Low points are inevitable in any relationship; no two people can see eye to eye all the time. But when push comes to shove, how do you know if your relationship has the foundation to endure? 

As a psychologist who studies relationships, I’ve come to learn that thriving relationships often share some key traits.

Here are four simple questions that can determine longevity of your connection. If your answers are all “yes,” you’re likely on solid ground.

Every healthy relationship should be grounded upon a foundation of friendship. Imagine your partner as just a friend: Would you still want to spend time with them, laugh with them and turn to them for support?

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Couples who say “yes” to this understand that relationships require a lot more than just passion and commitment. Studies even show that if like your partner as a person, your bond will be much harder to break.

On the other hand, some couples stay together out of habit, fear of starting over or because they feel they’ve already invested too much in the relationship to let it go. This is what keeps people in unhappy relationships for years.

Your life partner should bring out the best in you. Does having them in your life make you feel supported, loved and inspired to grow? Or do you feel stifled, diminished and drained?

Truly great relationships often reflect what’s called the “Michelangelo effect.” Just like the artist shaped raw stone into breathtaking sculptures, healthy partners will “sculpt” each other into better versions of themselves. They encourage your goals, cheer on your successes and remind you of your worth even on hard days.

Unhealthy relationships can have the opposite effect. If being around your partner makes you feel small, criticized or unsure of yourself, it’s worth reflecting on why. The way you feel when you’re around your partner is often one of the biggest clues about how healthy your relationship is.

No one is perfect, but ignoring flaws isn’t really what love is about. Rather, we all have to learn that those imperfections aren’t what define your partner, nor your relationship. Couples in healthy relationships don’t rely on fantasies of how the other person could change — they focus on loving each other as they are presently.

This doesn’t mean you should tolerate toxic behavior. But it does mean accepting the small fumbles and imperfections that make your partner human, like forgetting to pick up their socks once in a while or telling the same joke over and over.

If you can genuinely say you’d choose your partner if they stayed exactly as they are, warts and all, then you’ve likely built a relationship that can stand the test of time.

One of the clearest signs of a strong relationship is that your partner isn’t just there for the hard times — they’re also your go-to person for sharing your wins. When you get exciting news, do you instinctively reach for your phone to call them? Do you look forward to celebrating your successes together?

Psychologists call this “capitalization,” and research shows that couples who actively share and celebrate each other’s good news tend to have stronger, happier relationships. It builds a sense of partnership and camaraderie — one that reinforces that your joys are their joys, too.

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

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The idea of working a traditional 9-to-5 in a corporate environment was never for me. I always wanted financial freedom and the flexibility to work on my own terms.

So, over the past two decades, while I was a student, a full-time employee, an academic researcher and a stay-at-home mom, I started a variety of side hustles.

Now I have multiple streams of passive income, which include selling card games on Amazon, creating online courses, speaking at companies about emotional intelligence, lecturing at universities and impact investing.

Whether selling goods or providing services, my No. 1 advice for anyone starting a side hustle is to develop a clear profitability plan. All too often, I see people diving into their passions without considering how and when they will turn a profit. This oversight can make or break your success. 

Here are three things to keep in mind:

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How much are you willing to invest, and potentially lose, before becoming profitable? Knowing this requires a realistic understanding of your initial net profit margin and ways to boost your profitability.

Your net profit — calculated by subtracting expenses from sales — is the lifeblood of your side hustle. Examples of expenses include materials, labor, equipment, packaging, shipping, advertising, traveling and business subscriptions.

Your profit margin represents the percentage of each sales dollar you keep as net profit. For example, if your product or service sells for $10 and your expenses amount to $8, then your net profit is $2, resulting in a profit margin of 20%. If you’ve invested $100 upfront, then you need to sell 50 units to break even.

To fund my first card game and boost early profitability, I launched a Kickstarter campaign with a $1,500 goal. This funding covered essential expenses like product manufacturing and jump-started my sales by getting products into the hands of early adopters. 

I needed to sell 60 units to break even but ended up selling over 400 units. This higher sales volume allowed me to manufacture at a reduced cost per unit, which improved my profit margin by lowering my cost of goods sold (COGS).

