Advice, Dating Online Personals

Make Relationships Work with Personality and Interest Differences

Do you feel like you are in a relationship with your total opposite? If this is the case, you might be pleasantly surprised to know that this can be a very good thing. In fact, people’s differences are often what make a relationship mutually interesting and nurturing. Of course a couple should have some important and basic things in common with their significant other but happiness is often a balance between the differences. Let’s look at some ways in which a person’s differences of personality and interests actually contribute to making their relationship work.

Initially, we need to remember that there are no two people who think, feel or behave the same way. Of course people are the same in some general ways, but it is the ways in which people are different, which will be the focus. Think of a battery for instance and how one end is positive, while the other is negative and how together the battery works. There is a unique power in the combination of opposites sometimes. This concept is much the same for people in relationships who are very different from each other and whose relationship is a success.

A new relationship is often based on those things in which people have in common and then as time progresses, each person learns of the other’s differences. Couples respond differently to differences between themselves. Some people are under the impression that differences should not be part of a good relationship but in fact they should be. If both people in a relationship were the same, chances are the relationship may be boring, as it would be like dating yourself instead of another person. Not to say that someone is boring, but two people too much the same might be.

Everyone’s perspective on things it is unique to them. In the situation of a relationship where there are different perspectives on the same thing, a person needs to both acknowledge their own perspective while being open minded enough to appreciate the perspective of their loved one, even if it differs than their own. In many situations, two different perspectives on something provide a more complete understanding of something. If life where like a play, it would require the dialogue of at least two people to make it interesting. This is very similar to being in a relationship where two different perspectives create wholeness, which is both interesting and nurturing to the couple.

Finally, if you learn to appreciate each other’s differences while enjoying shared similarities, your relationship will be nurtured in a very open minded way. People need to be appreciated for everything that they are by their loved one, even for their differences. You will find that if you are accepting of each other in a complete sense including differences and similarities your love will grow stronger by the day. Showing respect toward each other’s differences takes certain maturity, which allows both people in the relationship to be themselves and know that they are loved and accepted for it. To be accepting of a person’s differences is a true expression of love.