Importance of Roles

The roles you play in your relationship can be a key to how you experience mutuality, gratitude, and support in your partnership. Your values, history and partnership are essential aspects in defining roles in your relationship and every couple should define roles which work for them uniquely. If roles are clearly defined, you can avoid unfilled expectations. Intentional communication about roles with your partner early in your relationship can offer clarity and reduce conflict and resentment.

Importance of Rituals

Rituals of connection are an important tool for regulating your relationship and cultivating scheduled nurturing for your connection. Rituals can be big and small. Rituals can be daily, weekly, random or seasonal.

A few ideas for rituals include:

Greeting one another upon waking and going to bed
Greeting one another upon returning home
Eating dinner together without screens
Date night
Seasonal or holiday rituals
Sharing a morning ritual of drinking coffee or tea together
Rituals give purpose and meaning to your relationship. The rituals you create with your partner develop and sustain intimacy for the long run.
Invite your partner to have a dialogue with you about what rituals he/she/they view as important.

The dialogue can build awareness between both of you.

Importance of Goals

Goal setting is one of the characteristics of a healthy partnership. Discussing individual and shared goals are important ways to experience intimacy and partnership. Dialoguing about goals invites partners to communicate their needs and desires with one another. It helps couples identify what visions are shared and what visions are autonomous; which can support differentiation and circumvent unmet expectations.
Discussing goals for the relationship means that both partners tend to make behavioural adjustments to move towards those goals, which ultimately means investment in the health of the relationship and greater relationship satisfaction. Both individual and partnership goals drive behaviours that organise the direction your life is headed towards.

Goal setting in partnership pushes and challenges your relationship, can lead to growth and helps spark new momentum as a couple. Working towards goals and achieving goals can push your relationship to new heights and can lead to learning things about your relationship and your partner that you didn’t know before.