How To: Make a Long Distance Relationship Work

Long distance relationships are hard, and 75 percent of them end in a break up. Growing up I always thought that long distance couples were completely ridiculous, and I couldn't understand why anyone would even attempt one. It seemed mind boggling to me that people would want a boyfriend or girlfriend, and all the hardships that already come with the relationship package, and not even get to see them often.

Senior year in high school this was my philosophy. I vowed I would not have a girlfriend before I went to college, which was silly because I wasn't much of a ladies man to begin with, and did not want any restrictions entering college. I knew I was going to be going far away to college, so any kind of love connection just seemed like an emotionally painful idea to me.

Half way through the year, I met a girl one night out at a local club. Long story short, we started seeing each other periodically, not calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend because I was still against the whole idea of it. A few months go by, and no we are officially dating, but plan on breaking up and staying friends when we both go off to college. Two days before I leave for college, I get cold feet. My girlfriend made it clear she wanted to try and say together, and eventually I realized that is what I wanted to. So yes, I am in a long distance relationship...

That was three years ago. After a lot of work, planning, and strategy, my girlfriend and I have managed to overcome the odds and stay together much longer than one would have assumed. In this post I am going to list out the main factors of successfully maintaining a long distance relationship, in my opinion.

TOP 5 FACTORS OF A SUCCESSFUL LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP!

1. Trust
- This is the most important factor of any relationship, but is critical in a long distance one. Most of the attempted relationships I have seen fail because the couple had limited trust for one another. Jealousy, restriction of activities and friends, and fighting are all side affects from a lack of trust. You have to believe in your partner! Let them do what they want, go where they want, and be friends with who they want. Trying to control one other due to fear of being hurt will only cause resentment, and end up hurting both people involved regardless. If the person you are dating cant be trusted around friends, members of the opposite sex, or in certain environments or situations, then the relationship may not be worth keeping.

2. Honesty
- This goes hand in hand with trust. Honesty is the best way to gain someones trust. When you lie, it makes you appear sketchy, or have secrets you are trying to hide. Be an open book to avoid causing animosity. Tell your partner what you doing, and who you are doing it with. When you lie about these things, it causes a web of lies when you have to cover your tracks. When the inevitable happens, and someone gets caught in a lie, the trust between the two of you will start to decay.

3. Communication
- In this day and age, staying in touch with each other should be a breeze. (For example, social media apps, cellphones, email, etc.) However, the best way to communicate with  one another is by actually picking up the phone and making a phone call. I know, seems like I'm asking you to travel back into the stone age right? In society today, people seem to prefer texting over talking on the phone. When you send and read a text, information can be misread, misconstrued, and end up not having the desired affect you are trying to get across. Hearing someone's voice is much more personal because it hold emotion in every word spoken. Making time to talk to one another on the phone at least once a day will help maintain the passion within the relationship. A simple call to say goodnight could mean a world of difference.

4. Scheduled Visits
- Make plans to see one another! The hardest times being away from my girlfriend are when I don't know when I will see her again. That is why before every semester, we sit down and plan when and where we will see each other next. For this you must take everything into consideration. Budget, time, school, there are a lot of factors that need to be thought out. However, in the end it is all worth it. It is nice knowing when you will see each other next, because it gives each of you something to look forward to. This step helps maintain interest in the relationship, and prevents one from feeling like their efforts are worthless, and losing hope.

5. Effort
- Finally, effort needs to be made in order to make a long distance relationship work. All of the above factors require effort, but sometimes times adding a little more can have an immensely positive affect. Here are some things one could do in order to portray a little extra effort.

• A personal gift or surprise
• A surprise couples trip or event
• Saying extra nice things to one another (For example guys, if you girlfriend ever sends you a picture of an outfit she is wearing, the fallowing response should always be along the lines of, "you look stunning.")
• Always saying good morning & goodnight. 
• Saying, "I love you / I miss you," as much as possible!

To sum up, these are the main points of keeping a successful long distance relationship. Hopefully this was helpful to anyone in this situation. If you ever need any other advice or examples, feel free to check out my youtube channel ( MikeMGTV ) in order for some relationship advice, or example videos with my girlfriend. If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to comment on the videos or message me on there! 

Again, I hope this post was helpful, and provided some inspiring information to anyone reading it. Have an awesome day, and keep the love going! 

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