{"id":58,"date":"2007-06-10T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2007-06-10T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/?p=58"},"modified":"2007-06-10T00:00:02","modified_gmt":"2007-06-10T05:00:02","slug":"i-shouldnt-want-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/10\/i-shouldnt-want-that\/","title":{"rendered":"I Shouldn\u2019t Want That!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quick quiz:<\/p>\n<p>When I ask for something I ask for<\/p>\n<ol type=\"A\">\n<li>What I think I <em>should<\/em> want.<\/li>\n<li>What I think I <em>can<\/em> get that is closest to what I want.<\/li>\n<li>What I want.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>I chose what I <em>should<\/em> want.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Okay, sure, lots of people have done this.  It&#8217;s not an unusual option when you feel guilty about what you want, or if you haven&#8217;t taken the time to explore what you <em>do<\/em> want.  If you&#8217;re at this stage, it&#8217;s better not to come to the negotiating table until you do know.  &#8220;I am not entirely sure what I want and need to think&#8221; is perfectly acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re feeling guilty about what you do want, it might be productive to explore <em>why<\/em> this is so!   But choosing to ask for what you think you should want is not being truthful.   This is not conducive to a good relationship.  Get centered in what you want first. Also, asking for what you should want, especially when you get a &#8220;yes&#8221; means you&#8217;re gonna get what you <em>don&#8217;t<\/em> want.  Even though it&#8217;s not the other person&#8217;s fault, you might find yourself resentful at some subconscious level for not getting what you want.  Do you really want to put someone you <em>love<\/em> through that?  &#8216;Course not!<\/p>\n<p><strong>I chose to ask for what I think will get a &#8220;yes&#8221; <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The flaw in this is that you&#8217;re not clearly communicating.  It&#8217;s also rather subtle form of lying, because you&#8217;re not actually saying what it is you <em>do<\/em> want and are manipulating a bit.<\/p>\n<p>This can come from several emotional places, but one of the more common ones is a fear of rejection.  Are you afraid of rejection? If so, welcome to the club.  Hell of a thing in a writer, innit?  Remember that in a good relationship not all &#8220;no&#8221;s are dealbreakers.  As Wayne Dyer once commented, &#8220;If you can say no <em>in<\/em> a relationship, you do not have to say no <em>to<\/em> the relationship. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>I ask for what I want<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you do this, you&#8217;re giving the other person you&#8217;re dealing with the appropriate information.   If you&#8217;re dealing with a romantic partner, you&#8217;re on the same side, right?  You want your partner to have her needs fulfilled.  Your partner feels the same way.  If this is not the case, then you&#8217;ve got issues outside the scope of this particular article, but I assure you that asking for what you want is still the best way to go.  It&#8217;s unlikely you really <em>want<\/em> relationships where none of your needs are being met, after all!<\/p>\n<p>Now, have I ever been guilty of options A or B in my relationships?  Oh, sweet baby Jesus, yes!  To say that it did not work for me is a dramatic understatement.  Part of it was an uberwant that was unvoiced, and therefore unfulfilled.  I wanted some peace and quiet with a  strong adjective in front of it!   If you&#8217;re wanting something with a heavy emotive force, it&#8217;s something worthwhile to pay attention to, and &lt;gasp&gt;  maybe even ask for.<\/p>\n<p>Most of this advice is working from the presumption that yes, you&#8217;ve a loving relationship here.   When there isn&#8217;t an emotional investment in everyone having their needs and a lot of wants met, you&#8217;re going to find that this method is going to mercilessly expose some unpleasant stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Me?  I think that&#8217;s good in the long run.   Inauthentic relationships aren&#8217;t worth having, they&#8217;re really not.  &#8220;Alone&#8221; is an order of magnitude better than &#8220;bad relationship&#8221;! Keep that in mind when you&#8217;re asking for what you want, because the only way to get good relationships is to be real about what you do want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quick quiz: When I ask for something I ask for What I think I should want. What I think I can get that is closest to what I want. What I want. I chose what I should want. Okay, sure, lots of people have done this. It&#8217;s not an unusual option when you feel guilty&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-relationships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}