The Psychology of your 20s - 314. 5 signs they're the 'one'

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

"What makes someone “the one”? There is so much pressure tied into that question. Instead, it might be better to ask: how can we focus on recognising the key pillars of long-lasting, fulfilling love? In today’s episode, we explore some fundamental characteristics so you can discern whether they are “the one” for you, while also acknowledging that our soulmates are often built, rather than found. We explore: Unpicking the “one” narrative The difference between initial spark and lasting connection Love as a mutual, ongoing choice The fundamental pillars of long lasting relationships - shared values, emotional proximity, and reciprocal effort The role of intuition vs anxiety The need for authenticity and growth within a partnership If you’re feeling the pressure to pick the ‘right’ person, or want to learn about the fundamentals of deep connection, this episode is for you. Listen to my NEW PODCAST, Mantra: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Ckds0BoJDDpODInN9cWcc?si=b6ad5d555c1940e0  Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbegFollow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcastFor business: [e-mail]  The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist. "See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through some of the big life changes and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, welcome back to the show, welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, whatever you are in the world, it is so great to have you here back for another episode as we of course, break down the psychology of our 20s. Today, we are diving into a question that I'm going to almost guarantee has probably come up for every single one of us right now, whether you are in a long-term, stable, committed relationship, whether you have just started dating someone new, you're single now, you're somewhere in between. The question is, how do I know whether this

person is the one? How do I know I'm in the right relationship? How do I know and how will I know that someone is it for me? It's a very, I would say, anxiety-inducing question. Who we choose to be in a relationship with is, you know, life-defying. And even if you don't necessarily believe in the idea of the one or you're skeptical of the idea of a soulmate, there is still some kind of irrational part of ourselves that really questions whether we're going to find the perfect person for us, whether that person is out there and whether the person we're with now is actually that person. How can I tell that this is going to be forever? How do I know if it's going to work out? Unfortunately, you know, I can't really answer

that question for you, but it is a big one that comes up not just throughout our life, but especially in our 20s can be very natural to have doubts during this decade. You know, you are so young and there are so many people out there and you're constantly being told that. And so if the person that you're with right now isn't the one, well, you do kind of want to know now so you don't waste either of your time. You want to know that you, so that you can kind of explore what else is out there. Maybe you can meet someone on a deeper level or, you know, just in general, avoid regret of choosing the wrong person. So because, there is a lot of anxiety around this and also a lot of questions around what makes a relationship

good. Let's unpack this together. Like I said, I can't necessarily give you a magic formula because love is not that simple. But I do want to explore the idea of the one from a more psychological standpoint. Is it fact or fiction? How can we tell? But also, I want to explain why expert after expert will tell you that love is more than just a spark. It is about hard work. It is about compatibility. And you know, when I was younger, I used to hate that idea. Like honestly, I would be scared by that idea that love had to be work because I was like, everything else in life seems to be work. Surely love gets a pass. But, you know, the older I've gotten, the more I've found this idea quite comforting and actually really special. The idea of choosing to be with someone

rather than it just always being seamless and someone dropping right into your lap and it working, I honestly find that the work component of it is a lot more meaningful, but there is definitely a point where the work, like you can't just turn anyone into your soulmate. There are some critical ingredients that a relationship needs, that someone needs to have in order to be not just the one, but the right kind of one for you. So we're going to explore those five crucial. signs as well as seven questions you can ask yourself right now at this very moment to determine whether this relationship is right for you. Without further ado, my lovely listeners,

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Let's kick things up. off by kind of dismantling this idea of the one. Let's talk through this one narrative. You know, the notion of a singular predestined soulmate, it's very captivating because A, it's like incredibly romantic and B, and it might not seem this way, but it's also rather simple. It takes a lot of the legwork out of things. You know, there is this idea that when you meet the right person, you'll just know it will click, it will work, you'll be together forever. There's no need to keep searching, there's no need to wonder, what if. But here's a bit of a reality check. I think clinging too tightly to this, you know, a beautiful idea, but clinging too tightly to

