November 3, 2023 • 28 mins
Have you ever found yourself comparing your current partner to someone from your past?
Are you wondering why your current relationship isn’t as happy as it used to be?
If you’re currently struggling with keeping your relationship afloat, then this episode is for you.
We all know that effective communication is the key to maintaining healthy connections, and I am here to guide us on how to better express our thoughts and concerns to our loved ones. Here's the first golden rule in improving your relationships – someone's past behavior doesn't define them today. And it's not just about their actions; it's about what you bring to the table as well.
Let's take a look at crucial insights on how we tend to fill in the gaps with our own assumptions, the importance of asking the right questions, and why criticism rarely leads to positive change. And always consider the significance of seeing vulnerability as strength and not putting your loved ones down in public.
In this episode, you'll learn:
The reasons why relationships fail
How to avoid actions that ruin relationships
How to become a better listener
How to communicate yourself effectively
We're in for a heartfelt discussion that will surely help you strengthen your relationships and take a step closer to the happier, healthier connections you deserve.
With Love and Gratitude,
Jay Shetty
What We Discuss:
00:00 Intro
01:38 How to Better Communicate Issues in Your Relationship
03:31 #1: Someone's Behavior Doesn’t Make Them The Same As Someone You Were With Before
09:01 #2: Don't Fill In Uncertainties Mentally
13:26 #3: We All Have A Long List Of Needs
18:12 #4: Ask Yourself These Three Questions
20:38 #5: Criticism Doesn’t Help Change, Coaching Does
23:27 #6: Seeing Opening Up As A Weakness
26:33 #7: Criticism Is Often Linked With Comparison
27:20 #8: Don’t Put Them Down In Public
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Remember this criticism doesn't help change coaching does. This is
probably my number one thing and it's what I experienced
with my wife Radi that transformed how I felt about this.
I found when I was in relationships that they'd be
critical of how I spent my time. They'd be critical
of whatever it may be. Radi was one of the
(00:20):
first people that I ever met that didn't criticize me.
There was coaching, there was opportunities, there was questions, there
was curiosity, but there wasn't criticism. Everyone, welcome back to
On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world,
where you're investing in becoming happier, healthier, and more healed.
(00:45):
I genuinely love hearing from you when I'm walking around.
I just finished an event in Dallas where I was
doing a corporate speaking engagement, and so many of you
from the audience was saying that on Purpose is a
part of your daily ritual, whether you or listening while
you're in the gym, or walking your dog or your commute.
It means the world to me that I get to
(01:06):
be your workout partner, even though I don't get the
benefits of the workout, but I love being your commute partner.
I love being your workout partner. I love being the
podcast that you're dissecting with your friends. I want to
give a big shout out to everyone who's allowing me
to be me and allowing me to be seen as well.
When I'm sitting down with someone that people may not
expect me to sit with, when I'm having conversations that
(01:28):
people don't expect me to have, or when I'm recording
an episode like one of these where I'm tackling a
difficult topic. Thank you for seeing me, thank you for
hearing me out. I'm so grateful to you. And today's
episode is something that I've been thinking about for a
long time. And what's really interesting about it is that
(01:49):
I'm meeting so many people who keep asking me, Jay,
I want to save my relationship, Jay, I want to
you know, I want to stop ruining my relationship. I
feel like I'm sabotaging my relationship based on my behavior,
based on the way I talk to my partner, the
way I talk about my partner. And we may not
say I want to save my relationship or I want
(02:09):
to stop ruining it, but I think we all recognize
that we want our relationships to be better. We want
our relationships to improve, and we want to be in
a position where we're not feeling like we're the one
taking our relationship a few steps backwards. Right, Maybe you
felt before that you said something and you're like, that
just set me back two years, or maybe you did
(02:30):
something and you're like, oh, that just set us back
a few months. I thought we were out of that place.
I thought I was out of that place. And so
today I want to give you some steps and strategies
as to how we cause issues in our relationships and
how we can actually better communicate them. I don't think
(02:51):
having challenges and issues is abnormal. I would actually say
that it's more normal. But I think the way we
communicate them, and the way we make our partners aware,
the way we carry that awareness, makes a big difference
as to how that becomes an argument and a disagreement
versus a healthy discussion, a debate, or a curiosity. And
(03:15):
I think that's what I find so fascinating about relationships
is that you can have the same conversation, but one
can be with affection and still be assertive, and one
can be full of argumentative, poorly articulated points of view.
So one of the first ways that we begin to
ruin relationships, and if we want to save ours, what
(03:38):
we need to be really mindful of is don't assume
someone's behavior makes them the same as someone you were
with before. Often when we see similar behavior patterns, we
assume that the current person is doing it for the
same reasons as the person we were with before. So
(03:59):
let's say, for example, or this person goes really quiet
when you have an argument. Now, your last partner went quiet,
but eventually you figured out that's because they didn't care.
Now with this partner, when they go quiet, you think
they must be going quiet because they don't care. Right,
It's very normal as humans to draw that parallel, to
(04:19):
connect the dots, to feel that's the pattern. Let me
take another example. Maybe this partner of yours, Let's say
they always forget to take the trash out, or they
forget to stock up the refrigerator when they've finished something right,
a daily thing that could happen. Now, your last partner
did that, and what you figured out eventually is that
they were not very thoughtful, that they were not conscientious.
(04:42):
And with this partner, maybe they're busy, maybe they've just
had a lot going on. Maybe they have done it
before and right now they're just going through a really
tough time. What I find is that when we assume,
when we believe we know why our partner is acting
the way they're acting, we're basing it on previous experience.
Not only is this a very normal and coherent thing
(05:05):
to do, it's expected for us to do, but it
sets us up for failure because A you never get
to know the intentions of the person you're currently with.
B the last person is somewhat irrelevant and insignificant to
this relationship, and three you stop being curious and you
(05:25):
come to a conclusion. Whenever we stop becoming curious with
our partners and we draw conclusions without information, without insight,
without data, without questions, we are setting our relationship up
to fail. We're going to struggle to save that kind
of a relationship because we've already made our mind up
(05:47):
as to why someone behaves the way they do. Now,
let's say it is their reason. Maybe it is their
reason right, Maybe that is why they are behaving that way,
but it's really important to check. So in that situation,
it's so important to go up to someone and say, hey,
I noticed that you've done this or done this, or
I've noticed that you go quiet during an argument? Can
(06:08):
you tell me why that is?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Notice how different that is to the question we usually ask.
