotionally, financially, etc. it will be next to impossible to avoid this agony.

Yes, you will go off the deep end, a little; maybe a lot. You engage in most of the "Killer Mistakes that prolong the affair and your misery" I outline in my e-course. Your minutes are marked by confusion and awful pain.

And then you move to the second phase of waiting: waiting for you to be comfortable enough with you and the situation to do exactly what you need to say and do that will have the greatest benefit for you and the relationship. You get smart.

It begins when you learn that there are 7 kinds of infidelity. It begins when you discover what it was that drove your spouse to make such a horrible decision.

It begins when you discover that his/her personal characteristics match exactly the kind of affair s/he is having. It begins when you realize that it was HIS/HER decision and had very little to do with you.

It begins when you discover that you are not alone: Thousands of others experience similar pain and in surviving infidelity have created and upgraded very successfully their lives and relationships.

It begins when you realize the huge reservoir of your personal power you want to unleash.

It begins when you intentionally charge neutral and experience those around you paying close attention to who you are, want you want, what you will and will not tolerate.

And then you enter the third phase of waiting: waiting for the infidelity process to work itself to completion.

From what you've learned about the kinds of infidelity, with great forethought and preparation, you begin to intervene.

You are aware of the specific kind of affair facing you and now you know the best strategy to employ for that kind of affair. You act and speak with force. S/he truly hears you and you begin to see different responses, different reactions.

Knowing the kind of affair, enables you to set a time line. You begin to understand and accept the time frame for the process.

You are on the way. You continue to learn. You evaluate and construct what you say and what you do to have the most profound impact.

You begin enjoying yourself. You are no longer concerned about waiting. You joyfully discover that your life seems easier, lighter and are surprised by how good you find it. You can stand back and marvel at your journey, and yes, even give thanks for where you have been.

Now, I want you to know that what I've written above is not a pipe dream. I work with people regularly who move through these stages of waiting. And, the quicker they start, the faster they move.

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