Reaching some milestones can be a difficult journey, including surviving 15 years of marriage. If you have reached your 15 year anniversary, congratulations, make sure you both choose appropriate crystal anniversary gifts.

There are no doubt some people out there who wonder what it takes to reach such an admirable goal. After all, when it comes to a healthy, long-lasting marriage, statistics show the odds are against you.

If you are a newly married couple and wish to stay a happily married couple, here are a few things to consider.

Laugh at All the Right Moments

Some fights that couples have are for entertainment. That is, anybody watching it would wonder why somebody would fight over something so stupid or trivial. Some couples fight because one party is reacting to what the other party said or did. But regardless the type of fight, somebody needs to snap the other out of their funk.

Fights are bad, so you must do what you can to deflect whenever possible. Deflecting a fight is easy enough, all it takes is someone to crack and start laughing. Another way to deflect a fight is to say something corny or totally stupid, stupid enough to cause the other person to crack up.

Once the fight has been deflected, it’s smiles and laughter all around.

It’s Perfectly Acceptable to Go to Bed Angry

The old saying that you should never go to bed mad at each other is just plain stupid. It’s not all that healthy staying up way past your normal bedtime, teary-eyed and weary, trying to hash out a conflict that, at the end of the day, literally, proves to be stupid.

Here’s a better idea: Go to bed mad, wake up in the morning and work things out over coffee and Belgian waffles.

Stop Criticizing

Criticizing others just make them feel like crap, so don't do it. It might feel good at the very moment you criticize your spouse, you might even think you are helping them out, trying to make them a better person. Once you recognize that you are not helping when you criticize, you will get along much better.

Brag...A Lot

If you brag about your spouse to other people, you will stay married forever.

Do Your Thing

You might like to play video games and your spouse likes to read crappy romance novels, and that is quite fine. Just because you’re married, it doesn’t mean you have to give up all the things you love to do. As a married couple, there is no law that states you have to enjoy the same things and do everything together. You can be supported without getting all up into their stuff.

Make a Pact, With Your Friends

Make a pact with a close friend whom you trust. This person will be your sounding board and will listen while you complain about your spouse, but it will never affect their good opinion of them. It helps when you can vent about your spouse without actually have to yell at them.

Perfect Sex

You will be together for many years, plenty of time to become gifted sex partners.