this idea can actually be rather counterproductive. Why? Because it fosters a rather passive approach to love. It kind of suggests that your main job is just to discover this person, rather than to actively cultivate a relationship or to discover. yourself and what you want or be picky. It also, you know, as a secondary consequence, places a very impossible burden on one individual to fulfill all your needs, all your expectations. And it means that the moment the difficulties arise in a relationship, which they inevitably will, it can really cause us to question whether this person is the right person. Because if we have been told since we were children that love is just easy and it's

effortless and suddenly it's not, well then that kind of challenges the idea and it challenges our sense of stability. Beyond that, I do also think that the pressure to find the one definitely contributes to a lot of stigma around being single. It contributes to a sense that if you're single, you have somehow failed to, you know, complete this mission and complete your goal. And it's also this cultural script that we see time and time again that you cannot be happy and your life cannot begin until you have found the other person that was put on this planet to meet you where you're at. And I don't even think I need to get into how restrictive that is and also how completely incorrect it is as well, this idea that once that person, what happens if they, you know, they die?

Like, great, you're going to live a miserable life for the rest of your life. That's not true. You know, people meet the people they think of soulmates, they pass away, they meet other people who are brilliant. Like there are so many examples of having multiple people who can fulfill you. But this narrative of the one of a soulmate can create a very intense, often debilitating pressure. It can lead to feelings of inadequacy. I actually think it can put more stress on a relationship. And our lives are stressful enough as it is. We don't need that added pressure of perfection when we first meet someone. And in fact, thinking that you will be able to tell everything you need to know about someone from that first spark and that first meeting is actually probably causing you to see

someone through a very narrow lens. In fact, a 2005 study from Harvard, it's one of my favorite studies of all time. It was one of the first to actually use fMRI techniques to see what love looked like in the brain. This study found that the most primitive parts of this organ, of our brain are actually involved in that initial attraction. And those primitive parts of our brain are influenced by such an intoxicating combination of neurotransmitters, probably the most intoxicating combination you could find. When you first meet someone and you have the spark and you have the romance and the attraction, you are getting hit with dopamine, you are getting hit with adrenaline,

with cortisol, with vasopressin, with oxytocin, all of which cause you to behave and think in ways that you wouldn't normally. So not only are you feeling a lot of really positive feelings, but also all of these hormones and all of these neurotransmitters are also at times deactivating the neural pathways responsible for social judgment, meaning that you can't actually assess someone clearly. All those critical, all the neural machinery that you need

to make critical assessments of other people is essentially being silenced, It's being kind of suffocated by the noise of the attraction. And it's why the phrase love is blind hold so much truth. When we are only looking for a spark, we are looking at someone through a very restrictive lens. It means that we can't see them clearly. It also means that there may be other people sitting outside of that lens that we can't

see at all. There is an amazing book that I recommend to almost everyone, which is titled The Science of happily ever after. And in it, the author Dr. Tai Tashiro, he's a psychologist, he's an expert in interpersonal relationships. He points out that passion and chemistry, they get all the attention because they're glamorous and it's flashy and it's beautiful. But throughout all of his research, in long-term research trials, traits like agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness, things that might not show up on a first date, they're actually fine. more robust predictors of long-term relationship happiness. So let's reframe. Instead of this

cosmic lottery ticket where you find the one, let's just consider the possibility that someone becomes the one. Someone becomes the one through shared experiences, through mutual effort, and through a dedication to an evolving connection. Or consider the idea that there are actually many people who could be the right one or the right kind of one for you. The benefit of having this perspective in our 20s, particularly, I think is threefold. Firstly, it stops us from thinking that love is rare. And that means that we are going to be less restricted by a scarcity mindset in dating. We're going to be less restricted by this idea that we need to like, we need to find someone right now. Like there is someone out there and we are in a race against time to find them.

That's not a healthy approach to finding love, especially in a decade where love should be an addition and never something that feels restrictive. Secondly, I think it also takes us from being quite passive to being active in the quest for love. You know, you aren't just expecting someone to drop into your lap fully formed. You are looking for a co-pilot. And a co-pilot needs to be interviewed. they need to be tested. They need to prove themselves. If you are choosing a life partner, especially in your 20s when you are like an adult toddler, this person is going to hopefully

