The Husband Code of Conduct with Bill McDonald

How 13 Codes of Conduct Can Guide Men to a Better Life?

Sometimes we come across new ways of thinking, of looking at the world, that cause us to take meaningful action to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.

Whether it's love languages, personal accountability, or confessions from a darker time, it's so important for our families and ourselves to stretch our minds with great new information and push us in an even better direction.

In this episode of the Confessions of a Terrible Husband podcast, I talked with a guy named Bill McDonald. Bill created The 13 Codes, a Code of Conduct he developed to help men find deeper levels of fulfillment in their work, relationships, and health. He's former Green Beret, top fitness trainer, and coach to high-achieving men, he teaches his clients how to discipline their minds and bodies so they can find deeper levels of fulfillment in their work, relationships, and health.

He's a former Green Beret, top fitness trainer, and coach to high-achieving men, teaching his clients how to discipline their minds and bodies so they can achieve holistic mental, physical, and emotional health.

In this episode, Bill shares his story and dives deep into three of the thirteen codes and invites us to participate in free training he's conducting to help us go even deeper with the code of conduct. Bill leans heavily on his physical fitness and military training, bringing a refreshing and unique voice to personal improvement.

You can listen to the episode right here:

You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Facebook, Google Play, and more… Seriously, it's pretty much everywhere you can find a podcast!

To sign up for the free training and learn more about Bill and The 13 Codes, just go right here. While you're there, be sure to check out Bill's signature program, The 13 Codes Academy, which he talks briefly about on the show, too. The 13 Codes Academy is an online coaching experience designed to equip men with the weaponry they need to go into the battlefield of their life and crush every obstacle in their path. It’s designed to help you improve your romantic relationship (Bill survived 5 years of what he now laughingly refers to as marriage combat with his wife CJ, and they have a stronger relationship than ever!), find work you love, and maximize your physical health.

The 13 Codes Academy is an online coaching experience designed to help men crush every obstacle between the life they have now and the legacy they want to build in the future. It’s designed to help men improve their romantic relationships, find work they love, and maximize their physical health. Bill and his wife CJ survived 5 years of what they now laughingly refer to as “marriage combat” to achieve a stronger relationship than ever!

His story is fascinating and I'm honored to welcome him as one of very few guests to the Confessions of a Terrible Husband podcast!

Here's the link to his free training again.

Here's the link to his site.

And here's the link to The 13 Codes Academy

How to Improve Your Family Life in Only 7 Days

You asked. We answered. Kicking off 7 straight days of podcasting and blogging

What could you do for your family if you had access to the leading expert in the 7 most important areas of family life?

What could you do with your family if those experts each gave you their best advice for something you could do today to improve your relationship.

That's what today's podcast episode is about.

In it, I interview Mark Timm, husband, father of six teenagers, and CEO of Ziglar Family.

After accepting a challenge to improve my marriage by taking a FREE 7-day challenge brought to you by the Ziglar Family, I'm honored that Mark agreed to share the purpose behind the challenge and how anyone can improve their family life by dedicating about 10 minutes a day for a week.

I also share my thoughts on the Day 1 interview (today) with Dr. Gary Chapman and how my 7-year-old son nailed the lesson after watching today's video just one time.

In other words, the challenge is so easy and simple, even a 2nd grader can do it. You can too!

Here's the audio to listen to the interview:

If you prefer video, we did something fun and recorded the video of the interview. See if you can find the point where a poster falls out of the window in my office…. let me know what you think about having video involved on interviews. We just did a basic recording, which you'll see, but I like the depth a bit, even if my camera's in a place where it looks like I'm looking down at my feet when I'm looking at Mark's video window on my computer, haha!

Great stuff!

In case you're wondering: Here's why you're seeing another episode and blog post so soon:

Last week I recorded an episode about 3 ways to kickstart your stale marriage. The third way was to take a challenge. I was psyched that a challenge of this quality and price (FREE!) was starting up and challenged you to take it along with me.

I also offered to do a podcast/blog marathon if enough people reached out.

You did! Wow! I heard from nearly 100 people who wanted to take the challenge with me.

So, starting today, I'm kicking off the free challenge with you by podcasting and blogging a daily episode about the daily challenge. It starts today!

It starts today so sign up and follow along with me!

Sign up and take it with me!

You’ll be learning from:

  • Dr. Gary Chapman (relationships)
  • Michael & Gail Hyatt (communication)
  • Dr. Josh Axe (physical health)
  • Tony Dungy (work/life balance)
  • Brian Buffini (community)
  • Dave Ramsey (finances)
  • and Zig Ziglar’s own children – Cindy, Julie, and Tom (spiritual)

Sweet, right?!?!

It's free, and it'll be fun and motivating.

Better yet, it'll help your family win!

Here's the link to the FREE Ziglar Family Challenge again!

Let me know what you think and feel free to share your thoughts to the challenge content in the comments to this post!

3 Ways to Kickstart Your Stale Marriage

Don't let your marriage sit in neutral. Here are 3 ways to start improving it today!

Almost four years ago, I realized I was a terrible husband. I was lazy, unintentional, unreliable, and more. If not for a chance encounter with a couple who would quickly become my friends and mentors, I have no doubt that I’d be writing about my former marriage by now.

Since then, I’ve spent four years learning and applying as much as I can to improve my relationship and by sharing my favorite lessons learned from the pros, help you improve yours, too, no matter how great your relationship already is!

If you’re new to the site, the best ways to get into my head and take advantage of the research I’ve done (and mistakes I’ve made) already are to pick up my book, Confessions of a Terrible Husband: Lessons Learned from a Lumpy Couch, check out more posts right here, follow me on social channels, or listen to the podcast (It’s on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and more. Just hover over the word “podcast” on the top of any page on the site!).

