The secret of all good communication is relocation. If you want to understand someone, you had best begin by trying to put yourself into their shoes. How would the world look to you if you were in their position? What might you value? What might you fear? And what if you don't want to understand someone? What if you just want them to understand you? Then you just need to remember one thing. We all find it so much easier to understand someone else if we feel that they are at least making an effort to understand us.
 A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.' that particular message has neither faded nor dated. There is a reason why the pharmacists put a candy coating around their bitter pills and a reason too, why whenever we find ourselves needing to say something that could be construed as harsh, we should precede it (and preferably follow it too) with a comment that contains praise and reassurance. Be diplomatic.
We frequently cry. Well, of course we do, it is always good advice on good days and bad days alike. you are becoming ever more conscious of a daunting task that may soon lie ahead for you. Focus instead on a seemingly smaller but far more attainable, objective. It may only look like a minor molehill but once you accomplish it, it will somehow turn into the very mountain that you now most want to move.
There are moments, as any mechanic or builder will confirm, when a bit of sheer brute force can make all the difference to the success of an enterprise. Many a high achiever will be similarly enthusiastic in extolling the virtues of persistence and determination. Yet such methodology can rebound on us badly if we are pushing at something that just won't give.