10 Stages of a Relationship

There are 10 distinct stages of relationships, and how you handle each stage will make or break your relationship success. The chances are good that you have already failed in both the beginning stages and the later stages, so if you want to make your current relationship or future relationship successful, it is important to understand where you are going wrong.

Stage 1: The Lust Stage
Gaining interest in someone is a stage in itself that could be considered part of the relationship. It is a lust stage where you take interest in someone and what you perceive they could offer you, and during this stage the hormones estrogen and testosterone take front and center stage to turn up the heat.
The only thing you need to do to make this work is pull out your list of must haves and deal breakers (you have one right?) and take a look at the person through a critical eye rather than a hormonal eye. Yes, they may get your juices flowing, but if they don’t have the qualities that you are looking for, or if they have all the qualities you want to avoid, then it is best to lust after them from afar. The lustful feeling will go away eventually and you will be glad that you didn’t get involved with someone who was not going to be a good fit for your life. But, if they fit your list, then you will move on to the next stage.

Stage 2: The Passionate Stage
This is a short stage, but it is important. It is the stage of a relationship where you have intense feelings for someone, so much so that you are willing to do things you normally wouldn’t do and devote all your free time to being with and thinking about them. This doesn’t have to be a sexual stage, although you will likely feel an intense sexual attraction.
The saying ‘love is blind’ was developed from this stage. All your partner’s annoying traits and habits fade into the background as you see their potential, their positive qualities, and their ability to make you feel amazing. The hormones that are being released are responsible for this stage. Adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine are rushing through you making you feel alive and full of pleasure and keeping your focus on your new partner.
To make this stage work, just enjoy it! There’s not much work involved with you are feeling passionate and in the right place with the right person. You need to enjoy this because you will want to recall this stage later on in your relationship when things get tough to remember those little things that you thought were amazing about your partner in the beginning.

Stage 3: The Attachment Stage
At the beginning of this stage, things will get heavier in your relationship. This is where commitment comes in and you move forward to the couple status. You become attached, see each other in your futures, and start to think about long-term plans with your partner. You introduce each other to your friends and family – if you haven’t done so already, and you start talking about each other to other people as your boyfriend and girlfriend.
To make this stage work, you have to build a solid foundation of trust, communication, and intimacy. You have to talk to each other, really get to know each other, and develop a bond that is going to help you get through struggles that are going to arise later on in your relationship. In fact, every stage after this one depends on you developing those things in your relationship.

Develop trust: Don’t try to hide anything about yourself. Be open and honest with your partner, let them know what you are thinking and what you are doing, and don’t lie – at all. That will help you build trust without holes. If you are not honest and open, and you lie even in the slightest, there will be small trust issues in your relationship that will grow into bigger trust issues down the line.
Develop communication: Make sure you agree to be upfront and honest with each other through your relationship. If you start from the beginning, you will have an easier time later on talking through bigger issues that occur that could be a death sentence for your relationship otherwise.
Intimacy: If you do not want to have sex until later in the relationship, that’s fine. But cuddling, holding hands, and kissing can help you form a tighter bond that keeps your relationship running smoothly.

Stage 4: The Examination Stage
As you learn more about each other, you may find some things that make you question your future together. This stage usually happens around the first few months of the relationship.
If you have ever heard of the three month rule, this is it. The three month rule basically says that if you can last longer than three months, you are probably going to last for a while. But, if you are going to break up, it will be around the end of the second month. This is the stage where most people go through a breakup. Fears and insecurities arise in this stage, and a commitment phobe will bail in it.
To make it through this stage, you have to be committed to staying together. You have to see or paint a bright future, and you have to really feel emotional in a positive way about the potential you have as a couple. Because you have started out on a solid foundation of communication, trust, and intimacy, you have an easier time working through this stage and staying together.

Stage 5: The Belief Stage
In this stage of your relationship, you form some solid beliefs about each other. You decide what annoys you about your partner and you get clear on how you are different from each other. Your true colors start to shine through, and all those bad things that you used to hide from your partner (like going to the bathroom or being consistently late for functions) starts to come out. This is because you didn’t change yourself during the first 4 stages of your relationship, you just adapted a little to win over your partner and they did the same thing. Now that you have each other, everything can be let loose.
To make it through this stage, adopt the philosophy that you are both doing the best you can in the relationship and the little things don’t matter. For instance, just because you don’t like the way they eat doesn’t mean you have to break up with them. Moreover, just because they are not living up to some expectation you have does not mean they are no good for you. They are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.