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"Yesterday we talked about couples making joint New Year&amp;#x27;s Resolutions. But today I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to recommend going off in your own direction&amp;amp;#8212;for a little while at least&amp;amp;#8212;when it comes to finding a hobby or learning new things. Why? A new study suggests that in modern relationships, people look for partners who will make their lives more interesting. When your partner can teach you something, or add to your life in some way, and vice versa, your marriage will be more satisfying and sustainable, reports the New York Times. Arthur Aron, a psychology professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Gary W. Lewandowski Jr., a professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey, claim that individuals no longer enter into marriage because it&amp;amp;#8217;s a social or economic institution. These days, the &amp;amp;#8220;me&amp;amp;#8221; marriage is the happiest. It sounds funny, but we (modern peeps) are all about the individual, what each person is doing, and what each partner brings to the table. People like to use their relationships for &amp;amp;#8220;self-expansion&amp;amp;#8221; (increasing their knowledge and experiences). And the more self-expansion you get from your spouse, the more you&amp;amp;#8217;re likely to stick around in the relationship. Does your guy teach you new things? Has knowing him made you a better person? And do you help him self-expand too, e.g. take him to new restaurants or introduce him to friends? Self-expansion can involve anything from showing him how to slice an onion to talking about the latest Will Ferrell flick. You don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to like, master the Icelandic language or become a chess master. Anything works! &amp;amp;#8220;People have a fundamental motivation to improve the self and add to who they are as a person,&amp;amp;#8221; Dr. Lewandowski told the New York Times. &amp;amp;#8220;If your partner is helping you become a better person, you become happier and more satisfied in the relationship.&amp;amp;#8221; Your marriage or long-term relationship becomes meaningful and sustainable. Find out how your relationship rates. Take the full Sustainable-Marriage Quiz here. How has your guy helped you with self-expansion? What do you do to add to his life, or knowledge base? What&amp;#x27;s With All the Spam in the Comments Section? Sick of all those annoying ads in the comments section lately? So are we! We police the site regularly and delete spam as soon as we can, but recently, the volume of spam has increased dramatically. We&amp;#x27;re working on a way to block them permanently, so please bear with us, and know that we&amp;#x27;re as eager as you are to get rid of these pests. Meanwhile, please continue to use the Report Abuse button to flag spam--it really does help!-- and continue to leave your brilliant feedback below. If you have any urgent questions about the spam, please contact us. And a special note to you, spammers; we officially declare you a major DON&amp;#x27;T. More Ways to Get Glamour Visit ShopGlamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter! Add us to your iGoogle homepage. Photo: Stockbyte"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2011/01/relationship-tip-work-on-your>