The question we usually ask is why do you go
so quiet? You probably don't care? Right, that projection of
the previous person not only is existing in our mind
and our belief system, it's actually articulated them. You probably
don't care. That's where you go quiet. Now what does
that do? That sets off alarm bells for them? And
(06:30):
they go, well, no, no, no, I do care. I'm not
going quiet. Why would you think that? Right? And now
you've started going down a route that doesn't solve the problem.
The problem was they go silent. The problem wasn't that
they go silent because they don't care. So saying to
someone you're always so quiet, you don't care about me,
versus saying to them, I noticed and observed that you
often go quiet when we're having a tough discussion or
(06:54):
having an argument. What's your reasoning? Where does that come from?
Now that person may not have an answer straight away.
They may not even be aware of why they go quiet.
They may not even be aware that they do go
quiet and This is what I find is so common
in relationships that we don't have that awareness, we don't
have that consciousness, and we don't recognize that. Sometimes people
(07:16):
are so unaware of their own behavior, and we don't
give them time, we don't give them space, we don't
give them an opportunity to articulate that or become conscious.
So they may say I don't go quiet, and we go, yes,
you do. Here are three examples of when you quiet. Now,
what have we're done? We've put them on the defensive.
What we've done, We've made them feel inadequate, And what
have we done We've made them feel like they don't
(07:37):
know themselves. Rather than saying, well, think about it for
a certain amount time, I'd love to hear how you
feel you deal with arguments. Notice how different that is
now when we want that immediate instant response to feel better,
this is the question we have to ask ourselves. Are
we trying to feel better about ourselves in the moment?
Is that why we're arguing? Or are we trying to
(07:58):
solve the root of the issue. And I find that
those two questions will very quickly let you decipher whether
you're going to win or whether you're going to lose.
If you're trying to figure out how to solve the
real problem, you are always going to win. If you're
trying to feel better in the moment, you are likely
to create more long term issues. Please use that check
(08:19):
in question. My wife, Radi's cookbook is launching on February
twenty seventh. It's called Joyful and will help you cook
plant based dishes effortlessly. I'm so excited for her recipes
to be in your hands so you can make them
in your home for the people you love the most,
and it would mean the.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
World to me.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
If you go to joy f U l lBook dot
com to pre order now for an exclusive video and
the daily wellness guide for free made by Radi. Again,
that's Joyful book dot com, joy f U l lBook
dot com and you get your free daily wellness guide
(08:59):
made by now. Point number two. Don't fill in uncertainties mentally.
This is often similar to the first idea, but now
it's not based on someone you dated in the past.
It's based on your own imagination. So don't fill in
uncertainties mentally. We project our insecurities onto someone else. I'll
(09:20):
give an example. Let's say you just got your hair done,
or let's say you just tried a new hairstyle, or
let's say you bought a new top or skirt, or
you bought a new pair of jeans, or you bought
whatever it is, right, and this applies to everyone of
all genders. And you're hoping that when you walk through
the door or when you're ready for date night, your
(09:41):
partner's going to say, you look amazing, you look great. Oh,
I love that new fit on you. I love that
new jacket on you, and you're waiting for it, whatever
it may be. You're waiting for that compliment. Now they
don't say it, and in your head do you start thinking, Oh,
they don't think I'm cute anymore, they're not attracted to
me anymore, or maybe the hair doesn't look good. I
was wrong, Oh I should have told their address. So
(10:02):
I didn't want to try this out. Maybe they're attracted
to someone else, Maybe they're not into me anymore. Right, So,
what we've done is we had an expectation that we
never communicated based on something that we thought about. We
now when that expectation is not met, we are filling
that space between our expectation and what we received with
(10:25):
mental chatter based on our insecurities. There is no fact there,
there is no checking there again, and what does that do.
It starts to paint a narrative about your relationship that
is only based on your imagination, your opinion. So you're
now painting a whole narrative about how someone feels about
(10:46):
you without even knowing anything, based on a inaction. The
idea is they didn't say anything and that has made
you think something. Notice how we wouldn't allow that to
happen to our friend. If our friend did that, we'd say,
well that you don't know if that's true, Like, hey,
your hair does look good, and you know, hey, I
didn't even notice that you had your head done right.
(11:07):
I've got so much going on. Maybe they missed out.
But when it comes to our own lives, we just assume.
And by the way, we do this in multiple relationships,
not just romantic ones. At work, your boss doesn't say
you did well at work, straight away, we're like, oh,
I'm not getting promoted, I'm getting fired. Right, they didn't
talk about me at lunch. I saw them talk about
someone else. And all of a sudden, we're assuming, and
we're filling the gaps in with our own mental insecurity
(11:30):
and mental chatter. So all of that being said, what
do we do. Imagine you sat down with your partner
and said to them in the car. Usually what happens
in the car is you're then silent with them because
they didn't say anything. You're upset with them. They're wondering
what's going on with you? And they're like, hey, I
thought we were excited about tonight. What's going on? And
you're like, oh, nothing, it doesn't matter. And they're like, no, no, no,
(11:52):
tell me what happened. And you're like, oh, it doesn't matter.
And then you're like, god, you just never noticed me anymore.
I feel like you don't love me anymore. Right, you
make a statement that is so overarching that then they go, no,
of course I love you. I think you're beautiful, and
they're like when Then you're like, well, why didn't you
tell me? Then? Right now, the conversation sounds irrational. You know,
you sound irrational, but you got to stick to it, right,
You got to stick to your irrationality because you've gone
(12:14):
down that road. Now, let's talk about how that conversation
could have been handled differently. Maybe you say to them, hey,
I want to share with you. And this is a
tool that I love in coaching and it also comes
up in therapy is talking to someone about the expectation
you had and how you feel. So saying to your partner, hey,
so I came down with the expectation that I felt
like I looked great and I wanted to do that
(12:35):
for you. And when you didn't tell me that I
looked beautiful, I felt like maybe you didn't like what
I was wearing, and I just wanted to hear how
you felt about it. I just wanted to hear your thoughts.
And then your party gets to say, you know what, actually,
I'm so sorry. I've just had so much on a
work right now at a really crazy day. I'm really
excited for date night, but I wasn't in the zone.
