Conversation Starter Quotes

I want to keep a human mouth on my coffee table. It’ll be a great conversation starter.

As I got older, I got craftier and less obvious, but I’ve always put a lot of energy and effort into people liking me. That’s why I’ve never understood the compliment “effortless.” People love to say: “She just walked into the party, charming people with her effortless beauty.” I don’t understand that at all. What’s so wrong with effort, anyway? It means you care. What about the girl who “walked into the party, her determination to please apparent on her eager face”? Sure, she might seem a little crazy, and, yes, maybe everything she says sounds like conversation starters she found on a website, but at least she’s trying. Let’s give her a shot!

What else do you want to do to me?" Jace asked, and Clint smiled. "That's a wicked look you've got going on." "Just remember, you're the one who asked for it." "It was merely a conversation starter." "Consider it started. Now I'm going to finish it.

Your people’s concept of virginity interests me.” “Well, there’s a conversation starter you don’t hear every day.

It is against the law to put pretzels in bags in Philadelphia.

I grin, and he beams with pride. “So what kind of hat is that?” I ask, unable to resist. He’s adorable when he’s showing off his wardrobe—like a puppy doing tricks. Although I remain cautious, knowing in the blink of an eye he can become a wolf again. “My Peregrination Cap,” he answers. “Huh?” His smile widens—baring white teeth. “Peregrination. An excursion … a journey.” “So, why don’t you just call it your traveling cap?” “Then it wouldn’t be much of a conversation starter, would it?” I raise an eyebrow. “Um, the fact that it’s made of living moths might give you something to talk about.” Morpheus laughs. For once our relationship feels comfortable, friendly.

The thing about being barren is that you’re not allowed to get away from it. Not when you’re in your thirties. My friends were having children, friends of friends were having children, pregnancy and birth and first birthday parties were everywhere. I was asked about it all the time. My mother, our friends, colleagues at work. When was it going to be my turn? At some point our childlessness became an acceptable topic of Sunday-lunch conversation, not just between Tom and me, but more generally. What we were trying, what we should be doing, do you really think you should be having a second glass of wine? I was still young, there was still plenty of time, but failure cloaked me like a mantle, it overwhelmed me, dragged me under, and I gave up hope. At the time, I resented the fact that it was always seen as my fault, that I was the one letting the side down. But as the speed with which he managed to impregnate Anna demonstrates, there was never any problem with Tom’s virility. I was wrong to suggest that we should share the blame; it was all down to me. Lara, my best friend since university, had two children in two years: a boy first and then a girl. I didn’t like them. I didn’t want to hear anything about them. I didn’t want to be near them. Lara stopped speaking to me after a while. There was a girl at work who told me—casually, as though she were talking about an appendectomy or a wisdom-tooth extraction—that she’d recently had an abortion, a medical one, and it was so much less traumatic than the surgical one she’d had when she was at university. I couldn’t speak to her after that, I could barely look at her. Things became awkward in the office; people noticed. Tom didn’t feel the way I did. It wasn’t his failure, for starters, and in any case, he didn’t need a child like I did. He wanted to be a dad, he really did—I’m sure he daydreamed about kicking a football around in the garden with his son, or carrying his daughter on his shoulders in the park. But he thought our lives could be great without children, too. “We’re happy,” he used to say to me. “Why can’t we just go on being happy?” He became frustrated with me. He never understood that it’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.

Diamonds aren’t EVERY girl’s best friend… Male penguins propose to females by giving them a pebble. Gentoo Penguins look for the smoothest, shiniest pebble to present to the female he chooses. If she accepts his proposal, she will place the pebble in her nest as a symbol of accepting him as her mate.

Thousands of people attended Andrew Jackson’s funeral in 1845, including his pet parrot that was removed for allegedly swearing too much.

Justin Timberlake is the voice of the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign for McDonald’s.

The number of jars of Nutella sold in a year could cover The Great Wall of China eight times. Sounds like a delicious idea!

The two golf balls that Alan Shephard hit on the moon with a six-iron are still there.

Traffic in Moscow is so bad that wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances to beat the jams.

Before we get arrested,” Jacob said, “I’m a little curious about what we’re breaking into here. Just as a conversation-starter with my boss when he fires me.

