21 Signs Your Relationship Is Making You A Better Person

1. Since you can’t imagine being with anyone else, there’s honestly no one’s life you’d rather live, so envy starts to seem like a foreign emotion.

2. You find yourself making more and more tiny compromises—about which type of movie to watch, or what time to eat dinner—without feeling at all bitter.

3. In fact, you nearly leap at the chance to accommodate your partner’s needs whenever possible.

4. Your main need might just be to meet their needs. And why not? You’ve spent enough years focused entirely on number one.

5. More than ever, you now understand the secret upside to selfless behavior: When one person’s happiness is so infectious that it becomes yours, everyone wins no matter what.

6. You wake up every morning feeling genuinely lucky to have met someone you get to love so damn much.

7. Overwhelmed by gratitude, you catch yourself saying “thank you” with more enthusiasm than necessary—to people who hold open doors, compliment you, or look friendly in general. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

8. You want to return the Universe’s favor, so you act kindly towards everyone, even not-so-nice strangers. It takes way more than an annoying street performer who gets in your face on the subway or a rude waiter to make you angry.

9. Your automatic facial setting is half-smiling and on the verge of bursting into a full grin at first glimpse of a baby, a puppy, unexpectedly compelling street art, or any other excuse to beam from ear to ear.

10. You’re drunk on Love Kool-Aid and you know it, but you’re not embarrassed. You’re desperate to share the joy running through your veins.

11. You have so much love seeping from your pores, you can’t help distributing some of it. Part of you loves the old man trudging across the street inch by inch with his walker, another part loves the teenagers huddled on the stoop, trying their best to act cool, and yet another part loves the portly gentleman eating a hamburger alone on a park bench, dripping grease onto his shirt with every bite. Who will take the portly man’s shirt to the dry cleaner’s, you wonder. Because you’re actually kind of concerned for him.

12. When you hug people, it’s with heart, and you tend to hold on a little longer than you used to.

13. There’s no such thing as a dreadful activity as long as you get to go home to your significant other at the end of the day, so you volunteer to take on more than your share of unwanted tasks at work.

14. You don’t even think twice about whether or not you should be the one to replace the paper towels or mop up a tiny countertop spill at the office—even if you were the one who did these things last. Why not inconvenience yourself briefly to make other people’s lives easier? You don’t mind.

15. Suddenly, it no longer seems impossible to squeeze some volunteering into your packed schedule, especially if you find a way to give back alongside your partner.

16. You’re more motivated than ever to exercise and eat healthy because you have more reason than ever to live longer.

17. You find yourself working harder because you want to pull your weight on the two-person team you’re a member of.

18. As awesome as it is to feel a sense of accomplishment, making your significant other proud is a bazillion times better.

19. So you make better choices about everything—who you hang out with, how you handle conflicts, and how much sleep you get—because you want to be your very best self for your boyfriend or girlfriend.

20. You find yourself dispensing incredibly hopeful advice to your single friends. Because if you can meet someone so right for you, they can too.

21. Your general outlook is incredibly positive. Bad things definitely happen, but there’s so much good in the world, too. You know this because it led you to your lover.