While there’s no guarantee that any relationship is permanent, there are certain key signs that your love is more than just a passing experience.
If your relationship ticks most of these boxes most of the time, you can be confident that you’ve found something truly special and worth holding on to.
1. Great conversation
A lifelong love requires good listening skills on both sides, as well as mutual understanding. If you genuinely enjoy conversation and rarely struggle to find something to talk about then you’re clearly well matched in certain important ways.
You’ll be closer if you love to explore everything from your daily experiences to your ideas about hypothetical scenarios, current affairs and your favorite TV shows.
2. Support
If you’re with someone who tries to constrain or limit you out of insecurity, you’ll eventually become resentful.
A lasting, healthy relationship involves being supported and feeling like your partner is genuinely thrilled for you whenever you get a promotion, pursue a dream or reach a goal. You should also feel like you can offer the same things in return.
3. Shared Sense Of Humor
Humor is one of your greatest weapons against life’s trials, so make sure you pair up with someone who cracks you up and really gets your jokes.
You should feel like you can be as silly as you like, and steadily build a catalog of hilarious in-jokes that enhance your sense of intimacy.
4. Honesty
While there’s a fine line between honesty and tactlessness, it is important to be able to raise anything with your partner. No important subject should be off limits, and you should avoid punishing each other for mentioning topics that are difficult or emotive.
This type of discourse might take practice for people who find it tougher to discuss emotions, but it should get easier with practice.
5. Trust
It’s unavoidable that past experiences of betrayal might influence your ability to trust your partner or gain your partner’s trust, but if you can be open about these issues then you can work to make each other feel safe.
You should trust each other to be faithful if that’s what you’ve agreed, and you should feel comfortable respecting one another’s privacy when it comes to calls, texts and emails.
6. A Realistic Amount Of Sustained Effort
If you don’t feel like you can relax and wear your pyjamas in front of each other, your relationship can quickly become exhausting.
However, it’s also important to make a certain amount of effort, so wearing the same food-stained shirt for four days in a row isn’t ideal either. Respect each other enough to try and be attractive to each other, but don’t go overboard.
7. You Can Be Yourself
Feeling truly known by another person is a wonderfully affirming experience, and if you have that with a partner then it’s likely you’ll never want to let it go.
If you can say what you like, be who you are and still feel loved, you may well have hit the jackpot (as long as your partner feels the same way around you).
8. Compatible Values
While healthy debate can be an invigorating and fun part of any relationship, it’s hard to sustain a partnership for a long time if you can’t agree on the big issues.
A love based on agreement about what you want from life is much more likely to last, so you’ve crossed a significant hurdle if you share perspectives on contentious subjects like politics, religion and family life.
9. Willingness To Work At Your Sex Life
If you go into a relationship expecting that a great sex life is always smooth and effortless, you’re likely to be sorely disappointed. Even the most electric sexual chemistry needs a bit of extra help if it’s going to last, and all couples experience dry spells every now and again.
As a result, it’s smart to make sure you’re willing to try new things, have frank conversations about your needs, and understand that sex will be more satisfying some times than others.
10. Friendship
Finally, you may have heard the claim that you should get married to your best friend. Although most people need more than a friendship to feel happy in a relationship, it is certainly a key ingredient that should never be underestimated.
You should feel the same sense of camaraderie that you experience with your closest buddies and your relationship is more likely to thrive if it rests on a solid foundation of intimacy that goes beyond the mere romantic.