(12:56):
Or they get to say, hey, you know what, actually
I'm not sure I loved that jacket, but I love
it for you. And now you've got to realize that
that's what a good, healthy conversation looks like. Right. You
don't want your partner to lie to you and say
that they love your new hair or love whatever it is,
just to make you feel better. But sometimes we pressurize
our partners, and we pressurize the people in our lives
to tell us they love everything we do because we're
not open to that feedback. We're not opening curious to
(13:18):
what they actually think. So I want you to again
check check before you fill the gaps with your insecurities. Now,
point number three, how do you save any relationship and
stop ruining it based on your past. One of the
biggest mistakes we make, or the way we ruin relationships
is we all have a long list of needs. They
may be compliments, It may be reassurance. It may be
(13:42):
advice on our new startup. It may be investment advice,
maybe money advice. It may be advice on dealing with
our parents. Often, the way I see it is, especially
when I'm coaching clients and working with people, a lot
of people want their partner to be their therapist, their coach,
their business partner, and their friend. Sometimes even their mom
(14:04):
and their dad. Right, a lot of us want our
partners to be our therapists, our coaches, our business partners,
our friends, and potentially even act like our parents.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Sometimes. Now, what does that do?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
First of all, no one has the ability to be
all of those and second of all, even those people
don't have the ability to be those things perfectly.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Our parents aren't perfect, our friends aren't perfect. A business
partner's not perfect. Even a therapist and a coach are
not perfect. So not only is it impossible for even
those professions to play those roles perfectly, we're now expecting
one person to perfectly play five roles that are individually
extremely difficult. A therapist takes years of training, coaches take
(14:48):
years of great training right, businesses take years of great practice,
a friend takes years to build, and parents, of course,
I mean that can take decades to get right. But
it's really fascinating that we have a long list of
needs and we want our partner to not only be
able to play one of them, we want them to
be able to adapt. And by the way, I didn't
(15:08):
even say partner yet, we want them to be our
husband or our wife, right, we want them to play
that role too, and we want them to be a
perfect dad or mom or parent or whatever it may be.
So just think about how many roles we're expected to play,
and maybe your partner is the person who expects it
of you, And think about how many roles you're expecting
your partner to play. So here's how I want you
(15:29):
to think about it. I love this tool, and I
recommend doing it right now. I want you to write
down everything you love doing and everything you love feeling.
So you may say I love going to watch basketball.
You may say I love feeling reassured. Right, what are
the things that you want from other people?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
First of all, I'm going to remind you I want
you to do those things with yourself. I am going
to double down on the solitude point. Take yourself to
a basketball game, give yourself compliments, reassure yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
There are other episodes on that, and Eight Rules of
Love dives deeply into that in chapter one. But in
this episode, I want to talk to you about this
idea of have a list of things that you really
want to feel and do in life, and I want
you to write the name of a different person next
to each of those. So for basketball, you're like, all right, yeah,
my friend loves basketball, great, Okay, I want to go
watch dance performances or which one of my friends loves dance?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Perfect, Okay. I want to feel confident and reassured. Okay,
which one of my friends makes me feel that way,
or maybe my sister makes me feel that way. Okay, great,
now I want to feel complimented. Oh I don't get
compliments from anyone actually, or I'm going to compliment myself first,
but I would love to receive them from my partner.
So what you do is you start finding different people
in your life that play different roles, some for business advice,
(16:44):
some for life advice, some to just hear your pains,
whatever it may be. And the beauty of that is
you start recognizing that you have so many other people
in your circle. And if you start recognizing you don't
have people in your circle, you are now very accountable
to go and build those relationships. When we don't want
(17:06):
to be accountable for building these relationships, we make our
partners accountable to fill that gap that ruins relationships rather
than going I love my sister for this, I love
my mom for this, I love my partner for this,
I love this for this, whatever it may be, right
finding people like, for example, my wife loves high intensity workouts.
(17:26):
I really don't like high intensity workouts, and if my
wife wanted to do that with me, I wouldn't be
able to keep up with her, I wouldn't be able
to fulfill that need. Right there are something she wants
to talk to her sister around. I wants to talk
to her best friend about. I wants to talk to
her mom about that isn't interesting. Like her mum and
her will talk about what they eat every day and
what they're making for food and all the rest of it,
and that's awesome, but I'm not the person to had
that conversation. Similarly, I may want to have a certain
(17:50):
conversation about a topic which is about how we present,
how we feel and what we think about, and that
may not be the conversation that I'm having with her.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'm having it with one of my friends.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Take a list of everything you want to do and
everything you want to feel, and find people. It may
be your friend who loves adventure vacations, your friend who
loves music concerts. Right like expanding that social network to
feel that social strength. Point number four is something I
repeat in my book, but I still feel it needs
to be reseaid because it needs to be refined in
(18:20):
order to have a healthy relationship, in order to save
a relationship, in order to know whether a relationship is
going to last you have to ask yourself three questions.
Do I like their personality? What I mean by that
is if you ask someone what they like to do,
they may say they like traveling. Now, you may like
traveling too, But the question is do you like their
personality and how they talk about traveling. So if they
were like, well, where have you been, and you're like, oh, well,
(18:42):
last year, I just went to one place and they're like,
only one place I went to like seven last year, like,
come on, their personality is ego and arrogance. In that moment,
of course, I'm using a very simple example. Their personality
is and that they like to travel. You may say, oh,
they like to travel, We're they're same. No, they just
demonstrated to you that they have pride and eed go
around how they travel.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
That's what you're thinking about when you're thinking about personality.
The second question is do you respect their values? This
is a really critical one because when I say do
you respect someone's values, that means you don't want to
change them. If you respects someone's values, it means you
don't have to value what they value, and you're not
expecting your partner to value what you value. You want
(19:25):
them to respect what you value. I love that one
of my wife's values is she loves healthy eating.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I respect that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I value it for myself too, but I respect it
first in her. I respect that to her, her workout
is a non negotiable for me, even though I respect that.
Sometimes my workout is negotiable because of how much I
have going on and some other priorities that I have.