I found that there are three traps that can severely undermine the profitability of a side hustle:

1. Underpricing your services

When I was selling handmade goods on Etsy, I made the mistake of chasing sales over tracking profit. Hoping to establish credibility, I underpriced my products aggressively and went above and beyond in customer service. 

But I soon realized how difficult it was to raise prices once you’ve set a low-cost precedent. Despite making thousands of sales on Etsy over the course of five years, I ended up having to close my shop due to slim profit margins.

2. Failing to accurately account for your time

That experience helped me grasp the difference between running a passion project versus a profitable business.

Recognizing the need for scalability and efficiency, especially when it came to the time I was putting into it, I pivoted to selling products on Amazon and utilized the automated Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service to handle logistics.

3. Overlooking opportunity costs

I’ve also stumbled upon similar dilemmas when pricing my speaking and consulting services. When I first started out, I lowered my fee in hopes of securing contracts from big names like Accenture and Google.

But when they came back the following year, I had to raise my fees significantly because my opportunity costs — the cost of what I could have been doing and earning with my time — outweighed what I was charging. I learned the importance of valuing my work from the start.

Over the years, I’ve developed a more expansive definition of profitability. It isn’t just about money. Profitability is also about how this venture affects your quality of life. Your physical and mental well-being come first.

To see if your side hustle is truly profitable, ask yourself:

1. How much money am I willing to invest in my side hustle?
2. How much time am I prepared to dedicate to my side hustle?
3. Is my goal to make my side hustle into my main hustle?
4. At which point do I pivot if the reality is not matching my answers to these questions?

It’s been exhilarating to see my hard work pay off. But this process has also required me to have a very clear understanding of what I value the most, and to get comfortable with saying “no.” Without that foundation, none of my success would have been possible.  

Dr. Jenny Woo is a Harvard-trained educator, EQ researcher, and founder/CEO of Mind Brain Emotion. She created a series of educational card games and mental health tools to help kids and adults develop human skills in the age of AI. Her award-winning card games, the 52 Essential Coping Skills, 52 Essential Relationship Skills, and 52 Essential Conversations are used in 50+ countries. Follow her on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

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To connect with others, we can’t hide large parts of ourselves. We have to be willing to reveal, to some extent, what we think, do, feel and relate to in order to give our conversation partner something to work with.

While this can be hard for those of us who are introverted, socially anxious or are perfectionists, research has found that sharing of our lives in a gradual and reciprocal manner is the very foundation of a strong friendship. 

Luckily, there’s one easy trick that the most trustworthy, relatable and likable people use. It involves tapping into conversational “doorknobs.”

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Coined by social psychologist Adam Mastroianni, a conversational doorknob can be anything that piques your interest, reminds you of something else, elicits a question, or is “No way! Me, too!” relatable. You get the idea.

Listen, grasp onto whatever doorknob gets your attention and enter the door it opens. Here’s an example:

You to your colleague: “Good morning! How was your weekend?” 
Your colleague: “Great. My partner and I did some work on my dad’s place.” 

You now have a bunch of everyday conversational doorknobs at your disposal. Maybe you heard “partner,” “work,” “dad” or “place.” Whatever part of that sentence your brain grabbed onto, you can toss it back with a related response:

• “Nice. Are you the DIYer, or is your partner?”
• “That’s cool. What did you work on?”
• “Oh, nice. I’m thinking of doing some remodeling on my place, but knowing where to start is always a challenge.”
• “That’s excellent. Do you see your dad often?” 
• “My dad’s place could use some work. He’s lived there for 40 years, so you can imagine how full the basement is.”
• “Oh, cool. Does your dad live locally, or did you have to drive a long way?”
• “That’s awesome that you do it yourself. I put caulk around my tub several rental apartments ago, but that’s the end of my skills.” 

Whatever you toss back, offer up a few doorknobs of your own — what you think, do, feel, remember or relate to. Remember, we’re going for personalistic. Telling your conversation partner about yourself sharpens their picture of you with ever-finer pixelation, which makes you more relatable to them.

