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5 Less Common Secrets to a Successful Relationship
Dr. NerdLove offers five pieces of advice for a happy relationship that actually work.
One of the trickiest parts of having a happy, successful relationship is, frankly, the relationship itself. Much like most of dating[1], we are given next to no instruction on how to make a relationship work. If we’re lucky, we have our parents as role-models to pattern ourselves after. All too often, however, we’re left to our own devices with only the vaguest notions of what a relationship is supposed to be like based from ideas we’ve absorbed from pop-culture and the vague idea that if we love each other enough, everything will work out in the end.
Of course, this doesn’t work well; in fact, many people get trapped in abusive or exploitive relationships simply because they think “that’s just how relationships are.” But even under the best of circumstances, we only learn these lessons through fucking up over and repeatedly. And while some people do need to touch the stove before realizing that it’s going to burn you, most of us would probably appreciate a warning or two before we end up making an unscheduled trip to the burn-ward.
It’s worth keeping a few things in mind that help make relationships work.
