Host: Do you have to make sacrifices to have a committed relationship?

Gloria MacDonald: Throughout any long-term relationship you will have to make sacrifices and I love this part of the definition of sacrifice from Webster's dictionary it's 'To forgo something of value for the sake of something having a more pressing claim.

' So, let's take the example of the diet. Say, you want to lose 20 pounds. You are going to forgo the chocolate cake for the sake of a more pressing claim so now, when it comes to your relationship there might be lots of little things that you might have to forgo for the sake of a more pressing claim.

So, you might have to forsake the need to be right for a more pressing claim of maintaining harmony and happiness and peace in the relationship. You might have to forgo constantly nagging at someone for the sake of a more pressing claim. You might have to forgo the need to constantly criticize or correct someone for the more pressing claim and you might have to yield in a battle for the more pressing claim of your relationship. So, stop trying to change your partner. That would be another thing that you might have to forgo is trying to change your partner for the more pressing claim of the overall good of the relationship. So, go back to what we were talking about just before that vision of your romantic relationship. What do you want? Do you want to be right or do you want to forgo your vision of that wonderful romantic relationship?

The problem is on the day to day basis we are letting go of our vision of the romantic relationship and we are doing little, mini-crash landings. So, do not drive your relationship plane into the ground. Unfortunately, that what's we are doing day in and day out with all of these little things because we do not forgo being right, needing to criticize, needing to correct, trying to change someone for the more pressing claim of your romantic vision of that wonderful relationship.