5 Underrated Qualities of a Great Partner

Along with happiness, money, freedom, peace, and fulfillment, a great and satisfying relationship is one of the most sought-after things in the world right now.

Due to the fact that the quality of our lives depends on the quality of our relationships when you’re in a happy and healthy relationship, your entire life somehow becomes better for it.

Do you ever wonder how some people manage to be happier in their relationships? Well, it’s probably because they aren’t with the wrong partners.

And while there may be no such thing as the perfect partner or relationship, you can at least hope for a relationship between two imperfect people that are perfect for each other.

What differentiates great partners from the rest is their ability to make you a better person and take your life to the next level.

Instead of expecting a relationship to be where they take and have their needs met, great partners know that a relationship is a place where they commit and give for the betterment of the relationship.

So here are a few things great partners do differently compared to the majority of people out there:

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1. They don’t over compromise.

Great partners know that life’s more fun when they and their partners consistently find a balance and a bridging gap so they both feel understood and heard as they reach a productive solution.

Yet, what truly differentiates great partners is that they aren’t weak-willed pushovers who are easily influenced to do virtually everything they don’t want to. They don’t confuse compromising with collaboration.

Mutual sacrifices on the path to effective and productive agreements are undoubtedly more fun than one-sided compromises where one person does most of the heavy lifting.

That’s why great partners don’t think highly of compromises that usually benefit one side while forgetting the other.

The most important thing, however, is for one to realize that his happiness matters a lot and he shouldn’t always go against the things that benefit him else, if he constantly pushes his feelings aside, he might eventually lose himself and forget what happiness really means to him.

If you are, however, committed to reaching compromises that are rather beneficial to you and your partner than they force you to push your feelings and needs aside, you’ll create less room for resentments that often comes out of unhappy compromises.

Life is much more fun if compromises are characterized by: mutual and not one-sided sacrifices, are driven by good intentions and not selfish and manipulative intentions…

If both individuals maintain their values and beliefs without completely giving up parts of themselves that make them unique, and each person is free to communicate when a compromise is obviously difficult or impossible without being judged. Compromise doesn’t have to feel scary or negative but rather a happy element of a happy union.

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2. They don’t play the blame game.

While we all are humans and mistakes are part of us, great partners don’t struggle to admit theirs and accept responsibility for them. They also feel shameful about their mistakes and shortfall, yet, they don’t blame others or circumstances for the problems they created.

Instead, they take responsibility, apologize appropriately, and do whatever they can to right their wrongs.

We all know how bad it feels to be wronged or to be affected by the mistakes of others. Yet, when we make mistakes or wrong others, a lot of us simply avoid taking responsibility, blame the affected person, someone else, or circumstances, and walk away from the situation leaving others in the mess we are responsible for.

That’s why great partners are human enough to swallow their pride and admit to their shortcomings. This earns them respect from their romantic partners, friends, peers, colleagues, etc, and also allows them to learn from their mistakes.

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3. They strive to have mutual expectations with their partners.

Building the right relationship for you is tightly connected to your expectations. It’s a known fact that the happiness and peace of a relationship have a lot to do with what one is looking for at the beginning of the relationship.

Usually, when you don’t have a well-developed idea of what you want in a relationship, your happiness and satisfaction suffer.

That’s why great partners strive for a compatible relationship where couples have ideal, mutual, connected, or symbiotic goals or expectations.

Having overly differing expectations that are not symbiotic, puts couples on different paths, and striving to meet the expectations of one person tends to keep the other one from having theirs met.

Relationships between great partners are void of superficial expectations and core objectives that don’t actually help their relationships thrive.

Instead, in such a relationship, both parties involved are looking for a relationship of mutual trust, respect, open and effective communication, authenticity, compromise, and shared values.

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4. They are respectful.

Most people won’t care much about how much you love them when it’s obvious that you don’t truly respect them.

Instead of banking on the fact that “love conquers all,” great partners know that no amount of love can make up for a lack of respect in any relationship.

Because the truth is, love does not conquer all. But respect and understanding of each other’s needs and individuality always win where love fails.

By genuinely listening, showing respect for physical or otherwise boundaries, being honest, trusting wholeheartedly, and fighting fairly, respect for one’s partner becomes obvious.

In addition to being one of the 5 pillars of healthy relationships, respect in relationships breeds true love that understands and accepts, the lasting love that will actually conquer all the qualms of conflicts that you and your partner will ever have.

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5. They are honest and loyal.

Great partners don’t hold back from speaking the truth, being authentic, and straightforward. Instead, they don’t give you a reason to second-guess or doubt their loyalty.

That’s because they know that there’ll be no trust without honesty and loyalty. As they both are the cornerstone of trust. Which is also considered as the foundation of every healthy relationship.

By proving their loyalty and being authentic, they seamlessly earn their partners’ trust, love, and respect.

While disloyal and dishonest people will unfailingly cheat and lie as it’s even easier for them to do so these days, great partners are continually striving to authentically display their honest and loyal qualities.

In contrast to untrustworthy people, great partners trust themselves enough to be able to stand the consequences of being authentic and true, and they also trust themselves enough to resist the temptations to cheat.

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Final thoughts:

All couples fight even the ones enjoying the most healthy and happy relationships. It’s completely natural. The difference, however, is that people enjoying great partnerships know that their love for each other is greater than any disagreement.

It’s during such tough times that they choose to work on their flaws together and fix what needs to be fixed forever instead of ignoring them and finding a new partner.

Healthy relationships never result from the in-existence of fights, but rather from fair and productive fights alongside with other acts of love and endeavors of commitments.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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