Cheating is amongst the most pervasive and enduring problems in relationships, no matter the era. It doesn’t discriminate as well. From royals to peasants and from men to women, cheating seems to be equally contagious. It has caused the death of many otherwise promising relationships. So, what exactly can we do to avoid this problem? How do we keep ourselves away from infidelity? Here are 9 simple yet effective ways to prevent cheating in a relationship:
1. Continuously engage with your partner.
People sometimes cheat because they feel that their current relationship has become stale, devoid of passion and excitement. While this of course is no excuse to cheat, still, it would cause no harm to engage with your partner constantly, way beyond the honeymoon phase of your relationship in order to keep the spark alive and avoid any inclination to fill voids with other persons. Experience new things with your partner, have silly conversations, remain playful with each other, and most importantly, continue caring and loving one another. Constant engagement will not only help both of you avoid any lure to cheat, but it will also improve the overall health and longevity of your relationship.
Also read: Top 8 Secrets To Be Happy in a Relationship
2. Appoint an external conscience.
If the problem is already bad and you don’t think you’re strong enough to completely resist the allure of cheating by yourself, then have a friend help you out. Whenever the desire to cheat creeps out, have your pal Jhonny or Samantha punch your guts out and break your legs, so that you’ll only end up hospitalized and not a cheater. In all seriousness though, appoint one of your closest and most trusted friends as your external conscience who will guide or force you, if need be, to remain faithful to your partner, especially when you are faced with a situation where you can’t drive off the thought of cheating on your own. After all, that’s what friends are for, right?
Also read: 16 Good Ways to be Kind in a Relationship
3. Retreat in the face of overwhelming temptation.
Not all battles can be won. Sometimes, you’ll just have to retreat to live another day, or in this case, to remain a respectable and faithful partner. If the sex appeal or charisma of a person is just too strong that it ain’t fair anymore, then just get the hell out of there! You’ll still have to be civilized and make a graceful exit of course, but you’ll have to leave. And leave fast you must! Sometimes, no matter how good we are, there’s still a tendency for temptations to get the better of us. After all, we’re only human. So, it would be best to veer away from such temptations before they completely overpower us and cloud our sound judgment.
4. Include fidelity to your moral compass.
If your moral compass isn’t all that moral to begin with, then chances are, cheating would be an easy thing for you to do. You can’t be good at every single thing, but you should include fidelity amongst the virtues that you truly hold important. You have to firmly and genuinely believe that it is important to remain faithful to your partner, not simply because doing otherwise will get you in trouble but because you love your partner and know that faithfulness is a requisite ingredient in any relationship. Ingrain this thought well into your mind, and you’ll already have a pretty solid weapon against the minions of cheating.
5. Share your thoughts with your partner.
Relationships require communication; we all do this. What some don’t do, however, is communicate the negative thoughts that are brewing in their minds to their partners. If you have problems with how your relationship is going or if you feel that there’s something lacking, then tell your partner about it. Never keep these kinds of thoughts to yourself because these pent-up frustrations might foster a desire to find solace and satisfaction from another person, and that’s when cheating usually starts! Resolve your issues with your partner by communicating with her/him. Come on! The two of you got this!
Also read: How to be Honest in a Relationship: 12 Ways
6. Be committed.
If you get in relationships just to play around and look cool, then faithfulness isn’t something that you would get out of your way to maintain. Consequently, you would be more prone to cheat whenever an alluring moment to do so presents itself. To prevent yourself from cheating, you first have to be committed to the relationship. Don’t treat it as a game, but as a responsibility that you must constantly fulfill because you truly love and value your partner.
7. Develop mental fortifications.
Cheating can be a tricky adversary. After all, it’s a cheater! (Pun intended). That’s why you have to build up your defenses; particularly, you have to develop strong mental fortifications that will protect your faithful mind from being corrupted by temptations to cheat. Think about how your partner would be devastated if she/he is to know that you are a cheater and a liar; or think about how God would condemn you to hell for being an adulterous sinner; or perhaps think about how your perfect record of fidelity would be broken if you finally choose to succumb to cheating! Use thought processes that would guard you against cheating! After all, a strong mind can subdue even the most lustful of bodies.
Also read: True Love vs Lust: 10 Differences You Should Know
8. Enter into a relationship when you are ready.
If you just got out of a long-term relationship with someone that you still love or if your ex just broke up with you because you were cheating on her/him, then perhaps it isn’t a good time for you to enter into a new relationship just yet. Committing yourself prematurely may just cause problems, among which is you cheating because you still love your last partner (who drunk texted you in the middle of the night) or because you still haven’t gotten over your past cheating problems. Make sure that you are ready first, in heart and mind, so that you can fully and faithfully commit yourself again. You owe this not only to your new partner but also to yourself.
9. End before you begin.
One of the best and arguably hardest ways to prevent cheating is ending the current relationship first before entertaining a new person. There’s a process that you must follow, similar to what you would do when you want to apply for a new job. You don’t just go AWOL from your current job and start working for your new boss! Have some class! Similarly to relationships, you have to formally tender your intent to end your relationship with your present partner first before you initiate any kind of wooing or flirting with a new person. Respect the process and your current partner!
Conclusion
Relationships do not stand by themselves. As a matter of fact, they are quite fragile institutions that require several foundations to keep upright. Amongst these is faithfulness. If faithfulness is weakened or destroyed by acts of infidelity or cheating, then the relationship might just lose its footing and fall on its face, potentially even dying from concussion. Don’t cheat. Be a stick-to-one kind of person. Make use of the ways given above to prevent yourself from cheating. Remember, you don’t have to be a perfect partner in all respects, but you can very well be a perfect partner in some aspects, fidelity being one of them.
