Do You Have a Vision for Your Relationship? What You Need to Know Now…

How do you envision your relationship in five years? Ten years? Twenty years? Many times we have a plan and a vision for other areas in our lives, like our career, business, or finances.

It is much less common to have a clear picture in our minds of what we envision our relationships being like in the near or distant future. However, it is incredibly important to envision what you want your future in your relationship to be like. Why? Because it all starts in our thoughts!

It’s been said that our thoughts become our words; our words become our actions; our actions become our habits, and our habits become our life.

The power of having a vision for your future is that it affects what you do now.

For example, I like to envision what life will be like when our children leave home. I love being a mom and I thoroughly enjoy having our children at home with us; at the same time, I am determined to enjoy the next phase of life as well. After I shed my tears over an empty nest, I plan to start enjoying having my husband to myself again. I have places I want to travel with him. I have ideas for volunteering we could do together. I can envision us really enjoying the additional time together.

But I know that we won't get our prize of "happy empty nest years" unless we do the work now. We need to put effort into our relationship all along the way.

That can mean simple things like taking time to talk, uninterrupted, every day. It means turning off the computer or the TV to make time for conversation. It means prioritizing your time together. You need to carve out time to reconnect among the busyness of work and parenting.

It also means being open with each other when one of you is upset about something. You must remain committed to resolving conflict together in a positive way.

These may sound like simple things, but they are the steps that keep you on the path to a happy relationship for years to come.