by Patrick Hurley

Created on: September 16, 2010

Think of a great romantic relationship like a pizza. Eight pieces interlocking together to form a love for the ages. If the two of you have these qualities in your romance, you will enjoy this pizza over and over again. Forever.

The first piece is Understanding. The male ego tries to comprehend the female mind. This is not an easy process, but a necessary one. You want to get to the point where one of your begins a sentence and the other finishes it! You look into each other's eyes and you both know what is going on there. This is the basis for all that follows in any great relationship.

Secondly, we have Communication. This is understanding acted upon in tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. It encompasses what you say and how you say it. Most successful marriages have this quality and it can either come naturally or it can be learned. But, it needs to exist in depth and texture or all that understanding will have no place to go. A fun reminder here, the average man says about 12,500 words per day and the woman says 25,000! Learn to work around that statistic.

The third piece is Appreciation. Honoring each other is critical to building your love. This includes mutual attentiveness, compliments, sacrificing, unselfishness and putting the other person first in the relationship. The King loves his Queen. The prince adores his princess. When others see you together they need to be whispering, "Oh, how they love each other!"

Next up is easy to type but very difficult to sustain: Honesty. There can be no relationship without trust. There is no trust without honesty over time and circumstance. Lying is so easy when it is difficult to tell the truth, but it is non-negotiable if you want a great romance. In most cases, even a little white lie can be devastating to this need we have to let someone really know us without reservation.

The next piece is Fun! You are not going very far as a couple if you do not enjoy each other's company in a variety of ways. Make your relationship a two person "amusement park!" Ride the coasters, scream with laughter in the fun house, be stupid in front of the crazy mirrors, smash each other's bumper car and cap it off with a double dipped cone of kissing and hugging! If you can laugh together you can love together forever. Make each other smile!

Arguing comes next. Yes, this is a very important part of romance because it needs to be done properly to keep the relationship going. Here are the basic rules.

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