Our daughter and son both graduated this spring. She left a job that did not feel fulfilling to take on the MBA program at Yale, as well as the accompanying expense that entails. He earned a diploma in religion. Both of them chose to point themselves in the direction of a definitive goal, and that influenced all of their decisions for the last clump of years. Where they lived, how they spent their time, their friend groups all contributed to those aspirations. 

John often said back in our dating days that the question of whom to marry mattered more to him than his profession. That was his idealism speaking, but I would wager that he might only change the wording a smidge, thirty eight years later. 

The decision to stay married matters more than his profession. 

What if someone whose couplehood felt atrophied took on the ambition of changing it with the same gusto as a grad student? Hang the cost, and the inconvenience. Four years or two are not an excessive investment in a relationship that has the potential to reap more benefits than a job with a corner office. 

There are programs and cruises, books and websites enough to provide both the education and moral support to propel even a mired marriage into the next level. The Gottman Institute. Prepare/Enrich. Divorce Busting. Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage.Beyond Affairs Network. Retrouvaille.  Hey, you could attend a workshop every week of the year. It seems likely that such an endeavor would lead you to an explosion of new joy.