Some people make it easier for you to become honest, curious, courageous, and fully engaged with life. Others repeatedly return you to an outdated role: the agreeable one, the rescuer, the quiet one, the entertainer, or the person who never causes difficulty. The Relationships That Make You More Yourself explores how the people around you can either support your development or quietly reward you for remaining familiar. William R. Stanek helps you examine which connections permit difference, challenge, honesty, and change without confusing constant comfort with health. A valuable relationship will not approve of everything you do, and constructive challenge can help you see what you have missed. But genuine connection should not require you to continually shrink, perform, or abandon the person you are becoming in order to preserve the bond.