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Five with Fry
Think of this podcast as your go-to for tackling the hard stuff with clarity and confidence. On Five with Fry, Dr. Jen Fry breaks down the rules, challenges the norms, and dives deep into the tough conversations that shape our lives—conflict, culture, family, sports, tech, and everything in between. This is where you learn to rely on yourself, embrace the messy, and come out stronger on the other side.
Five with Fry
3: Healthy Relationships Aren't Conflict-Free
This episode delves into the significance of hardships in shaping meaningful relationships. It discusses how navigating through challenging times reveals the true character of individuals and enriches bonds of trust and vulnerability.
• Importance of experiencing hardship to know someone deeply
• Hardship reveals vulnerability and shapes meaningful relationships
• The misconception of healthy relationships being conflict-free
• Hardships' role in co-founder and professional relationships
• Encouragement to embrace hard moments to build stronger connections
Friends, welcome to Five with Fry, where five is the magic number, whether it's five minutes, five questions or anything that fits in five. I dive into the big topics that matter, sometimes alone and other times with a friend. From navigating sports conflict to family dynamics, travel, tech, hard-hitting issues and even politics Nothing and I mean nothing's off the table. This is where curiosity meets conversation, and we always sit at an intersection. I'm your host, dr Jen Fry of Jen Fry Talks. Let's get into it, friends. Welcome to the next episode.
Jen:We're going to finish this handy dandy conversation on hardness, so I'm going to say this with my full grown adult chest you do not know anyone and you do not know any relationship without going through hard. Let me repeat myself so it sinks in. I need you to take a pause, wherever you are, and listen to this again you don't know any person or any relationship without going through hard, because hard should be where you find out all of those nooks and crannies about the person that they tend to shield from other people. You can't know anyone in any romantic relationship, any co-founder, co-worker, friendship, whatever relationship there is. You're not going to know it well, without going through hard, and many of us have never thought about that with relationships, because, in reality, society tells us hard is bad. Think about we are always being told that hard is bad, no matter what the situation is, and I'm here to tell you that's a lie. You actually want hard in your relationship and you get to decide what your tolerance level of hard is, but you need some type of hardness in that relationship. Too many people are bamboozled, okie-doked, ran amok if you must, because they wait to get deep into a relationship of any kind and then see how that other person handles hard or doesn't handle hard, and it causes a lot of problems. You need to see people and how they handle disappointment, anger, frustration, shame, guilt, being upset themselves, being upset at other people, heck, even being upset at you, because that tells us the type of person that they are.
Jen:And, truth be told, the best relationships that I have are the ones that navigated through heart, that they showed their disappointment or hurt towards me, and how I handled it shaped the relationship, of the relationship going a step up in terms of vulnerability and depth and honesty, or it taking a step back and people feeling like they have to put a shield up. The same thing has happened with me with relationships that I thought were beautiful and wonderful and then, when hard came, where I shared a disappointment or a frustration, it wasn't handled well and maybe the relationship dissipated or we weren't able to get to that next level of truth, vulnerability and honesty. Let me tell you, hardness is what shapes everything. It tells you the relationship that you're in, what it's going to look like in the future, because no one can go through relationship without hardness. You just can't.
Jen:Whenever I hear people say, oh, we never fight, and I'm like, yeah, how long is this relationship going to occur for? Because in reality, the relationship doesn't have solid footing. Yeah, we never argue, we never fight. The relationship is not going to be strong at all. And this goes again for anything a co-worker relationship, a co-founder relationship, coworker relationship, a co-founder relationship because, especially a co-founder relationship, this work is hard.
Jen:Owning a company, you have to see how they act. When shit hits the fan and everyone's frustrated, everyone's upset. How do they handle it? Those are the people you want to be in relationships with Friends. I so appreciate you hanging with me for episode two. Thank you. Well, friends, that's it for this episode of Five with Fry, your dose of five insights, ideas and inspiration. If you love what you heard, don't forget to head over to where podcasts are played. Subscribe, share and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop us a message. We love to hear from you. You can come follow me on IG, twitter, the TikTok at Jen Fry Talks, or join me on LinkedIn. Look for me at Dr Jen Fry. Until next time, stay curious, stay bold and keep the conversation going. See you on the next Five with Fry.