Although I would like to think I am a very tolerant person, I know I have judgments in the back of my head that color the way I see the world and other people. I think this is definitely a skill I need to work on more. In my experience, unconditional positive regard is very rare and I can say that I know only a few people who are actually good at it. One person in my life who has developed the capacity for unconditional positive regard is my stepfather. No matter what I say to him or how I behave towards him, he is still the same. He accepts the good, the bad and the ugly in me and sees the best in me. Through my relationships with him I can see the benefit of unconditional positive greetings in therapeutic and even everyday relationships. Most of the time I feel like most of my other relationships are looking for something in me and when I screw up there is very little grace for my failures, mostly due to the fact that unconditional positive regard towards myself is extremely difficult. I also struggle to have unconditional positive respect for those close to me, because if you don't have something you can't give it. I think this is why unconditional positive regard is difficult for me, because I hold myself to such a high standard that I can never truly succeed and I inadvertently hold those around me to similar expectations of perfection, or as the book says initial thoughts of judgment (Cochran 109). I think