Listen to one another.
Paying attention to what your husband or wife is saying to you and making sure you understand him or her is key, says Bullard. In the first stage of the show, he adds, the couples start to learn how to communicate and one of the biggest challenges is listening to the other person and comprehending what he or she needs. If you want your marriage to work, you have to really hear what the other person is saying to you while also being able to discuss these matters – from the mundane to the serious. This is usually much easier said than done.
Be your husband or wife’s best friend.
“The most successful couples on our show are best friends, who listen to one another and have fun,” says Bullard. You can’t just be best friends in name only. You need to really feel it. In other words, your husband or wife should be the person to whom you turn to first in joy or crisis. He or she should be the one with whom you most enjoy spending free time. The bottom line is that successful couples are lovers and friends.
Remain hopeful and optimistic.
Newlyweds are hopeful by nature, says Bullard. You get married with the intent of making your relationship work and having your love last a lifetime. It might not always work out that way, but it usually starts with optimism. To maintain your commitment to one another, you have to keep hope for your relationship and the love you share alive. To do that, you have to keep each other feeling secure by communicating well, staying faithful to the vows and promises you made, maintaining a healthy sex life, and loving and respecting each other day in and day out. None of these things is easy, and sometimes you might need to work on them – you may even need professional help with one or two. But the important thing is to keep trying.
Work together like a team.
You and your husband or wife are a team, which means you have to learn how to work together to accomplish tasks big and small. The show, says Bullard, revolves around these competitions that have the couples doing just that. For example, in season two, the couples had to combat giant bugs that invaded the house. Bullard says they had to decide who would catch the bugs and how they would get them into a jar, which he adds, is the kind of thing that happens in homes across the globe. It seems like a small, trivial matter, but it can prove how the two of you get things done together. In fact, working like a team is probably what helped Johnnie and Crystal Moutra win the first season of Here Come the Newlyweds. Successful teams win a lot more than money.
