Summary

1. How to Cheat-Proof Your Relationship

2. Chapter One:

1. Why do Women Cheat?

2. Why do Men Cheat?

3. Non Gender-Specific Reasons for Cheating

3. Chapter Two:

1. Stop the Cycle of Jealousy and Obsessive Thoughts

2. Overcoming Perfectionism In Your Relationship

4. Chapter Three:

1. 1. First of all, take a long, hard look at yourself.

2. 2. Keep your independence.

3. 3. Make the relationship a priority.

4. 4. Keep the spark in the relationship.

5. 5. Keep the lines of communication open.

5. Chapter Four:

6. Afterword

How to Cheat-Proof Your Relationship

There is no set of absolute rules to make a relationship utterly, 100% cheat-proof.

Great way to start out, huh? Pick up a book on how to cheat-proof your relationship, and the first thing you’re told is that there’s no guarantee that you can even do that.

I’m sorry to start off on a bum note. Really.

But I’m not one to gild the lily: I think it’s best to be straight-up about this sort of thing. It’s a serious problem. Infidelity affects a lot of people – and most of the people affected have no idea that they’re involved with a cheater.

They think their relationship is solid, sound, and as happy as a pig in a mud wallow. But in fact, they’re being cuckolded, and without so much as a clue that it’s even happening to them.

So I’m not going to make unrealistic promises, and tell you that if you follow an x-y-z formula your relationship will be guaranteed to be cheat-proof for the next seventy-odd years.

What I am going to do is give you all the information on the causes of infidelity that you’ll ever need so as to be able to understand why it happens in the first place. Then, I’m going to tell you what you can do to cut your chances of being cheated on to just about zero.

There aren’t going to be any magic strategies or top-secret stratagems divulged; my method of cheat-proofing your relationship stems from more adult, mature concepts. Concepts such as improving your communication. Concepts like improving the quality of your relationship. Concepts like enriching the partnership between you and your lover so that neither of you will ever want to cheat on each other.

The contemporary statistics on infidelity are truly alarming: did you know that three out of four relationships will experience an infidelity at some point? A whopping sixty percent of these infidelities will go undetected.

Those are some pretty serious numbers. That’s 75% out of all relationships will experience infidelity.

When I first heard about that, I was stunned – the numbers just blindsided me.

But then I sat down and had a think about it. I came to realize that, after all, maybe those numbers aren’t quite so shocking, after all. Of course, they’re shocking in the sense that I’d prefer not to believe that the problem is so widespread; but they’re not surprising. Not really.

Think about it this way: how many people do you know of right now who are conducting, or who have conducted, an affair? At a guess, I’d say you know of at least one. Probably more.

As for me, I know of at least four, and that’s just within my own circle of friends and acquaintances.

In fact, as far as my personal experience goes, I’d have to say that infidelity is now so widespread as to be virtually de rigeur. So many people are doing it that it’s nearly impossible to calculate with any degree of accuracy just how much of a problem it is.

But one thing is clear to me: in this sort of situation, it can’t hurt to find out as much as you possibly can about what’s causing it, and how to avoid it. Statistics, insights, suggestions from those who have been there and done that – as far as I’m concerned, knowledge never hurts.

In fact, short of discovering a magical cure-all panacea for the problem of infidelity, I’ve got to say that arming yourself with knowledge is just about the best thing you could hope to do to prevent it from ever touching your own life and relationships.

Finding out why infidelities happen, and how to prevent them, will allow you to pre-empt the issue before it ever becomes a problem.

Sadly, it seems that love itself isn’t sufficient to guarantee a cheat-proof relationship. I myself have recently left what I consider to be a genuinely loving and committed five-year relationship – one in which my partner and I had a real connection and a real love. But despite this, we both cheated on each other during the course of the relationship, at least once on each side.

Incidentally, that wasn’t the cause of the relationship’s dissolution – we caught the problem early enough and managed to get the relationship back on track, at least in terms of fidelity – but the point remains that I now know from my own personal experience, as well as the experiences of my friends, acquaintances, and all the men and women whose experiences have contributed to the knowledge base of this book, that infidelity doesn’t just happen to “bad” relationships or “bad” people.

It also happens to good relationships. Committed, loving relationships. Relationships where each partner considers the relationship itself to be stable and worth staying in.

I don’t want to harp on about my own problems here, but this really is quite relevant to the point I’m trying to make, so I’ll just say this one thing: when my partner and I cheated on each other, it wasn’t because we didn’t love each other. Neither was it because either of us were “bad” people – we weren’t (and still aren’t, to the best of my knowledge).

It happened because of a host of different reasons, of varying levels of complexity. If I had known then what I know now about infidelity, I doubt very much that any of those ugly little cheating incidents (and the ensuing headaches and heartaches that followed) would have happened.

I hope, through this book, to take you on a journey through the why’s and wherefore’s of infidelity: to allow you to fore-arm yourself with knowledge and to learn how to prevent the rot from ever setting in in your own relationships.

Too many people are utterly blindsided by their partner’s extracurricular (so to speak – with the number of de facto relationships in contemporary society, I hardly thought that the phrase “extramarital” would be appropriate) affairs. As a result – both of the infidelity itself, and the shock of discovering it - their security, emotional stability, sense of trust, and financial wellbeing are utterly shattered.

Enough people trust blindly in their partner’s fidelity that they ignore, or literally can’t see, the signs of cheating that – all too often – are staring them right in the face.

It’s a major problem.

And it’s one that I’d like very much to help you cope with – and, if at all possible, to prevent from ever becoming a problem. Even if you already suspect that your partner’s cheating on you, it’s still not too late to do something about it: to turn that problem around and solve it.

As the old adage goes, “No matter how far down the wrong road you’ve gone, turn back now”.

This saying, I believe, applies to your specific current situation. I think it’s quite encouraging, really. It means that, no matter how bad things seem right now – even if you’re certain that your partner’s cheating on you – you can still save the relationship, provided the desire to do so is there.

Things can always be helped by a little knowledge: knowledge of what’s happening. Knowledge of why it’s happening. And knowledge of how to solve the problems that caused the situation.

That’s exactly what I’m going to supply you with.

To write this book, I’ve used the experiences of many, many men and women. I’ve studied statistics, I’ve interviewed friends and strangers alike, and I’ve called upon my own personal experiences with infidelity.

I hope that this book is of help to you. If I’d had a resource like this to hand before I experienced my own personal bout with cheating, perhaps I never would have done it.

Perhaps he wouldn’t, either.

It is my most profound wish that the information contained within these pages will be enough to start you on a journey of learning. I want you to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your own relationship, and how those are linked to the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your partner.

I’m going to teach you how to apply this knowledge in a manner that will go as far as possible towards making your relationship reliably cheat-proof.

It’s going to be necessary to take a long, hard look at the infrastructure of your love, what that love might be missing, and what it might need to sustain it in the long term – because fidelity is out there.

It’s happening all around you.

Without putting in the effort, and maintaining that effort, there’s a 75% chance – a 75% chance! - that your relationship could undergo the heartbreak of infidelity. Even if you don’t think it likely, all you have to do is look at the statistics: a full sixty percent of cheated-on partners never even found out it was happening.

I’m sorry to say that it’s not impossible that such a situation could happen to you, too.

