The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert

Highly recommend reading no matter where you are in your marriage (or soon to be!). Although parts of it seem self explanatory, it goes without saying that life, stress and complacency can start to tack away at your marriage without the proper tools to nourish it. I’m planning on buying the book so that I can do the activities in it, and I’m hoping I can revisit at some point after my one year anniversary to see what changes I have implemented and where I still fall short. A humbling read to see where I do well for my partner, and where I have room for improvement.

I actually read this some years ago and then forgot I read and took it out of the library again. Kevin asked, "Didn't you already read that?" Yes. Yes, I did. So that I don't forget again, these are the 7 principles:

1- Know each other well. Dreams, etc.
2- Like and respect each other.
3- Talk about daily stuff
4- Let your partner influence you/ change your mind about things. Have an influence give-and-take.
5- Solve your small problems
6- Deal with your fundamental differences with small compromises
7- Create your home culture, create and celebrate traditions, etc.

Avoid 4 big problems:
1- Criticism about the person (as opposed to complaining about a specific problem)
2- Being contemptuous of the person
3- Being defensive in an argument
4- Stonewalling/ shutting the other person out, not responding, etc.