Creating Great Relationships

It’s crucial to have foundational knowledge regarding the creation and maintenance of various relationships, and how to maintain health and happiness within your different relationships.

As for romantic relationships, it’s important to express love for your partner, listen and be there for your partner, show appreciation, show affection, open up, understand your partner’s negative habits and manage and accept them, take nothing for granted, prioritize alone time, and strive for equality. I'm in a long-term relationship myself, and I live with my partner, so it's essential to remind myself of boundaries, productive solutions, the importance of affection, appreciation, and understanding, and ultimately, what works to maintain our relationship so that both he and I are happy and healthy.

Some vital aspects for forming or maintaining healthy friendships are to share mutual interests, show an appropriate level of affection, understand and set boundaries, have a reliable method of communication, the ability to stay quiet and listen in term circumstances, and the ability to voice your honest opinion in other circumstances. Furthermore, maintaining a level head, the willingness to give or sacrifice, and the willingness to receive, symbiotically, are also vital to maintain friendships. This is information that I had prior knowledge of, but the breakdown and reinforcement of the messages were advantageous to visit. I struggle with forming and maintaining friendships due to my borderline personality disorder, but I’ll be applying these lessons more so now. As for familial relationships, being an active listener, open and honest, considerate of that specific audience or person when communicating and honing in on the positive aspects, and paying attention to nonverbal communication, as well as maintaining positivity are essential for managing those relationships.

Regarding work or school relationships, it’s important to foster a willingness to learn, promote a willingness for collaboration, maintain respect, even when disagreeing, respond in a timely fashion, and avoid preconceived notions or stereotypes. It’s also beneficial to surround yourself with supportive people in general, find a mentor for guidance, try to focus on positivity and collaborate and problem-solve as a team. It’s important to hear various perspectives when trying to resolve any conflict or setback. Hearing others’ ideas is crucial in any relationship or collaborative effort.

Listening is a vital component in the maintenance of any relationship. Others’ perspectives that differ from your own are just as “correct” as yours, as perspectives are subjective. Hearing other’s perspectives may even shift your own at times.

Networking is another crucial aspect of creating genuine relationships. When networking, it’s important to be completely authentic without oversharing immediately, establish personal goals for the networking you’re doing, visit places, hold volunteer positions, and ask open-ended questions, rather than just “yes/no” questions. It’s also advantageous to become known as a reliable resource, understand what you do and how to promote yourself, be articulate and eloquent when speaking, follow through on any potential future meetings, and call those you meet.

Conflict is a common aspect of relationships. Conflict is inevitable, but it’s important to know how to productively handle it. Conflict is usually caused because of unmet needs. Fairness, control, recognition, identity, and security are common sources of conflict. When attempting to resolve conflict in group projects, some helpful things to do are to clarify the goals that need to be accomplished initially, separate the project into tasks, and distribute the tasks based on each individual’s strengths and desires. When someone is having trouble completing their given task, it’s important not to take over the work and do it for them, or to berate them, but to find the root of their hurdle and work with them on it tactfully.

All in all, the overarching factors of any type of healthy relationship include authenticity, honesty, openness to other perspectives, consistency, follow-through, follow-up, and mutual enjoyment.