So I’m glad that you’ve picked up this book.

Now it’s time for us to take a look at infidelity itself, and to figure out an answer to that all-consuming question: WHY DO MEN AND WOMEN CHEAT?

Chapter One:

The Common Causes of Cheating

In this chapter, we’re going to be looking at the reasons that men and women tend to cheat on each other.

Before we start, I’d like to make it clear that I believe that generalization isn’t always the healthiest or most productive way to deal with problems of such an intensely personal and variable nature.

Generalizing by gender is normally a particularly bad idea, since there’s definitely no “hard and fast rule” to dictate the reasons as to why each sex cheats on the other.

However, years of research into this subject (questionnaires, polls, extended studies featuring thousands of men and women alike) have yielded the fact that each gender tends to have its own core reasons for cheating – and that these reasons are utterly distinct to each sex.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t a certain amount of overlap – each person has their own individualized reasons for cheating, and of course we’re all individuals when you get right down to the nitty gritty, aren’t we!

Still, though: the facts are there. There are certain defined – albeit basic – reasons as to why women tend to cheat; and these are quite different from the reasons that men tend to cheat.

Please note my careful use of the word “tend to”, and be aware that these are not definitive explanations: take away the causes of cheating for either gender, and that woman or man may still cheat. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as “treat the symptoms and cure the disease”.

But it’s pretty interesting to take a look at the typical reasons for each gender’s infidelities. It can even yield some insight into the manner in which each gender tends to view relationships, and what sort of problems each gender tends to deal with repeatedly.

So: without further ado, let’s take a look at the typical reasons that each gender might cheat on a spouse or partner.

Why do Women Cheat?

Here’s a list of some of the most common reasons that women cheat on their partners.

From these reasons, it’s easy to see the emotional and psychological component of cheating and infidelity as far as the female sex is concerned: for most women, infidelity is a preconceived, preplanned notion.

Perhaps not with a particular person; but, by and large, the vast majority of women who cheat have been thinking about it and considering the benefits to themselves versus the detriments to their relationship for some time.

This is in direct contrast to most men – but, I digress. We’ll talk about common male reasons for cheating shortly.

For now, let’s take a look at women.

Reason Number One: women are hardwired for the Ideal Man.

Girls are prepped by their instincts, their parents, and the society they live in to find the best possible man that they possibly, possibly can (hint: think “dreamboat”).

If you doubt my word, think about the culture that we live in!

Fairytales: the bread and butter of a little girl’s imagination. The highlight of the plotline is, more often than not, the princess/poverty-stricken beauty’s eventual romantic blossoming with the prince/handsome stranger/rescuer on the big white horse.

Look at the movies that we watch: young girls are brought up on a diet of sitcoms (featuring witty wordplay and shallow disagreements which almost invariably end up in a happy reunion), rom-coms (featuring much the same stuff, except with more glamorous characters and more attention paid to the emotive rollercoaster of the romantic high-low-superhigh which makes up the backbone of most romantic comedies) and literature that’s aimed at the female market.

Look at the books that young girls and women read: adventure/romance/ female fiction stories.

Consider Diana Gabaldon, author of the incredibly popular bodice-ripping Adventure Romance series “Cross-stitch”.

Consider Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones’ Diary, the diary-cum- romantic-commentary of a typical English lass – obsessed, typically, with romance, her weight, and sex.

Or – last but certainly not least, in terms or popularity or prolificity – Marian Keyes, alleged inventor (or should that be perpetrator?) of the renowned “chick lit” genre, who manages to convey the concept of the Realistic Yet Happy Romantic Ending in almost every book.

If you still doubt my word, look at Barbie and Ken, for Chrissake.

I know it’s a cliché, but what little girl doesn’t feel that strangely satisfying pang beneath her breastbone when the happy plasticated couple have journeyed off in their pink Mattel-mobile to another blissful wedding night (unconsummated, of course – partially thanks to the primarily unsexual imagination of the average little girl, and partially thanks to Ken’s permanent Tighty-Whities outfit beneath his manly slacks and shorts).

So when these little girls grow up enough to embark on their own romantic adventures, all too often, reality sets in with a sharp jolt.

It’s unpleasant. Nothing is as they thought it would be. The world does not pivot on an axis of long blonde hair, men whose full-yet-masculine lips overflow with compliments day and night, or the type of bodice-ripping sex where your first time with someone still guarantees an orgasm (or three).

And so – depressed by their own partner and taught by nature, nurture, and culture to expect nothing less than a fight-free, rock-solid relationship – these women seek elusive Perfection in the arms of a stranger.

Of course, the truth is hard to avoid: these women usually discover inside of a few weeks that, in fact, the feet of their illicit lover smell just as bad as their boyfriends’ do; that the thrill of novelty and the satisfaction of a long- term relationship are, in fact, mutually exclusive; and that, unfortunately, all the songs about how “Nobody’s Perfect” are true.

They’ve failed to realize that the only way to grow closer to someone is to adapt to their bad points, as well as enjoy their good points.

Reason Number Two: the line between friendship and romance becomes blurred.

After a fair amount of research into the fascinating subject of platonic intergender friendships, my male friends remain vociferously adamant on one thing: that there is no such thing.

According to these men, at some point in any relationship that purports to be platonic, one of the two “friends” is attempting to conceal a sexual attraction to the other person.

Usually, that person is the male of the friendship.

And it’s easy to let those boundaries blur: most women don’t realize that the concept of “platonic” is one that exists solely in their own head.

A great deal of the problems in this scenario stems from the flirt-level (usually initiated by the female) in the so-called friendship. They feel safe in their friendship: safe enough to flirt a little, maybe.

“Oh,” they think, “we’re just friends. He knows I don’t mean anything by it. After all, I have a boyfriend.”

But then they push the limits by acting in a way that’s confusing to the poor guy. They tell that male friend about all the fights they have with their boyfriend; they bitch to him about what a loser the boyfriend is, when they’re feeling petty or dissatisfied; they engage in graphic conversations about the type, frequency, and duration of the sex that the couple has.

And then the night comes when the female of the friendship requires consolation because she’s had a fight with her boyfriend/husband/partner.

Perhaps alcohol has been consumed on both sides. You can imagine what usually happens next.

Reason Number Three: They feel devalued by their partners.

After the original euphoria of early love wears off, many women complain that their partners “take them for granted”, and that they feel sexless and starved for affection.

They want their partners to romance them; but instead, they feel neglected and undervalued.

An easy way to boost the ego is to seek out random flattery or attention from a stranger. Studies have shown that compliments from a stranger are generally felt to be more “meaningful” than compliments from somebody that we know.

This may be part of the reason why anonymous flirtations and hook-ups with unknown men are so satisfying for so many women – it’s an effective way of bolstering their femininity, charm, and ego all at once.

Why do Men Cheat?

To give you an idea of the reasons behind why men tend to cheat, here are the most common reasons cited by cheating males in studies carried out on the subject:

Reason number one: Because the opportunity’s there.

I once heard a psychologist colleague of mine referring to the scenario of cheating in a very understandable manner.

“Women,” he says, “tend to cheat for a number of carefully considered reasons. It’s rarely an impulse decision for them: the motivating factors are usually present for some time, and they’ve spent time thinking about infidelity and the potential repercussions for themselves, their partner, and their relationship. Men, on the other hand, react to an opportunity to cheat in much the same way that they’d react to a large chocolate cake sitting on the kitchen bench. They may not be hungry, but the cake looks good; it smells good; so they eat it anyway.”

