Fall Weddings: Tips for Surviving the First Year of Marriage
Fall is inching its way toward us with the cool breezes and changing leaves. With change all around, it makes it a beautiful time for a wedding and the transitions that come with it. But those transitions in the first year of marriage can be tough to manage, so we came up with a few ideas to get through the tougher times to make your life-long commitment a happy one. Here are 9 tips for surviving the first year of marriage.
“We” Think in terms of “we” rather than “me.” Remember this is a partnership and you’re no longer doing what’s best for you, you’re doing what’s best for you and your partner. When you work together as a team, you’re streamlining what needs to get done and making the structure of your marriage stronger.
Common Goals Know what your priorities are and that they are aligned with your spouse’s priorities — kids, money, ambitions. If you don’t have common goals, you may end up growing in different directions. When you’re not staring down at the same destination, you may just end up in two different places.
Bend When you are in a relationship, you continue to grow as a couple and that requires flexibility. If you’re flexible, you are open to change and are able to adapt to the good things as well as the not-so-good things.
No Tallies As with any relationship, expect disagreements. Every couple fights, but a fight is not the end of the world or your relationship as long as you don’t keep score. If you keep score (tallying what your partner does wrong and what you do right), it’s like planning a fight; you want to keep your thoughts and actions to be positive to keep your marriage thriving.
The Faults in Our Spouses Resist pointing out what your spouse is doing wrong. No one likes to be criticized — any negative ideas and thoughts between you and your partner only get worse when one person nags the other person. Try to be constructive about how you communicate your needs and wants and remember to forgive.
The Faults in Ourselves Take responsibility for your actions. No matter how bad your partner may hurt you, the only thing you can control about the relationship is your actions. If you do something to upset your partner, apologize for your misdeeds and move on. If you recognize your own faults, it’s hard for others to stay mad for too long. And remember to ask for forgiveness.
Pause When something gets you worked up, pause before you react and remember to pick your battles. Though something might set you off, it may not be something worth fighting over. If you take a moment to think about what the problem is and what’s at stake, you may be less likely to turn a little bump in the road into a catastrophe.
You’re #1! Be selfless, but remember to put yourself first. You have to be happy with you and all that you do before you can be happy with anyone else.
Marriage Is a Full-Time Job Work on your marriage every single day. We exercise, eat well and take showers every day to take care of ourselves; our relationships need daily maintenance to thrive, too.
A happy home is our top priority at LTD Commodities. Whether you need holiday decor to make it more welcoming or you’re looking for games to play on date night, we have hundreds of products to build a place you want to live and grow as a family.
