Hello Friends,
If you fall off a cliff or into a deep well, chances are there is nothing that you can do about it (it's too late). This analogy applies in many obvious situations; fortunately, this is not the only possible outcome for many other situations.
When you discover a product you purchased is defective, return it, have it replaced, or at least have it repaired. If you enter into a business agreement that has been misrepresented, seek professional assistance to exit it with a minimum loss. Now, what about matters of the heart?
It would be much better to disengage from a significant other before it costs you so much material and emotional damage. I had been married three times, and though, in retrospect, I can make sense of the first and understand what happened in the second case, we still experienced negative consequences. In my opinion, joining two humans on so intimate a level (official or within a "friendly agreement" ) is complicated to disengage without some negative emotional consequences. There are three standard options.
1) Official dissolving of a marriage (divorce)
2) Unofficial parting from each other
3) Modify the relationship so both parties are in agreement and satisfied with the outcome.
Since we do not have a clear sense of possible futures, we should be cautious before entering a serious relationship. Unfortunately, emotions can blind us as they often did with me: I was always unrealistically optimistic and made too many assumptions about how things could be worked out. The best thing would be to cover important issues, not assume, and try hard not to make decisions based on pure emotion (if possible).
When you find that you may have made too many assumptions after a while, go forward and try to make the relationship work from that point on.