The Relationship Circle

What it captures

The four-phase pattern every long relationship moves through, and the predictable point at which most of them come apart.

Tracey's explanation

Romance, power-struggle, stability, growth. Or romance, power-struggle, stability, end. Most marriages don't end at the loud moment; they end three years earlier, quietly, at the point one of you stops doing the growth work. The loud moment is just when the bill arrives.

How to use it this week

Map your last decade against the four phases. The honest one. Not for blame. For the strategy of what you do differently next, and how you talk to your kids about it without lying.