11 New Year's Resolutions Every Couple Should Make

Love is an elusive thing, isn't it? It takes years to figure out what kind of love you're looking for, and you have to go through a whole bunch of duds to find it. Lots of awkward small talk on first dates that never become second dates. Lots of emotional ups and downs that result in an excess of booze and cheese fries. Then once you've found it, you never want to experience another moment without it. Aww, feels. Keep those feels going strong into 2015 with a few New Year's resolutions specially designed for couples.

If you're currently in a happy, healthy relationship, then hooray! You have found a good human to spend your life with, and that's pretty wonderful. There will be bumps in the road, as usual, but 2015 can end just as happily as 2014 is going to. And that doesn't mean there will be hours of "hard work" ahead of you either. I know what they say, that love, relationships, and marriage "take work," and I guess that's sort of true, but it's also really not. In any healthy relationship, there should be a strong base of respect and trust. That combination eliminates the BS mind games that occur in the beginning of relationships with all the wrong people. If it's the right person, or one right person of many you might date in your life, then most of your time spent with this person should be harmonious. To ensure that happens in the coming year, here are some New Year's resolutions for happy couples to keep the love alive.

1. Make time for date night.

Getting dressed up for each other and leaving the house for a night on the town is an important way to spend quality time together. It involves effort, face-to-face communication, and a chance to witness each other's hotness. Make it a weekly event that cannot take a rain check.

2. Refuse to let conflicts build and escalate.

When your SO pisses you off, say something. If you don't, it'll build to something bigger and explode into a major fight that started as an insignificant misunderstanding and easily could've remained at that level, had you opened up originally.

3. Slob out together.

As important as it is to get dressed up together, it's also important to order takeout, throw on the sweats, and binge on Netflix episodes of Breaking Bad or 30 Rock. This is real life, so you might as well live it together.

4. Work out together.

For the most part, exercise is zero percent fun. But when you do it together, you bond, you sweat, and worst case scenario, you have someone to rant to about how horrible working out is.

5. Do something neither of you have ever done, together.

You enter a new experience with open minds, and at an equal skill level. It's also exciting to do something you wouldn't normally do, and it makes for a memory you will always hold onto.

6. Take that next natural step, as long as you're ready.

Whatever that step might be. As a couple, you need to be growing up and growing together. But there are no rules on what makes sense for every single couple. Just make sure there's something for you both to look forward to, get psyched about, and slowly move towards, whether that's marriage, kids, or just buying a goldfish together.

7. Find a show to watch together.

Is there really anything more important in a longterm relationship than shared TV interests? Getting invested in characters and plot lines together is an extremely intimate way to bond.

8. And do not proceed without your SO.

He or she is out for the evening and you're home, alone with Netflix. It would be so easy to watch an episode or two. Just a peek into what happens next in your favorite fictional land. There's no harm in that, right? Wrong. This is your thing as a couple! To proceed without them would be like cheating. Not really, but you know what I mean.

9. Do not take work home with you.

Scream about your co-worker's urgent (but actually not urgent) emails in your car. Select your ugliest throw pillow, and stab it with your least effective kitchen knife. Just don't let the garbage office politics happening around you during the day ruin what you have at home. Find a way to separate the two and keep it that way.

10. Have all the sex.

Have it early, have it late, have it often, and try new things you both are comfortable with.

11. Say "I love you" as often as desired.

You're never going to regret saying those three little words as often as you want to, but you will regret not saying it enough.

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