Romantic relationships can certainly be very intimate, but the way you nurture them isn’t so different from professional relationships. | Image: Adam Tinworth via Flickr CC.
Have you ever considered that your professional and romantic relationships aren’t all that different? Okay, yes, there are some obvious examples of how these relationships differ, but at the end of the day, both require many of the same things to help them thrive.
Prominent businessman George R. Roberts once said, “For any partnership to succeed, you have to have certain shared values. So it’s really making sure that people are aligned with your interests, their values are shared, and they’re people that you can trust. You did perform for them, but they trusted you. Because after all, people do business with people they like and they trust.” He’s definitely referring to business partnerships in this quote, but I think that there’s a lot of good takeaways that could translate to a romantic partnership as well. Trust and shared values are the foundation of many strong romantic relationships, after all.
Health and lifestyle journalist Lisa Evans points out that “relationships are never easy, but being an entrepreneur presents a unique set of challenges when it comes to balancing the demands of work with the needs of a romantic partner.” Luckily, if you can approach your romantic relationship with a professional mindset and vice versa, both can truly thrive.
Debra Macleod, a relationship expert, agrees, explaining, “Productive workers have lower stress levels. Romance is good for business because you’re happy, you’re clear headed, [and] you have that kind of balance.” In this way, actively dedicating time to your romantic relationship(s) can have an instantly good impact on your professional one(s). It might seem counterintuitive to approach romance like a business decision, but doing so can really help nurture your intimate partner relationship, especially if work is important to you and takes up a lot of your time.
Based on insights from partners and authors of Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor, as well as Macleod, Evans lists a few ways that you can nurture both strong professional and romantic relationships. For one, be sure to schedule out time together. Doing so will give you something to look forward to, and will allow these dates to take priority amid your busy work schedule. Another important tips is to “keep business out of your bedroom.” Physical intimacy is probably the most glaring difference between a romantic and professional relationship, and as such, anything work-related has no place anywhere near the most intimate of moments with your partner.
What do you think of this advice? Have you ever tried applying any of this advice to your romantic or professional relationships?
