Get Daily Email

We are the only international conversation about the changing roles of men in the 21st century.

Become a Premium Member

We have pioneered the largest worldwide conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century.

Your support of our work is inspiring and invaluable.

Login

Maximizing Romantic Relationships

Do you see yourself becoming parents, homeowners, or highly educated?

April 30, 2018 by Rachel Hanson Leave a Comment

We really struggle to talk about relationships, don’t we? I think we struggle because relationships are supposed to be easy. We’re fed this line that we find “the one” and live happily ever after. Our society completely ignores the fact that we are all flawed human beings and “soulmate” or not, we get under each other’s skin. Nobody talks about the struggle of sleep-deprivation and the impact on your marriage. We don’t talk about the negative impact it can have on your professional relationships if your boss is 1000% conflict-averse. We don’t talk about struggles we had in our childhood can create a strained relationship with our children.

With all of that, the first thing any of us needs to do is have as open and honest a dialogue you can have with others in your life. From there, you can start setting some real goals in your relationship.

I’ll start by saying I think it’s a little weird that we minimize a lifetime commitment to another human adult as solely romantic. Let me tell you, trying to tag-team a constipated toddler all day today was probably the furthest from romantic I’ve been in a while. So yes, romance should be part of the package deal. It’s not the whole package.

Having this open communication can help you set productive goals so that your lifetime commitment is successful. Do you see yourself becoming parents, homeowners, or highly educated? Those are all big investments of time, energy, and money. If you see those happening, when do you think they’ll happen? What are the steps you need to take to make that happen?
—

A version of this post was originally posted on RachelAHanson.blog and is republished on Medium.

—

What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.

◊♦◊

Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.

If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.

Register New Account

Username

First Name

Last Name

Password

Password Again

Choose Your Payment Method

Auto Renew

By completing this registration form, you are also agreeing to our Terms of Service which can be found here.

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: iStock

About Rachel Hanson

Rachel is a blogger who writes dominantly about parenting and ways to juggle “having it all” even though she thinks that phrase is ridiculous. She also thinks that time management and cutting yourself a little slack are key to managing all the pieces of your life.

Rachel has an amazing partner and is generally delighted by her children (although they sometimes drive her nuts).