How to make friends
#Interested Challenge
Think of someone you really admire. Someone you would love talking to for hours. Now, give some thought on why you like that person?
Most of us like people who listen to us, try to understand us because it shows they are interested.
We all follow Humans of New York/Karachi/Bombay. What made the people behind this idea famous was the way they tell stories. Any random person walking across the road would be stopped and asked about their experiences, and voila, you have a great story. These Facebook pages taught us how to become interested in people around us, how to start conversations, how to befriend complete strangers, how to win trust!
Dale Carnegie in his book How to win friends & influence people taught us a simple rule: If we want people to find us interesting, we have to be interested in them. This can be done through simple gestures: remembering names of people around, appreciating them, helping them with activities they are interested in. People are bound to become friends with you when they see that you are putting in even the tiniest effort in helping them.
This is not as easy as it seems though. Throughout the challenge, I had to constantly fight the urge of sharing my opinions and talking about myself. But remembering the challenge I would immediately revert with a question about the other person.
The best part of the challenge was to reconnect with old friends and rekindle the warmth of our friendship. When you are out of touch with old friends doubts creep into your mind: they may have changed, or you might not connect with them anymore. But those doubts were easily brush away when I asked them how they were, what were they doing. Everyone shared happily because I continued to show interest throughout the conversation asking about their education or thesis, asking about their family, nephews and nieces. You only need to find one common thing between both of you, and rest of it just follows. Example it could be the TV shows or Dramas you are watching.
So next time I meet new people I would try to be interested in them and hopefully make more valuable friends.
