Do you wear your heart on your sleeve or are a helpless romantic? Maybe you’re a chronic giver who will do anything in the name of love, regardless how much or little your partner puts into your relationship.

When you’re stepping into a new relationship, it’s only natural to be consumed with a new partner. The chase and the honeymoon phase is some of the most enjoyable moments of a relationship. Indulge. However, don’t let your life, career or friendships suffer.

For some of us, when we decide we like someone and decide to pursue the relationship further, we allow other relationships –friends and family – suffer and allow our lives to be reorganized by this new person.

It is possible to still fully charge into a new relationship and keep your life in order says Stephen Hussey, co-author of best-selling book Get The Guy.

Here are Stephen Hussey’s 3 tips on how to not lose yourself in a relationship as published originally on Get The Guy Blog:

1. Derive fulfillment from multiple areas of your life

People tend to over-invest in relationships too early when they don’t have fulfillment in other areas of their lives.

They get addicted to that early relationship stage and put the ‘initial romance feeling’ on a pedestal – usually because they’d rather get lost in one relationship after another than deal with other problems in their lives.

Resist the temptation to immediately make relationships your full-time project – it puts too much pressure on it to succeed and scares the other person off. The best way to be an incredible partner is to be self-fulfilled and not rely on someone else to be your only source of fun and fulfillment.

Just because something is enjoyable and the most fulfilling area of your life, it doesn’t mean it’s the onlygood thing for you in the long-term.

If you need to diagnose whether you’ve lost yourself in a relationship, ask yourself these questions:

• Are many of your close friends constantly complaining that you’ve gone off the radar and never see them anymore?
• Is your career/work starting to fall behind and are old priorities taking a complete backseat? Are you letting others down due to poor performance?
• Do you tend to obsess about every interaction with your new partner and worry to an unhealthy level about how they feel towards you?

If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to get back on track and re-adjust your priorities to avoid losing other important areas of your life outside your new relationship.

 

2. Be strong enough to speak your mind and set terms

In the early stages, your instinct is to be agreeable, and even let important conflicts slide because you’re so infatuated with a guy. But that urge can lead to a lot of trouble later on.

Be strong-minded enough to communicate what you need early on and state your expectations – it’s the easiest and quickest way to find out if it will work in the long-term.

 

3. Be a realist

Relationships are always incredible to begin with. Which is why it’s important not to get ahead of yourself in the early stages and be aware of how little you actually know about this person yet.

Remember, for the first few months they are still on their best behaviour.

In the early stages of a relationship, it’s easy to get hooked because you have ATTRACTION and COMFORT. And the combination of the two (especially if you’ve gone from being single and having neither of these things) can make you sink into the relationship and become addicted to the enjoyment of it.

But it’s important to remember that you still have an essential element to develop: CONNECTION.

That’s the part you have to wait and allow to develop. To avoid losing yourself then, be a realist and remind yourself that even if you are totally smitten with this person and feel completely comfortable with them, you still don’t know them on a deep level, and there is still all kinds of potential for you to learn things about them that might make them less than ideal as a long-term partner.

This isn’t pessimism – it’s just realizing that you have a lot to learn about this person yet, and to be aware of the potential for things still not to work out in the longer term.

Be careful not to assume you are made for each other too quickly. See things as they really are right now and not how you wish they will be in the future.

I know this can all sound negative and like I’m taking the shine off of the initial romance phase. But that’s only because it’s a common moment when people tend to let their life go off the rails if they’re not careful.

And a relationship should never derail you – if it does, it’s either because you need to balance your priorities, or it’s because you’re taking on a passenger (i.e. your new partner) who is only going to cause more problems later on down the line.

That’s why keeping on track and moving forward in other areas is the best long-term investment you can make for sustaining romance.

Besides, no-one ever got excitement from a train that stands still.