In other words, a relationship doesn’t necessarily have to be on the rocks – or even significantly troubled – for the average male to cheat.

If a tempting opportunity presents itself, instinct may take over – an appetite of an entirely different kind.

Reason number two: Because they’re not getting enough affection and sex at home.

This is a fact of life: if most men aren’t getting enough sex with their chosen partner, they’ll seek it elsewhere.

Obviously, this is another generalization – not all men will cheat on their girlfriend or wife simply because she’s temporarily indisposed - but in the case of a long-term sex drought, it’s true that the majority of men will eventually stop asking for it at home, and find it somewhere else.

Poll results point to the fact that it’s a mixed bag, so to speak: it’s not just the physical act of sex that men crave (although that’s certainly a large part of it); it’s also the affirmation of their masculinity and personal attractiveness that they need.

Most men will resent having to be “the one who initiates” as time goes on, whether the initiation results in sex or not; and if their requests are met more often than not with an adamant, “No, thank you”, it just adds insult to injury.

Reason number three: It’s easier than trying to “fix” things.

If the relationship is in dire straits, many men prefer the quick fix of an affair, rather than a messy divorce proceeding, separation, or even the moral fortitude and energy required to acknowledge the fact that the relationship’s seen better days.

As Jeff, a friend of mine who admits to conducting several long-term affairs behind the back of his then-wife, phrases it: “Sometimes, the thought of divorce and the huge changes it would wreak in everyone’s lives was just too much to handle. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for upsetting my children’s lives; and, even though I was no longer in love with my wife, I still loved her very much, and didn’t want to break her heart by admitting my infidelity.

“In hindsight, I don’t think I made the right choice by hiding the affairs from her, but at the time I thought it was the easiest way to keep myself from going insane in an unfulfilling marriage, while keeping the family and marriage intact.

Non Gender-Specific Reasons for Cheating

We’ve looked at reasons that men and women tend to cheat on one another; now, let’s take a look at the most widespread, common reasons that either gender will cheat on the other.

The role of perfectionism in cheating

Being a perfectionist is a pretty difficult way to go through life.

Although, to the uninitiated, ‘perfectionism’ seems to convey a sense of super- efficiency, and to be a virtual guarantee of leading a high-quality life, the truth is that it’s just plain exhausting.

It’s demoralizing, too – that sense of always struggling to maintain standards, to just push for that little extra inch of success ... it makes it hard to enjoy life.

In short, perfectionists are rarely happy. They strive for perfection with all their might, but somehow, that sense of satisfaction and contentment continues to elude them. They’re always thinking of the next challenge, the next obstacle, of what might happen tomorrow.

When this is applied to relationships, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Perfectionism is one of the top reasons that relationships either fail outright, or experience infidelity (on one or both sides) – simply because one or both people in that relationship are seeking a level of fulfilment and perfection in their partner which simply cannot exist.

It’s a major contributor to our current epidemic of infidelity. Perfectionism drives people to seek perfection – and intimacy, true intimacy, is one of the most effective eroders of the myth of ‘perfection’ that I know of!

When you’re truly intimate with someone – intimate in the way that long-term, loving relationships are – all the boundaries come down. You share your flaws and inadequacies with the other person.

To a perfectionist, this is nightmarish – they need the perfect relationship, not one riddled with blemishes and imperfections.

So (in a sad and somewhat predictable move) they seek perfection in the unfamiliar. Perhaps that handsome Italian waiter with the flawless smile would be a better lover/husband/boyfriend? Perhaps that beautiful librarian would never cut her toenails in front of you, leave her dirty laundry on the bedroom floor, or drunkenly embarrass you at the office Christmas party?

It’s an understandable mistake to make – at least, in theory. But at the same time, subjecting your relationship and partner to unrealistic expectations is strongly reminiscent of the ostrich: you’re burying your head in the sand.

Deep down, we’re all human. It doesn’t matter how flawless someone’s gleaming facade of social sublimity is – getting to know a person is all about taking the good with the bad, and balancing it out.

Perfectionists have a difficult time with this, and so they seek to quench their thirst for faultlessness in the novel and the unexplored – in the arms of strangers, in other words, whose charm diminishes in direct proportion to how well the cheater comes to recognize and acknowledge their essentially flawed, human nature.

The Role of Baseless Jealousy in Creating Affairs

Ever heard the term, “self-fulfilling prophecy”?

In case you don’t know what it is, a self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to come true by the simple act of its own existence.

An example of a self-fulfilling prophecy: try saying, “I’m tired” - you’ll be yawning inside of 30 seconds.

Jealousy is the ultimate example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Have you ever had a jealous partner? There’s nothing quite like it in terms of the stress and unhappiness that it causes.

You get accused of all sorts of things – from attracting too much attention (whether you meant to do it or not), to inviting flirtations, to initiating flirtations, to actually having an affair.

A common maneuver from a jealous person is to forbid their partner from having friends of the opposite sex: “I trust you, darling, I just don’t trust them. I’m a man/woman, after all, and I know what goes on in the heads of other men/women.”

It’s a pretty horrible experience to have to go through. Having to contest, on an ongoing basis, against baseless accusations – accusations that you know stem from nothing more than your partner’s own insecurities – does nothing but erode your affection for that person.

A jealous partner attempts to control and restrict the movements, both social and emotional, of their partner. By doing so, they seek to maintain control over that person’s love for them, and to make sure that they themselves will never cease from being the focal point of their partner’s life.

The truth of the matter is that you can’t make anyone feel anything for you. No matter what strategies and mechanisms you use, it’s impossible to make anyone feel more of a commitment to you than they already do naturally.

In fact, those strategies normally end up driving people to do the very thing their partner was so afraid of – frustrated at the manipulation, irritated at the number of times they’ve had to defend their honor and fidelity, sick and tired of the fact that their word seems to mean nothing to their partner, they get fed up and seek comfort from somebody else.

A jealous person is someone who’s very hard to live with. Jealousy, in and of itself, is often enough to create an affair all by itself, where otherwise one would never have eventuated.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Chapter Two:

Dealing With Existing Issues

Now, let’s take a look at some things you can do to deal with two of the most major causes of infidelity in the modern relationship.

We’ve already discussed their role in contemporary infidelity earlier on in the book: they’re both widespread, non gender-specific issues that many, many people struggle with on a daily basis.

I’m talking about the issues of jealousy and perfectionism.

Both totally unrelated, both completely dissimilar, except for their role in creating affairs where none might have existed before.

We’re going to take a look at how to deal with these issues so that your relationship never falls prey to the heartbreak of infidelity that’s been caused by something within your control.

Because make no mistake about it – even though these are both pretty serious issues, both with the potential to erode the levels of trust and love in the relationship, both are still within your control.

So let’s take a look at what you can do to get a handle on the issues!

Stop the Cycle of Jealousy and Obsessive Thoughts

Jealousy in a relationship can be a real stumbling-block. It’s an extremely unattractive emotion, and usually succeeds only in doing the exact opposite of what the person experiencing the jealousy wants to happen.