A French conversation starter is more subtle. Work is considered boring, money is out of the question, politics comes later (and only in like-minded company). Vacation is a safe bet - it's no exaggeration to say that French people are always going on, returning from, or planning a holiday. But more often than not, social class in France is judged by your relationship to culture.

Do not keep talking to the Devil’s Advocate Guy or Gal aka DAG. I’m not against playing Devil’s Advocate, because a lot can be gleaned from it. However, when it comes to topics such as homophobia, sexism and racism, a particular kind of DAG tends to rear its ugly head. This person isn’t interested in having a fruitful discussion that will enrich everyone involved, nor do they have any intention to have an open and frank discussion about a difficult subject. This person is simply a shit-starter. Someone who is bored and wants to derail a conversation or has some inner rage that they are dying to unleash. During my days of blogging about race, I have encountered this person often. They start out as seemingly run-of-the-mill people, perhaps sharing slightly bias statistics but asking enough questions to seem like they are open to ideas. Eventually though, DAG will lose their cool, and reveal themselves for who they are.

carefully placed questions put you in the driver’s seat of the conversation. “Being an asker allows you control of situations that statement-makers rarely achieve,” Hewitt notes. “An alert questioner can judge when someone grows uneasy. But don’t stop. Just change directions. . . . Once you learn how to guide a conversation, you have also learned how to control it.”3 Questions can be casual conversation starters providing a simple, friendly way to get the ball rolling in a discussion, like it did for me with the witch in Wisconsin.

In ancient Egypt, being a servant was not exactly the most appealing job. They were smeared with honey in order to attract flies away from the pharaoh. Their service didn’t end after their pharaoh’s death either. Some pharaoh’s chose to be sealed in their tombs alongside their living servants, pets and concubines.

I might have felt unimportant pitted against the awesome might of the mountains. I did not. Rather, on that mountain top I found something important that I had never known before: an awareness of a vital connection between me and the Authority behind all this beauty. I remembered my conversation with Dr. MacNeill that afternoon in my schoolroom. He had said that he believed in some “starter-force” but that he could not credit a loving God with concern for individuals. But the “starter-force” behind the magnificence displayed before my wondering eyes had an authority behind it that could be no abstraction, for it had immediacy—known and felt. Now I knew how to answer the doctor’s question. Call this what you might—“starter-force,” “God,” “Father”—it was personal all right. It thrust deep into me. It pulled. And it insisted that life was precious—all of life—Fairlight and I, and every bird and every squirrel and every tree reaching through its forest cover for the light. It cried that all effort was worthwhile; that doubt and fear and discouragement were a desecration of beauty, that hope was always right. It insisted that small achievement was not enough; that hopes and dreams must be large enough to stand up beside those soaring summits and not once bow their heads in shame.

Conversation Menu” that led the pairs through six “courses” of talk. Under the heading of “Starters” were questions like “How have your priorities changed over the years?” and “How have your background and experience limited or favoured you?” Under “Soups” was an invitation to ask, “Which parts of your life have been a waste of time?” Under “Fish”: “What have you rebelled against in the past and what are you rebelling against now?” Under “Salads”: “What are the limits of your compassion?

Mingle • Be the connector—introduce people to each other who may not otherwise connect. • Be a conversation fire starter; point out what people have in common as you are introducing them. • Seek out the folks who may appear to be shy, or awkward, or wallflowers. Find ways to build trust and comfort. Engage them with a kind word to pull them out of their shell. • Arrive early and stay late; connect with people before and after your event. • Stretch beyond your comfort zone to speak with, sit with, and start conversations with people whom you do not know. • Offer to refill someone’s drink or clear their plate. • Encourage introductions: “There is someone whom I would love for you to meet . . .

In this book you have learned the following starter techniques to create better conversation, better selling and better belief. That’s called ... rapport! Technique #1: Tell your prospect a fact that you both can agree upon. Technique #2: Pacing your speed to match your prospect. Technique #3: Tell your prospect two facts you both can agree upon. Technique #4: Smile. Technique #5: Most people. Technique #6: Everybody knows. Technique #7: Everybody says. Technique #8: Well, you know how. Technique #9: There is an old saying. Technique #10: What would you like to know first? Technique #11: Sincere compliment. Technique #12: Get your prospect to do the talking. Technique #13: Avoid a “WHY” question your prospect has to defend.