Here’s how you might offer a doorknob when you’re speaking:

Your colleague: “How was your weekend?” 
You: “It was great. I…”

• ″…took the kids to their volleyball tournament. We were there for, I am not kidding, 12 hours.”
• ″…made my annual pumpkin bread.” 
• ″…finished this Steve Martin memoir I’ve been reading. It was so good.”
• ″…accidentally played Baldur’s Gate 3 until 4:00 a.m. in the morning.” 
• ″…went to the farmers market on Sunday and got some funky blue potatoes.”
• ″…saw a parade of tuba players wearing tutus march by as I got my morning coffee on Saturday.” 

No matter what you picked, you just gave them something to work with. Then, listen for whatever they offer and keep going. It’s like tossing a ball back and forth. 

Will your conversation partner always respond with a conversational doorknob? Maybe not. You might just get an “oh” or “cool.” But that’s okay. Let it drop or try again later.

None of these doorknobs have to be fancy, impressive or extraordinary. Decrease the pressure by setting the bar way lower.

Aiming for out-of-this-world conversations — when we hold ourselves to the standard of appearing impressive or extraordinary or super smart — “can make the people who have them strangers to everyone else on earth,” according to psychologist Gus Cooney.

Especially for perfectionists, when we’re used to aiming high, lowering the bar might feel wrong, but it allows more friends and potential friends to clear the bar and join in. 

Ellen Hendriksen is a clinical psychologist at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. She is the author of ”How to Be Enough″ and ”How to Be Yourself.” Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American and Psychology Today. She earned her PhD at UCLA and completed her training at Harvard Medical School. She lives in the Boston area with her family.

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This is an adapted excerpt from the book “How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists″ by Ellen Hendriksen. Copyright © 2025 by Ellen Hendriksen. Published with the permission of St. Martin’s Essentials, an imprint of the St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Stock prices have fallen sharply this week as investors brace for the possibility of an economic slowdown — the potential impact of temperamental tariff policies and a deceleration in the labor market.

In a Sunday interview on Fox News, President Donald Trump hinted at the potential for some near-term struggles. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” he said. “We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. … It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

When asked if a recession is imminent, the President added, “I hate to predict things like that.” He went on to say, “Look, we’re going to have disruption, but we’re OK with that.”

The S&P 500 is down by more than 9% from its record high on Feb. 19, putting stocks on the doorstep of a correction, defined as a decline of 10% or more from previous highs.

Should it become more apparent that a recession is forthcoming, investors are likely to push things down even further. Just ask Berkshire Hathaway chairman and investing legend Warren Buffett.

“There is simply no telling how far stocks can fall in a short period,” he wrote in his 2017 letter to shareholders. But should a major decline occur, he continued, “heed these lines” from Rudyard Kipling’s classic poem “If,” circa 1895.

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs … If you can wait and not be tired by waiting … If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim … If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you … Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”

It’s worth noting that Buffett was writing about major declines in the stock market, periods like the 2007 to 2009 bear market during which the S&P 500 lost more than 50% of its value.

Those are quite a bit rarer than what investors are going through now. In fact, corrections in the stock market are pretty standard fare. There have been 21 declines of 10% or more in the S&P 500 since 1980, with an average intra-year drawdown of 14%, according to Baird Private Wealth Management.

Of course, investors often don’t know if things are going to go from bad to worse until they do.

“No one can tell you when these will happen,” Buffett wrote in 2017. “The light can at any time go from green to red without pausing at yellow.”

But whether a decline is modest and short-lived or seemingly long and painful, the message to individual investors is the same: Stick to your long-term plans and continue investing.

Buffett writes that he views downturns as “extraordinary opportunities.” Why? Because, historically, it’s never been all that long before the market resumes its upward trajectory.

Since 1928, the average bear market — defined by a decline of 20% or more from recent highs — has lasted less than 10 months, according to data from Hartford Funds. In the scope of the several decades you likely plan on investing, that’s practically no time at all.

