Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange
Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [approach]

For questions where the author is looking for a way achieve their goal. Such as to properly convey certain feelings or to inform someone about a problem.

91 questions
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How can I ask my girlfriend to be my gym buddy without hurting her feelings?

I've recently started dating a girl and we're an item, and are happy hanging out together. We have strong feelings for each other. She is somewhat overweight (not hugely so but not at a healthy weight) and I am a little overweight. Although I do…
MrSmith
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How to tell an overweight person that the hike will be too hard?

Please note, I don't want to be mean or anything and I don't want to go "fat shaming" or things like that. Context With my SO and a couple of friends, we planned a hike for this summer. The GR20 is one of the most difficult hikes in Europe and is…
iFlo
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How to deal with someone who ignores your lack of knowledge?

I purposely made this question generally broad so that it can apply to more people in need of similar interpersonal skills, but I can easily make it about a specific scenario if needed. Problem My whole life, people have put me on a "genius"…
HugoBDesigner
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How can I tell my mom to not cause herself so much stress when I'm visiting?

Situation I visit my parents about one time per month, for one to two days. Sometimes I manage to visit them twice, in rare cases I have to skip a month. So we see each other in person regularly (and, for sure, during some holidays, but this is…
Anne Daunted GoFundMonica
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8 answers

How do I announce my presence to someone who is not aware of it without frightening them?

First of all, I'm not sneaking up on people on purpose. But it seems, that I'm quite Ninja-like in my movements and this has caused problems. People are immersed in something (e. g. computer, TV, music etc.) and I want to interact with them in some…
Anne Daunted GoFundMonica
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How can I more clearly ask people to accommodate for my autism?

I've got autism. This isn't always clear to people*. Sometimes I need accommodations for a sensory issue to participate in a normal way. One time, there was a colleague with a strong aftershave, for example, who needed my help. Sometimes these…
Belle
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How can I let my girlfriend know that her insults are hurting my feelings and ask her to stop?

Some background about me and my girlfriend: We are in a long distance relationship for more than four years, so we only see each other on weekends (unfortunately not every weekend), but this is about to change soon (we are thinking of moving in…
anonymous
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How can I politely get the attention of a coworker who is listening to music?

At work a few weeks ago, a coworker was listening to music with her earphones in, and I needed to ask her a question because a piece of code I was writing was not working and she often helps me debug things. I pulled her earphones out of her ear and…
teslajin
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How to explain to coworkers that being vegan does not mean I know everything about it?

The other day, I was in a company meal with ~20 coworkers and someone offered me wine before adding: "At least you know this is vegan." (because I'm vegan). I don't like alcohol so I politely refused before adding with a smile: "In fact, not all…
Ael
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How to respond to an unfalsifiable accusation?

I recently shared a blog post I had written to a relevant subreddit. I've posted to this subreddit a few times and got good responses. My most recent post had a response on it when I checked it in the morning (I usually post just before I go to…
Rhys
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How to approach a friend about his girlfriend asking to sleep with me?

Context My girlfriend (let's call her Claire) shares a flat with a couple (let's call them Bob and Alice). Bob is a close friend of mine, and I get along pretty well with Alice. The three of them used to sleep all together, in an open relationship,…
faflo10
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How to deal with girlfriend cancelling weekends plan

In the middle of the year (around June) my girlfriend mentioned that she would go to a friend's party. She didn't mention the exact date, she didn't know when it would be. In the last couple of weeks, we made a deal, that we would first go out to…
NaiceGuy1
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How to make girlfriend feel better about health and body

For context, my girlfriend and I have been dating for about a year now, and we're really close, especially when it comes to talking things over. We would both describe ourselves as nerds, and would never normally really care too much about how other…
DaveThePerson
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How can I have a conversation with my fiancé about a subject he doesn't want to talk about?

My fiancé has a bit of a troubled history. I knew that when we got together. He has some mental issues, which I attributed to years of being bullied. Only recently I managed to figure out the main cause. He experienced something extremely…
Belle
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How can I be more persuasive when assuring people that I am perfectly fine and healthy?

For most of my life, I have had problems keeping up with eating "normal" amounts of food at meals. I feel full way faster than many friends. I still eat enough, as I am not even considered underweight by official definition (it's close, though). I…
kscherrer
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