For example, a partner who’s jealous of how much time their spouse is spending with a particular person at work might forbid their partner from spending any more time with that person than they strictly need to.

Does this work?

No!

What usually happens is that the spouse, surprised and injured by their partner’s lack of trust in them, is driven away by that jealousy. They don’t want to spend more time with their partner because of that outburst of jealousy; it’s actually damaged the relationship, not strengthened it.

When jealousy begins to take over a relationship, that relationship becomes characterized by confusion, doubt, and resentment. Dealing with jealousy is essential – it won’t just “fix itself”!

But how can you take control of your jealousy before it starts to erode the trust in your relationship?

Well, it will take some work – jealousy is one of those emotions that feels almost “instinctive”, and therefore requires extra effort to overcome.

The good news is that it’s actually a fantastic opportunity for you to “grow” your relationship!

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

Open and honest communication – even about the hard stuff, like jealousy – is the best recipe there is for a happy, healthy, and long-lived relationship.

A good heart-felt talk with your partner is the best thing you can possibly do in this situation. Admit to your feelings of jealousy, and tell your partner that you’re trying to get it under control.

This is a graceful and mature way to handle the situation, and provides an excellent opportunity for emotional growth in the relationship. Being honest with your partner is a sign of true respect and love: they’ll appreciate your candor, and respect your integrity for being direct about a difficult topic.

If your partner’s actions are contributing in any way towards your jealousy (for example, are they an unintentional flirt?) now is the time to bring that up.

Remember, be assertive, not aggressive – explain that you’re not attacking them, that this is just the truth of your emotions and opinion at the present moment, and what do they feel about that?

This enables you to treat the issue as a couple, which will actually strengthen the bond between you.

Because this is quite a difficult thing for many people to talk about, I’d suggest that you try writing down what you feel before talking about it. Topics which relate to extremely emotional matters (like jealousy) have a habit of getting out of control if the emotions start to run high, so a list of things you want to say will help you to stay on track, without getting distracted by potentially harmful sub-topics.

Remember to never mock or ridicule what your partner believes: they’re merely articulating what their own personal truth is. To progress past issues, you must always be respectful and supportive of your partner’s views. If you disagree with them, that’s completely fine, and you should articulate that – just don’t do it aggressively.

Communication is the most important aspect of any committed relationship - and discussing any issues of jealousy in your relationship not only helps to take care of the issue itself, but also provides you both with a fantastic opportunity to help your relationship progress and mature.

2. Seek guidance from an outside source.

If the problem’s been going on for some time, it can be difficult to handle completely “in-house”, so to speak: feelings of resentment and anger can build up, which makes it difficult to solve the problem objectively and effectively.

Talking to a family member, friend, or relative, or even a professional counselor, is a great idea in this case. A lot of times, the truth inherent to the situation gets lost inside the surrounding emotions of the people in the relationship: talking to an impartial, unbiased person about the issue can help you to get the matter sorted in your head.

3. Be honest with yourself.

Sit down with a pencil and a pad of paper, and list the things that are making you jealous. Now look at your list objectively: make sure you pay heed to that little voice of reason inside your head! Are the things on your list silly and trivial, or is there real cause for concern there? Obviously, if there’s anything seriously wrong, you’ll need to take steps to address that problem (your first step should always be to communicate the problem to your partner).

Overcoming Perfectionism In Your Relationship

The thing with perfectionism is that it’s usually not a compartmentalized problem.

A perfectionist usually does not limit their unrealistic expectations and harsh self-drive and ambitions to just one section of their life; usually, it spills over into all areas of their life, such as work, family, self-image, sports, and self- improvement, as well as romantic relationships.

this section is going to deal with how to cope with perfectionism as it applies to your life in general, not just your relationship – because, if you’re subjecting your relationship to too-high expectations, it’s almost a certainty that you’re doing the same thing in other areas of your life too.

Your first step to overcoming the problem is being more self-aware. You probably don’t even realize just how pervasive the issue is. The trick here is considering all the various aspects of your life, and become aware of your behavior patterns as they apply to each area.

A fantastic way to become more self-aware is to diarise your thoughts and impulses as and when they occur to you. Record them in a notebook if you like, or simply spend a few moments at the end of each day meditating on the day’s affairs – remember the times you felt as though you’d failed, or as though you hadn’t performed well enough, or as though you’d let somebody (or yourself) down, and then diarize what you’d thought at the time.

It really does help to write these things down, so trust me on this one! It’s not enough to merely think about what happened and what you thought; articulating your thoughts and impulses on paper allows you to look back at your emotional habits, and become more aware of your perfectionistic thoughts and behavior patterns. This will help you to control those same behavior patterns as they occur in future: if you sense yourself slipping into a recognized perfectionistic behavior pattern, you can intervene and make a conscious choice not to subject yourself to those thoughts.

1. Learn to look for the positives in things.

This is something that’s probably been hammered into you since you were a child – “always look on the bright side of life” – so the phrase has probably lost its immediate value and impact for you; perhaps you’ll need to take a moment to consider the implications.

A prime characteristic of a perfectionist is noticing mistakes in people, their actions, their work, their personalities, and their interactions with others. This goes for yourself, too – perfectionists are usually intensely self-critical.

Often, perfectionists notice flaws above and beyond all other characteristics. Many complain that it’s something that seems to be beyond their conscious control: they don’t choose to be that way, but they can’t seem to help themselves.

Granted, it’s a difficult habit to drop – the subconscious is a difficult adversary to wrestle with! The good news, though, is that you can actually retrain your subconscious through making a choice to alter your conscious thought patterns. It just requires a little more persistence and effort, that’s all.

Start making an effort to counteract your habit of finding the bad in everything around you – including your partner! – by noticing the good things, too. Consciously look for them, and take a moment to dwell on them whenever you start to dwell on a flaw or imperfection.

For example, if you’re obsessing over something minor that you don’t like about your partner, make a point of finding five other qualities about him or her that you do like. Take a moment to consciously enjoy those qualities, and remind yourself of why you’re with your partner in the first place.

The idea here is to counteract your negative focus, and turn your instinctive criticisms to a more balanced outlook. Eventually, this will become a positive new habit of yours, and the harshness of your perfectionism will begin to fade.

2.  Learn to Silence the Inner Critic.

Perfectionists tend to have an unhealthy relationship with self-talk. Often, they talk about the“little voice in their heads” that tells them that they don’t measure up, that their work isn’t up to scratch, that their appearance is sub-normal, and that their partner isn’t good enough for them or their lifestyle.

Perfectionism is a peculiar mix of egotism and blatant lack of self-esteem, particularly when it comes to relationships and perfectionism.

Consciously, the perfectionist knows that they love their partner, and that he or she is good enough for them; but when the inner critic starts up, it’s difficult not to compare that loved partner unfavorably with strangers whose own peculiarities and flaws haven’t yet been discovered.

Overcoming this negative self-talk is a major part of dealing with perfectionism. It encourages unhealthy behaviors, and can convince you that your relationship isn’t as good as you thought it was – it plays a significant role in creating infidelity, because it can convince people that they’re less happy than they actually are, and that they’d be much better off with someone who – from a distance, at least – appears to be everything that their current partner is not.

