Assertiveness is about finding a middle way between aggression and passivity that best respects the personal boundaries of all relationship partners.

how to become assertive
Learning how to become assertive will help you to get the treatment you want in your relationship.

Prior to Doug’s emotional affair neither one of us were very assertive in nature.  We were both non-confrontational people pleasers. Over the last three plus years we have both learned how to become assertive through mostly trial and error.

It has been an adjustment as at times we both have problems adjusting to each other’s new found assertiveness.  Sometimes the assertiveness is taken out of context and causes tension and defensiveness.

Other times the assertiveness has bordered on aggressiveness.  Doug’s near confrontation in the grocery store several months ago with a man who shook his head and rolled his eyes at him when Doug almost ran into him with his cart is a prime example of that.  I thought they were going to brawl right there in the store!

For the most part however, learning how to become assertive has resulted in more effective communication, the establishing of firm boundaries and better verbalization of our wants and needs. 

In any healthy relationship, both spouses feel comfortable expressing their opinion freely and clearly and each partner actively listens to what the other is saying.  Each person believes in their right to have an opinion—and to share it.

Assertiveness projects confidence, rationality and respect. It will also help you to get the treatment you want in your relationship and will lead to more positive results.

Consider these core principles of assertiveness:

  • It is ok to share your opinion as long as you do it respectfully.
  • You are honest and respectful when talking to your spouse.
  • You listen to spouse’s opinion, knowing that just because you listened to it does not mean you have to agree with it.
  • You feel your spouse has a right to his/her opinion—though it differs from yours.
  • You will share your thoughts or opinions in a clear concise way.

Remember that it is virtually impossible to change your spouse – but you can change yourself.  If you lack assertiveness and feel that it is causing problems in your relationship, consider the following 10 steps on how to become assertive offered by Randall Bennett, MA, LMFT, LCPC in his book, Melt Your Man’s Heart.

How to Become Assertive – 10 Steps

Ground work: For the first three steps, you will need to evaluate yourself and where you currently are.

Step 1: State Your Style

Before you know where you are going, you need to know where you are today. Based on the four behavior/communication styles (passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, assertive), assess which one most honestly describes yours. There is no “wrong” answer, and no one is judging you. For some people, they find that they are assertive at work, aggressive with the neighbors and passive with their wife/husband. Others find they fit squarely in one camp or the other. But, for purposes of this challenge, assess your communication style as it relates specifically to your interactions with your spouse.

See also  The Path to Introspection After an Affair

Step 2: Believe You Have the Right

No matter what style of communicator you are, you need a basic belief that you have a right as a human being to be heard, to give voice to that which is inside of you. Without this belief in your right it will show, and your spouse may struggle with believing in your right if even you do not believe in it. People tend to mirror back the message they receive. For example, if you smile, others tend to smile in return. So, you will set the tone of a conversation simply by how you project yourself and your inner beliefs.

I recommend repeating it as a mantra to yourself: “I have the right to be heard and to speak my thoughts.” It may be helpful to look into a mirror as you say this. Say it to yourself until you not only believe it—but are practicing it regularly.

Step 3: Journal Thoughts/Needs

In order to appropriately communicate your thoughts and needs, you have to be acutely aware as to what they are. If you have never journaled before, now is the perfect time to try it.

Whether you use a notebook or a computer, the act of journaling can help you assess who you are deep inside at your core. It is a healthy means of releasing any pent-up anger, resentment, disappointment and frustration. And as an added bonus, when you give vent to these emotions in your journal—they are not as likely to bubble up while you are communicating with your spouse. You may be able to describe to him/her what you are discovering and feeling, but it will not be as overwhelming to him if it is presented as a statement rather than in an angry outburst.

Life Practice: For the next seven steps, you will need to diligently practice these behaviors until they feel comfortable.

Step 4: Rehearse Scripts

You can probably think of multiple scenarios right this minute that you wished had gone differently with your spouse. “I said this, he said that, and I wish I had said this so the outcome would have been different.”

So, write out a script that is new. Remember when we looked at bad habits and response patterns we get into with our spouse—the Dance of Dysfunction? We know what they are going to say before they say it, as if it is a movie we have already seen a dozen times. Well, you are the director of this movie called Your Life, so you change your—the lead character’s—lines.