be with you for a very long time. They are perhaps going to raise children with you. They're going to make financial decisions with you. They're going to see you through major grief and job insecurity and moving house when it's just like when you've got a cold. Like they're going to see you through the worst things ever. You need a good co-pilot. You need someone who's like, willing to perform, not just someone who makes you feel gooey inside. We want both. And finally, I think the reason that this perspective is so healthy is that it allows you to value commitment just as much as you value chemistry, meaning you are also able to let go of bonds that aren't right for you. We've all had that feeling of meeting someone where, yes, you do magically click

with someone and it's sensational and you are talking all night and you are telling your friends about them and you think that you've found the one, but they're not ready. They're not ready for commitment. If we believe that there is only one person for us, we will continue to pursue that person and hold on tightly to the possibility of this person, even when it hurts and even when it gets in the way of a more healthy connection. But when you see love as an equation, an equation that also requires reciprocity, shared values, commitment, hard work. It's a lot easier for you to let that person go and to kind of carry on with your

life. Now, I know this might not be, you know, the romantic take that you were expecting, but I will say, just because personally I don't think that there is one soulmate or one person for each of us, does not mean that you can just pick up anybody on the street and turn them into the love of your life. That is not what I am arguing for. There are still some very critical things. needed to make a relationship work and some very deep emotional compatibility factors that will determine the long-term success of your relationship. And these are things that you can actually begin to notice very early on. And yet, when we look at couples who end up breaking up versus the ones who stay together, we see that those same things that you could have noticed at month

zero or month three are the ones that cause them to divorce and break up. So I want to talk about these factors. I've been teasing this for the whole start 15 minutes of this episode. Let's talk about those five signs that someone is right for you. The first critical sign is that they are excited about your life and you are excited about their life, not just in the early days, but when things do become more monotonous. We've already explained how, you know, in the early days, your attraction to someone is naturally heightened. That's maybe one word for it. You're obsessed with them. Basically, during those early periods, You are naturally excited by the novelty of this person and they just contain all of this newness,

you know, new stories, new interests, new traits, there's new people in your life that come in the door with them. That newness is really what defines the honeymoon period. The honeymoon period of like bliss, where there's no conflict, there's no fighting, everyone's really happy. All you do is like just talk and just like make out and just do fun things. That only lasts like six to 18 months. Like neurologically, people will say, oh, you know, our honeymoon period never ended. It did. Like, the way your brain, you know, thinks about this person and reacts to them and interprets them does change. But what takes over is something deeper.

And when the honeymoon period is over is when you do start to see a change in the relationship. And it's when the relationship either grows or breaks apart. And what determines what. what category or what road you're going to go down is something so small you might not even notice it. It's called bids for attention. So this is a concept that was highlighted by psychologist Julie and John Gottman. They're a couple. They are basically like the leading experts in relationship stability.

They founded a lab. It's called the Love Lab. Great name. Would have been great for like a bar as well or even a podcast Love Lab. So cute. And it's one of the first couples therapy clinics. It was opened in Washington in the 80s. Julian John Gottman, they literally created the idea of a healthy relationship.

Like, no, they were not the first ones to have a healthy relationship, but they were the first ones to label it, to want to know what it looked like from the inside, and to really try and convince people that it was something they could obtain and something that was important to understand. And they discovered these bids for connection. and they're really what defined the relationships that lasted in the couples that they saw and the ones that didn't. For example, imagine you come home from work one day and you say to your partner, oh my God, Becky from work was just so annoying. She was so annoying. And your partner goes,

oh, that's a bummer. That's all they say. You're going to feel a little bit rejected. You're going to feel a little bit silenced in that moment, right? Now instead, imagine if they said, oh, not again. like, what's she up to this time? Tell me all about it. Like, what was your boss saying? What was she doing? This kind of response is basically saying, I hear you, I see you, I'm excited about your life. And in those moments, that person is turning towards you, not just with their body, but with their reaction. They're inviting you closer in. Couples who remain together, and not just together, but together and happy, they turn towards each other's bids for. connection at a significantly higher rate compared to those who eventually separate.

So the couples who stay together, they match 86% or meet 86% of these bids for connection compared to couples who separate at 33%. How you respond to your partner's everyday attempts to engage, whether it's a comment about their day or a shared observation, is really important. Even if what they're saying isn't the most exciting thing, you should be excited by the fact that they're the one saying it. And that's our first question to really determine if you're with the right kind of one for you.

