Whether it’s your college sweetheart who lives in another state or a co-worker who was flown in from another region to fill in at your office temporarily and became your main squeeze, a long distance relationship can be hard.
The very idea of parting ways can send you into a state of pain as you wonder about your future. Can you handle it? Is your love for one another strong enough? Are you committed enough to make it last? In other words, will distance be the end of your relationship – or will absence make the heart grow fonder?
If you’re about to embark on a long distance relationship, take a deep breath, relax, and keep on reading to find out some important information that can help your love survive being physically separated.
Evaluate Your Commitment
We’re not going to sugarcoat it: long distance can be hard. In fact, for many couples, it can be so difficult that it ends up breaking their relationship. Don’t panic, though; the reason why most long distance relationships fail is because one person – or both – isn’t completely committed.
If you want a long distance relationship to work, you really have to be committed to each other. Make sure you discuss your commitment and what it means to you. If you’re both on the same page, you have a better shot at making it work.
Know Your Goal
Do you actually see yourself moving forward in the relationship? Do you plan on moving in together one day and eventually (maybe) getting married? If you have a goal for your relationship, it will be easier to make the distance work. If you don’t see the other person in your life in the distant future, then maybe you should re-evaluate whether or not doing the long distance thing is worth your while.
Have a Plan
No matter how much you love each other and how committed you are to one another, a relationship can’t stay long distance forever. You need to have a plan to eventually be together for the long-term.
Try to figure out when you can actually be back together and make a plan. For example, say the start of going long distance, you discuss making a move to live together; even if it’s not sharing the same address, you should at least have a goal to share the same zip code.
Set Yourself Up for Success
Once you find out that your relationship is going to have to go the long distance route, don’t just wing it; sit down and talk to each other about it. The reason why a lot of couples fail at long distance is because they don’t talk about how they are going to manage it. Come up with a plan of action; for example, discuss how often you are going to talk to each other, what the best modes of communication will be, how long you will go between visits, and so on. Creating a plan for your relationship will help you navigate through the distance and survive it.
Be Open and Honest
Openness and honesty are important for every relationship, even if you’re living in the same digs. The moment you start closing each other out and stop being honest with one another, that’s when your relationship will start to hit rocky ground.
Know that Long Distance CAN Work
Don’t just assume that your relationship is going to fail because you have to be separated; as long as you are committed to each other, have an end-goal, and establish a plan, you can definitely make your relationship work, whether you are living a few cities apart, a few states apart, or even an ocean apart.
