As easy as a relationship can feel at the beginning, over time things can get hard, especially if you are doing things that are sabotaging it either intentionally or not. Learning about your significant other is a lifelong process, and you must adapt or your happy relationship will deteriorate before imploding right in your face.
It's just as important to know what not to do in your relationship, so here are 8 things that can and will eventually put you back in the singles game. Men and women are both guilty of all of these things from time to time.
1. Being overly critical
Let's be honest, everyone of us has or is dating someone who does something that bugs the absolute crap out of us. A lot of the time it comes down to just being a small pet-peeve that you have, so it's important to know if it is important enough to say something, or to just simply let it go. Being overly critical of what you consider to be your partner's flaws is going to do nothing other than build resentment.
2. Pretending to listen
When your partner speaks, it's important to listen, even if you don't agree with what they are saying. Pretending to listen is not a great idea, you may as well be slapping in the face with disrespect. It's all about communication, and that is always a two-way street.
3. Trying to change the other person
You want a quick way to build a wall of resentment in your relationship? Then you might want to try and fundamentally change who the other person is. When a relationship starts you really begin to learn who a person is, and if you chose to remain in that relationship you are accepting of who they are regardless.
4. Making everything about the relationship
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. When you make your entire life about the other person you will find yourself getting sick of each other. It's important to have your own lives within a relationship, or else you will quickly find yourself single and alone (which isn't fun unless that is what you're looking for).
5. Passing the blame
It takes two people to make a relationship work, and both parties are responsible for making sure they do their own share. You can't always blame the other person for what is going wrong, one, because it isn't fair, and two, because it likely isn't true. Taking on your fair share of the problems will help you grow as an individual as well. No one likes feeling like the villain all the time.
6. Holding onto grudges
Sometimes you just have to learn to let things go. Those times where old issues and situations are brought up in current day problems serve no purpose other than to show your significant other than that you haven't gotten over whatever "it" was. Even if you don't forget, you have to be able to forgive, otherwise the idea of a mutual relationship is a joke.
7. Taking everything personally
It again comes down to communication. If your partner is saying something to you or vice-versa, and you feel that it's a personal shot directly at who you are, take a moment and think about it rationally. You need to be able to talk to each other about things that are bothering you without letting the situation devolve into a personal battle.
8. Always being honest
Listen, you should never outright lie to your significant other, at least not about the important things. But there will always come a time or two during a relationship where you will need to use tact rather than honesty. "Does this dress make me look big?" "Isn't this beard absolutely epic..." You get the point.
Have you ever experienced any of these issues?
