Too Close for Comfort

We have all heard Aesop’s fable, “familiarity breeds contempt.”  I especially like the way French novelist George Sand puts it, “Admiration and familiarity are strangers.”  When we act in an over familiar manner in a relationship we fail to recognize the natural boundary lines that all people have.  When we become relationally presumptuous we violate the individual autonomy of those in our work, home and social lives.  We must resist our tendency to manipulate and control others.  These and other actions of over familiarity will set back our relationships and send people running for the hills for safety.

 

(To be continued.)

You’ve done Me Wrong

Google this title and you will see a list of the top 75 country songs about broken relationships.  Whether you like country, jazz or popular music you have heard hundreds of songs that describe being out of relationship.  Without exception these songs lack one common theme...an apology.  So what is the first thing we should do when we fail in a relationship?  We need to fess up, take responsibility and apologize immediately. Just do it!  Don’t wait as every minute will cause the damage we have caused to go deeper and deeper and will make the recovery more difficult.    

(To be continued.)

Great Expectations

One relationship killer is the unrealistic expectations we put on others.  Consider the kind of behavior we expect of others and then take a hard look at the way we sometimes act.  Other people are just like us.  They make mistakes and can be insensitive.  Their wrong actions hurt us and our’s hurt them.  But just like we want to be given a break by others when we blow it, we need to extend that same grace to them as well.  Most relationship fopas are not calculated but are just sloppy behavior.  Let’s agree to give people more room, be less sensitive and not expect perfection.   

(To be continued.)