Are you ready to travel the world with your partner? A study shows that couples who travel together may need to learn how to handle conflicts correctly during trips, thereby strategically strengthening their connection. 😉
- Embrace hard conversations:
Hard conversations are the ones that might break the relationship. Actually, difficult but important conversations must happen as early as possible because the longer you wait, the harder the conversations will become (the problems will keep growing over time due to the snowball effect).
A relationship that has absolutely no argument isn’t a healthy relationship as perfection doesn’t exist – there’s probably something hiding behind the perfection. Realistically, a healthy relationship involves some healthy arguments, for nobody is living in a perfect world and the capability to handle conflict correctly is the key to success in love.
As to handling conflict tactfully, the most paramount principle is focusing on the behaviour/feelings rather than the person. Here’s an example:
“When ABC happens, I feel XYZ, so I’d appreciate it if you could…” (In this example, nobody is blamed; only facts/feelings are described – this technique is also known as ‘I’ message: describing how ‘I’ feel instead of blaming someone else.)
Most importantly, this example also kindly includes the change ‘I’ expect. As a result, the communication is clean and clear.
Research shows the No. 1 factor that contributes to people’s success in every area of life is emotional intelligence.
As for emotional intelligence in your love life while traveling the world, you have to know how to manage your emotions. When you can have hard conversations with her, she’ll be honest with you. That also means you need to draw out what her unmet need is without taking it personally – sometimes the truth isn’t pretty – you might feel upset simply because she tells you her needs aren’t met. Yet the prerequisite of improving a relationship is knowing what should be improved! So, knowing the truth is actually a green flag!
- Actions and words have to match:
After having a hard conversation with her, you would be well-advised to create an agreement that you’ll implement together. More importantly, you must stick to the new agreement.
If she sticks to the agreement well, you’d better give her some kind of reward. But if she violates the agreement, you should punish her bad behaviour tactfully. Let’s say the new agreement is not flirting with others. If she flirts with some guy at a party in front of you again, you’ll calmly say this to her on your way home, “What you did tonight is a huge turn-off. I can’t believe you did that again.” Then you peacefully give her several days to process what you’ve said. Women don’t want to turn their men off! Hence, she has to change her behaviour.
Actually, if you don’t give her some consequence, she won’t stick to the agreement in the future. It’s your responsibility to train your partner when you travel the world.
“In my opinion, holding things back only allows resentment to grow over time, so you must master communication, thereby ending conflict confidently.”
