No one expects their marriage to become a negative statistic. Marriage sometimes can require very hard work, but there are lots of things you can do to improve your chances by following these 15 tips for a successful marriage. The little things matter. As a result, small gestures and habits can make a huge difference.
Follow these tips for a successful marriage:
- Honor your commitments. It doesn’t matter whether you promised to be home on time, pick up the children, or take out the garbage. So do it.
- Don’t bring up the past. Harping on mistakes from the past will only reopen old wounds and cause resentment. Therefore, leave the past alone.
- Don’t interrupt your spouse. Take the time to be quiet and listen until your spouse is finished talking. So listen to their point of view with an open mind and wait to speak until it is your turn.
- Be grateful. List at least one thing about your spouse that you are grateful for and try not to forget it. For example, maybe its smile or the way your partner makes you laugh. The simple act of looking for positive traits in your spouse will change your attitude.
- Have some fun together. Make time to spend moments together doing something that you both enjoy. Spending time together is a great way to get a closer relationship. Therefore, you should look for activities you both enjoy and find the opportunities to spend them together.
- Don’t keep score. Everyone has good and bad moments. Life is never exactly 50-50, but things have a way of evening out eventually. Consequently, keeping score can be very negative and cause you to resent each other.
- Don’t harp on small matters. Many divorces are often caused by petty disagreements. So if you can agree on the big stuff, the little stuff is merely a distraction.
- Give your spouse privacy. There is no need to snoop around looking for trouble. Trust your spouse and stay out of their text messages and email accounts. Therefore, give them space to be an individual and don’t confront them on unfounded suspicions.
- Communicate about behaviors. Don’t attack your spouse but rather be very open about what is bothering you about their actions. Remember, effective and respectful communication requires that you address the behavior, not the person. Therefore, avoid making personal attacks on your spouse.
- Plan a date-night. A couple of times a month, you can make plans to do something out of the house together. Go on a real date or simply take opportunities to do something together. For example, you can surprise each other by taking turns to make plans.
- Always be respectful in public. It is never okay to make fun of your spouse or belittle them, but it’s is especially damaging when done in front of other people. As a result, keep negative conversations private.
- Think about ways to strengthen the relationship. Don’t try to change your spouse because that will never work. However, there are things you can change about yourself to make the relationship more pleasant.
- Focus on the positive. Celebrate whenever good things happen. Relationship experts sometimes point out that divorces occur as a result of fewer positive times, rather than more negative ones.
- For each cricitism, counter with at least five compliments. You have to balance out the damage and invoke more positive thoughts in your marriage. Social scientists have made this discovery.
- Know that you are responsible for your own happiness. Don’t blame your spouse for your unhappiness, look within to make things right. Most people who practice this find that they can be as happy as they were before marriage by finding their own interests. So there are many other ways to find enjoyment such as music or hobbies that make you feel good.
These tips for a successful marriage will help you enjoy a happy married life. Working on your marriage is like tending a garden. You have to pull the weeds and enjoy the harvest which is the fruits of your labor of love. Make your marriage a priority. Take the time to give your spouse and your marriage the attention they deserve.
