Hi everybody. Thank you for tuning into the women's dating and confidence podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about a simple mindset shift that will help you feel more empowered in dating and relationships.

Your power in any relationship comes from feeling like you have choices, feeling like you're not

stuck, and always being willing to walk away. If you in your heart of hearts know that you're not willing to walk away, no matter what

somebody else does, you have no power in that relationship.

And I'm not talking about power over the other person, but empowerment, like influence and how your life unfolds. And I feel like this

applies as much to negotiations as it does to relationships. If you go to a job negotiation where you're

going to talk about pay and the position that you want, but you know that

you really need a job and it doesn't really matter what they offer you. You have to say yes because

you're that desperate. You don't have a lot of power in that negotiation. You don't have a lot of say

in what they offer because literally you have to

take anything that they give you. And the same is true in relationships. If you go into a relationship

wanting certain things, but knowing that you feel so desperate or insecure or lonely that you'll accept anything from anybody.

You have no power in that relationship.

I listen to the Life Coach School by Brooke Castillo and I love that podcast so much and she talks

a lot about commitment and that the only experience that you have of your partner is your thoughts about them.

But she also says that her and her husband say that the door is always open, meaning that even though they've been married for, I think, decades, they can

always walk away. And I feel like that is a key to healthy and passionate relationships is

that lack of complacency. Because if you think somebody's going to be there no matter what you do, where is the

motivation to grow for the other person? So the opposite belief of I'm willing to walk away,

like at the end of the day, I'm willing to walk away from this situation if it doesn't serve me or if it doesn't

meet my criteria for what I'm looking for in some way. The opposite of that belief is,

this is my only chance, or I don't have a lot of time, or I need him, I can't live without him.

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