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For example, if you always say, “Honey, it is trash day tomorrow,” and you know he will say,

“I know,” and then your response will be, “Well, are you going to do it?” then you may want to change what you say. “Honey, I wanted to give you a reminder that tomorrow is trash day, which I am sure you already know.”

He may respond with his “I know,” in which case, you could make the advance decision to not say anything more that would appear to be nagging. Or, he may respond differently after a couple of weeks and say, “Thanks for the reminder.”

Step 5: Body Language: Check

Check how you physically hold yourself when in conversation with your spouse. What you want is to be relaxed throughout your body, stand tall and make frequent eye contact to project confidence. You want to keep your face open, with either a neutral or happy expression that conveys you are interested in hearing what your spouse’s response is to what you say.

Body language you want to avoid includes:

  • clenched fists
  • slumping/slouching
  • furtive looks
  • crossed arms
  • frowning
  • head shaking
  • rolling of eyes

While rehearsing your scripts from Step 4, practice in front of a mirror so you can gauge how you actually look when you communicate. Then, when you are talking with your spouse, you will start to develop self-awareness, mentally checking your body language to see what you are communicating non-verbally.

Step 6: Emotional State: Assess and Respond Appropriately

Express feelings you are experiencing in a non-accusatory way. If you are feeling angry, state that you are angry and what you are angry about. This is more effective than shouting, “You piss me off!”

Step 7: Respect for Self and Others

Use a tone of voice and language that is respectful of your spouse—the way you would with your best friend, your parent, your doctor or a judge in a court of law.

Step 8: Mind Your Language

Men are not as verbal as women, and therefore can become quickly overwhelmed with too many words. Be specific with your words, clear and concise, so that he is able to understand what you are trying to convey.

Step 9: Replace “You” with “I”

To foster a collaborative approach, make your statements begin with “I” rather than what sounds more accusatory: the use of “you this or you that…” If you want cooperation from your spouse and for him/her to truly hear what you are saying, you want to make sure you do not lead with “You,” or you will almost be able to see his/her guard and walls go up as if he/she is being attacked.

By working with “I” statements, you remove your spouse’s perceived need to protect him/herself from what you are saying—and therefore his/her tuning you out and not hearing, with the respect and attention you deserve, the information you are conveying.

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Step 10: Ask for What You Want

If you want something, you need to state clearly what it is. When you want to bring up a conversation with your spouse about something important related to your marriage, think of the outcome you would like to have. In order to increase your odds of achieving that outcome, you must communicate to your spouse what, exactly, you would like the outcome to be.

Remember, assertiveness is the happy medium between the two extremes on the communication spectrum. If you are currently a passive communicator, it is going to take some getting used to when it comes to expressing your needs and opinions.

For example, if your husband asks you what you are making for dinner, you may always respond with, “I am not sure—what do you want?”

The next time he asks, try this: “I am not sure, but I am leaning toward making spaghetti because I have a craving for Italian tonight.”

It is simple, straightforward—and it may be refreshing to your husband to not have to make the decision.

If you have always come across as aggressive, feeling the need to be right or to always win, it will take some getting used to when it comes to tempering your style. Using the same example above, if your husband asks you what you are making for dinner and you usually respond with,

“You do not have to worry about it because you are not the one cooking,” you may want to try a gentler approach: “I was thinking of making spaghetti tonight. Would you be in the mood for spaghetti, or would you like something different?”

Click the following link for more information on Randall Bennett’s book, Melt Your Man’s Heart.

A Few More Resources

Here is a link to an Assertiveness Quiz to help you assess your style in relating to other people.

For more information on what is assertiveness and how to be assertive, you might want to watch this short video from assertiveness expert Brian Carroll.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkvacpgfnwc

LINESPACE

There is a lot on the web with respect to assertiveness training.  There are articles, books, seminars, etc., but much of it is related to assertiveness in the workplace.  Though certainly you can relate much of the work related information to your personal relationships, I find it more difficult and less relevant.

