Let's be honest — most of us talk a big game about the importance of our marriage or love relationship, but when the rubber meets the road, we aren't really putting the relationship first.
1. Prioritize your relationship.
Over time, you begin to take one another for granted. You get busy and distracted with your own stuff and neglect to tune in to the needs and desires of your partner. You view the relationship as a given, something that's just a by product of your connection to this other person.
But the relationship is an entity on its own. There's you. There's your partner. And there's the relationship.
Of these three, the relationship should be in first place. In fact, it should be in first place over everything else in your life, including your children, work, hobbies, or extended family.
So the goal here must be a mutual one. You both must embrace the relationship as the centerpiece of your life. How do you do that? It's a commitment you have to reinforce every single day in all of your decisions and actions.
It requires constant recalibration based on the needs of each partner and what is going on in your lives. Take a moment every day to ask yourself and each other, “Are we putting our relationship first today? What do we need to do today to nurture it?”