Here are some specific rumble starters and questions that we use: The story I make up…(This is by far one of the most powerful rumble tools in the free world. It’s changed every facet of my life. We’ll walk through it in the part “Learning to Rise.”) I’m curious about… Tell me more. That’s not my experience (instead of “You’re wrong about her, him, them, it, this…”). I’m wondering… Help me understand… Walk me through… We’re both dug in. Tell me about your passion around this. Tell me why this doesn’t fit/work for you. I’m working from these assumptions—what about you? What problem are we trying to solve? Sometimes we’ll be an hour into a difficult rumble when someone will bravely say, “Wait. I’m confused. What problem are we trying to solve?” Ninety percent of the time we’ll realize that we’re not on the same page because we skipped the problem identification process and set a meeting intention of finding a solution to a problem that we had yet to define.

The thing about being barren is that you're not allowed to get away from it. Not when you're in your thirties. My friends were having children, friends of friends were having children, pregnancy and birth and first birthday parties were everywhere. I was asked about it all the time. My mother, our friends, colleagues at work. When was it going to be my turn? At some point our childlessness became an acceptable topic of Sunday-lunch conversation, not just between Tom and me, but more generally. What we were trying, what we should be doing, do you really think you should be having a second glass of wine? I was still young, there was still plenty of time, but failure cloaked me like a mantle, it overwhelmed me, dragged me under, and I gave up hope. At the time, I resented the fact that it was always seen as my fault, that I was the one letting the side down. But as the speed with which he managed to impregnate Anna demonstrates, there was never any problem with Tom’s virility. I was wrong to suggest that we should share the blame; it was all down to me. Lara, my best friend since university, had two children in two years: a boy first and then a girl. I didn’t like them. I didn’t want to hear anything about them. I didn’t want to be near them. Lara stopped speaking to me after a while. There was a girl at work who told me—casually, as though she were talking about an appendectomy or a wisdom-tooth extraction—that she’d recently had an abortion, a medical one, and it was so much less traumatic than the surgical one she’d had when she was at university. I couldn’t speak to her after that, I could barely look at her. Things became awkward in the office; people noticed. Tom didn’t feel the way I did. It wasn’t his failure, for starters, and in any case, he didn’t need a child like I did. He wanted to be a dad, he really did—I’m sure he daydreamed about kicking a football around in the garden with his son, or carrying his daughter on his shoulders in the park. But he thought our lives could be great without children, too. “We’re happy,” he used to say to me. “Why can’t we just go on being happy?” He became frustrated with me. He never understood that it’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.

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purple pebble he is balancing on the back of his hand. It disappears. ‘What’s that?’ I ask. He turns over his hand and the pebble reappears on his palm. ‘I have no idea, but it would be a killer conversation starter with the ladies, don’t you think?

Opinion Openers We all have opinions and we enjoy sharing them. That is why opinion openers can be excellent conversation starters. Opinion openers are always best when they are something you are genuinely curious about and want another person’s perspective. Here are some examples: 1.    What do you think of this restaurant? 2.    Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus? 3.    What do you think of Harley-Davidson motorcycles? 4.    What do you think of people who drive a Ferrari? 5.    What does happiness mean to you?

Conversation Starters

Sometimes it felt like Zoe was just waiting out her life now, enduring it, ticking off events and days and months and years, as if she just had to get herself through something unspecified and then things would be better, except she never got through it and it never got better and she would never forgive him. His death was the ultimate 'fuck you'.

What It’s Like to Be a Nine I’ll do almost anything to avoid conflict. I’m not a self-starter. Sometimes I get lost in doing trivial tasks, while things that really need to get done get put off. I’m happy to go along with what others want to do. I tend to procrastinate. People seem to want me to be more decisive. When I get distracted and go off task I give my attention to whatever is happening right in front of me. I often choose the path of least resistance. I find routines at work and home comforting, and I feel unsettled when something throws them off. Others see me as more peaceful than I really am. I have a hard time getting started, but once I do I really get things done. I’m a “what you see is what you get” person. I don’t think of myself as being very important. People think I’m a good listener even though I find it hard to pay attention in a long conversation. I don’t like to take work home with me. Sometimes I tune out and think about the past. I don’t enjoy big social gatherings as much as a quiet evening at home with the ones I love. Being outdoors is very soothing for me. I am often quietly stubborn when people put demands on me. It would feel selfish to spend a whole day doing whatever I want to do.

