24. Don’t Try to Change Other People
In the United States, 50% of marriages end in divorce. While there are many reasons people choose to split, one of the leading causes of divorce is that people no longer feel compatible with their partner. Some people are willing to admit that when they married their spouse, they had plenty of doubts about their personality. They hoped that someday they would grow out of bad or immature behavior. Others believed that with enough love, they can actually change or “fix” the issues that their partner has.
In reality, most people are not going to change who they are, even as the years go on. It takes a lot of therapy, or a near-death-experience for someone to be shaken enough to change. So if you are going to get married, you need to be prepared to spend the rest of your life with the person they are right now. No matter how much you love someone or want to fix them, change always has to come from within oneself. Instead of trying to change someone, try to find someone who is great just the way they are.