No matter how long you’ve been with your significant other, getting married is a huge deal. In addition to the excitement surrounding the engagement and going through your wedding checklist, you may be wondering, “am I truly ready for marriage?” The idea of being ready for marriage means different things for different couples, but the key is that you and your partner are on the same page every step of the way. Here are 7 sure ways of getting ready for marriage!
#1: Committing
Committing to your partner and your relationship is the most important step in getting ready for marriage. You may have a lot of hard times behind you, and there will certainly be hard times ahead, but you must be willing and ready to face loads of challenges together. Oftentimes, the more couples overcome challenges together (in a healthy, secure way) the more successful the relationship turns out in the longer run. Committing to relational challenges and being your partner’s outlet for encouragement, support and positivity is very important — and it’ll surely help you get ready for marriage.
#2: Loving yourself
In order to be ready for life-long commitment, you must work on knowing and loving all aspects of yourself — the good and the bad. Experts urge that it’s just as important to focus on the things you love about yourself as it is to focus on your partner’s attributes. It isn’t your partner’s job to complete you or make you love yourself. They should be there to add to the happiness you’ve already found in your life. Being comfortable with yourself takes massive amounts of pressure off your partner to give you a meaningful life or a reason for living because they know you already have those things. Learning about yourself helps you realize what you want and what you don’t want in life, and this will inevitably help you pick your perfect soulmate.
#3: Supporting yourself
One of the best ways of preparing yourself for marriage is making sure you’re able to care and support yourself. While relationships often bring support, assistance and comfort, neither partner should ever feel the need to fully rely on the other for anything. Don’t get me wrong, your partner can definitely help you out when it’s needed, but you must be able to complete tasks and think independently to some degree. You should know how to support yourself physically, mentally, spiritually and financially. This way, if something bad were to ever happen, such as your partner becoming ill or (dare I say it) a divorce, you can step in and take over certain roles in order to support your family and yourself.
#4: Deepening your relationship
This is a very important step as you and your partner prepare to get married. In the beginning of your relationship, you probably flirted and went out a lot. But your relationship should be much deeper than just having fun all the time. It’s important to tackle tough issues together. And, as you continue to do this in a healthy way, you’ll find your relationship becoming stronger. Facing tough issues, having candid conversations and opening up to your partner about intricate parts about yourself are some ways you can deepen your relationship. It may take some time, but it undoubtedly adds value and meaning to you and your partners’ connection.
#5: Knowing and trusting your partner
No matter how long you and your partner have been together, it’s vital that you both know and trust each other completely before looking to get married. Get to know each other’s hopes, dreams, goals, insecurities, needs, wants and so much more. Knowing and trusting your partner should be the reason for marriage, not just because you’ve been together for a long time. You need to be able to establish a holistic and complete vision of your future with your partner, and if you can’t do that yet, you may need some more time together because getting married.
#6: Setting realistic expectations
You need to have realistic expectations as you get ready for marriage. It’s important to realize that no one is perfect and your relationship will never be perfect. There will be times when your partner exceeds your expectations, but with those moments comes times of disappointment, frustration and annoyance. These highs and lows occur in every relationship and it’s vital to understand before you seal the deal with your partner.
#7: Knowing your needs and deal breakers
You should be fully aware of the attributes you need in a partner for a relationship to work in the long run. Along with these needs, you need to establish some deal breakers for yourself. Some deal breakers could be not wanting children, addictions, not having motivation or goals of any kind, being emotionally or physically abusive etc. Knowing where you stand when it comes to your essential needs and deal breakers can help you better navigate some tough time ahead.
Conclusion
As a general rule of thumb, if you know you could never be happy with anyone else, and you’d be incredibly unhappy without your partner, then you’re pretty secure in your relationship. Just make sure you and your partner are on the same page before you jump into planning a wedding.
