Are You Really Compatible? Here’s How To Tell

It’s easy to think a girl is perfect for you when you’re in the first stages of dating. At that point, you’re each on your best behavior and are showing your most charming, desirable sides, while keeping your less attractive qualities under wraps. Slowly, though, the truth will reveal itself, and you might find you are less compatible than it first seemed. How do you prevent this coming out months down the line? Well, here are ways to know if you’re compatible

1. You agree on the big issues

You don’t have to have identical opinions and tastes, but on big, important issues like religion, politics and your general life goals, you’re going to need agreement and understanding, if not the exact same positions. It’s generally pretty heavy to cover these topics on the first date, but you should spend the early stages of getting to know each other uncovering some of her stances on these issues, because you don’t want to find out that you have completely different values after you’ve been dating for months and she’s met the whole family.

2. You have mechanisms for resolving conflict

Sometimes healthy conflict resolution takes time to work out together, but if you’re having screaming arguments and tearful misunderstandings right from the jump, this could be a sign you don’t have long-term compatibility. If you can’t have disagreements without resorting to personal attacks or yelling at each other, or, worse, you can’t resolve matters after you’ve had less-than-mature arguments, you might need to find someone with whom you’ll enjoy a more peaceful state.

3. You feel strong chemistry

Physical attraction isn’t everything, and strong relationships can be forged even if there aren’t exactly fireworks right from the start. But you should feel some kind of spark when you are around your (potential) significant other; whether that’s in the form of wanting to rip her clothes off, laugh at everything she says or talk to her until the wee hours, you need to have some warm fuzzies to remind you why you want to hang around when the going gets a bit rougher.

4. You can live together harmoniously

Ultimately, for long-term relationships, you’re likely to want to live together at some point. It’s not always easy right at the beginning of a relationship to know if you’ll be able to live together, but there are definitely some warning signs to pay attention,  are you an absolute neat freak, while she leaves her clothes strewn everywhere? Do you steadfastly refuse to cook or clean, or does she? Pay attention to these early signs to determine whether you might be able to cohabitate one day.

5. You share some interests

Again, you don’t need to be twins or mirror images of each other, but it really helps to gel a relationship together if there are certain activities you like doing together. It could be anything from watching movies together to playing sport, or even just hanging around chatting and drinking beer, but if you’re constantly away from each other doing different activities or if you can’t stand the things the other person likes doing with their time  the forecast for the future might not be so sunny.