How Do You Know If You Married The Right
Person?
During one of my live seminars, a woman asked me
a common question. She said, “How do I know if I married
the right person?”
I noticed that there was a large man sitting
next to her so I said, “It depends. Is that your
husband?”
In all seriousness, how do you know?
Hi. I’m Mort Fertel, author of Marriage Fitness,
and here’s the answer.
EVERY relationship has a cycle. In the
beginning, you fell in love with your spouse. You
anticipated their call, wanted their touch, and liked
their idiosyncrasies.
Falling in love with your spouse wasn’t hard. In
fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous
experience. You didn’t have to DO anything. That’s why
it’ s called “falling” in
love…because it’s happening TO YOU.
People in love sometimes say, “I was swept of my
feet.” Think about the imagery of that expression. It
implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing,
and then something came along and happened TO
YOU.
Falling is love is easy. It’s a passive and
spontaneous experience.
But after a few years of marriage, the euphoria
of love fades. It’s the natural cycle of EVERY
relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a
bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome
(when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies,
instead of being cute, drive you nuts.
The symptoms of this stage vary with every
relationship, but if you think about your marriage, you
will notice a dramatic difference between the initial
stage when you were in love and a much duller or even
angry subsequent stage.
At this point, you and/or your spouse might
start asking, “Did I marry the right person?” And as you
and your spouse reflect on the euphoria of the love you
once had, you may begin to desire that experience with
someone else. This is when marriages breakdown. People
blame their spouse for their unhappiness and look outside
their marriage for fulfillment.
Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and
sizes. Infidelity is the most obvious. But sometimes
people turn to work, church, a hobby, a friendship,
excessive TV, or abusive substances.
But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie
outside your marriage. It lies within it.
I’m not saying that you couldn’t fall in love
with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you’d feel
better. But you’d be in the same situation a few years
later. Because (listen carefully) THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING
IN MARRIAGE IS NOT FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON; IT’S
LEARNING TO LOVE THE PERSON YOU FOUND.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous
experience. It’ll NEVER just happen to you. You can’t
“find” LASTING love. You have to “make” it day in and day
out. That’s why we have the expression “the labor of
love.” Because it takes time, effort, and energy. And
most importantly, it takes WISDOM. You have to know WHAT
TO DO to make your marriage work.
And make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a
mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or
without your spouse) to succeed with your
marriage.
Just as there are physical laws of the universe
(such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships.
Just as the right diet and exercise program makes you
physically stronger, certain habits in your relationship
WILL make your marriage stronger. It's a direct cause and
effect. If you know and apply the laws, the results are
predictable—you can “make” love.
That’s why I created the Marriage Fitness
system. So you would have a step-by-step system for making
and maintaining love in your marriage. And the program works
for any marriage even if only one spouse does it.
If you’d like to explore Marriage
Fitness risk-free, then subscribe to my FREE breakthrough
report "7 Secrets to a Stronger Marriage" and get a FREE
marriage assessment too. To subscribe, CLICK
HERE. It’s FREE.
Mort Fertel
Author of Marriage Fitness
Marriage Coach
by Mort Fertel -
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