Whenever you hear that negative inner critic speak up, interrupt them with a “No – that’s not true!” You can say this in your head, but the more powerful option is to say it out loud. Verbalizing your rejection of the inner critic is a surprisingly effective way to counteract the negativity and increased pressure it places on your relationship, your partner, and yourself.

By altering your self-talk to being more positive and encouraging, you’ll begin to enjoy your life and your relationship much more. Your appreciation levels for your partner and the relationship you have with them will increase, and the need to compare them with perfect-from-an-emotional-distance strangers will cease.

Chapter Three:

Successful Strategies for General Cheat-Proofing

Right, so we’ve discussed the specifics of how to handle the two most widespread issues for causing infidelity – jealousy and perfectionism.

Those are both very specific problems, both requiring very specific solutions – solutions that are tailor-made to deal with the detailed and complex problems that arise as a result.

The other problems that I mentioned at the start of Chapter One are much less specific – the root cause of each tends to be a generalized dissatisfaction with the relationship at large, rather than being caused by one particular, major factor.

So now, we’re going to take a look at improving the overall quality of your relationship so that all those other problems and dissatisfactions from Chapter One are dealt with in a manner which will minimize your relationship’s risk of being affected by infidelity.

Unfortunately, and as I believe I’ve already mentioned, there’s no way to completely, 100% guarantee that your relationship won’t be impacted by an affair at some point or another – after all, infidelity can happen to any relationship, as studies have repeatedly shown.

However, there are defined steps that you can take which – if you follow them correctly – will greatly reduce the likelihood of infidelity, and will improve the general levels of satisfaction and love in the relationship at large.

These steps are not particularly complicated or obscure – in fact, most of them are just plain common sense.

Knowing some proactive steps that you can take to actively strengthen the connections in your relationship and to deepen and reaffirm the bond between the two of you is incredibly helpful when it comes to cheat-proofing your relationship.

Really, making sure that both of your needs are met is the closest thing to a guarantee you have that your relationship will be safeguarded against the emotional A-bomb of an affair.

So what actually can you do? Well, here are a few steps to take which should start you off in the right direction.

1. First of all, take a long, hard look at yourself.

Take the blinkers off, and examine what kind of a partner you’re being. Are you being the kind of person that you’d want to be with? I’m talking about basic human kindness and generosity of spirit – the kind of generosity that you show to someone whose welfare and wellbeing you really, genuinely care about.

Someone you love, in other words.

An example of what I mean: let’s say your partner works long hours. Let’s say he or she comes home from work at 9.30 pm, at the end of yet another long, overtime-saddled day. You’ve been feeling as though you don’t get to see your lover very often as of late, and wish that the two of you had more time to spend together.

When your partner arrives home, how do you think you’d react? Would you nag, or support? Would you say, “I don’t know when you’re going to stop working such long hours. This really has to stop. I feel as though I never get to see you any more. I can’t handle being by myself all the time, I feel so unsupported, it makes me feel like you don’t really care that much about me/ the family … when are you going to stop doing this? When are you going to start thinking about my needs?” ….. etc, etc.

Or would you go to your lover, help him off with his/her coat, and hug them warmly as you kiss them on the cheek and guide them into the house, saying, “I’m so happy that you’re home! Let’s get you something to eat. How was your day?” … etc, etc.

Obviously, these are both pretty extreme examples; but the point remains. Which of these two camps do you think you fall into, as a partner?

Are you a nagger, or a supporter?

This is hugely important in terms of building rapport and strengthening your relationship. It’s impossible to overemphasize how important it is to support your partner through more stressful times – times when they might have a more intense workload, or when they might not be able to spend as much time with you as you (and they) might like, times when circumstances compel them to act in ways that you don’t necessarily approve of or enjoy.

2. Keep your independence.

In long-term relationships, especially when the two of you are living together - perhaps you’re married, perhaps not – it’s easier than you might think for the boundaries to begin to blur. Many couples complain that, after a few years of committed time together, they begin to feel as though the essence of who they are has changed in some vital yet indefinable way – that they’ve been lessened, somehow.

This is because they’ve allowed their individuality to become compromised through the relationship. They’ve stopped devoting time to the pursuits and passions that helped them to define themselves as a person, and instead began to spend the majority of their time in couple-related pursuits: things that the two of them could do, together.

Obviously, “we-time” is an important aspect of being a couple, and it should not be overlooked! But “me-time” is just as important, too.

Here’s why. Some of us, in a long-term relationship, have a tendency to wrap up our identities in the relationship, and in the person we’re having that relationship with.

This is hugely unhealthy. Your identity is not defined by your relationship. This is a sure-fire way to add a huge stress-load to the relationship, and over the long haul, is almost guaranteed to run that relationship into the ground. The weight and pressure of expectation is just unbearable, both for your partner and for the relationship itself.

The antidote: have, and enjoy, a full life. Don’t restrict your “good times” to your relationship alone – you need to keep things balanced. You need projects that you’re passionate about, pastimes that you love, people – other than your lover - and pets that you care deeply about, to keep you engaged in your life, and happy and completed as an individual and as a person.

Obviously, your partner is a significant aspect of your life, and thus helps to shape your identity – but they should never be more than a part of that identity and life. Making them the focal point of your existence will make them unhappy (because that’s far too much responsibility for anyone to shoulder!)

… and it will also make you unhappy, in the long run.

Humans are social, gregarious creatures. Without varied and diverse social interactions, we begin to wilt. We need to speak with and be appreciated by a variety of people, in a variety of situations, to feel happy and emotionally healthy. It’s not healthy for you to confine yourself to just your partner!

And it’s not just the people aspect of life that matters, either – you need to make sure that you’ve got hobbies and things to do on the go that engage your attention, your interest, and your passion, as well. Whether it’s fitness- related, appearance-related, self-improvement, the great outdoors, your dog, your social life outside your partner, your job … it doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that you find and maintain interests and keep your life full.

When your life is full, you are full of energy and excitement. You’re fully engaged with the world – you’re exploring it, learning new things, meeting new people, challenging yourself, achieving things. You gain insights, make discoveries, learn about new subjects. You gain a wealth of new conversational topics for you to enjoy with your partner, too – a full life keeps things fresh and interesting for the both of you.

Think of it as recharging your batteries – without a connection to an outside power source (the world), your batteries go flat. You go flat.

But when you’re connected up to, and engaged with, the world, you keep your energy levels at tip-top standards.

That energy then gets diverted into your relationship, where it will work wonders at redefining those blurred personality boundaries, and maintaining the emotional and physical space and individuality necessary to keep your relationship healthy and vibrant.

Everyone needs their own space. Here’s an example of how a couple that I know coped with their need for individuality. Over coffee recently with a friend of mine, Sophie, she recounted to me the story of how she married her high-school sweetheart (a tall hunk of a man called Luke) and moved into their first house together.

It was a pretty small house, with 2 bedrooms, a lounge, and a shared kitchen/ dining-room – that was it.

It wasn’t a lot of space for two people previously accustomed to all the space they wanted and needed!

Sophie told me all about how she managed to keep her sanity when juggling the demands of newly-married life with the constraints of such a small house. She told me that, after discussion with Luke, they’d decided that they each needed to maintain their own physical space in the house: space that was free of the influence of the other person, that they each could shape and decorate just as they chose, and that they could retreat to if they ever needed a bit of “alone time”.