Are you at the end of the day interested in their life and are they interested in yours? The next sign is something that we kind of, I would say, brush over a lot, but who'd end up being kind of like the undoing of a relationship if we aren't careful? It's values. And not just values in terms of religious beliefs or having the exact, same kind of personality. It's deeper than that. It's do you see the world in a similar way to me? Do you have the same idea of love, the same idea of a good life, the same ideas of justice and fairness and kindness and work ethic? Those are really critical. Now obviously, you know, you aren't

going to go on a first date and immediately like sit down and ask someone, so who did you vote for? Or do you want kids? Or what's the biggest issue facing humanity? If you want to, though, go ahead. Like, I would love to know if you do that what their answers are. But it's about being aware of the fact that values and your moral standpoints are just as important as hobbies, similarities, attraction, all of those things. And I'm going to tell you why. So a 2016 study basically found that a lack of shared beliefs between a couple increased the risk of divorce by almost 19%. that's a lot of percent, 19 of them. Like, that's, that's, I'm not, I'm not betting on those chances.

And an even more recent study that was actually conducted this year 2025, it looked at over 300 married couples and it asked them to rate their own values, rate their spouse's values, and how satisfied they were at the end of the day in their marriage. Those who not only shared each other's values, but contributed to how they were expressed in the other person, i.e. they gave them opportunities to be generous. They gave them opportunities to be creative, to be a leader. They were much happier in that relationship. This phenomena that we have been describing it has a name. It's called value congruence theory. When two people share similar values, they are more likely to make similar decisions and therefore they are less likely to resent the other

person. That resentment is really just fuel for conflict, for arguments, for deep, moral and personal tension. So you're avoiding a whole lot of that. The question that I think gets straight to the heart of this, I think it's an incredible litmus test if you're kind of at like a fork in the road with your relationship. If you were suddenly in a coma for two years, would you be happy for your partner to run your life for you? Would you trust their decisions? If you want to have kids as well, I know this question might not be for everyone, but if kids are on the cards for you, they're something that you want. You can also apply this question to that future hypothetical as well. Would this person be the kind of parent I would want my kids to have? Would they teach them the values and the lessons

that I think matter? It is very easy in our 20s to not think about these things very, very much. And you know what? I get it. Like relationships are meant to be fun and passionate and spontaneous. And in the moment, sometimes you don't bring up moral, moral imperatives or moral questions or big philosophical deep things. But they are things that you can notice. And when you get serious about someone, you also have to get serious about what drives them in life. And also the fact that there are some things that you cannot change about them. And you shouldn't have to change either. Those values matter. Find a way to discern them.

Find a way to make sure that you are aligned. Okay, my lovely listeners, we are going to take a short break, but when we return, what are the three final signs that they are the right kind of one for you? And also, let's get to those seven questions that you can ask yourself right now if you want to be able to tell, is this person right for me? So stick around. We'll be right back after this short break. 2%.

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Welcome back. Let's get straight into it. I don't know about you, but I have heard a lot of couples talk about how they don't really argue. You know, they don't really fight. They haven't had a conflict in five years of being together. Maybe people will come at me for saying this, but I always think someone's lying in the situation. Either you are lying to me or your partner or one of you is lying to the other one about their true feelings. Because healthy couples and And people who are meant to be with you, like, they fight and they fight well. That's our third sign for today is that when you're with the right person, miscommunications and arguments, they aren't deal breakers, you don't shy away from them.

You also do it well. And you appreciate that they are actually relationship expanders because in the occasional kind of ugliness of disagreements, like you really get to see who someone really is and you get to learn. so much stuff about, you know, things like their childhood. You get to learn about their coping mechanisms. You get to learn about how they see the world, how they deal with pain, how they deal with discomfort. Like there is so much in that. Let me explain. So being able to argue well in a relationship is essential because conflict is not only inevitable. It's also a sign of engagement, like a version of those emotional bids that we talked about before. Sometimes people

try and get attention through starting conflict. And if another person can learn to deal with that and understand where that's coming from, that can be a really amazing way of knowing someone better. We're also going to talk about those same researchers as we did before Dr. Julie and John Gottman and what they've had to say about white conflict is such a predictor in their minds of long-term relationship success. So they have, like I said, studied literally thousands of couples over the last decade. And what they found when it comes to conflict is that there are four different conflict or communication styles that will destroy a relationship, like almost as quickly as infidelity or anything else. These are called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They are criticism,

contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling. Here is a crazy number for you. These things can consistently predict divorce with over 90% of an accuracy rate. So if you have one of these things in your relationship, the Gottman's and all their research say 90% of the time, we can link that to a divorce. Let's talk through these four horsemen. The first is criticism. Criticism in a relationship. It's more than just complaining. It is attacking the person, not just the behavior. Instead of saying, like, if you live with your partner, I'm upset that you didn't do the dishes, it sounds like you're someone who is lazy and you're someone who doesn't clean up after themselves and you're someone who never helps out. So as soon as you get into an argument,

it's not about the problem that you two are dealing with together. It's about the other person and a flaw that they have. And how is someone going to react to that? Immediately they're going to react with defensiveness or shame or sometimes like a need to get back at you. That's the first one. The second is contempt, and they say this is the most destructive of all. It involves speaking from a place of superiority. Mocking, eye-rolling, name-calling, sarcasm, things that display, disgust, things that say to someone, I'm better than you.

You know, you are crying and you're upset at your partner, and they say, oh, God, you look so pathetic. I can't believe I have to explain this to you again. Like this is like the 20th time. I've told you you're so stupid. Now, it's when I say that it's the 20th time I've told you, it's not that you are genuinely like trying to bring up past grievances and explain like, we've talked about this before.

It's like you are angry at someone and you are willing to cut them down for it. And you have resentment deep in your bones that is coming out through conflict. So Gottman found this is the single greatest predictor of divorce because, is it erodes the most crucial part of a relationship, which is respect. Third, we have defensiveness. Now, defensiveness is kind of, like, it's actually self-protective, but it can often sound like blame shifting or denial. So instead of taking responsibility for an action, or if you bring up a criticism,

instead of saying, yep, I fully own that, a defensive partner might say, like, it's not my fault that I've done this or you made me do this because of this reason or I only acted that way because you provoked me. It escalates conflict because it invalidates the other person's experiences and it avoids accountability. And so often what this research says is that people who end up doing this are actually people who are very much overly criticized as children. And so they don't want to see that criticism reflected in their relationship, but it means that when it's a valid thing to bring up, like they can't, their tolerance for it is so low that they can't even take that. So defensiveness is a third and the final one is stonewalling. And this occurs when the other

partner just shuts down, goes silent, walks away, completely emotionally withdraws, that they don't want to have it out with you. I saw this thing the other day, this, I guess it was a quote, it was in like a publication. It basically said, it was from a, sorry, it was from a relationship expert slash couples counselor. And she said, the biggest sign that I know a breakup or a divorce is coming is when they don't even care about fighting anymore. When the other person just completely taps out, they don't even, they don't see there being a reason in having conflict. If it's not addressed, these things ruin a relationship, they ruin them. On the other hand, couples who replace these behaviors with empathy, who take responsibility, who are attuned to each other,

deliberately, they tend to resolve conflict more successfully. And it actually is something that they reflect back on and say, wow, that actually really deepened our emotional bond. Can you argue well? That's really the question here. It's not about suppressing your anger. It's not about avoiding confrontation, the healthiest couples. They disagree just as much as unhappy ones. the difference lies in their use of what we call repair attempts. So they deescalate tension, they make a joke, they express affection, they clarify misunderstandings in the middle of the disagreement rather than afterwards. You know, if you accidentally like snap at your boyfriend in the car because you're really

frustrated or angry, but then you are the first one to apologize and you really do lean over and you put your hand on his knee and you say, I'm sorry and I understand why I did that. those small moments are really powerful signals of emotional safety and that powerful signals of someone not having ego in their relationship. And that emotional safety especially is something that I think, and I wish we talked about just as much as the spark, just as much as love at first sight or butterflies, all those things are amazing. But feeling like you always have a place to kind of come home to, like you could literally