If you want to find more relevant results for how to become assertive or assertiveness training on Google, try searching using terms like “relationship assertive training” or “assertiveness training for marriages.”

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    5 replies to "How to Become Assertive in Your Relationship"

    • Anita

      For me I have to be myself, if I have to put that much energy into thinking about how I should answer, when the
      question whats for dinner arises, thats not for me.
      For me to be in any relationship I have to be myself and
      if the other person doesn’t repect that, then that’s not my
      problem. If that person does something to undermine the relationship, then I would question if I need to be in that
      relationship or not.
      For me, I quess I am type of personality that if I have to start thinking of how I should act in order to gain another person respect, then I don’t need that relationship, I will be nice to
      them and treat them the sameway I would want to be, other then that I’m not going to waste my time to impress
      them.
      I have always learned ” The Golden Rule” do onto other
      as I would have them do on to me.
      I don’t not like being controled and I will walk away when
      others try to control me. I ‘m referring to personal relationships, that I choose to have in my life. Also I have better things to do instead of trying to control someone
      elses behavior when they are an adult.
      For myself in every relationship there is give and take, and
      I do have to question the relationship if that person has
      been unfaithful. I believe in forgiveness, but for myself
      I would end the relationship and forgive them.

    • Anita

      For myself I have learned so much from all of this. I my own situation I learned that I am a whole complete person
      without having a man in my life, I have learned that I do not
      need a man, instead I have learned how to be independent
      on my own. Therefore I have the choice if I want to involved
      or not, also I never have to settle for someone who has been unfaithful to me.
      I believe in keeping fidelity within a marriage and when a
      spouse chooses to be unfaithful, I believe in forgiveness
      for my own peace of mind, but I won’t settle for them.
      I have seen happy marriages, and I know that I won’t
      settle for unfaithfulness in mine, and I didn’t.

      • Anita

        When I read the statement “Its simple and its straightforward and it maybe refreshing for your husband not to have to make a decision.
        I guess if I was married to someone who could only boil
        water I would be able to except this statement, because
        I’m not thrilled with changing a tire either.
        However if this is a statement of being assertive, for another person to respect you, that’s a different situation
        all together. Thats seem more like a control issue and
        for myself, if I was in that mind set, it would undermining.
        As I have mentioned before if the relationship has come
        to a point where I have to use an entire thought process
        to answer a simple question of what’s for dinner, then something in the relationship has been lost along the way.

        • Anita

          I guess for myself I have seen happy marriages without infidelity involved and in those marriages I have seen the best of moods and the worst of moods and yet their spouse didn’t cheat on them. I have never met a couple where they have to think about how they should respond, if
          they should be passive, assertive or aggressive, I would imagine on any given day all 3 of these could come into
          play for both of the spouses. But yet infidelity would not,
          I believe when someone is unfaithful its because they
          wanted to be, and not because their spouse was to passive, aggressive or to assertive. An affair happened
          because the cheating spouse wanted it.
          Its pretty much like shopping for a new mate, while keeping the current one around in case other relationship didn’t workout. Why else would they have an affair.
          Wouldn’t it be more productive to teach the cheating
          spouse about fidelity.

    • chiffchaff

      This is a very interesting posting, thanks. One thing that my H and I discovered is that neither of us are happy asserting our needs and tend to bury them to avoid conflict. It’s something we’re both working on and the starting point is not to make assumptions about what you’ve agreed, even about minor things. Such as stating that although you’ve been discussing something you now want to just park that discussion for a while as you’ve got to concentrate on something else for a while. Doing this sort of thing means that neither of us think ‘oh, why did they stop talking about that with me? had they got bored/annoyed/tired of it?’ which leads to a gradual build up of wrongly held resentments.
      It’s difficult to be effectively assertive in your personal relationships when your role models were also crap at it. My H was brought up by conlfict avoiders with a passive aggressive streak. I was brought up by a stridently assertive and narcissistic mother with a father who was her ‘enabler’. I learnt to avoid conflict because it just wasn’t worth the assault on your self-esteem.
      Like evrything else it takes an awareness of your style, where it comes from and how you would prefer it to be before you can develop it. It’s a work in progress. Like everything else.

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