Heal Your Broken Relationships Over the Holidays With This Six-Part Plan
Building relationships is hard work, but not an impossible task. To help you figure out where to start, The Wall Street Journal has put together a six-step plan.
Everyone is faced with a relationship that they need to fix at some point in their life. Whether it’s with an old friend, family member, or someone else, trying to mend that relationship often seems impossible. Luckily, The Wall Street Journal at least gives you a place to start:
- Send a postcard: start with a compliment in the form of a handwritten note or other means of communication.
- Somewhere to meet: Get together in a neutral place to have a one-on-one conversation with someone.
- Start with small talk: catch up anyway. Talk about kids, family, work, weather, or something else.
- Apologize: You don’t need to take the blame, but apologize for everything – whatever it is – so you can move on to mending your relationship.
- Ask their opinion: now is the time to see how they viewed the problem all along. Ask about their side of the story.
- Come up with a plan: Find out where you will go to continue building relationships. Do you forget about everything? Going to a family holiday? Plan your next step to deal with the inevitable awkwardness.
Everyone is trying to mend different types of broken relationships, so take the steps above as guidelines, not ground rules. However, if you don’t know where to start or where to continue the conversation, this is better than nothing.
How to build family relationships on holidays | Wall Street Magazine