lay out everything on the table and they wouldn't look away from it, that's like a whole new level of intimacy. If you want to know whether someone is the right one, have a fight. See, see what happens. Okay, we're going to go in like literally the complete opposite direction now, like the furthest point left. If we have fighting at one end, you have fun and you have good times on the other. And this is sign for life feels exciting with this person, even when it's is from the outside, very, very boring. A soulmate, whether it's a soulmate you've found or a soulmate or a soul connection that you've built, brick by brick, someone that you were in a relationship who was right for you, they should ultimately make you feel lighter. And a big part of

that is humor and laughing and jokes and fun. Having mundane fun with your partner, doing stupid stuff at the grocery store or giggling like kids before you go to bed. That is a powerful psychological marker of long-term compatibility. I think the reason that it is so powerful is that it shows that your connection isn't dependent on really big moments and a lot of flurry and excitement. It's really grounded in shared presence and ease and a natural sense of like childlike nature and play. Small moments, that's really what it's based on. And surprise, surprise, what is life made up of, but small moments. And so if your relationship can flow and thrive in that natural ebb of the basic things you do every day, like if your love is made up of small moments, the way that life is,

I feel like it naturally feels so much more stable and special and easy. There's one study in particular that really captures the importance of this and I want to talk about it today. it was conducted by the psychologist Arthur Aaron. Now, you might know him from his 36 questions to fall in love experiment. If you haven't heard of this basically, he came up with these 36 questions and he posited that if you sat two people down in a room and asked them to ask, the other person these questions, questions that got increasingly intimate, these two people could easily, he could make them fall in love. And there's a very famous story. that the first time he did this experiment, literally two of the participants who had never met

each other before were married six months later. And it's become like a bit of folklore. So he's basically the closest thing that we have to a scientific matchmaker. And in the early 2000s, he did this study on how fun and novelty affects romantic satisfaction. So he got 178 couples. They answered like a newspaper ad. And half of them were asked to engage in a really novel exciting activity. I think they did an obstacle course together and the other half did like a neutral activity where they were just asked to sit and talk to each other. Those who participated in the playful novel experience, they reported significantly higher relationship satisfaction afterwards, not because of the activity itself, but because it reignited a sense of shared joy and shared

spontaneity. What's fascinating, what's even more fascinating, actually I should say, is that follow-up research showed even mundane activities. If they were approached with a playful attitude had a similar effect on emotional closeness. You don't have to go out and do an obstacle course. You don't have to go out and do an extravagant date night. Just bringing that playful energy to small moments is the real powerful antidote or the real powerful substance here. It's the shared emotional tone, not the setting that I think really makes the moment

meaningful. The deeper thing about fun in particular and why it's so beneficial for a relationship and so indicative of whether someone is right for you is that it is protective. Fun is protective. It acts as a shield, an emotional shield, even in bad times. The average couple who is, let's say, going to be together for 20 plus years is going to go through 20 plus really hard moments. Death, grief, financial difficulties, job insecurity, natural disasters, whatever it is, it's inevitable. Lingering on those moments is what makes life really heavy, not just the moments themselves. And the thing that fun and play does is that it actually accentuates the positive things in life so that all the good stuff feels louder and it feels grander and it feels more important than the negative

things. And if you have a partner who can bring that out, obviously your outlook on life is going to be better. your relationship is going to thrive under those conditions. There was this beautiful video that I saw recently from an Australian couple. They've been married for 67 years and they were being interviewed like on what's the secret to their marriage? Like everyone wants to know. And I kid you not in this video like they are canoodling. They are still totally in love like they are talking about how the other person is everything

to them. And the wife said the most important thing is to have a sense of humor. and if you don't have that, don't even bother getting married. And that just really stuck with me. Like life is meant to be fun. Love is meant to be fun. If you're crying every day, if you can't laugh with them, if it feels heavy, that's going to make your life heavy.

So if someone is right for you, they will bring joy, they will bring lightness, they will bring laughter. Probably one of the easiest ways to say is this person going to make my life better. So we are at our final point for today's episode, the final sign that someone is the one. And it is about as simple as the sun coming up. The final sign is that you simply just admire them. You just really admire this person. I was speaking to my friend the other day about her husband and I was like, when did you know?

