What makes a marriage successful?

What makes a marriage successful? Is it love, honesty, or understanding? Is it mutual respect and admiration or actually bonding with each other’s family that helps in sticking together for years? Some say its all about giving space to each other, while others believe its all about being individuals, not interfering in each others way of life.

I would say it involves all this and much more. When two people get married and start living together, it’s a task in itself. Having been born and brought up in different families and environment, there are bound to be differences in lifestyle, habits and thoughts. So is compromise the only way out? Not really!

A marriage is not about compromises and adjustments but more about being able to know each other well and adapt to one another in a positive manner.  If you are able to become good friends before becoming a husband and wife it really works wonders. Love eventually happens or deepens with time. If you are able to share your joys and sorrows, good times and bad times and come out of them together, it’s all that’s needed to make a relationship work. The key to be able to do all this is COMMUNICATION between the partners.

A fair, just and good communication helps in knowing each other better. What one believes in, their point of view on things helps in judging and knowing a person as an individual. Clear communication helps in doing away with misunderstanding, assumptions and pre-conceived notions, if any. It’s anyways not a great idea starting a relationship on assumptions or knowing a person based on what his family and friends think about him/her.  He/she might just not be what they believe or see him/her as.  But be sure to be fair and honest in a communication and trust what the other person says. It should not be used as a means to pick up instances and conversation against one other in situations later.  As correctly said by elders, trust and honesty are the means of making any relationship work.

So when in doubt the next time, or any fleeting thought comes to your mind about your partner, just sit back or pick up the phone and talk. It will certainly put things to rest and do not let space crouch between the two of you.