Top Highlights

• Relationships exist on a continuum. At one end you experience contact without real connection, while at the other end you feel known, supported, affirmed, and fully accepted. In the middle of the continuum, you feel attached to people in your life, but with many, you want closer connection. The question is, How? How do you move along this continuum...
• The last three hallmarks have to do with feedback and conflict. Challenging someone can actually be a powerful way of supporting them, and yet few people feel confident they can do it well. Someone with whom you have an exceptional relationship calls you on behaviors that really bother them, and when they do, you know it’s a chance for learning, no...
• What it takes are the skills to move beyond surface conversations. These don’t necessarily require a lot of time, but they do require a commitment to truly learn about ourselves and about the other.
• Still, let’s say you have some relationships in your life that you know could be stronger. You’re not sure they’ll ever reach “exceptional,” but you know there’s room for growth. Perhaps you’d like to learn how to go from casual to a bit more personal, from detached to somewhat more connected, from dysfunctional to functional, or from competitive t...
• Whenever we face challenges, we think, “Well, that’s an AFOG”—which is short for “another f**king opportunity for growth.”