When did you know that you should marry him? She goes, I don't think I ever knew, but every single day I wake up and I just think he is the coolest person I've ever met. And I was like, wow, that is such a great way to put it. I think honestly, the best relationships, I at least believe this, are when both people think the other person is out of their league. Both people think the other person is better than the other person. It brings obviously mutual respect, but also like, if you think the other person, you think the other person, is like the coolest person in the world to steal my friend's words or like just amazing. It's going to constantly make you want to be better for them and want to show up for them

and want to keep winning them over throughout the years. When we admire our partner as well, we also see them as someone that we want to learn from and we want to grow alongside. The psychologist Carl Rogers, he calls this unconditional positive regard, valuing someone for who they are without trying to change them. And in a healthy relationship, this admiration becomes reciprocal. When both partners feel genuinely seen and respected for their strengths, it really makes both people feel worthy. It makes the partnership feel better.

Mutual admiration also fosters something we refer to as idealization. The tendency to see our partner in an idealized light, not out of delusion, but as a motivational force. So we can't idealize them to the point where, you know, things about them that are actually terrible are invisible. we want to idealize the parts of them that are amazing and in our minds become even more amazing. There was another recent piece of research that found that partners who idealized each other to a moderate degree, so seeing their partner is slightly better than they saw themselves, they did actually report greater relationship satisfaction over time. So this kind of positive illusion, it's not naive, it's not silly, it's actually a buffer.

It's a buffer for the relationship against, you know, disappointments, against hard times, because we consistently brought back to this idea of their goodness and this idea of their potential. And it also creates a really good feedback loop. You know, if they believe that I'm great, I want to live up to it. And so I will. And then you think they're even more great. And, you know, you see where this is going. It's a positive upward spiral.

So with all that in mind, with all those amazing science, that someone is the right kind of one for you. I want to give you a final list of seven questions to ask yourself when you find yourself facing this anxiety-inducing question. I know this question comes up a lot for people who have relationship anxiety and relationship OCD and we've done a whole episode on that. I'm not going to get into it, but sometimes you can logically know that someone is absolutely perfect for you and amazing and still feel this sense of doubt.

and it doesn't mean that you're a bad partner and it doesn't mean that you should break up with them. There's so much other complex stuff going on underneath. I also think if you're a bit of perfectionist, you're really scared of the idea of settling or of something in your life not being perfect in the moment and perfect in the future. And that can cause you to look at your relationship with a lens of such intense scrutiny that, of course, you're going to find something bad with it. So in those moments, ask yourself these seven questions. And I think it will give you some clarity. Firstly, when you imagine a life without them, do you feel relieved or do you feel a sense of loss? Does a future with them feel exciting or does it feel daunting? Do they challenge me in a way

that makes me want to get better? Do they reciprocate my energy, my love, my effort? Do I admire who they are, not just what they do for me? Does our relationship feel love? light or does it feel heavy? Would I trust this person to make good decisions about my life on my behalf? Those are our seven questions. I feel like it's a nice little checklist to come back to if you needed it. But as for today's episode, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that it's given you some clarity on whether you are with the one, whether you are with the right kind of one if you don't necessarily believe in soulmates. And some of the just beautiful, fascinating science behind what makes love last from couples who've been together for decades to the indicators that we

can see from like the first few months of a relationship that will tell you, is this good, is this bad? Will this love grow? Will it fade? So I hope you have learned a lot. I certainly have. I've been talking about this episode in my kind of, I guess, findings all week to my friends, especially like my friends who are just out of dating people and like, does he do this or does she do that? So hopefully you can bring this knowledge into your own life and scrutiners, your own friends. With that in mind, make sure you send them this episode if you think that they would get a kick out of it or you think they would enjoy it. Make sure you are following along on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you are listening and give us a five-star review.

It really helps the show to grow and to evolve. And hi, if you have made it this far, well, this is the secret club that we have at the end of the episode where if you make it to the end, you get an emoji so you can leave it in the comments below. I think our emoji would just be a heart. Choose whatever color you want. Whatever, whatever color is best representing your love life at the moment. Color of heart. I think that's like, let's do a little check in on how everyone's feeling about love at the moment. But again, thank you for listening. Make sure you're following us on Instagram. I always forget what to say at the end of the episodes. but yes, make sure you're following us on Instagram at That Psychology Podcast so you can know what episodes are coming out next, join the conversation even further, send episodes

suggestions my way, and we will be back next week. Stay safe, be kind, be gentle with yourself. We will talk very, very soon. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones.

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