The Foundations of a Good Relationship

Good Relationships are hard to come by and hard to establish. What's key to any relationship is building up the foundation.

Love
Dating is fine. Being in a relationship is fine.There isn't a successful romantic relationship in the world that doesn't exist without love. And to love someone, you need to love them as an equal. Don't treat them as property or an object. Love, accept and learn how to simply BE with the person you care about. Love is the first foundation of any relationship. It's why you should be in it after all. The right reason.

Trust
Everybody always talks about the necessity of trust. It's the truth though, the first thing you need to understand is this: If you are going to enter into a serious relationship then you will be handing your heart to another human being. Make sure you trust them and REALLY do trust them. If you are going to constantly worry about their betrayal of you. You shouldn't be in a relationship with them.

Awareness
Be aware of who both you and your partner are. People grow apart, beyond that people are often layered, contradictory and hypocritical at their cores. There isn't anything wrong with this, but for your relationship to work you need to be aware of who both you and your partner are. Not who you project yourselves to be, but who you really are. Part of building a relationship is being aware of and accepting differences between you.

Communication
Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. And communicate honestly. This can't be stressed enough. One thing you should never do in your relationship is be less than completely honest. A lot of people will say lie to make the person you love feel better. Do everything you can to make them feel better. But at the core of things with Trust comes honesty.

You need to be the one person in the world that will always be honest. Now I'm not saying be mean, seriously if your a jerk then I'm not sure why your partner is with you...but...being honest and telling them the truth. How can someone who honestly loves you be angry at you for that?

Definition
Make sure that your relationship is defined by the same terms. I know, this sounds like your trying to write a mathematical equation but in many respects you are. You both need to be aware of how you see each other, and how you see each aspect of your relationship. What is important, what's not. What is okay and what is not. This is tightly linked with Communication.

Compassion
Understand. Love. If you are honest, don't be harsh or blunt but kind. Honesty doesn't walk hand in hand with cruelty. The truth can just as easily be comforting. Think of this, what means more. Telling your love that they are beautiful when you always will say the same. Or telling them that they are beautiful to you always, because you love them, but right now they look just radiant. Be compassionate instead of demanding, be open. And love them.