So I can't expect her to devaluate because I may
(19:55):
devalue it sometimes, and she can't expect me to value
it to the same level as hers.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
We have to resc respect each other's values.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And what I find so often is we actually want
our partners to value what we value. We want them
to like what we like, which isn't really the case
for a good relationship. And finally, do we want to
help people towards their goals or do we want to
change their goals? You will ruin a relationship if you
want to change someone's values, or if you want them
to value what you value. They should respect what you value,
(20:22):
but you can't force them to value it, and you
can't force them to change their goals. If you think
your partner isn't ambitious enough. If you think your partner
isn't something else enough, whatever it is that they're not
enough of, it's going to be very unlikely that they
make a drastic, drastic change. So point number five, this
is probably my number one thing, and it's what I
(20:45):
experienced with my wife Radi that transformed how I felt
about this. Remember, this criticism doesn't help change coaching does.
I found when I was in relationships that a lot
of people were very critical. They'd be critical of how
I spent my time, They'd be critical of what I
like doing, They'd be critical of what I was wearing,
(21:07):
whatever it may be. Now, Radi may sometimes do that,
but Radi was one of the first people that I
ever met that didn't criticize me about my habits, about
my way of living, about my approach. There was coaching,
there was opportunities, there was questions, there was curiosity, but
there wasn't criticism. I find a lot of us who
(21:29):
ruin relationships, and if you want to save a relationship,
remove criticism. So many of us will go up to
our partners and go, why do you always do this?
Why do you never do this?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:38):
The words always never are not factual. They're subjective. We
always say things like, oh, you need to stop doing this,
Can you just stop? Like why do you do this? Right,
it's criticism. Oh I really don't like it when you
do that. Oh I really don't appreciate that. Right, there's
so much criticism, and criticism puts someone on the defensive.
(21:58):
It makes someone feel less than, It makes someone feel inadequate.
It completely makes someone feel like you don't believe they
can change. Now you may say, oh no, no, my
partner's tough, they know they can change. No, I promise you.
I promise you. You can discourage, dishearten, and put someone
(22:20):
in a disconnect from change just through criticism.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Think about children.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
All of us have a little child in us that
was criticized too much, that heard too much negativity growing up,
that was told there, we won't be anything. And when
we hear that from our partner, gosh, there's that trigger. Right,
That's what triggers, is that little self inside of you.
So you may say, no, my partner's grown, they can
handle it. I promise you. No matter how emotionally intelligent
(22:46):
or how emotionally aware someone is, if they are criticized
about something, it takes them right back there. And what
does criticism do. It makes someone act out like a child.
It makes them go right back to that, and now
they're going to behave in a childlike way, or actually
rather a childish way, and now it's harder for them
to change rather than in an adult way. If you
said to them, hey, what's blocking you? What are you
(23:08):
struggling with right now? I've noticed that there's.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Something on your mind. What's going on? Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm up for it, let's discuss it. That kind of
approach is more of a coach approach than a criticism approach, saying, hey, look,
I've noticed that it's been hard for you to get
around to this or get around to that, like.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
What's going on? Talk to me?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And often you'll find that that person, and this is
zero point six, they don't know how to open up
because they see opening up as a weakness. And then
we see that as like, oh, my partner doesn't want
to open up. My partner doesn't want to talk about
their feelings. Well, guess what chances are because they're scared
that if they share how they feel, it makes them
appear weak. There's something known as the John Wayne syndrome
(23:50):
or the hero complex, and it's something that stops people
from responding effectively and they're ability to engage in challenging
conversations or even challenging tasks. And it comes from the
idea that people believe they need to be bulletproof, or
they need to be perfect, or they need to be
(24:12):
fully stoic or strong. There's a line that was said
by John Wayne that kind of coined this, never apologize, mister,
it's a sign of weakness.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
John Wayne.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Under direction, John Ford said this phrase as Captain Nathan
Brittles in the nineteen forty nine Western she wore a
yellow ribbon. I'll say it again, never apologize, mister, or
it's a sign of weakness. Notice how that sets in
itself an idea that, oh, if I apologize, it makes
me look weak. And I know my partner doesn't like
(24:44):
weakness because they expect me to be perfect and strong,
and so I won't go there. This has kind of
penetrated itself through society where we find that men are
often given this again, they're also given the criticism that
not only do they not open up, that men don't
like to open up. This rhetoric, this narrative creates a
reality where men then struggle to open up, and you know,
(25:07):
people will say things like I don't know what he's
thinking because he never tells me what's going on. And
I Village did a study where they found forty two
percent of women have a hard time getting their partner
to share their feelings, and when that happens, they often
feel shut out and misunderstood. What I've really found is
that people are scared of rejection and not being received.
(25:29):
They don't want to be seen as weak. They're scared
that they may be criticized in the future. So here's
how it's going down in someone's mind. They say sorry,
or they express that, hey, I'm really struggling with this,
and now they feel that you're going to use it
in another argument where it's like, look, you can even
deal with that, Now you can't deal with this. They're
scared of that weakness being exposed and re exposed again
(25:52):
and again and again. Our partners want to know that
we're happy with them. Our partners want to know that
we're pleased with them. Our partners want to know what
they get right. You may say we're adults, they should
know it. Come on, they don't need to hear it.
I promise you. We're all children inside. We all have
a little child inside of still wanting us to know that. Hey,
I'm really proud of you. Hey, I really appreciate you.
(26:13):
And you may think that sounds patronizing, but I promise
you need it as well.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I see you, I really appreciate you. I really notice
in love when you do that. Thank you for doing that.
And I know you struggle with this, and I'm happy
to figure out with you and understand why. That's how
you talk to someone you love, not criticism, and point
number seven. Criticism often is linked with comparison. Sometimes we
(26:40):
don't criticize directly, we criticize indirectly, which comes in the
form of comparison.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Oh did you see what they did? Oh my gosh,
their vacation looked amazing. Oh my god. Did you see
the ring that he got a Wow, that's incredible. Oh
my god.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Did you see what she did for them on Valentine's say,
Oh that was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh my god. Did you see what they did for
his birthday? Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Oh my gosh. Right, we've all said things like that.
There's a passive aggression of comparison. We are trying to
make our partner get the message, and then a partner goes, oh,
is that what you wanted?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We're like, no, no, no, nothing like that. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Comparison pushes people away. It pushes people away because again
you've made your partner for more and more inadequate. And
number eight, this is a definite no no. If you
want to save your relationship, stop doing this. Don't put
them down in public. I've heard people say things as
a joke, Oh, he doesn't know what he's doing in
his life right now. You know everyone struggles in that area.
