People cheat for plenty of different reasons. Whether your marriage has been on the rocks, you’re feeling under appreciated, you’re just looking for a thrill— whatever your reason may be, you should take time to consider the outcome before deciding to cheat. There are ultimately only a few cheating outcomes that you’ll run into post-affair, and none are very ideal. Therefore, before you cheat, consider what that looks like when you come out of the other side…

Cheating Outcomes: Taking a Pause Before Infidelity

Lying all the time

Before cheating, it’s important to realize that it will make a liar out of you. There’s no way to manage both lives and not become one. You’ll find yourself making up where you’ve been, who you were with, and what you were doing. Ultimately, before cheating, you have to decide what you’re comfortable with on a day-to-day basis. While you might have already decided that cheating is worth it, is lying all the time really worth it as well? After all, lies can be pretty difficult to keep up with.

The truth always finds it’s way

Before cheating, you’ll try to convince yourself that no one will ever have to know. While you may think you have everything under control, these things usually find their way into the light. In fact, you may not have everything as under control as you think. In many cases, we think we are telling the right lies, acting normal, and no one suspects a thing. But many times, everyone else can notice our behavior but ourselves. You may begin to forget which lies you told and how to keep up with them. Consider that your spouse likely knows you about as well as you know yourself, and can sense when you’re acting out of the ordinary.

In other cases, even when you do everything to protect yourself, the truth still comes out. Someone will end up finding out about your affair so it’s important to understand you can’t hide it forever. So think about aspect of cheating considerations– are you okay with someone finding out?

You’ll Disappoint Your Family and Friends

Before cheating, you should also understand how much it will disappoint your family and friends. When the truth comes out, and it always does, it will affect more than just you and your spouse. While disappointing your spouse can be hard enough to live with, imagine the guilt of hurting family and friends too. Your kids, your parents, siblings, and family friends, will all feel a sense of shock and betrayal at your affair. In fact, it may even cost you several of these important relationships.

Before you cheat, it’s important to weigh the pro’s and cons of taking that route. While your marriage might not be where it used to be at the moment, infidelity is only going to make that worse. When it comes to cheating outcomes, there are only so many different things that can happen. For instance, your spouse will likely make the decision on whether to stay, or go. Consider the fact that you might just be looking for what you typically get from your marriage. Highs and lows are a common part of marriage, and they are not impossible to make it through if you put the work in…