Sophie said that she’d chosen the second bedroom for herself, and that Luke had chosen the small single garage out back of the house. She used that bedroom as a “dressing room” – she kept all her clothes, makeup, and shoes in there, as well as her yoga mat and books.

“That room seriously kept my head screwed on the right way,” she said reflectively to me. “I love Luke an incredible amount, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t need my own space from time to time. I just found it incredibly useful to have somewhere to go when I needed to – somewhere I knew that I had the rights to, if you know what I mean.”

I didn’t.

“Well,” she said, “When you share a house, you really share it. I felt as though I didn’t really have any individual rights to any part of the house – for example, I didn’t feel as though I could make plans to use the DVD player in the lounge to watch a movie without telling Luke about it in advance, because what if he came home with a bunch of friends and wanted to watch the soccer?

“But in my own little room, it was different. Because it was mine, I knew that I could always use it for whatever I wanted. If I wanted to get up at 5.30 in the morning and do yoga for an hour before work, I knew I could do it without having to worry about disturbing Luke. Or I could go in there and dress up in my fanciest clothes and experiment with makeup and hairstyles for two hours at 11 pm at night if I felt like it. Or I could just go in there and chill out, any time I needed to be in my own space.”

She paused for a moment.

“I think the really important thing was just knowing that that space was there, if I needed it.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. We all need our own emotional and physical space from our partners. We need to make sure that we don’t neglect the other areas of our life, like friends, hobbies, family, exercise, “me-time”.

Everyone needs privacy, individuality, independence, and not to suffocate – or feel suffocated by – their partner.

This is incredibly important for the growth and fidelity of your relationship! The happier you are as individuals, the healthier and happier your relationship will be – which means the likelihood of infidelity striking will be significantly lessened.

3. Make the relationship a priority.

The relationship with your partner should be your top priority in the social hierarchy of your friends, family, colleagues, and others.

Time is often pretty short in modern-day life; it’s easy to get pulled in too many directions at once and let commitments to those that really matter slacken off.

Don’t confuse what I’m saying here with my advice from the previous section - this is the other end of the spectrum. Yes, you need to make sure you’re spending time with your friends and family; but this should never come at the expense of quality time with your partner.

Your relationship with your partner is the most valuable and precious emotional resource in your life. Don’t neglect it – you need to prioritize it, make a real effort and energy commitment to it.

It’s important that you take the time to let your partner know how important he or she is to you, too. Remember, actions speak louder than words. Are they worn out at the end of a long day? Guide them to a comfy chair while you whip up a quick meal to take the edge off. Is it their birthday coming up? Plan a surprise treat for them – one that you know they’ll like.

Of course, you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to show them that you care about them – definitely not! Day-to-day love is all about seizing the moment and being spontaneous. Leave a love-note in their pocket or handbag, for them to find later on in the day. Pack an extra-tasty treat in their lunch bag, to brighten up the workday. Send them an email telling them how special they are, and how much you care about them.

You don’t have to make extravagant or costly gestures (for example, a dozen red roses, or an expensive item of jewelry) … it really is the thought that counts!

Now, I know this is going to sound hackneyed and trite, but you do need to make an effort to keep the romance alive – and a fantastic way to do this is to go on dates together.

You don’t have to stick to a demanding schedule of twice-weekly dates, or anything like that – many of us have busy lives, and the point of this is not to create a burden or add pressure, but to relieve pressure.

The point is to allow you to enjoy each other’s company, in a romantic setting, without the distractions of everyday life around you (children, the television, pets, work, laundry …). Perhaps you’d like to make a fortnightly date to go out to dinner together. Or maybe it’s easier for you to plan a once-monthly date to see a movie, go bowling, have a picnic, take a walk together. Anything at all you like – just as long as it gives the two of you some alone-time together (this is quality “we” time) to keep that romantic spark alive.

4. Keep the spark in the relationship.

It may sound crass, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that if things aren’t mutually satisfying in the bedroom, someone’s eye – whether yours, or your partner’s - is likely to start wandering at some point.

As we’ve already discussed, this is particularly true of men; but that’s not to say that women are exempt from this, by any means!

Sex is a major part of a romantic relationship – and communication is a major part of sex.

Some couples find it difficult to talk about sex with each other – they find it too personal or embarrassing, and hope that somehow things will just take care of themselves.

This is not a good way to handle one of the most important areas of your relationship!

As with most aspects of a healthy, balanced, long-term relationship, it all boils down to communication. Get in the habit of asking your partner if they’re satisfied with the quality and frequency of the lovemaking in your relationship. Ask them if there’s anything they’d like to change. Ask them if there are things they’d like to explore, or fantasies that they’ve always secretly longed to fulfil.

This is another great opportunity to allow your relationship to grow – talking about something as personal and intimate as sex really does strengthen the bond you have together. As long as you’re honest and open about your thoughts and opinions, this is a sure-fire way to bring the two of you closer together – and will go a long way towards improving the action in the bedroom!

5. Keep the lines of communication open.

Communication is the most important aspect of any healthy relationship. It’s all about respect: demonstrating the respect you’ve got for yourself, by articulating your truthful desires, thoughts, and opinions; and demonstrating the respect you’ve got for your partner by being honest – even about things that you feel may challenge them.

A lot of people have problems with communication. In fact, a lack of adequate communication is at the root of just about every long-term couple’s problems that I know of – including most of my own failed relationships!

Most people’s problems with communication seems to stem from a fear of conflict: they don’t want to do anything to upset the status quo, or which might offend their partner. Because of this, important issues go unaddressed, and resentments begin to simmer along - until eventually, they erupt in a huge confrontation that’s been made even worse by the added pressure of bottling it all up for so long.

It’s really important to address any issues that you may have, or problems that you feel may be brewing, as soon as you can sense the presence of such an issue.

Good communication isn’t about attacking your partner; neither is it about telling them that they’re wrong.

It’s about creating an environment, in your relationship, in which you both feel safe enough, and trust the other person enough, to be honest about your true feelings.

If either of you feels that something’s up, you need to be able to talk about it - and to know that the other person’s going to truly listen, and actually hear, whatever it is that you’re saying, from your point of view.

Proper communication is about being honest and authentic moment-to- moment. It doesn’t have to be a terrifying obstacle to overcome: there’s no need for sweaty palms or a dry mouth!

It’s as simple as this little phrase: “This is how I feel about the situation. How do you feel about it?”

… And that’s it!

Nothing to be afraid of.

Conflict doesn’t have to be harsh; it doesn’t have to take the shape of an argument or a fight. Tears don’t have to be shed; foreheads don’t have to be corrugated; ugly words don’t have to be articulated.

It’s just about expressing how you feel, and asking for your partner’s opinion on the matter.

If you feel as though the subject matter that needs to be broached is of a particularly incendiary nature, you can preface your statement with a disclaimer - something along the lines of, “I’d just like to make sure you know that I’m not attacking you here” normally does the trick.

Communication is all about honesty. Sometimes, being honest means that we have to point our partner’s noses in the direction of a truth about ourselves, even if it seems perfectly obvious to us.

This might mean being honest about your reluctance to engage in confrontation, or in communication about difficult issues.

For example, you might choose to explain to them that you’re feeling a little flustered and uncomfortable because you find it difficult to communicate about issues which you feel may create a challenge for your partner.