Although my marriage is much improved, it’s definitely been more of a roller coaster than a rocket ship launching into space. We have ups and downs, like any relationship, although the ups are “uppier” and the downs are less “downish.” Yes, I made those words up. It’s my blog. I can do that. 🙂

We’ve had periods where we make great progress and then weeks or months where things feel a bit stale and need a kickstart.

When that happens, these three things help regain focus, direction, and momentum!

If you want to hear more detail about these, don't miss the podcast episode based on this! You can listen to it right here, or on your preferred podcast app like iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and more!

Change your dinner plans.

It’s no secret that Dan and Joanne Miller were the first marriage mentors who I connected with to help me transform my relationship. Since meeting them, I’ve been very intentional to surround myself with many other men, women, and couples with great marriages so I can learn as much as possible. As motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said, we’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

One of the easiest ways to start with this is to just begin making dinner plans with couples you believe have great marriages. Keep it simple. You don’t need any magic words or to ask any specific questions. Just spend more time with people who have relationships like you want to build and less time with people who don’t. You can learn a ton just by being around people with great marriages.

Change your programming with new books, podcasts, or video content.

If you can’t find people with great marriages to spend more time with, find virtual mentors by reading books, listening to podcasts, or watching great video content. If you can do this with your spouse, even better. But if not, that’s okay. Make the first move by consuming content that can help you improve your relationship and applying the lessons you learn.

Before I turned 30, I had read fewer than 10 books for personal growth, and those were all finance and business books. After turning 30, I started reading more business and marketing books. Although my finances looked great and my career was going well, my personal life was pretty . . . well, you know the name of this blog, so that pretty much says it all. 🙂

Now, I’m constantly either reading a book, listening to a podcast, or watching a video about improving my relationship and then committing to applying at least one thing I learned from the material. My favorite way to do it is through audiobooks, which I can listen to while emptying the dishwasher, cleaning my office, and more. I highly recommend everyone subscribe to Audible where you can get a new book every month. If you aren’t a member yet, you can get a free month and a free book to keep (even if you cancel) by heading here.

However you consume content, direct some of it on a regular basis to improving your relationships, and commit to applying one lesson you learn from each piece of content to put a jolt in your relationship.

Take a guided challenge!

When you’re just starting to intentionally improve your relationship, or if it’s been weeks or months since you last made an intentional effort, one of the easiest and best ways to build positive momentum is to take a guided challenge.

The best part about taking a guided challenge is it takes all the thinking out of improving your relationship! You don’t need to look for a lesson or get anyone’s buy-in. You just follow the instructions.

I’ve made it a point to take at least one challenge every year and each time I take one, my marriage gets a great boost!

This year, I’m taking a FREE 7-day challenge by the Ziglar family (yes, that Ziglar family!) that starts Monday, March 27, 2017, and I’d like to invite you to do it with me.

After taking a deep dive behind the scenes of the free 7-day challenge, I saw three things that made me quickly become more excited about this free challenge than about many paid challenges I’ve seen.

First, it’s only 7 days long. Anyone can stick to a challenge for 7 days.

Second, it touches 7 key areas of family life, including relationship, communication, physical health, work–life integration, community, financial, and—if you’re spiritual in nature—spiritual.

Finally, the challenge is led by seven leading experts on their relevant subject matter.

Get this:

Day 1: Gary Chapman (Relationships)

Day 2: Michael & Gail Hyatt (Communication)

Day 3: Dr. Josh Axe (Physical Health)

Day 4: Tony Dungy (Work–Life Integration)

Day 5: Brian Buffini (Community)

Day 6: Dave Ramsey (Finances)

Day 7: Zig Ziglar’s own children – Cindy, Julie, and Tom (Spirituality).

Needless to say, that’s seven sorts of awesome right there. And each of them shares their best advice for you during the challenge!

I hope you join me in taking the challenge! I liked it so much I agreed to help promote the free challenge for them in addition to taking it myself. It’s totally free to sign up. They also have other great free content there to check out and a paid membership and coaching program if you want to go even deeper, so be sure to check it out.

Are you ready to kickstart your marriage?

How will you do it? Will you change your dinner plans? Will you change your programming? Will you join me in the FREE 7-day challenge? All 3? Something else?

In the comments, share how you’re going to kickstart your relationship.

If you’re going to join me in the Ziglar family challenge, be sure to come back here and share your progress in the comments to this post and look out for more great posts (and a surprise podcast episode) from me!

Husbands, THIS Must Be Your “One Word” for 2017

I'm excited to welcome another guest blogger, Brendan Hufford, to the site today! Please extend our usual Confessions of a Terrible Husband love with some social shares or comments! Brendan is dedicated to helping other husbands and dads be the best they can be. He has founded and sold two businesses, but does not have an MBA from a famous university or any professional accolades. Like you, he learned about marriage, family and business by committing to the work. A teacher by trade, he's passionate about teaching others to take action in their family and business. He writes often at BrendanHufford.com and PhotoMBA.net. Send him a tweet and let him know how you liked this article.


I’ll give you an experiment to try: The next time somebody asks you how you’ve been or what you’re up to, answer without using the word “busy.”

We use it as a default word to describe our lives but what we really mean is that we aren’t in control of our time or our life. Because of that, we’ve developed all sorts of bad habits in our marriage.

  • We don’t go to bed at the same time.
  • We don’t cultivate common interests.
  • We don’t check in with them to see how things are during the day

Maybe you feel this way, too?

Maybe you feel so underwater with all of your obligations that your wife and marriage is not only not your first priority, but it barely makes the top 10 list.

Let’s fix that…

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