I had a friend in what he considered a bad marriage because his wife couldn’t meet his expectations. His therapist said to lower his expectations by imagining that she was 12 years old. Would he expect the same organization and planning abilities from a 12 year old? When I heard about this I thought it was brilliant and it fixed my own expectations when interacting with her. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t want to be married to a 12 year old, and they are divorced now. A shame, she’s a wonderful lady. The therapist didn’t mean treat her that way in all regards, just with respect to planning. The reason relationships fail so often is this bizarre expectation that people have that their partners will be excellent at everything. Nobody can meet that expectation. Decide what flaws you can live with, then be with that person. If you can’t live with any flaws then please don’t get into a relationship. Thanks for yet another timely and needed article Sean!