Such honesty, especially about matters of personal vulnerability, is incredibly endearing – and it’ll also just about guarantee that your partner’s then able to listen to what you have to say without taking offense. If they know that you’re feeling vulnerable, too, then that reassures them that you’re not in attack mode – which makes it that much easier for them to hear what you’re saying, rather than being diverted by any personal subtexts that they may attach to your meaning.

Communication is an incredibly important part of your relationship. I really can’t overstate just how important it is. If the lines of communication are constantly wide open between yourself and your partner, you can nip issues like infidelity in the bud before they become a problem.

If either you or your partner is feeling dissatisfied with the relationship (a primary cause of infidelity in itself ) just think how much less likely either of you will be to actually act on those feelings if you know that you can discuss them without fear of negative repercussions.

Think how much stronger your relationship will be!

So start off small. It’s a good idea to enlist your partner in this quest to improve the communication between the two of you – it’s something that needs to be two-sided, after all. You can’t improve the communication from your perspective alone; your partner needs to know what you’re trying to achieve, and make their own effort, too.

If you get tongue-tied, just remember the formula for successful communication: “This is how I feel. How do you feel about that?”

So, for example, you might go to your partner and tell them, “I’d like to start working on improving our communication. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about, and I think it would be good for each of us and for our relationship. What do you think about that?”

It’s as simple as that.

Chapter Four:

The Role of Friendship in a Good Relationship

Part of cheat-proofing your relationship is growing the intimacy in your relationship.

Ever heard of the phrase, “compartmentalized lifestyle”?

That’s something that a lot of people unwittingly do, particularly incontemporary society. Our lives are usually pretty busy; and, for most people, they’re relatively sturdily sectioned off. One set of friends and colleagues for work; one for the gym; one for personal time; a whole set that belongs to our partners; and so on.

These “compartments” rarely coincide with one another – the gap isn’t usually bridged. Each group of people stays true to the compartment of our lives from which they sprung.

So, while you might spend eight hours a day with the people from work, you rarely see them in a social context (apart from the office Christmas party).

You see your partner’s friends whenever he or she has them round, or at mutual parties, but you probably wouldn’t call any of them up and make a date to hang out.

And you reserve your gym-buddies for the gym – they’re useful for gossiping over the treadmills, or getting you to push yourself for one more set of crunches, but that’s about as far as it goes.

This is pretty commonplace stuff. It’s just the way that modern-day life works.

The problem comes in when compartmentalization starts to affect our personal relationships, too.

I’m talking about the kind of situation where your relationship with your partner becomes so rigidly defined that it’s difficult for that relationship to grow or develop any further.

This tends to happen after two people in a relationship know each other fairly well. They’ve got a pretty accurate (or so they think) image of the other person in their heads – they feel they know that person well enough to judge how they’ll react to certain situations, what sorts of situations they’d be able to contribute meaningfully to, and which sorts of situations they’re best left out of.

This sort of “personality definition” can rapidly become unhealthy for the relationship – when you pin someone down too rigidly within the confines of your definition of them as a person, the intimacy begins to suffer.

For example, take a situation that happened to a friend of mine, Susan, and her partner, Will.

Susan had been having a difficult time at work over the past month or so. Her boss had been piling on the workload recently, and – with pay reviews and the possibility of promotion just around the corner – Susan felt that it would be a bad career move to explain her feelings to her boss, and to tell him that she didn’t feel that she was operating at her most productive level.

When she came home from work at the end of the week, she was mentally and physically exhausted. What she really wanted to do was sit down with a glass of cold white wine, put her feet up, and recount her woes to a sympathetic listener – someone she felt would really understand the situation, and be able to sympathize with her.

Will was in the kitchen, making dinner and having a beer. He was fully available to listen to his partner.

But it didn’t even occur to Susan to confide in Will. She thought of him as a “get things done” sort of person – someone who was fantastic at solving actual, tangible problems (like when the plumbing went haywire, or the computer had a meltdown), but less helpful with emotional or psychological issues such as the one that Susan was trying to cope with at work.

So instead of confiding in her partner – the person who she lived with, relied on in most other aspects of life, and would have consciously described as the main emotional support of her life – she picked up the phone and called her female best friend, Amy.

Although Amy provided the exact sort of listener that Susan was looking for, the choice that she made actually deprived her relationship of a valuable opportunity for improvement.

If she had chosen to speak with Will about her problems, the conversation may not have gone as smoothly as it had with Amy. Will might have needed to have Susan’s needs explained to him (as in, she needed a sympathetic ear, not a boxful of solutions) and he might have made a few mistakes; but, without practice and opportunity, where was the hope that the situation might ever improve?

Susan had compartmentalized her relationship with Will. She’d put him into a little box inside her head: she had him defined as “the fixer, not the listener”. In Susan’s mind, there was a definite dividing line between her “true friends” - the ones she could rely on to help her and instinctively know how to do so – and her “lover”, someone she relied on in the other areas of her life, but who was no good assuming the mantle of friendship, as well.

In Susan’s mind, a lover and a friend each had two very distinct roles in her life. The boundaries never blurred, and there was never a cross-over of duties or requirements for each role.

As a result of this, the relationship would never have a chance to develop. Will would never have the chance to develop his skills in the friendship/listening arena; Susan would never have the opportunity to rely on Will as a great listener and sympathetic ear.

Imagine how satisfying it would be to have a lover who is also a friend!

Because, of course, it’s not just Susan and Will who are guilty of this sort of compartmentalization. It’s a relatively widespread phenomenon – plenty of people have their partners tidily boxed away in an inflexible definition, and thus deprive their relationship of the opportunity for it to grow in unexpected areas.

In a sense, their beliefs are self-fulfilling – because without that opportunity for growth and development, of course it’ll never occur.

Friendship plays an important role in a good, solid, grounded relationship. Many people make the mistake of believing that intimacy and sex are naturally intertwined – that emotional and psychological connections will naturally follow as a result of sex.

That is a myth, and one that’s potentially harmful to the evolution of your relationship.

Intimacy and sex are not the same thing. True emotional intimacy occurs when you’re open and honest with your partner about all aspects of your life – when you allow them to know you when you’re feeling vulnerable and in need of support, as well as the times when you’re feeling on top of the world and fully capable of taking care of yourself.

True intimacy is engendered by openness and honesty – you need to allow your lover to have the opportunity to forge bonds of genuine intimacy by allowing and accepting their emotional support and help when you need it.

Remember how I’ve been talking about authenticity and honesty? Well, that’s what you need to use in this case, too.

Issues with vulnerability are actually surprisingly common. Divulging the truth of the matter isn’t an easy thing to do; usually, our instincts make it difficult for us to let go of our natural defenses. It’s not always easy to let our nearest and dearest see us when we’re feeling thin-skinned or inexpert – but a real, lasting relationship is as much about letting your guard down with your partner as it is letting them see you shine.

Learn to admit your vulnerabilities to your partner – give them the opportunity to help you when you need it, instead of reserving that opportunity for people who have already proved themselves.

It’s all about feeding your relationship: about not limiting its growth, and giving your partner the knowledge they need about your life and your state of mind in order to take good care of you.

Afterword

Well, that’s it from me.

I hope that you’ve found this book useful. I know it’s not easy to follow all the advice I’ve given you in this book; a lot of it takes a great deal of effort, from both people involved in the relationship.

