The article has a good point about how you shouldn’t be dependent on your partner in order to be happy, but it’s referring to something else entirely than soulmates/”x completes y”. The concept of a person being like a ‘soulmate’ refers to the ultimate form of a relationship, one that is balanced in every way. There is no dominant/submissive partner, no partner views himself or the other as superior, but rather complimentary (now of course, people are more complicated than that, so partners will unlikely ever be completely equal, but roughly so, perhaps…). The key is the whole complimenting thing. In this scenario, your partner would possess traits that you value but do not have, and vice versa.

The other level is a fundamental understanding with your partner. In order to have a relationship, one must understand their partner to a certain degree, but in the case of a ‘soulmate’, you are able to see them in their entirety, all of their excellence and beauty, and all of their flaws. Most importantly, you must be able to accept those flaws, rather than ignore them or minimize them (that’s not to say that it is your responsibility to blindly accept your partners flaws, the point is that you are willing to look at them and decide whether or not you can accept them, if you can’t this person won’t ever be a soulmate, but if you can, those flaws won’t sneak up on you as you age and the other parts of the person fade).