Have you ever been in a relationship or just gotten out of one that left you full of regrets?  The things you regret in relationships are usually avoidable — you just have to know what those common mistakes are. I know it’s easy to get caught up or overwhelmed, but it’s far better to avoid these regrettable decisions now than let guilt and “what if”s eat you alive later. Whether your relationship works out or not, you’ll be happier knowing you did everything you could without a single regret later. Here are 13 of the biggest relationship mistakes you could possibly make. Stop yourself before it’s too late.
- Pretending everything’s okay. If something’s not right in the relationship, say something. You have a voice. Use it. Things aren’t going to get better if you just pretend everything’s sunny fields and rainbows. It’s only going to get worse. Plus, your friends and family are going to wonder why the hell you’re putting up with a bad situation.
- Lying to keep your partner happy. Little white lies are fine. Like when he’s wearing a tye-dye shirt and you say it looks good on him. But lying about what you like or what you want to do isn’t going to work. You might be happy at first, but eventually you’ll start feeling like crap. You’re basically letting your partner walk all over you. You deserve to be happy too.
- Blaming your relationship for everything. It might seem like the center of your life, but you can’t blame the relationship for everything that goes wrong in your life. Sometimes it really is just your fault. Stop placing blame and talk to your man. Let him help you through whatever issues you’re going through. You can’t exactly blame a guy for leaving if you’re always blaming the relationship and him for everything.
- Demanding too much. It’s great you’re not letting your partner walk all over you. It’s just as bad to be too demanding. At this point, you’re walking all over him. There’s only so much of this a relationship can take. Do you really want your relationship to end because you acted like the worst boss ever?
- Changing who you are. Relationships are supposed to change us for the better. That doesn’t mean you should completely change yourself. No one and I repeat NO ONE is worth having to change yourself completely just so they’ll love you. You’ll only regret it. If you can’t be yourself, he’s not the right one for you.
- Refusing to fight. I get it. No one likes to fight, but you can’t avoid confrontation forever. It’s healthy to fight sometimes. You don’t have to fight about everything, but you have to get mad and let it out. The less you fight, the more tension that’ll build up and finally, you will explode. It’s not going to be pretty.
- Ditching all your friends. What kind of guy makes you give up your friends anyway? What kind of friend ditches all her friends just because she’s in a relationship? I know it might seem hard at first, but you have to make time for friends and your man. Get rid of your friends and you’re left all alone if the relationship doesn’t work out.
- Making it all about you or him. Honestly, I like thinking of a relationship as a partnership. It’s a 50/50 kind of deal. When the relationship is all about you or all about him, one of you is going to feel neglected. You’re life, interests and friends are just as important as his and vice versa. Making it a balanced give and take or you’ll definitely end up regretting it.
- Putting work first all the time. Sometimes work does have to come first. After all, we’ve all got bills to pay. But working 80 hours a week, coming home, saying hi and going to bed isn’t enough to make a relationship work. If you want it to work, you have to make it priority too. Set aside some quality time. If you can’t, focus on work for now and save dating until later.
- Taking your man for granted. I’ve seen friends lose some great guys all because they took those guys for granted. They never said “thank you” or did anything special for him. They just expected the guy to give and give and didn’t bother to give anything in return. Everyone wants to feel special sometimes. Make sure your guy knows you appreciate all he does for you.
- Cheating – in any form. Sex isn’t the only form of cheating. If you’re cheating, whether it’s physical or emotional, you’ll end up regretting it. If the relationship is so bad, just end it. If you actually care about your partner at all, resist temptation and don’t cheat. There’s usually no coming back from this one.
- Listening to everyone else’s advice. I’m not saying the advice of others is a bad thing. But sometimes you let everyone else get in your head and you make some pretty bad decisions. Remember, it’s your relationship and life. Others don’t know everything about the situation or you. Take what they say with a grain of salt, but at the end of the day, trust your own instincts.
- Holding back to avoid getting hurt. The more you hold yourself back, the harder it’ll be for any man to make it work with you. I know it blows to get your heart broken. Guess what – you’ll recover. The problem is you’ll never be able to love and be loved like you deserve until you open up. I’m sorry, but there’s no way around this one.
Take a long hard look at your relationship right now. Are you doing any of these things? Stop as quickly as possible and avoid the rest. It might just save your relationship. At the very least, you won’t be left with so many regrets.