A Byzantine historian recorded that in 536 A.D., there was a worldwide dust cloud that blocked out the sun for a year, resulting in widespread famine and disease.

Goeie smalltalk regel je zelf. Saaie trouwens ook.

Ronald Reagan was a lifeguard during high school and saved 77 lives. Though locals joke that many of those “survivors” were women faking distress to be rescued by the handsome lifeguard.

Lord Byron kept a pet bear in his Trinity College dorm room. He was told that dogs were strictly banned from the campus, so he brought along a different furry friend.

In 1847, Dr. Robert Liston performed an amputation in 25 seconds. He operated so quickly that he accidentally amputated his assistant’s fingers as well. Both later died of sepsis, along with a spectator who reportedly died of shock. This resulted in the only known procedure with a 300% mortality rate.

According to trainers, a reward for a dog’s good behavior must occur within seconds. Otherwise, a dog may not correlate its good behavior with positive reinforcement.

The world’s first recorded speeding ticket was given to Walter Arnold in Kent for going four times the speed limit… at 8 miles per hour.

It became illegal to sell ice-cream sodas on a Sunday in the American town of Evanston during the late 19th century. To get around the problem some traders replaced the soda with syrup and called the dessert an “Ice Cream Sunday.” Today, we cherish them as “Sundaes”.

Onion is Latin for “large pearl.” Onions, with their ringed layers, represented eternity and were found in the eyes of King Ramses IV who died in 1160 B.C.

Surprisingly, the cotton candy machine was invented in 1897, by a dentist. However, cotton candy isn’t a modern invention. It dates back to the 15th century when Italian cooks spun sugar then draped it around wooden broom handles to create sculptures.

Casu marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live maggots inside.

Popcorn isn’t the most popular movie snack everywhere. In Colombia, dried ants are a popular alternative, while Korean moviegoers enjoy snacking on a bag of dried cuttlefish.

In addition to the 14 chemicals thrown into the mix when making McDonald’s French fries, they are sugar coated before being fried to ensure a golden color.

When Madonna moved to New York City, she was strapped for cash and took a job at Dunkin’ Donuts in Times Square. She got fired on the first day because she squirted jelly on a customer.

Steve Jobs used to relieve stress by soaking his feet in Apple’s company toilets.

Lady Gaga wrote Born This Way in 10 minutes flat, calling it “immaculate conception”.

Adele has to have her social media posts approved by two people before sharing. Apparently, she sent out a few too many drunk tweets and lost the privilege!

At the age of 12, Jay Z shot his drug-addicted brother for stealing money from him.

Will Smith can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.

Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm.

Jackie Chan’s parents were so poor that they had to consider selling him to pay for the $200 hospital bill after he was born through cesarean surgery. His father borrowed the money and ate dog food for two-years to save cash.

Rihanna was an army cadet that trained with the Barbadian military. Fellow singer Shontelle was her drill sergeant.

There is no evidence that Viking helmets ever had horns.

Kissing after we say “I Do” is not purely out of romance. When ancient Romans reached an agreement, they would kiss to legally seal the contract. The practice was used in marriage contract as well, which has continued into modern times.

You are 99.9% genetically similar to the person next to you. You also share 60% of your DNA with a banana.

This gives turkeys a 360-degree range of vision.

early forms of hockey were played with frozen cow dung for a puck!

Lobster wasn’t always such a delicacy. In the 1800s, feeding lobster to prisoners was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Lobsters were referred to as the “cockroaches of the sea”.

Flamingo tongues were an ancient Roman delicacy.

Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie around 1938. She sold her recipe to Nestle for one dollar and a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Don’t be fooled. Store bought 100% "real" orange juice is 100% artificially flavored.

The most expensive pizza in the world comes from Salerno, Italy and costs $12,000. It takes 72 hours to make.

Doritos were invented at Disneyland.

Americans eat three pounds of peanut butter per person every year. That’s enough peanut butter to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon!

The popsicle was accidentally invented by an 11-year-old in 1905. He mixed sugary soda powder with water and left it out overnight. It was a cold evening, so the mixture froze. He woke up to the discovery and devoured the icy treat by licking it off the wooden stirrer.

Mangoes can get a sunburn.

