LIKE everything else you, wish to succeed in, relationships requires effort and investment. How is the health status of your relationship account? When you start an account, you always start off with such enthusiasm and with goals to grow it into a healthy, strong one that will give you a happy future. The thing is, most people open their relationship accounts with eagerness, only to get lazy and procrastinate over time, leading the relationship onto an unhealthy path. Laziness will always set you up for failure, including your relationship. As a relationship matures and gets older, a couple tends to get lazy. You get so comfortable with each other that you no longer bother to invest the time and effort you did at the beginning. People often believe that if they are comfortable in their relationship, then everything is okay and/or will work itself out. Being comfortable, however, does not always mean your relationship is healthy. Being comfortable could simply means that you and your partner are used to being together and the way the relationship is – even if the relationship is lacking important things that could make it better. This happens so gradually that sometimes a couple often does not know where things started going wrong and all they know is that their relationship has gone downhill and things do not feel the same any longer. The excitement is gone, the passion has faded and the communication has gone from strong to weak, making it difficult for a couple to work together when they do realize that their relationship is in trouble. The following are some things you and your partner need to constantly invest in your relationship account if you want to maintain a healthy and loving relationship: Honesty: You have probably, heard the famous saying - honesty is the best policy. Well, it really is! While the truth may not always be pleasant, it is always better to let your partner know what you are thinking and how you are feeling, rather than keeping it all inside of you and expecting your partner to read your mind. You also need to be open and accepting of the truth your partner shares with you about yourself and the relationship over all. If you are not willing to hear the truth(and the truth can be painful sometimes), then you are not willing to fully experience the relationship as a whole but instead choose to blind yourself from certain things because it makes life easier for you (or at least it will look that way to you). So invest honesty in your relationship every day throughout the whole year, being always honest with your partner and yourself. Respect: - You and your partner can have extremely strong feelings for each other and may claim to love each other dearly and more than anything. Without respect, however, that love will get lost in the big shadow of disrespect that will take over your relationship. Respect may seem like something that is only natural for you and your partner to have for each other and that if you love each other then it will be very difficult to disrespect each other. This may be true in the beginning when things are new between you, but in time things change and may require maintenance. As a relationship matures and you and your partner spend more time together, you will experience different things and will learn new things about each other. Though the love you have for each other may be something you have in common, you two are still individual human beings with different habits, views, routines, interests and so on. You may not always like or agree with the way your partner handles things, believes things and says things but you will have to accept and respect that this is who he/she is. If you cannot respect your partner and your partner does not respect you, then your relationship will not last. Even if it does, it will grow into an unhappy relationship that will invite many other stressful and painful issues. Invest respect daily into your relationship and do not allow yourself to cross that line and enter the territory of disrespect. If you do so, you and your partner will not see each other the same way. Expressions of love: You may see this one as a given, but it is not. People tend to get a little too comfortable as time goes by in a relationship and become less concerned with expressing their love and admiration for their partner. This, most of the time, is not intentional, but it does happen, regardless of being intentional or not. People do this because they become too confident. They know they love their partners and that their partners love them and use that as their security. While knowing that your love for each other is great and powerful, it will not be enough to make your relationship last in a happy way. People need to know that they are loved and cherished and that they are not being taken for granted. Laziness is a person's worst enemy and it will cost you your relationship if you do not take the time to let your partner know that he/she is special and the love. If your life. Tell your partner how much he/she means to you, write something thoughtful in a card and give it to him/her, set a date to take him/her out a place you know you two will truly enjoy and feel like a successful romantic couple. It does not require anything fancy to express your love to your partner and keep him/her satisfied, but the rewards for doing so will be wonderful and extremely beneficial to your relationship. Also remember - if your partner is not investing his/her share of efforts in showing you how much you mean to him/her, then you need to observe your relationship closely and give it a check up to see how healthy or unhealthy it really is. Talk to your partner about how you feel and give him/her time to make positive changes and improvements that will please you. If they lack to do so even after your honest communication, then you will need to ask yourself if you think you are with the right person. After all, you deserve to be with someone who will tmly care about how you feel and will never want to disappoint or hurt you if he/she knows he/she holds the power to make things different. Freedom: Give your partner freedom? Yes! Not the kind of freedom where you both are allowed to just go off and behave recklessly towards the relationship but freedom in a way that lets both you and your partner continue to be individuals. Source: The Mirror