Do you know the things every relationship needs?

One of the things that often comes as a surprise to a lot of people is just how much work actually goes into making a relationship successful. Because of movies and TV, we all kind of assume that finding someone you want to be with and who wants to be with you is going to be the hard part. However, the truth is that the real challenge comes after “happily ever after”. Relationships can be hard and they take effort on your part and on your partner’s. With that in mind, here are three things that every single relationship needs.

Respect

Mutual respect needs to be the foundation of any relationship. There are some people who seem to think that your romantic partner doesn’t also need to be your friend but that’s simply not the case. You need to respect each other as people and not just be attracted to one another. Otherwise, there’s going to end up being an imbalance in the relationship that will cause major problems. It might start small with one person doing more of the chores than the other, but those kinds of things are often a sign of something more serious under the surface.

Space

People tend to assume that, once they find someone that they want to be with, they only need to spend time with that person no matter what. Well, that’s pretty ridiculous. The truth is that you’re still independent people and trying to spend all of your time together is just going to get exhausting. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take some time to spend with friends and family or even just have a little bit of time by yourself every so often. That way you can rest, relax, and bring all of your positive energy back into your relationship.

Communication

Communication is the single most important part of any relationship. If you and your partner can’t communicate then your relationship is never going to work out. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy. Many of us are taught to bottle up our feelings and not discuss them. But you need to be able to let your partner know how your feeling otherwise things are going to fester under the surface. If you’re really struggling then counselling with someone like Susie Tuckwell can be incredibly useful. Having someone offer guidance from outside your relationship can help you and your partner hear each other more clearly.

One of the most common mistakes that a lot of people make is that they assume that, just because things aren’t easy or because they’re having to actually put in some work, that their relationship isn’t working. Don’t let a fantasy ideal of a relationship fool you into thinking that the only good relationship is one that’s perfect all of the time. That kind of attitude is just going to end up making your life a whole lot work in the long run and could well end up ruining a great relationship simply because you’re coming into it with expectations that are way too high.