How To Be A Good Girlfriend: Relationship is a union where, ideally speaking, two lovers are committed to balance their personal interests in favour of each other. It is always a question of how to get it right and how to be the best partner to the other. Relationship comes with commitment and there are expectations from the both sides which are best to live up to. One person cannot make a good relationship; it has to be the two partners working together from their both ends to make it work.
Thus, there is no such thing as a perfect girlfriend. There will always be flaws, misunderstandings, mistakes and neglects in a relationship. Being a good girlfriend tends to cover flaws, fosters unity, love and tolerance and limits misunderstandings. When the two parties to a relationship make positive efforts to be good to each other, a healthy relationship would be guaranteed.
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How To Be a Good Girlfriend
1. Be yourself: It is a lovely and kind thing to be you and not live in pretence. This does not mean that you should not work on your ill characters. Sure, you are expected to work on your flaws to become a better person. But then your boyfriend must have fallen in love with the real you and not the person you fake to be.
You should maintain that aura of confidence in yourself. Being yourself will set in positivity in your relationship. It will render you trustworthy. Pretence is vice and it cannot serve you right for a long time. Love sees beyond flaws. If you ever become scared that he would leave you, remember that he had loved you even before your fears. So, be yourself!
2. Be a caring girlfriend: Recall that relationship is a commitment to balance the interest of one another in favor of each other. It is an avenue where one not only thinks about herself but also for the wellness of her partner. A good girlfriend is one who cares for his boyfriend genuinely.
The simplest way to express love is to care. To be caring means to be kind and willing to make sacrifices where necessary. If there is another person you owe care as an obligation, it is your boyfriend. Caring works like magic. One is that it is the truest communication of love; another is that it is always reciprocated. A caring girlfriend will always receive more care from the boyfriend in a return. It does not necessarily cost much to extend care. Just being empathetic and extending certain little positive gestures as required by the circumstance, will do.
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3. Be honest with him: It is in honesty that peace and trust is found. In all you do, your boyfriend should not sense that you are at any moment being dishonest. Be honest with your actions and words not just to him but also to people around the both of you.
A good girlfriend must not tell lies to her boyfriend. A relationship founded on or fanned by lies can never stand the test of time. In fact, on its very surface and beyond, such is an unhealthy relationship.
4. Effective listening and communication: Communication is the key to every successful relationship. A good girlfriend should all times feel safe to communicate with her boyfriend. If things are adjusting to unfavourable direction, instead of dancing to the negative tone, communication should be initiated to tackle the issue. Communication makes things a lot easier for both parties.
Nobody is expected to read the mind of the other. It is therefore ideal for communication to be two-sided. As a girlfriend, if you are hiding a lot from your boyfriend, it is most likely that your boyfriend too will become secretive and reserving. The flavour of a healthy relationship is the eagerness to communicate.
If your boyfriend tends to be reserved with communication, you can break the chain. If you begin to pour out your heart on him, he would most likely be open to your tone. An integral part of communication is the ability to listen. Your boyfriend deserves to be heard and understood, and your ear can serve as a listener. It is a very lovely thing for a girlfriend to be a good listener to her boyfriend.
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5. Encourage and support him: You can be a good girlfriend by giving your boyfriend maximum support and encouragement. A good girlfriend ought to be the greatest fan of her boyfriend. Nothing brings posivity into a relationship more than encouragement and support. It is in fact, love defined.
The encouragement and support need not necessarily be in terms of financial support. Encouragement and support can come in many ways as may be required by different circumstances. But most importantly, encouragement and support are attitudes. It is an act of goodwill, kindness and love. Encouragement and support does not take more than positive words and actions.
6. Appreciate him: You definitely did not settle for boyfriend who makes no positive effort. A good girlfriend must learn to appreciate the efforts of her boyfriend. This is in a similar line with encouragement and support, but more specific.
Appreciation is a booster of energy, and this is so even when the appreciation is not genuine. A good girlfriend must learn to boost her boyfriend’s energy towards goals by appreciating his efforts, regardless of how little they may seem.
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7. Make out time for your guy: Relationship is commitment defined. As much as you are desirous of your boyfriend’s attention, your boyfriend is desirous of your attention too. Regardless of how busy you may seem, one must make out time for the people she claim to love.
Your boyfriend should be at the top of the list. A good girlfriend must make out adequate time for her boyfriend or risk the relationship’s failure.
8. Be respectful: Respect they say is reciprocal. If you are being respectful to your boyfriend, he would definitely reciprocate them, unless you have got the wrong guy.
Your respect should be genuine and not such arising out of pretence. Respect equals love; when you love you people, you respect them. Not only respecting them but also the friends and relatives.
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9. Build yourself: As you are being a good girlfriend, a very important part of it is to continue building yourself. Relationship is not an enterprise. One must have a life outside his or her relationship.
It is recommended therefore, that a good girlfriend should continue to invest in self-development and life achievements. Your boyfriend wants to look at you and feel proud
10. Reserve some space: Don’t be too uptight towards your boyfriend. You should reserve some space for him and not be exceedingly nosy.
11. Be faithful: In a relationship, faithfulness is love defined. A good girlfriend must remain faithful to her relationship.
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Conclusion
A good girlfriend must keep confidence, respect privacy, be transparent, have principles and boundaries, be open to her boyfriend, must not be judgmental, and must be kind and romantic. There is no definite bench of measurement for what a good girlfriend should be like, but the above are abstract and definite expectations. There cannot be a perfect girlfriend out there, but there definitely can be a good one.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.