(27:33):
You say these statements that you think people can handle. Again,
we keep saying, oh, yeah, they're an adult, they can
deal with it. With our little child inside that remembers
when we were ridiculed in public. It's going to make
that person quieter, it's going to make them open up less.
Oh he never opens up. He's not in touch with
his feelings. Those statements push someone away. I'm sending you
(27:54):
lots of love. I hope that this helps you save
your relationship. I hope it stops you from ruining a
good one, and I hope it helps you build conscious communication.
Thank you so much for listening. Please do leave a review.
It means the world. It makes a huge difference. I
know so many of you have been talking about so
many of the episodes recently. There's been amazing bars around
the conversations the solos. Share this with a friend, Share
(28:18):
this with a friend who you know may be struggling.
Sending you a lot of love. Thank you so much.
Remember this criticism doesn't help change coaching does. This is
probably my number one thing and it's what I experienced
with my wife Radi that transformed how I felt about this.
I found when I was in relationships that they'd be
critical of how I spent my time. They'd be critical
of whatever it may be. Radi was one of the
(00:20):
first people that I ever met that didn't criticize me.
There was coaching, there was opportunities, there was questions, there
was curiosity, but there wasn't criticism. Everyone, welcome back to
On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world,
where you're investing in becoming happier, healthier, and more healed.
(00:45):
I genuinely love hearing from you when I'm walking around.
I just finished an event in Dallas where I was
doing a corporate speaking engagement, and so many of you
from the audience was saying that on Purpose is a
part of your daily ritual, whether you or listening while
you're in the gym, or walking your dog or your commute.
It means the world to me that I get to
(01:06):
be your workout partner, even though I don't get the
benefits of the workout, but I love being your commute partner.
I love being your workout partner. I love being the
podcast that you're dissecting with your friends. I want to
give a big shout out to everyone who's allowing me
to be me and allowing me to be seen as well.
When I'm sitting down with someone that people may not
expect me to sit with, when I'm having conversations that
(01:28):
people don't expect me to have, or when I'm recording
an episode like one of these where I'm tackling a
difficult topic. Thank you for seeing me, thank you for
hearing me out. I'm so grateful to you. And today's
episode is something that I've been thinking about for a
long time. And what's really interesting about it is that
(01:49):
I'm meeting so many people who keep asking me, Jay,
I want to save my relationship, Jay, I want to
you know, I want to stop ruining my relationship. I
feel like I'm sabotaging my relationship based on my behavior,
based on the way I talk to my partner, the
way I talk about my partner. And we may not
say I want to save my relationship or I want
(02:09):
to stop ruining it, but I think we all recognize
that we want our relationships to be better. We want
our relationships to improve, and we want to be in
a position where we're not feeling like we're the one
taking our relationship a few steps backwards. Right, Maybe you
felt before that you said something and you're like, that
just set me back two years, or maybe you did
(02:30):
something and you're like, oh, that just set us back
a few months. I thought we were out of that place.
I thought I was out of that place. And so
today I want to give you some steps and strategies
as to how we cause issues in our relationships and
how we can actually better communicate them. I don't think
(02:51):
having challenges and issues is abnormal. I would actually say
that it's more normal. But I think the way we
communicate them, and the way we make our partners aware,
the way we carry that awareness, makes a big difference
as to how that becomes an argument and a disagreement
versus a healthy discussion, a debate, or a curiosity. And
(03:15):
I think that's what I find so fascinating about relationships
is that you can have the same conversation, but one
can be with affection and still be assertive, and one
can be full of argumentative, poorly articulated points of view.
So one of the first ways that we begin to
ruin relationships, and if we want to save ours, what
(03:38):
we need to be really mindful of is don't assume
someone's behavior makes them the same as someone you were
with before. Often when we see similar behavior patterns, we
assume that the current person is doing it for the
same reasons as the person we were with before. So
(03:59):
let's say, for example, or this person goes really quiet
when you have an argument. Now, your last partner went quiet,
but eventually you figured out that's because they didn't care.
Now with this partner, when they go quiet, you think
they must be going quiet because they don't care. Right,
It's very normal as humans to draw that parallel, to
(04:19):
connect the dots, to feel that's the pattern. Let me
take another example. Maybe this partner of yours, Let's say
they always forget to take the trash out, or they
forget to stock up the refrigerator when they've finished something right,
a daily thing that could happen. Now, your last partner
did that, and what you figured out eventually is that
they were not very thoughtful, that they were not conscientious.
(04:42):
And with this partner, maybe they're busy, maybe they've just
had a lot going on. Maybe they have done it
before and right now they're just going through a really
tough time. What I find is that when we assume,
when we believe we know why our partner is acting
the way they're acting, we're basing it on previous experience.
Not only is this a very normal and coherent thing
(05:05):
to do, it's expected for us to do, but it
sets us up for failure because A you never get
to know the intentions of the person you're currently with.
B the last person is somewhat irrelevant and insignificant to
this relationship, and three you stop being curious and you
(05:25):
come to a conclusion. Whenever we stop becoming curious with
our partners and we draw conclusions without information, without insight,
without data, without questions, we are setting our relationship up
to fail. We're going to struggle to save that kind
of a relationship because we've already made our mind up
(05:47):
as to why someone behaves the way they do. Now,
let's say it is their reason. Maybe it is their
reason right, Maybe that is why they are behaving that way,
but it's really important to check. So in that situation,
it's so important to go up to someone and say, hey,
I noticed that you've done this or done this, or
I've noticed that you go quiet during an argument? Can
(06:08):
you tell me why that is?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Notice how different that is to the question we usually ask.
The question we usually ask is why do you go
so quiet? You probably don't care? Right, that projection of
the previous person not only is existing in our mind
and our belief system, it's actually articulated them. You probably
don't care. That's where you go quiet. Now what does
that do? That sets off alarm bells for them? And
(06:30):
they go, well, no, no, no, I do care. I'm not
going quiet. Why would you think that? Right? And now
you've started going down a route that doesn't solve the problem.
The problem was they go silent. The problem wasn't that
they go silent because they don't care. So saying to
someone you're always so quiet, you don't care about me,
versus saying to them, I noticed and observed that you
often go quiet when we're having a tough discussion or
(06:54):
having an argument. What's your reasoning? Where does that come from?