Cheese is the most stolen food in the world.

It is incredibly common for humans to be allergic to cats. But interestingly enough, some cats are allergic to humans!

A snail can sleep for three years.

Domestic cats spend over 50% of their lives asleep, but some large cats sleep even more than that. Lions and tigers can sleep up to 20 hours a day.

North American porcupines may have upwards of 30,000 quills on their bodies.

In 1924, A Labrador Retriever was sentenced to life without parole at Eastern State Penitentiary for killing the Governor’s cat.

When John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world he replied “In the world? He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles!

There is a metal band called Hatebeak whose lead singer is an African grey parrot.

A woman’s heartbeat is, on average, faster than a man’s by almost eight beats a minute.

Over 50% of the dust in your home is actually dead skin.

It IS possible to sneeze with your eyes open, but in most cases your body’s response to blink kicks in.

Every single person has an individual, unique smell. Identical twins, however, share the same smell.

Krystian Zimerman, an accomplished Polish pianist is known for traveling with his own Steinway grand piano. He was headed to play at Carnegie Hall shortly after 9/11, but his piano was confiscated at JFK Airport by customs officials because the glue smelled “funny”. They destroyed the instrument.

In 2011, a woman named Aimee Davison purchased a “non-visible” piece of art titled “Fresh Air” for $10,000.

After Leonardo da Vinci's death, King Francis I of France hung the Mona Lisa in his bathroom.

Your left lung is about 10 percent smaller than your right one.

Renaissance composer Orlando de Lassus was kidnapped three times as a boy because of his beautiful singing voice.

Stomach acid can dissolve metal.

They may cry constantly, but babies don’t shed tears until they’re at least one month old.

Your pinky finger is small, but mighty. Without it, you would lose 50% of your hand’s strength.

The national sport of Canada is soccer, not hockey.

Greenland is unable to join FIFA because not enough grass grows there for a soccer field. Due to challenging weather conditions, soccer can only be played four months out of the year.

Is Obama satanic?” he asked me. I was grateful for the conversation starter — I consider anything that staves off social awkwardness to be a blessing — but I couldn’t lie.

Turning Rejection Around What if your friendly, hopeful conversation starter is not met with signals of approval or interest? If the person you approach is fidgety, avoids eye contact, appears uneasy, and exhibits none of the signals of welcome, chances are he or she is not interested in interaction—at least not at that moment. The first thing to do is slow down. Be patient, and give the person time to relax with you. If you present yourself as relaxed and open to whatever develops (whether a good conversation, a valuable working relationship, even friendship or romance), your companion may in time relax too. Use your verbal skills to create an interesting conversation and a sense of ease to break the tension. Don’t pressure yourself to be able to define a relationship from the first meeting. Keep your expectations general, and remember the playfulness factor. Enjoy someone’s company with no strings attached. Don’t fabricate obligations where none exist. It may take several conversations for a relationship to develop. If you had hoped for romance but the feelings appear not to be reciprocated, switch your interest to friendship, which has its own rich rewards. What if you are outright rejected? Rejection at any point—at first meeting, during a date, or well into a relationship—can be painful and difficult for most of us. But there are ways to prevent it from being an all-out failure. One thing I like to tell my clients is that the Chinese word for failure can be interpreted to mean “opportunity.” And opportunities, after all, are there for the taking. It all depends on how you perceive things. There is a technique you can borrow from salespeople to counter your feelings of rejection. High-earning salespeople know that you can’t succeed without being turned down at least occasionally. Some even look forward to rejection, because they know that being turned down this time brings them that much closer to succeeding next time around. They may even learn something in the process. So keep this in mind as you experiment with your new, social self: Hearing a no now may actually bring you closer to the bigger and better yes that is soon to happen! Apply this idea as you practice interacting: Being turned down at any point in the process helps you to learn a little more—about how to approach a stranger, have a conversation, make plans, go on a date, or move toward intimacy. If you learn something positive from the experience, you can bring that with you into your next social situation. Just as in sales, the payoff in either romance or friendship is worth far more than the possible downfall or minor setback of being turned down. A note on self-esteem: Rejection can hurt, but it certainly does not have to be devastating. It’s okay to feel disappointed when we do not get the reaction we want. But all too often, people overemphasize the importance or meaning of rejection—especially where fairly superficial interactions such as a first meeting or casual date are concerned. Here are some tips to keep rejection in perspective: -Don’t overthink it. Overanalysis will only increase your anxiety. -Keep the feelings of disappointment specific to the rejection situation at hand. Don’t say, “No one ever wants to talk to me.” Say, “Too bad the chemistry wasn’t right for both of us.” -Learn from the experience. Ask yourself what you might have done differently, if anything, but then move on. Don’t beat yourself up about it. If those thoughts start, use your thought-stopping techniques (p. 138) to control them. -Use your “Adult” to look objectively at what happened. Remember, rejecting your offer of conversation or an evening out does not mean rejecting your whole “being.” You must continue to believe that you have something to offer, and that there are open, available people who would like to get to know you.

