How do I stop treating every relationship like a transaction?

You can close the hardest deals. That skill served you well, but it came with a cost you are now noticing: you have started to see every relationship as a transaction, weighing what you give and what you get even with people you love. That awareness is actually a good sign. The person fully lost to it would not feel the unease you feel. The negotiating mind is a tool, powerful in its place and corrosive out of it. In a deal, everything is an exchange. In friendship and love, the whole point is that some things are given freely, with no ledger. When you catch yourself keeping score with someone who matters, that is the moment to set the tool down, deliberately, the way you would leave work at the door. This week, do one thing for someone you care about with no expectation of return, and notice how it feels to give without counting. You are not broken. You are simply a skilled negotiator who needs to remember when not to negotiate. The best parts of a life are the ones that were never a trade.