Now that person may not have an answer straight away.
They may not even be aware of why they go quiet.
They may not even be aware that they do go
quiet and This is what I find is so common
in relationships that we don't have that awareness, we don't
have that consciousness, and we don't recognize that. Sometimes people
(07:16):
are so unaware of their own behavior, and we don't
give them time, we don't give them space, we don't
give them an opportunity to articulate that or become conscious.
So they may say I don't go quiet, and we go, yes,
you do. Here are three examples of when you quiet. Now,
what have we're done? We've put them on the defensive.
What we've done, We've made them feel inadequate, And what
have we done We've made them feel like they don't
(07:37):
know themselves. Rather than saying, well, think about it for
a certain amount time, I'd love to hear how you
feel you deal with arguments. Notice how different that is
now when we want that immediate instant response to feel better,
this is the question we have to ask ourselves. Are
we trying to feel better about ourselves in the moment?
Is that why we're arguing? Or are we trying to
(07:58):
solve the root of the issue. And I find that
those two questions will very quickly let you decipher whether
you're going to win or whether you're going to lose.
If you're trying to figure out how to solve the
real problem, you are always going to win. If you're
trying to feel better in the moment, you are likely
to create more long term issues. Please use that check
(08:19):
in question. My wife, Radi's cookbook is launching on February
twenty seventh. It's called Joyful and will help you cook
plant based dishes effortlessly. I'm so excited for her recipes
to be in your hands so you can make them
in your home for the people you love the most,
and it would mean the.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
World to me.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
If you go to joy f U l lBook dot
com to pre order now for an exclusive video and
the daily wellness guide for free made by Radi. Again,
that's Joyful book dot com, joy f U l lBook
dot com and you get your free daily wellness guide
(08:59):
made by now. Point number two. Don't fill in uncertainties mentally.
This is often similar to the first idea, but now
it's not based on someone you dated in the past.
It's based on your own imagination. So don't fill in
uncertainties mentally. We project our insecurities onto someone else. I'll
(09:20):
give an example. Let's say you just got your hair done,
or let's say you just tried a new hairstyle, or
let's say you bought a new top or skirt, or
you bought a new pair of jeans, or you bought
whatever it is, right, and this applies to everyone of
all genders. And you're hoping that when you walk through
the door or when you're ready for date night, your
(09:41):
partner's going to say, you look amazing, you look great. Oh,
I love that new fit on you. I love that
new jacket on you, and you're waiting for it, whatever
it may be. You're waiting for that compliment. Now they
don't say it, and in your head do you start thinking, Oh,
they don't think I'm cute anymore, they're not attracted to
me anymore, or maybe the hair doesn't look good. I
was wrong, Oh I should have told their address. So
(10:02):
I didn't want to try this out. Maybe they're attracted
to someone else, Maybe they're not into me anymore. Right, So,
what we've done is we had an expectation that we
never communicated based on something that we thought about. We
now when that expectation is not met, we are filling
that space between our expectation and what we received with
(10:25):
mental chatter based on our insecurities. There is no fact there,
there is no checking there again, and what does that do.
It starts to paint a narrative about your relationship that
is only based on your imagination, your opinion. So you're
now painting a whole narrative about how someone feels about
(10:46):
you without even knowing anything, based on a inaction. The
idea is they didn't say anything and that has made
you think something. Notice how we wouldn't allow that to
happen to our friend. If our friend did that, we'd say,
well that you don't know if that's true, Like, hey,
your hair does look good, and you know, hey, I
didn't even notice that you had your head done right.
(11:07):
I've got so much going on. Maybe they missed out.
But when it comes to our own lives, we just assume.
And by the way, we do this in multiple relationships,
not just romantic ones. At work, your boss doesn't say
you did well at work, straight away, we're like, oh,
I'm not getting promoted, I'm getting fired. Right, they didn't
talk about me at lunch. I saw them talk about
someone else. And all of a sudden, we're assuming, and
we're filling the gaps in with our own mental insecurity
(11:30):
and mental chatter. So all of that being said, what
do we do. Imagine you sat down with your partner
and said to them in the car. Usually what happens
in the car is you're then silent with them because
they didn't say anything. You're upset with them. They're wondering
what's going on with you? And they're like, hey, I
thought we were excited about tonight. What's going on? And
you're like, oh, nothing, it doesn't matter. And they're like, no, no, no,
(11:52):
tell me what happened. And you're like, oh, it doesn't matter.
And then you're like, god, you just never noticed me anymore.
I feel like you don't love me anymore. Right, you
make a statement that is so overarching that then they go, no,
of course I love you. I think you're beautiful, and
they're like when Then you're like, well, why didn't you
tell me? Then? Right now, the conversation sounds irrational. You know,
you sound irrational, but you got to stick to it, right,
You got to stick to your irrationality because you've gone
(12:14):
down that road. Now, let's talk about how that conversation
could have been handled differently. Maybe you say to them, hey,
I want to share with you. And this is a
tool that I love in coaching and it also comes
up in therapy is talking to someone about the expectation
you had and how you feel. So saying to your partner, hey,
so I came down with the expectation that I felt
like I looked great and I wanted to do that
(12:35):
for you. And when you didn't tell me that I
looked beautiful, I felt like maybe you didn't like what
I was wearing, and I just wanted to hear how
you felt about it. I just wanted to hear your thoughts.
And then your party gets to say, you know what, actually,
I'm so sorry. I've just had so much on a
work right now at a really crazy day. I'm really
excited for date night, but I wasn't in the zone.