Conversation starters. Icebreakers. Openers. However you choose to label them, that moment when the first words come out of your mouth can make or break the outcome of your entire conversation. Been there, done that, right?

How do you minimize the awkwardness in that moment? What are some of the conversations starters you've used to open, encourage, and support enjoyable and beneficial conversations?

Add a fresh twist of creativity to make a stellar impression which people won’t soon forget. Granted, your venue will determine how far you can stretch and how creative you can be. Making small tweaks to your conversation starters can make a memorable impact!

14 Awesome Conversation Starters 1. What do you do for fun? Hobbies, recreation . . . 2. What are your super powers? Gifts, talents, strengths. 3. Good morning! It’s great to see you! 4. What is your story? Tell me about yourself. 5. What brought you to __________? 6. Do you have anything special happening in your life (or your business)? 7. What’s the best thing that’s happened this week? 8. Are you living your life purpose or still searching for it? 9. What gives you passion and makes you happy to be alive? 10. Do you have any pets? 11. How do you know the host? 12. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 13. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? 14. What's next on your bucket list?

Speaking on Stage Speakers and presenters have only a few short seconds before their audience members begin forming opinions. True professionals know that beginning with impact determines audience engagement, the energy in the room, positive feedback, the quality of the experience, and whether or not their performance will be a success. A few of the popular methods which you can use to break the ice from the stage are: • Using music. • Using quotes. • Telling a joke. • Citing statistics. • Showing a video. • Asking questions. • Stating a problem. • Sharing acronyms. • Sharing a personal story. • Laying down a challenge. • Using analogies and comparisons. • Taking surveys; raise your hand if . . . Once you refine, define, and discover great conversation starters, you will enjoy renewed confidence for communicating well with new people.

Conversation Starters. Your first words will not only shape your first impression, but they can create amazing connections, lead you to your dream job, or help you discover a new best friend.

What sort of things might constitute an agenda for further professional improvement? Beyond the sharing of the good, bad and the ugly in conversations in staff meetings and at professional development sessions, new vistas are opened up when we read about considered practice. Books such as Ron Berger’s Ethic of Excellence, Graham Nuthall’s The Hidden Lives of Learners, Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby’s Making Every Lesson Count, David Didau’s The Secret of Literacy, Gordon Stobart’s The Expert Learner, Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School, Shirley Clarke’s Outstanding Formative Assessment and Dylan Wiliam’s Embedded Formative Assessment. For starters. Then there are the educational blogs which provide quick insights into new thinking.

For starters, risk is always relative. While some danger must be courted for flow, confrontations with mortality are not required. In fact, even physical risk itself is optional. A shy man need only cross the room to say hello to an attractive woman to trigger this rush. In casual conversation, merely telling someone the truth can serve the same purpose. “To reach flow,” explains Harvard psychiatrist Ned Hallowell, “one must be willing to take risks. The lover must lay bare his soul and risk rejection and humiliation to enter this state. The athlete must be willing to risk physical harm, even loss of life, to enter this state. The artist must be willing to be scorned and despised by critics and the public and still push on. And the average person — you and me — must be willing to fail, look foolish, and fall flat on our faces should we wish to enter this state.

You don’t need to have a super long conversation. Generally, the conversation structure should be: - Conversation starter - Bridge - Light banter/flirting - One to two open-ended questions sprinkled in, while listening and relating - The close

Perhaps you noticed a common theme in these seven habits. Miserable couples seek to control, manipulate, and change their partner. As you work through this book, if there are things about your partner that you cannot accept, make a firm commitment to work through these issues before your wedding day.