Pursue the Change You Want in Your Relationships

Few relationships are perfect, and there is always room for improvement. If you have identified things in a relationship that need to change, make them happen instead of suffering in silence and maintaining the status quo.

Whether you want to change a friendship, family dynamic, or a romantic relationship, there are few key principles you need in order to make those changes happen.

Own It

Change cannot happen in a vacuum, and trying to change someone’s behavior without their buy-in rarely ends well. The first step to securing that buy-in is to be honest about the role that you play in contributing to the relationship problem.

Being honest with others is not possible if you are not first honest with yourself. Sharing your thoughts and feelings in an open and positive way will hopefully encourage your relationship partner to do the same.

Communicate Early and Often

No one likes to be blindsided by a major change, and there’s rarely a good reason for that to happen in a relationship. As soon as you are secure in your footing about honesty, approach the other person and communicate your feelings in a direct way without being negative.

You should also convey how important to you it is that a change actually happens. Back up those statements by suggesting some ideas and tactics that could get things going in the right direction

Once those ideas are agreed upon, come up with an action plan for making them happen and decide when you’ll check in on progress. This doesn’t need to be anything formal, but both parties should be aware of the need for evaluation.

Try, Try Again

In other words, cut yourself some slack if the change does not happen as quickly as you want it to. We are not perfect, and things do not always work out the way we want them to.

Even if the final change doesn’t happen in exactly the way you want, you will be stronger for having worked through this process and will come away with valuable information for pursuing the next big change in your life.