In honor of “Marriage Monday” I decided to share some thoughts from a recent conversation with one of my single friends….

My friend asked for some dating/relationship advice and I thought this part of my response was worth sharing:

Marriage is work, but it’s interesting to consider comparing your dating interactions to a job.

We all work some grunt jobs along the way, but a career is the ultimate goal.

Marriage is a CAREER, not a job. You want your marriage to be successful, to last. You may shift from job to job (dating relationship to dating relationship), but you want your marriage to be the fulfilling work you do until your dying day. You want to build something that will go from this generation, to the next, and the next and so on after that.

If you’re the person doing the “hiring” and you already see you have someone that’s not interested in doing the “work”, it seems to me that you’d want to keep that position open for a person with the same long term vision.

Don’t settle for a temporary person– one who has openly expressed that he/she is only looking for a short term position and not a long term tenure.

Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t cheapen your requirements. Hold the position open for THE BEST candidate.

In the end, you’ll thank yourself. I’m speaking from experience here.