Partnership means different things to different people, but the researchers who study successful partnerships (in other words, the ones which endure over time, the ones where the partners themselves report feeling satisfaction) suggest that partnership is made up of certain predictable components.

The researchers and writers I respect the most are John Gottman, Ph.D., Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and a married couple Maurice Taylor, M.A. and Seana McGee, M.A.

In other articles I’ll be exploring what are considered to be the key partnership attributes.  But first, what comes before partnership?  A lot of preparation. A lot.

I could easily spend the next year writing about potential partners who are emotionally unavailable and how to identify them, how to find the wo/man of your dreams, how to flirt, what to do and not do on dates, tips and techniques for all manner of things, but what I’m most interested in is partnership and the elements of partnership.  The proverb failing to plan is planning to fail comes to mind – if we don’t know what we’re aiming for, then we’re going to miss it for sure.  So I’m going to start with thoughts on partnership and explore from that platform.

Some key elements of partnership I’ll be exploring:

1. chemistry
2. emotional availability
3. knowing one another deeply
4. managing conflict
5. making each other a priority
6. having shared meaning
7. influence and compromise
8. nurturing one another
9. having emotional integrity
10. the role of spirituality and personal growth