Relationship = communication

I have been together with my other half for oh, a good five years now =D. One of the things that keeps us going and keeps our relationship healthy is that we made a deal to be honest to each other no matter what the situation. This means, no holding back of feelings toward each other and no secrets between each other. I know, I know, sounds a little radical but this is a preference that we worked out together and thought would work for us. The idea is, when one of us feels bad or hurt because something the other person has done, we have to communicate that as soon as possible. Reasons being, 1) the other person might not be aware that they have done something "wrong", 2) if it's kept inside, feelings build up little by little into something catastrophic and 3) it will provide an avenue to get to know each other better. Going along with this motto, our relationship has had its bumps and bruises, but we have been able to work things out timely and effectively.

Yesterday, knowing that I should keep my word about sharing "all" aspects of our lives, I told her about a new opportunity that I found. I guess you can say I am a little of a risk taker and am consistently seeking for ways to take a step forward. For a little background, in previous times that I shared about finding new opportunities to get involved in, the reaction has been quite negative. However this time before the discussion began, I was quite excited and relieved because she said that I had her full support.

Well, the opportunity that I found was "Internet marketing" and instead of telling her myself, I showed her a brief video of someone explaining what "Internet marketing" was. She, being a traditionalist, was very against the idea of devoting time and effort to starting something online ("a virtual thing"). We had a heated conversation on where each other stood and was not very happy by the end of it all. Once again though, after letting the steam breathe for an hour or so, we followed our motto and discussed what had happened.

I shared how I felt betrayed because she promised to be fully supportive but turned out to be fully against the entire idea. She shared that she was hurt because she felt I was too defensive toward the whole thing and was not receptive to what she had to say even though it was me who asked for her opinion. Later in the conversation, I explained to her what my intentions were to begin something like "Internet marketing" and why I think it might be beneficial. She then shared that one of the reasons why she was so against it before was because she thought my intentions toward the entire thing was greed and money, but now she understands why and where I am coming from.

Moral of the story?
1) No matter how many times you hear it, open communication is the key to solving problems and sustaining a healthy relationship. Each couple/ relationship has their own preference of how much they can share with each other or how open they can be, but the point is that this should be established and will only aid in maintaining good relationships.
2) I guess it was not the best idea to pitch the idea through a video instead of speaking and explaining in person. People in general enjoy the human interaction and since communication is 70% non-verbal (hand gesture/ expressions/ tone/ etc...), when it comes to something important, it is generally a better choice to communicate face to face.