30 reasons to leave.
30 Reasons to Leave a Marriage
Someone asked me for this even though I don’t think I ever wrote it but that made me want to write it.
You've tried. Really tried. And it's still not working. Marriages can… not work.
You stay out of fear more than love. That's not a marriage. That's a hostage situation.
Your kids are watching. Staying in something broken doesn't teach them loyalty, it teaches them to settle and that is one of the worst lessons you could give your children.
You've confused commitment with endurance. They're not the same thing.
The relationship is making you smaller, not bigger.
You've lost yourself which means your partner is now married to a ghost of you… already…
You feel more alone inside the marriage than you would outside it.
Love without respect isn't love. It's nostalgia.
You already know. You've known for a while. You're just waiting for permission.
Mediocrity is a choice. So is leaving it.
The version of you that exists in this marriage is not your best self.
You've outgrown each other and neither of you is willing to say it out loud.
Staying for the kids is a story you're telling yourself. Kids feel everything and are much smarter than we give them credit for.
There is no cosmic reward for suffering through a loveless marriage.
Freedom is not the enemy of commitment. Sometimes it's the evidence of it.
You've been paying protection money to a relationship that stopped protecting you.
You deserve to be chosen every day: enthusiastically, fully, without conditions.
The church told you leaving was failure. The church was wrong about a lot of things.
If it would take a miracle to make it good, and you've stopped believing in that miracle, well…
You are not responsible for someone else's wholeness. Or emptiness. Or life.
There is more life ahead of you than you can currently see from inside this.
Leaving with love is possible. Leaving is not the same as destroying.
Saying yes to the marriage means also saying no to too many things that matter.
The relationship you're afraid to leave is the same one you've been grieving for years. It’s already over.
It could be worth it. It could also not be. Will you regret staying or leaving more? Most people regret NOT making a decision over making one and it going bad.
If the thought of 20 more years of this makes you want to stop breathing, listen to that. Please.
Unhappiness is not a character flaw to be managed. It's information.
Leaving might be the most honest thing you've ever done in your life.
The life you're afraid to want is still waiting for you. And possible.
You are allowed to want more. That's not selfishness. That's being human.