Building relationships that work takes effort, planning, and an understanding of communication. If you want to build a healthy working relationship that you can trust, you need to develop and maintain good communication skills.
Know Who You Are
Everything you do starts with you. If you don’t know what your own values are or what’s important to you, it will be hard to make good choices in life. Define your values and morals so that when you are faced with options, you have some form of criteria on which to base the decision.
Practice Unflinching Honesty
The thing about honesty is that it doesn’t have to be cruel. This is not about telling someone you don’t like their haircut. This is about being able to be honest and yourself, even if the other person doesn’t like it, without caring about their judgment. It’s about being able to tell your partner what you need but not expecting holding expectations that are unreasonable.
Set and Respect Healthy Boundaries
A healthy person knows how to set boundaries with others and say no when they need to. Learn about boundaries if you don’t understand them due to your upbringing so that you can create a relationship that is interdependent but not dependent.
Meet Your Own Goals and Objectives
Instead of focusing on what other people think or what they are doing, always place the focus on setting, making, and meeting your own goals in life. When you live up to your own expectations, it encourages others to do better just because you are a good role-model.
Accept That Relationships Change
As you age and grow in life, relationships also change. This is acceptable. For example, if you were 18 when you met your spouse and now, you’re in your 40’s what you thought was true at 18 is not the same now. That doesn’t make your love less than it was before it’s just different. If you can learn to grow together and expect people to change over the years, the relationship can get even stronger.
Let Go of Expectations
One of the most significant relationship killers is unrealistic expectations. It’s one thing to always expect to be treated with respect, that’s not unrealistic. However, it’s unrealistic to expect someone to always feel the same way you do or act the way you would. Maybe you dry out the tub after every bath, but they don’t and never will. It’s okay. It’s not that important.
Have Fun Together
Laughing together and having a good time builds positive memories. If every interaction you have with someone is serious and dramatic, it’s hard to want to be around the person even if it’s mostly good.
Learn About Healthy Communication Techniques
Communication is a two-way street, but often we rely too heavily on the other person to understand us. Instead, it’s up to the message giver to ensure that the receiver understands fully what you were trying to communicate.
Appreciate the Other Person
The main thing you need to show the other person in the relationship is your appreciating for them just how they are. When you are accepting the other person just how they are, let them know and tell them how much you appreciate them, even when you disagree.
Building relationships that work take time and patience. Additionally, defining what you believe is a good relationship and what you both want out of the relationship can go a long way to ensuring that you set yourself up for success in any relationship you want to forge.