1. Go to bed at the same time. Remember the beginning of your relationship, when you couldn't wait to go to bed with each other? Happy couples resist the temptation to go to bed at different times. They go to bed at the same time, even if one partner wakes up later to do things while the other sleeps. Also, staying up late alone can lead to host of other problems. Go to bed together and eliminate danger.

2. Cultivate common interests. After the passion settles down, it's common to realize that you have few interests in common. If common interests are not present, develop them.

3. Walk hand in hand or side by side. Rather than one person lagging or dragging behind the other, happy couples walk comfortably hand in hand or side by side. They know it's more important to be with close to the other person than to get their first or than seeing the sights along the way.

4. Make trust and forgiveness your default mode. If and when they have a disagreement or argument, and if they can't resolve it, happy couples default to trusting and forgiving rather than distrusting and begrudging.

5. Focus more on what your spouse does right than what he or she does wrong. If you look for things your spouse does wrong, you can always find something. If you look for what he or she does right you can always find something, too. It all depends on what you want to look for. Be sure of one thing, you will find whatever it is you are looking for. Happy couples accentuate the positive.

6. Hug each other as soon as you see each other after work. We have a memory of "good touch" (loved), "bad touch" (abused) and "no touch" (neglected). Couples who say hello with a hug keep feel much closer and more loved. They are less likely to fall into temptation and infidelity.

7. Say "I love you" and "Have a good day" every morning. This is a great way to buy some patience and tolerance as each spouse sets out each day to battle the world, the flesh and the devil.

8. Say "Good night" every night, regardless of how you feel. This tells your spouse that, regardless of how upset you are with him or her, you still want to be in the relationship. It says that what you and your spouse have is bigger than any single upsetting incident.

9. Do a "weather" check during the day. Call your spouse at home or at work to see how his or her day is going. This is a great way to adjust expectations so that you're more in sync when you connect after work. For instance, if your spouse is having an awful day, it might be unreasonable to expect him or her to be enthusiastic about something good that happened to you.

10. Be proud to be seen with your spouse. Happy couples are pleased to be seen together and are often in some kind of affectionate contact -- hand on hand or hand on shoulder or knee or back of neck. They are not showing off but rather just saying that they belong with each other.

Even if these actions don't come naturally, happy couples will try to stick with them until they do become a part of their relationship. They know that it takes time for a change in behavior to become a habit. Experts in this field tell me that a minimum of six months is needed for a habit to become a way of life.