Do you ever ask yourself, has person X been nice to me lately? Does he or she make me feel respected, valued, praised, good or worse? Do I like this person even?
If you are in the habit of thinking this way, perhaps you’ve considered if your ties with others are as strong as they could be. And rightfully so. In this brief article, I’ll discuss how these thoughts and feelings may not be the best approach to your dozens of interactions with others.
How else should you approach your daily interactions and to what benefit? Let’s get started with these 5 steps to insightfully approach others:
1. Each person is unique.
If you remember this one fact, it can guide (and remind) you that how each person behaves is a reflection on themselves. The trick is to mindfully discern or observe their behavior to see how he or she is, how he or she thinks, how he or she is dealing with life.
2. Each person may respond differently to you, but it’s up to you to find ways to work with them.
When we go about our daily ways, the other trick is to find the ways to work with each other. If we don’t like person Y, but by default spend a lot of time with them, we might need to be creative and find other ways to build our ties. Common interest, common experience, common subjects or maybe that toy we both had as kids. It’s important to make the effort. Find ways that work.
3. Sit back and observe the rewards/drawbacks.
More likely than not, with the first two steps down, you’ll reap the rewards of your daily interactions. How will these rewards manifest? If you have:
Less expectation.
Less expectation.
Less expectation.
Yes, it’s probably true. When we build up our expectations of others, we will likely be less satisfied and maybe even feel other negative emotions such as sadness, defeat, humiliation, rejection, feeling misunderstood, and more. Less expectation can prove your interactions to be more satisfying, rewarding in new ways, and overall more pleasant. Sure drawbacks might be present, but they’ll often reflect on the potential shortcomings of the other person.
4. Get ready for a ton of understanding.
If you want to improve your interactions with others, you’ve got to apply the tools of understanding. With the insightful approach (steps 1 and 2), understanding is way more likely to develop. Especially if you work on your communication skills and improve positive body language. A lot of people respond to people who understand or ‘get’ them. So understanding will most certainly become your biggest strength through the insightful approach, allowing you to reap supportive and rewarding social connections.
5. Understand the differences in people are what make them unique.
In case you run into a problem, step 5 is basically returning to the first point. It may be difficult to find ways to work with everyone, so if person Z is too difficult, just consider them to carry a potential shortcoming (which we all have in varying degrees) that can’t be worked with as easily. For example, if person Z quickly puts you down, then you might consider them to lack self-confidence (which needs them to work on over time). Or if person C has a bad temper, you might consider them to be overly stressed out (which needs understanding and tools to remedy).
Whatever the differences, it’s important to stay mindful of them so that we become more understanding, respectful and, in turn, rewarded in our social interactions. Greater understanding helps broaden our thinking, widen our experience and apply our wisdom to benefit our lives and the lives of others the most that we can, especially for those we care about. Hopefully, you can use these 5 ways to insightfully approach others in your life to make the most of your connections today!!
Source/Credit for Photo Above: https://interpreter.services/phone-interpreting/2-people-talking/