(12:56):
Or they get to say, hey, you know what, actually
I'm not sure I loved that jacket, but I love
it for you. And now you've got to realize that
that's what a good, healthy conversation looks like. Right. You
don't want your partner to lie to you and say
that they love your new hair or love whatever it is,
just to make you feel better. But sometimes we pressurize
our partners, and we pressurize the people in our lives
to tell us they love everything we do because we're
not open to that feedback. We're not opening curious to
(13:18):
what they actually think. So I want you to again
check check before you fill the gaps with your insecurities. Now,
point number three, how do you save any relationship and
stop ruining it based on your past. One of the
biggest mistakes we make, or the way we ruin relationships
is we all have a long list of needs. They
may be compliments, It may be reassurance. It may be
(13:42):
advice on our new startup. It may be investment advice,
maybe money advice. It may be advice on dealing with
our parents. Often, the way I see it is, especially
when I'm coaching clients and working with people, a lot
of people want their partner to be their therapist, their coach,
their business partner, and their friend. Sometimes even their mom
(14:04):
and their dad. Right, a lot of us want our
partners to be our therapists, our coaches, our business partners,
our friends, and potentially even act like our parents.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Sometimes. Now, what does that do?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
First of all, no one has the ability to be
all of those and second of all, even those people
don't have the ability to be those things perfectly.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Our parents aren't perfect, our friends aren't perfect. A business
partner's not perfect. Even a therapist and a coach are
not perfect. So not only is it impossible for even
those professions to play those roles perfectly, we're now expecting
one person to perfectly play five roles that are individually
extremely difficult. A therapist takes years of training, coaches take
(14:48):
years of great training right, businesses take years of great practice,
a friend takes years to build, and parents, of course,
I mean that can take decades to get right. But
it's really fascinating that we have a long list of
needs and we want our partner to not only be
able to play one of them, we want them to
be able to adapt. And by the way, I didn't
(15:08):
even say partner yet, we want them to be our
husband or our wife, right, we want them to play
that role too, and we want them to be a
perfect dad or mom or parent or whatever it may be.
So just think about how many roles we're expected to play,
and maybe your partner is the person who expects it
of you, And think about how many roles you're expecting
your partner to play. So here's how I want you
(15:29):
to think about it. I love this tool, and I
recommend doing it right now. I want you to write
down everything you love doing and everything you love feeling.
So you may say I love going to watch basketball.
You may say I love feeling reassured. Right, what are
the things that you want from other people?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
First of all, I'm going to remind you I want
you to do those things with yourself. I am going
to double down on the solitude point. Take yourself to
a basketball game, give yourself compliments, reassure yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
There are other episodes on that, and Eight Rules of
Love dives deeply into that in chapter one. But in
this episode, I want to talk to you about this
idea of have a list of things that you really
want to feel and do in life, and I want
you to write the name of a different person next
to each of those. So for basketball, you're like, all right, yeah,
my friend loves basketball, great, Okay, I want to go
watch dance performances or which one of my friends loves dance?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Perfect, Okay. I want to feel confident and reassured. Okay,
which one of my friends makes me feel that way,
or maybe my sister makes me feel that way. Okay, great,
now I want to feel complimented. Oh I don't get
compliments from anyone actually, or I'm going to compliment myself first,
but I would love to receive them from my partner.
So what you do is you start finding different people
in your life that play different roles, some for business advice,
(16:44):
some for life advice, some to just hear your pains,
whatever it may be. And the beauty of that is
you start recognizing that you have so many other people
in your circle. And if you start recognizing you don't
have people in your circle, you are now very accountable
to go and build those relationships. When we don't want
(17:06):
to be accountable for building these relationships, we make our
partners accountable to fill that gap that ruins relationships rather
than going I love my sister for this, I love
my mom for this, I love my partner for this,
I love this for this, whatever it may be, right
finding people like, for example, my wife loves high intensity workouts.
(17:26):
I really don't like high intensity workouts, and if my
wife wanted to do that with me, I wouldn't be
able to keep up with her, I wouldn't be able
to fulfill that need. Right there are something she wants
to talk to her sister around. I wants to talk
to her best friend about. I wants to talk to
her mom about that isn't interesting. Like her mum and
her will talk about what they eat every day and
what they're making for food and all the rest of it,
and that's awesome, but I'm not the person to had
that conversation. Similarly, I may want to have a certain
(17:50):
conversation about a topic which is about how we present,
how we feel and what we think about, and that
may not be the conversation that I'm having with her.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'm having it with one of my friends.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Take a list of everything you want to do and
everything you want to feel, and find people. It may
be your friend who loves adventure vacations, your friend who
loves music concerts. Right like expanding that social network to
feel that social strength. Point number four is something I
repeat in my book, but I still feel it needs
to be reseaid because it needs to be refined in
(18:20):
order to have a healthy relationship, in order to save
a relationship, in order to know whether a relationship is
going to last you have to ask yourself three questions.
Do I like their personality? What I mean by that
is if you ask someone what they like to do,
they may say they like traveling. Now, you may like
traveling too, But the question is do you like their
personality and how they talk about traveling. So if they
were like, well, where have you been, and you're like, oh, well,
(18:42):
last year, I just went to one place and they're like,
only one place I went to like seven last year, like,
come on, their personality is ego and arrogance. In that moment,
of course, I'm using a very simple example. Their personality
is and that they like to travel. You may say, oh,
they like to travel, We're they're same. No, they just
demonstrated to you that they have pride and eed go
around how they travel.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
That's what you're thinking about when you're thinking about personality.
The second question is do you respect their values? This
is a really critical one because when I say do
you respect someone's values, that means you don't want to
change them. If you respects someone's values, it means you
don't have to value what they value, and you're not
expecting your partner to value what you value. You want
(19:25):
them to respect what you value. I love that one
of my wife's values is she loves healthy eating.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I respect that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I value it for myself too, but I respect it
first in her. I respect that to her, her workout
is a non negotiable for me, even though I respect that.
Sometimes my workout is negotiable because of how much I
have going on and some other priorities that I have.
So I can't expect her to devaluate because I may
(19:55):
devalue it sometimes, and she can't expect me to value
it to the same level as hers.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
We have to resc respect each other's values.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And what I find so often is we actually want
our partners to value what we value. We want them
to like what we like, which isn't really the case
for a good relationship. And finally, do we want to
help people towards their goals or do we want to
change their goals? You will ruin a relationship if you
want to change someone's values, or if you want them
to value what you value. They should respect what you value,
(20:22):
but you can't force them to value it, and you
can't force them to change their goals. If you think
your partner isn't ambitious enough. If you think your partner
isn't something else enough, whatever it is that they're not
enough of, it's going to be very unlikely that they
make a drastic, drastic change. So point number five, this
is probably my number one thing, and it's what I
(20:45):
experienced with my wife Radi that transformed how I felt
about this. Remember, this criticism doesn't help change coaching does.
