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A Psychologist’s List of the 6 Most

Common Mistakes We Make in
Relationships
And how to avoid them so yours will succeed

Niklas Göke Oct 16 · 7 min read

Photo by Artur Tumasjan on Unsplash

If your wife asked you to give a podcast interview with not just her but also
your ex-;ancée, who happens to be a psychologist, how would you
respond?

Andy Levine faced this exact question, and even though it sounds like a
great way to blow your marriage, he said yes. Andy has been married to
Sharleen Joynt, an opera singer and former Bachelor contestant, for ;ve

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years.

In the 5th episode of their podcast, Dear Shandy, Margie, clinical

psychologist — and Andy’s ex-;ancée — makes an appearance. Besides
turning a terrifying prospect into an insightful conversation, Margie also
shares the most concise list of relationship dos and dont’s I’ve ever come
across.

She’s a true “bottomless pit of wisdom,” as Sharleen describes her. Here are
the 6 most common mistakes Margie sees us make in dating and love — and
how to avoid them so your relationship can thrive.
WRITTEN BY

Niklas Göke

1. Give yourself time to become someone you like

I tell stories to help
you live better. I’ll
treat you with It’s common among friends, particularly men: Someone suggests a get-
respect and value
your time. I promise. together. Something “active. A hiking trip, perhaps, or a cycling tour. No
Join 80,000 others.
one has done any exercise for months, but somehow, you end up on an
excursion roughly equivalent to an Ironman triathlon — and spend the next
Follow
three days on the couch, waiting for your butt to stop hurting.

According to Margie, we do the same thing in relationships: We try to run

2.7K
before we can walk.
6
Top highlight
“When you really give yourself permission to take your time, to really become
someone that you like, somebody that you enjoy being, with a life that you
enjoy having, you will attract somebody that you like. If you’re someone you
like, you will attract someone that you like.”

In other words: You can’t ;nd true love before you truly love yourself.

Your life will never be perfect, and you can’t exactly time when you’ll meet
“the one,” but until you feel genuinely satis;ed with your life as is — your
work, your health, your non-romantic relationships — that should be the
baseline you’re working towards, not “let me get a partner who can ;x it.”

“Everybody knows what that feels like — when you arrive within yourself
and you’re living in the heart of who you are. You start to attract the right
people and things. And if you’re not there, you know it too, and so give
yourself the time to get there,” Margie says. Amen.

2. Allow your relationship to reach a point of

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conflict
Sticking with the hiking metaphor, when you walk alone in the woods, a
narrow path will suSce. If you walk next to your partner, however, the two
of you will need a wider track. To stay together, you must ;nd a new way —
a way neither of you might have chosen on your own.

This is what it means to resolve conUict in your relationship, but, according

to Margie, a lot of people never even allow theirs to get there. “It’s not that
you want to seek out conUict with your partner, but it’s important to test
whether the relationship has the capacity for growth.”

How you do this matters less than that you do it, she says:

“I’m not saying you need to sit down as two zen masters and just share your
feelings. No, you can have a blowout Fght, do whatever, but is it productive?
Are you able to get somewhere new and resolve things that are not working?”

“What is the relationship asking of us?” is the key question here, Margie
says.

Your relationship should grow, not contract, after each ;ght. For it to do so,
you need the words “I’m sorry.” You need empathy, patience, and humility.

You need to ;nd the path with enough space for both of you, and while it
may not always be the fastest, it’ll be the one on which your relationship
can last.

3. Understand that you can’t change other people

One reason your relationship will naturally reach a point of conUict is that
— duh — you’re two diXerent people! Eventually, you’ll disagree on
something, and that segues right into Margie’s next lesson:

“The most important lesson is to understand that we cannot change other

people. Other people are beautiful and perfect as they are. They don’t exist to
be who we need them to be.”

In fact, if you’re constantly frustrated that people aren’t who you need them
to be, you should evaluate whether you actually love them, Margie says.

“That’s not really love, that’s gratiFcation. Love is about loving somebody

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who’s not exactly who you need them to be and loving them anyway.”

Or, in Andy’s words: “Fixer-upper is for houses, not people.” If your partner
wants to change, that’s an eXort you can support, but it’s not for you to
decide when, how, and why other people evolve. That just leads to
entitlement, grati;cation, and manipulation. The exception to the rule?
Lead by example:

“If you’re willing to change yourself, you can change the relationship — and
thereby change the person. But that’s not because you changed them, it’s
because you allowed yourself to be part of that change.”

