The lives people live on social media don’t always reflect their real life. For example – #relationshipgoals – the hashtag has as much potential to spark the heated debates we call fights as it does to help couples grow together. What that hashtag means to you depends on what your relationship goals are. If you’re aiming for a healthy relationship, keep your private business off social media and try these five relationship goals instead.
1. Open, Honest Communication
No relationship is healthy without open, honest sharing. Avoid allowing irritabilities or awkward moments to fester. Instead, commit to talk with your partner about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Wanna really ensure an everyday check-in? Try showering together. If you can avoid distracting each other in the shower, it’s a wonderful place to connect and communicate with zero outside influences.
2. Live Beneath Your Means
While money is cited as the number one reason for divorce, that doesn’t always mean a lack of money is at its root. It could also mean mismanagement of finances even when you have plenty. Have an open conversation about income and output. Make financial plans with your partner that clearly defines a plan that allows you to keep bills current, spend individually and as a couple, save for the future, and have a few extracurricular splurges.
3. Plan For Intimacy And Dating
Practice making daily time for one another. Sit down and have an honest conversation about each person’s preferred frequency for sex and intimacy. It’s important to remember that sex and intimacy are two very different things. Stop disagreements in their tracks by deciding beforehand how often you’ll have sex, how each person defines intimacy, and how many monthly date nights you need to stay plugged into each other.
4. Stop And Say I Love You
Stevie Wonder famously sang, “I just called to say I love you.”
How often do you tell your partner you love them? Not “I love you, too” or a hurried “I love you” on your way out the door. Stop, look them in the eyes, and say it from your heart. Let your partner hear it from your lips, see it in your eyes, and feel it wash over them. Nothing feels more intimate than a moment to connect with those three little words.
5. Take An Annual Vacation
Life has a way of getting in the way of everyday pleasures. Between work, bills, children, and family, it can be hard to carve out time just for you. Make a point of taking an annual vacation for just the two of you! A staycation that lets you explore the city around you, a weekend getaway, a scenic road trip, or a romantic cruise – the venue doesn’t matter. The alone time together does.
Relationship goals are complex and varied according to each couple and their individual and mutual aspirations. Go ahead and follow that hashtag. Do take heed of successful couples, but don’t strive to mimic them. Instead, find your own relationship groove, define your own relationships goals…and give that in-shower communication a try.