But I wouldn’t be asking you to do this stuff if it wasn’t necessary. If your memory fails you, flick back to the introductory section of this book, and look over some of the statistics that I’ve quoted there.

It’s pretty alarming, isn’t it?

As you can see, infidelity happens to a lot of unsuspecting people. People who never had any idea that their partner wasn’t happy with them, or with their relationship as a whole.

That’s why it’s so important that you put in this effort – the effort to improve the quality of your relationship and communication, so your bond becomes so strong that the temptation to cheat just bounces off the both of you like pebbles off a Kevlar vest.

That’s my aim in writing this book: to give you the information you need to analyze your relationship, figure out where it might need some help, and then work on those areas requiring improvement until you have true confidence in the strength of the connection between your partner and you.

So don’t be afraid to put in the hard yards now: the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll start to see results. Just remember to communicate, and everything else will fall into place.

It will get easier over time, don’t worry about that – creating and maintaining a strong, loving bond is its own reward. The effort you put in will seem negligible when you begin to reap results: your partner is happier and more loving, you feel safer and more secure in your relationship, you talk more, you communicate better, you have more fun together … would you really mind putting in a bit of time and energy to get those kind of results?

As time goes on, I think you’ll be surprised at just how easy those results are to achieve.

So good luck – and remember, communicate, communicate, communicate!

Recommended Reading

If you enjoyed reading this bonus book, you might also enjoy a couple of related titles by the creators of Save My Marriage Today:

2nd Chance: How to Win Back the Love of Your Ex by Mirabelle Summers (co-authored by Amy Waterman)

If you're going through the emotional turmoil of a break-up with a man that you really didn't want to happen (or now regret happening), then you have my whole hearted sympathy. I know what you are going through, I've been there, it isn't a happy place and it isn't an exaggeration to say that can even feel like someone has just died.

There is not a lot in this world that is more painful than the feeling that the man you love no longer loves you back, or feels the same about you.

I know that, when I had my most painful break-up (a few years ago now) it was an extremely terrible time. I was only getting about half an hour of sleep each night for the first 2 weeks, and my heart felt like there was a permanent dagger in there.

Not a happy place to be.

Anyway, we've established that breaking up is an awful experience. And in this book, I’m going to reveal to you my powerful methods for winning back your ex.

But first I have a very important question to ask you before carrying on ...

Why Do You REALLY Want To Get Back Together With Him?

And Is It REALLY A Good Decision To Make?

Were you and your ex really good together? Did he treat you the way you deserve to be treated?

More importantly, did he support you in your goals - and did you support him wholeheartedly in his? I'm asking that question in particular as it is the biggest determining factor in long-term relationship success according to numerous studies.

The first thing that you need to do right now is STOP doing what ever you are doing to get his attention back. No more sending flowers or begging for forgiveness! (Yes, really. Even if you genuinely feel that you are ‘in the wrong’, stop apologizing and stop begging.)

Don't worry, I'm not talking about 'treat him mean, keep him keen' or any of that nonsense. But you DO need to understand what is going on inside his mind (which I cover in my book), and you DO need to give him space (if you aren't), and you DEFINITELY need to get your life back in order.

The most attractive thing that you can do right now, before anything else, is to get your life back on track. See your friends, your family and make some exciting plans for the future - for example a holiday away or something to look forward to.

Any man will be A LOT more attracted to the mystery of 'why are you so happy?' than he will be attracted to you trying to win him back through letters, guilt and smothering.

You can't have him think that he is the be-all and end-all of your life if you seriously want to win him back. That doesn't make you attractive - it makes you look desperate.

Trust me with what I'm saying about focusing more on getting yourself happy first (without making him responsible for your happiness) and you'll double your chances of winning him back, right off the bat.

The above is really just a quick stepping stone to give you a much higher chance of winning back your ex, but, I cover absolutely EVERYTHING that you need to know about how to win your ex back and keep them craving more, in my book "How to Win Your Ex Back".

Essentially, I've written this book to guide you through the process of healing the pain of a breakup; recognizing why it happened in the first place; figuring out whether it genuinely is a good idea to get back with your ex; and, if it is, I tell you exactly – EXACTLY! – what you need to heal the wounds and make your relationship better than it ever was before.

You can access ‘2nd Chance’ at this web address:

https://www.meetyoursweet.com/2ndchance/women/

How to Catch a Cheating Spouse
by Sarah Paul

Are you sick and tired of your partner's suspicious behavior? This same partner that you have unselfishly devoted so much of your life and love to over the years? Do you want some straight answers before you can move forward with saving your marriage? If you suspect your partner is in fact cheating on you, and you want solid evidence right now, then you can’t wait a moment longer. It's that important.

First of all, you have to ask yourself these questions:

- How long are you going to put up with them making you think that you are a lousy lover?

- Are you sick and tired of having your heart pounding and losing endless hours of sleep due to the sadness and uncertainty as to what is going wrong with your relationship?

- Are you ready to find out once and for all the truth about what your partner has so recklessly been doing behind your back? Even if the truth hurts?

If you answered "yes," then you need to know, one way or another, if your spouse is cheating and put an end to the heartache of not knowing the truth!

You're about to learn the most guarded secrets that private investigators use to catch cheating husbands or cheating wives. Whether your partner has just started having an affair, been having an affair for a while, or just ended an affair, it doesn’t matter. I’ll show you how to get the solid evidence you need that will leave no room for excuses or alibis.

Here’s what some of our satisfied customers have to say:

"I'd had my suspicions for quite some time, that my wife was having an affair with her boss. However I didn't have any idea how I could prove it for sure, I mean

I didn't want her to know I didn't trust her in case I was wrong. Anyway, after reading your book and following your techniques I discovered that she was having an affair and it had been going on for longer than I thought. Not sure what I'm going to do now, but I'm glad I know." -- Ryan Connolly, Lincoln, UK.

“Oh yes I highly recommend this book "How to Catch a Cheating Spouse", I used this book in all the steps of the way. It was by textbook what my wife was doing. The best benefit of this book is that it helps you in your dealing with this whole situation that you're going through. It is so right on with everything that it's  almost frightening. In textbook whatever the people do no matter female or male I think that anyone who is going through anything like this, this would definitely help them. I read every part of the book and underlined everything that the other person was doing. Usually it seems like a lot of it would have to do with females, but it really helped out as a male. My wife and I are back together now and working our differences out. And I caught everybody and everything every

situation they were doing. It's a great book, if you are going through this situation. It was my textbook as I went through the whole thing. Rather than anything else. Thank you.” -- James Blakey, Oakfield, USA

Don't Be Stuck Wondering...

Discover The Truth About Your Cheating Spouse Right Now

You'll know in a few minutes that you'll receive a step-by-step guide showing you everything you need to know so you can find out the truth once and for all about whether or not your spouse is cheating on you. Then you can get back on track with your life. No need to spend all of the years and heartache to achieve success. Just follow the instructions and start getting results immediately. And with my instant money-back guarantee, there is literally NO RISK for you.

You can put and end to the fear, frustration and lingering doubts by visiting:

http://www.catchspousecheating.com

This book was created using eProfitMaker

www.eprofitmaker.com

Timestamp: 2018 January 22.

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