The 8 Essential Traits of Couples Who Thrive (Paperback)

by Susan Page (Author) "Exactly how happy would you like your marriage to be?..." (more)
Key Phrases: thriving couples, intimacy gap, thriving marriage, Feelings Forum, No-Agenda Time, Lincoln City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Offers guidance on how to achieve a more fulfilling relationship, identifying and explaining eight essential traits of a thriving marriage and revealing the impact of such stressors as unrealistic expectations and attitudes. Reprint.

From the Publisher
Formerly titled Now That I'm Married, Why Isn't Everything Perfect?, this wise and useful guide has gained extraordinary critical acclaim from the foremost experts in the relationship field, and has helped thousands of couples achieve more fulfilling relationships. Drawing on more than twenty years of couples' counseling experience, Dr. Susan Page explains the eight essential traits of a thriving marriage:

Desire, belief, and commitment
Goodwill
Clear values
Boundaries
Perspective
Relationship-enhancing communication
Intimacy
Pleasure

This helpful, optimistic guide also reveals how husbands and wives can escape the crushing burden of unrealistic expectations that many people bring to a marriage, and what attitudes, techniques, and day-to-day pleasures will forge a happy, enduring relationship. With clarity, warmth and common sense to complement her profound insight, Susan Page delivers an extraordinary work for anyone who's in a relationship--and anyone who wants to be.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dell (January 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440507820
• ISBN-13: 978-0440507826
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,693 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guidance for a marriage beyond average, November 29, 1998

By A Customer

This book has been wonderful for my fiance and me. It has inspired us to make our relationship what we always dreamed it could be but were told was impossible. This is a very affirming book for couples who would like to stay in love.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up and have fun in your marriage, January 22, 2009

By	Nadine (Emeryville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I first read this book about 6 years ago, and it reinforced my desire to have a great marriage. I am serious about not settling for an almost good relationship and now my spouse thinks the same way. His first marriage ended after years of bitter conflict so he was not predisposed to thinking marriage was going to be great. We read this book together and talked about the ideas before we married.

There are many concepts and ideas in this book, but one in particular is helpful for us: if one person isn't ready to discuss something we agree to a time and place later in the week when we will discuss the issue fully. This strategy allows both people to think about the issue and generally we actually end up agreeing by the "talk time."

3.0 out of 5 stars One Profound piece of Wisdom, June 6, 2009

By	Jon Beckmon (Twin Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a lot better than the last Susan Page book I reviewed.
Though no one liked my review of her last book I stand by my Biblical
convictions to GOD almighty. Anyways this book teaches some good values
and it teaches many bad values as well. Luckily I am strong enough in my character to not fall prey to bad values I read in books...Even if the Bible has some bad values you have to separate out as well (like saying David is a man of GOD after he committed Adultery with Bathsheba and sent Her husband Uriah to die on the front lines...Clearly David was no man of GOD).

Okay onto the one reason I actually decided to write the review of this Susan Page book. One of the most profound pieces of Wisdom I've ever seen in a book was actually in this book. It was the following paragraph on page 283
"Love is the beginning of the cure for the world's ills, and love is the end, for what more can we desire for the entire planet but that we all have a love so great that we are no longer interested in destroying each other and our planet, but only in deepening and expanding the experience of love for all people-toward each other and toward the earth that sustains us."
This is one of the best paragraphs I've ever read in a non biblical book.
Keep in mind the Bible says for GOD so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. And the Bible also says that destroyers of the earth will be destroyed. Think if the earth is a pollution spot with bad air and water then it will cease to maintain life and we will all die.
And if man doesn't love other men or women then War will be neverending.
Well I don't see much hope there though since War has waged from the Dawn
of time. You have to defend yourself if someone attacks and tries to kill you, your woman, your kids, whatever. And from the first Caveman with a club to Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Hitler, Churchill, FDR,
Stalin, Mao and endless other leaders War goes on. Gaining territory or idealogy is what it's always about. And make no mistake Economic Warfare is hidden but always there as well. International Corporations aren't as big as they are from lack of resources that's for sure. And International Corporations can't be controlled by any one government. The only question is who the bad guys and who the good guys really are?
After all the governments are printing all the money to control all of their populations to do what they want them to do. In the end money is just a piece of cloth or paper or metal. What's really important is people and food, clothing, shelter , clean air and clean water after all.

Okay so I did more talking in this review than reviewing but I had to write it because of the profound piece of wisdom. If all the advice in the book was as good as that one paragraph then I would rate the book a 5.
But there is talk of Anti-God Gay people in it and there is talk about
Sex before marriage, etc. And those things aren't condemned by the book as they should be. So it only rates a 3. Wish I would've wrote down things while reading the book so the review would be a bit better.

Sincerely,
Jon Beckmon