Aspiring to strengthen your most important relationships is an attribute worth celebrating.

Whether it’s a spouse, a significant other, a child, or a colleague at work, every relationship lives somewhere between toxic and fantastic. And if your relationships are anything like mine, they can feel like a rollercoaster. One moment you’re at the top, and later that same day, you can find yourself wondering how things shifted so quickly.

Most people move through life without much intentionality around improving their relationships. That’s a mistake.

A large portion of our joy, fulfillment, and happiness comes from the quality of our most significant relationships. When they’re healthy, life feels lighter. When they’re strained, everything feels heavier.

During one of the more challenging seasons in my own relationship, I was reading and searching for ways to improve. That’s when I came across a line from Terry Real in his book Us that stopped me in my tracks.

That insight has stayed with me.

I don’t know the state of your relationships, but I’m confident this applies now or will apply at some point in the future. Most of us like being right. We want to prove our point. We want to win the argument. And sometimes, in doing so, we damage the very relationship we’re trying to protect.

There’s a place for truth. There’s a place for standing firm. But there’s rarely a reason to be harsh. Loving firmness carries truth without tearing trust apart.

So the next time you feel the tension rising, pause and ask yourself a simple question.
Am I trying to be right, or am I trying to be kind?

That choice often determines whether a relationship grows stronger or slowly pulls apart.

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.