I found when I was in relationships that a lot
of people were very critical. They'd be critical of how
I spent my time, They'd be critical of what I
like doing, They'd be critical of what I was wearing,
(21:07):
whatever it may be. Now, Radi may sometimes do that,
but Radi was one of the first people that I
ever met that didn't criticize me about my habits, about
my way of living, about my approach. There was coaching,
there was opportunities, there was questions, there was curiosity, but
there wasn't criticism. I find a lot of us who
(21:29):
ruin relationships, and if you want to save a relationship,
remove criticism. So many of us will go up to
our partners and go, why do you always do this?
Why do you never do this?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:38):
The words always never are not factual. They're subjective. We
always say things like, oh, you need to stop doing this,
Can you just stop? Like why do you do this? Right,
it's criticism. Oh I really don't like it when you
do that. Oh I really don't appreciate that. Right, there's
so much criticism, and criticism puts someone on the defensive.
(21:58):
It makes someone feel less than, It makes someone feel inadequate.
It completely makes someone feel like you don't believe they
can change. Now you may say, oh no, no, my
partner's tough, they know they can change. No, I promise you.
I promise you. You can discourage, dishearten, and put someone
(22:20):
in a disconnect from change just through criticism.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Think about children.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
All of us have a little child in us that
was criticized too much, that heard too much negativity growing up,
that was told there, we won't be anything. And when
we hear that from our partner, gosh, there's that trigger. Right,
That's what triggers, is that little self inside of you.
So you may say, no, my partner's grown, they can
handle it. I promise you. No matter how emotionally intelligent
(22:46):
or how emotionally aware someone is, if they are criticized
about something, it takes them right back there. And what
does criticism do. It makes someone act out like a child.
It makes them go right back to that, and now
they're going to behave in a childlike way, or actually
rather a childish way, and now it's harder for them
to change rather than in an adult way. If you
said to them, hey, what's blocking you? What are you
(23:08):
struggling with right now? I've noticed that there's.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Something on your mind. What's going on? Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm up for it, let's discuss it. That kind of
approach is more of a coach approach than a criticism approach, saying, hey, look,
I've noticed that it's been hard for you to get
around to this or get around to that, like.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
What's going on? Talk to me?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And often you'll find that that person, and this is
zero point six, they don't know how to open up
because they see opening up as a weakness. And then
we see that as like, oh, my partner doesn't want
to open up. My partner doesn't want to talk about
their feelings. Well, guess what chances are because they're scared
that if they share how they feel, it makes them
appear weak. There's something known as the John Wayne syndrome
(23:50):
or the hero complex, and it's something that stops people
from responding effectively and they're ability to engage in challenging
conversations or even challenging tasks. And it comes from the
idea that people believe they need to be bulletproof, or
they need to be perfect, or they need to be
(24:12):
fully stoic or strong. There's a line that was said
by John Wayne that kind of coined this, never apologize, mister,
it's a sign of weakness.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
John Wayne.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Under direction, John Ford said this phrase as Captain Nathan
Brittles in the nineteen forty nine Western she wore a
yellow ribbon. I'll say it again, never apologize, mister, or
it's a sign of weakness. Notice how that sets in
itself an idea that, oh, if I apologize, it makes
me look weak. And I know my partner doesn't like
(24:44):
weakness because they expect me to be perfect and strong,
and so I won't go there. This has kind of
penetrated itself through society where we find that men are
often given this again, they're also given the criticism that
not only do they not open up, that men don't
like to open up. This rhetoric, this narrative creates a
reality where men then struggle to open up, and you know,
(25:07):
people will say things like I don't know what he's
thinking because he never tells me what's going on. And
I Village did a study where they found forty two
percent of women have a hard time getting their partner
to share their feelings, and when that happens, they often
feel shut out and misunderstood. What I've really found is
that people are scared of rejection and not being received.
(25:29):
They don't want to be seen as weak. They're scared
that they may be criticized in the future. So here's
how it's going down in someone's mind. They say sorry,
or they express that, hey, I'm really struggling with this,
and now they feel that you're going to use it
in another argument where it's like, look, you can even
deal with that, Now you can't deal with this. They're
scared of that weakness being exposed and re exposed again
(25:52):
and again and again. Our partners want to know that
we're happy with them. Our partners want to know that
we're pleased with them. Our partners want to know what
they get right. You may say we're adults, they should
know it. Come on, they don't need to hear it.
I promise you. We're all children inside. We all have
a little child inside of still wanting us to know that. Hey,
I'm really proud of you. Hey, I really appreciate you.
(26:13):
And you may think that sounds patronizing, but I promise
you need it as well.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I see you, I really appreciate you. I really notice
in love when you do that. Thank you for doing that.
And I know you struggle with this, and I'm happy
to figure out with you and understand why. That's how
you talk to someone you love, not criticism, and point
number seven. Criticism often is linked with comparison. Sometimes we
(26:40):
don't criticize directly, we criticize indirectly, which comes in the
form of comparison.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Oh did you see what they did? Oh my gosh,
their vacation looked amazing. Oh my god. Did you see
the ring that he got a Wow, that's incredible. Oh
my god.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Did you see what she did for them on Valentine's say,
Oh that was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh my god. Did you see what they did for
his birthday? Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Oh my gosh. Right, we've all said things like that.
There's a passive aggression of comparison. We are trying to
make our partner get the message, and then a partner goes, oh,
is that what you wanted?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We're like, no, no, no, nothing like that. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Comparison pushes people away. It pushes people away because again
you've made your partner for more and more inadequate. And
number eight, this is a definite no no. If you
want to save your relationship, stop doing this. Don't put
them down in public. I've heard people say things as
a joke, Oh, he doesn't know what he's doing in
his life right now. You know everyone struggles in that area.
(27:33):
You say these statements that you think people can handle. Again,
we keep saying, oh, yeah, they're an adult, they can
deal with it. With our little child inside that remembers
when we were ridiculed in public. It's going to make
that person quieter, it's going to make them open up less.
Oh he never opens up. He's not in touch with
his feelings. Those statements push someone away. I'm sending you
(27:54):
lots of love. I hope that this helps you save
your relationship. I hope it stops you from ruining a
good one, and I hope it helps you build conscious communication.
Thank you so much for listening. Please do leave a review.
It means the world. It makes a huge difference. I
know so many of you have been talking about so
many of the episodes recently. There's been amazing bars around
the conversations the solos. Share this with a friend, Share
(28:18):
this with a friend who you know may be struggling.
Sending you a lot of love. Thank you so much.
Host
Jay Shetty
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