Are you interested in hearing about some commonsense steps that could help save your marriage, or your relationship, and could perhaps prevent your divorce, or possibility stop a breakup from happening?

Because everyone’s marriage and relationship dynamics are unique unto themselves, we won’t make you any guarantees.

Yet, you never know when or where a helping hand may appear.

Perhaps you’ll find something here which could help enhance the strength of your marriage, or prevent a separation from taking place…

Our first commonsense idea for saving your marriage, or your relationship is:

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

As a kid, I bet you just never got tired of hearing your parents telling you ‘had’ to do, or not do, some thing that sounded stupid to you at the time. When you took the time to discuss their advice with them, (we never, never argued, right?) often times your folks would put an end to our discussionwith the wornout cliche we used above: “Because An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound of Cure…!”

Like that was saying anything you’d be interested in hearing…

I mean, when we were young we wanted to get stuff started, not prevent stuff from happening, right? Anyway, we’re all grown up and we do what we want, when we want, right?

For example, if it feels good, it must be good, so let’s do it! If it tastes good, let’s have more of the same. And, my personal favorite: “If you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong, and you can just get over it.”

In other words, we’re adults now and everyone else can adjust their stupid lives around ours, right?

Yeah, I’m laying it on pretty thick. Perhaps too much. But, and heaven forbid, perhaps I’ve just described how your ‘significant other’ has been acting…

And, we both know it’s no fun living with someone who’s acting like a crabby teenager who didn’t get asked to the dumb old prom…

Yet, if your partner is behaving like an insensitive jerk, could an ounce of prevention have stopped their full-blown outbreak of selfishness? Are you now going to have to come up with a pound of cure because you didn’t apply a little attention to prevent the usual things that lead up to unhappiness in a marriage or a relationship?

Ounces Of Prevention That Could Prevent Your Divorce And Save Your Marriage:

In the long run, “LIKE” trumps “LOVE”…

Love is hot and exciting. Heck, love makes the world go around, doesn’t it? If ‘everything’ goes with money, then ‘everything’ goes with love.

Or does it?

After the red hot embers of a passion driven love affair pale, you may be living with a pain in the behind who’s little habits are no longer engagingly attractive. If you’ve faced this phenomenon yourself, you know that love alone will only let you overlook their irritating behavior patterns for so long.

Sooner or later you’ll come home tired and cranky after a hard day and decide you’ve had enough already. That’s when the red hot love juices could be temporialy forgotten and you’re liable to say and do hurtful things you can’t take back.

Worse still, your partner will probably respond in kind.

At first you’ll make up and swear all is forgotten and forgiven. But your relationship will never be the same. The pain and anger is there and ready for review when the next fight rears its ugly head.

And there ain’t no ‘do-overs’ which can ever remove the damage done…

But, if you and your partner have taught yourself to LIKE each other because you’ve made the effort to talk about how and why you act like you do, chances are you can argue, cuss, sputter and spit…without your neighbors calling the police to stop the public disturbance.

In this case, the clue and the ‘ounce of prevention’ was communication: willingness to listen and share confidences.

I’m not myopic enough to believe this one action is the complete answer that will save a marriage or prevent a relationship breakdown. On it’s on, it probably isn’t. On the other hand, it’s indicative of other enriching relationship behavior possibilities.

For example, if you know your partner is secretly worried about their lack of math skills, because you’ve built enough trust for them to expose that particular weaknesses, you’d understand why they become defensive, and arguementive, when they’re struggling with some type of accounting problem.

And because you understand, you can forego feeling hurt if they get moody or short tempered when they’re stressed about their perceived inadequacies.

Side Note: This very scenario was lived out between me and my spouse of over 30 years. But that’s another story…

The clue and the ‘ounce of prevention’ was trust: willingness to expose fears and secrets.

Speaking of trust, I’m going to trust you with a personal trait I’ve hidden for most of my life…

I’m so extremely shy that I’ve often become physically ill when I know I have to meet strangers, or talk in public. For years I even struggled talking on the phone with people I didn’t know well.

Yet, I’ve always earned part of my income from interacting with strangers. And I have spent many business hours selling successfully on the phone. It’s not been easy for me, but I’ve somehow managed it anyway.

My spouse knows all about my shyness and fear of strangers. Over the years they’ve overlooked the sometimes less than thoughtful behavior I’ve exhibited because of the stress I feel from of my shyness. Despite these personal shortcomings, they continue to trust and to respect who I am when no one’s looking.

The clue and the ‘ounce of prevention’ was respect: willingness to accept unique traits.

In summary, intense love affairs just naturally come with the fire of passion. Passion is just as likely to flare with sexual desire as it is with the heat of anger and dislike. It’s true that there’s a fine line between love and hate.

But when you and your partner practice open communication, you can grow to trust and respect each other’s uniqueness, and very likely you’ll fall into “like” before the passion burns itself out.

And, in the long run, “LIKE” does trump “LOVE”…

Will these commonsense steps help save your marriage, or your relationship, and possibily prevent your divorce, or stop a breakup? I don’t know. Yet, I sincerely hope they help you in some way.