Still, never change in hopes of changing your partner. “Understanding that

you can’t make people diXerent is a really liberating thing.”

4. Accept that romantic love is conditional

Just because you shouldn’t expect people to change does not mean you
need to accept everything they do. This sounds like a contradiction, but
actually, it’s a balance. Maintaining this balance is why, sometimes, the only
way to advance a relationship is to end it.

If your partner starts smoking and smoking is a no-go for you, you can
observe the situation for a while. You can see if they have a desire to stop
you can support, and you can try being accommodating to your partner’s
habit. Realistically, however, you can neither expect them to change nor
give up your principle. This might be a line in the sand you can’t overcome.

“Adult relationships are not like parent-child relationships,” Margie says.

“When a parent loves a child, it really is unconditional.” When two adults
come together, however, it’s normal to expect some form of give and take.

Don’t test how much your partner loves you. Don’t play child-like games.
Don’t expect them to take whatever you dish out, Margie says. It’s not fair.

“Understanding that there is a conditional aspect to adult partnership is a way

to help couples operate with more respect towards one another.”

You’re not a bad person for not laughing oX every stupid decision your
partner makes, and neither are they for not putting up with all your antics.

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You’re two grown up people, living in the real world. Act like it.

5. Anything is okay — as long as you can talk about

it
Margie’s hero is Mr. Rogers, who, for over 30 years, taught children about
feelings, rationality, and relationships through his TV show. Her favorite
quotes of his is that, “if it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.” In other words:

“Anything is okay — as long as you can talk about it.”

Whatever problem you have in your relationship, when you talk about it,
you’re already working on it. Bring up important issues. The trick here is to
realize that anything is mentionable, as Mr. Rogers would say:

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can

be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less
overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.”

Don’t be afraid. Talk about your feelings.

6. Let go of any issue that’s less important than the

relationship itself
Returning to the woods one last time, Andy explains how to avoid small
spats:

“If you live in the woods, and you get familiar with your neighborhood, you’re
like, ‘Oh, this is a place where there’s a snake. This is a place where there’s
poison ivy. This is a place where I’ll trip over this log every single time and
sprain my ankle.’ Eventually, you’re just like: ‘Oh, I can avoid all these things.’”

Not pushing your partner’s buttons is a good start, but you’ll also have to let
go of bigger issues — as long as they are not more important than the
relationship itself. Andy learned this in his relationship with Margie:

“The importance of the relationship always took precedence over everything

else. The relationship is like the queen bee. Nothing else matters. Protect the
queen. Even if I was resolute, ‘I am right and she is wrong,’ I was like, ‘Is it
really important enough to cause a fracture?’ And it wasn’t. Ever.”

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Your relationship will never be the only thing that matters in your life, but
you’ll face situations in which you must decide that it matters more than
anything else. Margie con;rms:

“You put the ‘We’ above the ‘I.’ At a certain point, you’re willing to say, ‘Even
though I’m angry, even though I’m hurt, this “We” is the cup that we both
drink from, and we want to keep it Flled. If I’m vengeful or spiteful, I’m not
going to have anything to drink. So let’s keep nourishing this cup.’”

Some problems must be solved. Most needn’t be. Protect your relationship.

All You Need to Know

With her charming soberness, Margie ends the conversation: “Wasn’t the
best learning you ever had all the stuX that was miserable?”

For Andy, the “stuX that was miserable” led him to marrying Sharleen, a
relationship he describes as “so rock solid that I can have this memory lane
conversation with my ex-;ancée, and I know we’re not gonna have a ;ght
about this.”

You might not end up on a podcast with your spouse and ex-;ancée, but if
this rock-in-the-ocean kind of relationship is what you want, heed Margie’s
advice:

Give yourself time to become someone you like

Allow your relationship to face conUict

Understand you can’t change other people

Accept that romantic love is conditional

Talk about anything

Let go of everything less important than the relationship itself

Like life, love ;nds a way. It might not send you the perfect partner
tomorrow, but if you avoid the biggest traps, it’ll soon ;nd it’s way to you
too.

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Thanks to Michael Thompson and Jordan Gross.

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