To make relationships last long enough, you need to understand a few things.
- TRUST: You need to trust the other person. How you get there is the challenge. If you don't trust, there is no relationship. How soon do you give up before giving someone a chance to trust them ? Again, thats the hard part.
- RESPECT the other person for who they are and not who you want them to be. My wife is very idealistic while I am more practical. But, I have learnt to respect her, her opinions, views and do not try to change them just because I don't believe in them.
- SACRIFICE: Gotta do this a lot. Did I say a lot. But the key is you should not feel bad sacrificing for the other person. How you get there again is the hard part.
- COMPASSION: Don't overdo but don't under-do. Right balance is the hard part again!!
My personal experience is that relationships tend to work well between people how have overall similar life goals. They could have very different individual ways of getting there but as long as the overall goals are in sync, it works. Even if you do all of the above well, there is no guarantee you will succeed. But if are not doing most of the things above, you will most likely fail sooner than later.