And even if living through it can be scary, keep your eyes on the prize: your long-term goals. By continuing to consistently invest as the market declines, you effectively buy stocks when they’re selling at a discount. As long as you take a well-diversified approach to investing, you’ll get a better and better deal the further stock prices fall.

As Kipling says, keep your head, ignore breathless headlines and keep doing your thing. Will the Earth and everything in it be yours? Maybe not — but you’ll likely do a good job of boosting your long-term wealth.

The whole attitude recalls another quote of Buffett’s, about taking advantage of bargain-priced investments, this time from his 2009 shareholder letter: “Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”

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When we picture spoiled kids, many of us think of tantrums over not getting what they want, being told to follow rules or simply facing any sort of inconvenience.

But spoiled behavior isn’t just about entitlement or parents giving in — it’s about unmet emotional needs, inconsistent boundaries and a lack of connection. 

As a conscious parenting researcher and coach, I’ve studied over 200 kids, and I’ve found that spoiled behavior can sometimes indicate unmet needs. Here are the five signs of highly spoiled children — and how parents can try to undo this behavior:

A child may push back against rules not because they’re difficult, but because unclear boundaries feel confusing and frustrating. If rules feel unpredictable — or if a child feels powerless in decisions that affect them — they may act out to regain a sense of control.

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Tip for parents: Instead of just saying “no” and moving on, acknowledge their feelings: “I see that you’re upset because you want to keep playing, but it’s time for bed now.” Boundaries set with kindness teach that rules aren’t about control — they’re about trust and safety.

When kids demand constant attention, it often signals emotional disconnection or uncertainty about their place in the family. A child who doesn’t feel secure in their bond may ask for more: more time, more validation, more reassurance.

For example, a child who always interrupts or clings to a parent in social settings isn’t necessarily being needy, but is rather unsure of their significance when the focus isn’t on them.

Tip for parents: Set aside 10 to 20 minutes of undistracted connection each day. The more time, the better. Play, talk or just be present with your child. Use these moments tell them, “You are enough.” 

When kids feel emotionally secure, their need for constant validation fades.

Tantrums aren’t manipulation — they’re a cry for help. Children in meltdown mode are typically overwhelmed and lack the skills to process big emotions.

Often, it happens because a child feels unheard when their emotions are dismissed, powerless when they have no say, or overstimulated by too much noise, activity or change. 

Tip for parents: Stay calm, validate their feelings (“I see you’re really frustrated”) and offer comfort (“I’m here with you until you feel better”). Kids learn emotional regulation through connection, not control.

A child who refuses to clean up, avoids homework or gives up easily isn’t being difficult or lazy. Instead, they may have been shielded from challenges too often or, on the other hand, pushed into independence before they felt ready.

Tip for parents: Offer age-appropriate, collaborative responsibilities. Cook together or solve small problems as a team. Remember to celebrate their efforts, not just the results. When kids feel capable and supported, responsibility comes naturally.

When a child acts ungrateful for frustrated for not getting what they want, it’s often not entitlement. It can mean that they feel unheard, disconnected or powerless.

And when kids receive constant toys, treats or rewards in place of emotional connection, it dulls their ability to appreciate what truly matters.

Tip for parents: Gratitude grows from connection. Engage your child in meaningful moments, such as helping to cook a meal, making a card or sharing small joys as a family. When kids feel that they belong, contribute and are valued, appreciation follows.

I always remind parents to avoid over-rewarding their kids. For example, if they help to clean up the house, instead of giving them money or a sweet treat, you could say: “Thank you for helping out. It means a lot to me, and I had fun doing it together.”

The goal is to make those moments meaningful, rather than something they do for a prize.

What we call spoiled behavior isn’t about material excess — it’s about emotional needs. True connection isn’t just about spending time together; it’s about making your child feel seen, valued and deeply loved.

When parents shift from controlling behavior to nurturing connection, frustrating moments become powerful opportunities to build trust, security and lifelong emotional resilience.

Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting, a certified coach and the creator of BOUND — the groundbreaking parent-child connection journal designed to nurture emotional intelligence, self-worth and lifelong trust. She is widely recognized for her work in children’s emotional safety and strengthening the parent-child bond. Follow her on Instagram.

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