INTERESTED OR INTERESTING?
There is a question that every person needs to ask themselves: Am I interested or interesting?
The lessons I learned from the first chapter of the book “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie are that we can put a really good impression on people by becoming interested in them in a much lesser time than by becoming an interesting person. The author gives an example of a writer, that without understanding the interest of his audience, he can not deliver his ideas and words effectively and so every profession needs the formula of becoming interested and only then you can become interesting. Being interested and showing humbleness to someone is the base for respect and attention. It is the change that can change lives. It is proportional to loyalty. It is the requirement to build strong relations with people.
I realized that being interested in other people may sound very simple, but it’s very hard in actual. One of the most important and hardest things in life is to overcome the need and wish to put yourself first every time when you are talking to somebody. And the best thing is, we can’t fake this habit, but we need to actually develop this important characteristic in our nature. This activity helps to develop my nature to be understanding and interested. If we talk about professional dealings, having good technical skills are important but in the end, we need to be interested in other people because it is the requirement of the business. It’s natural to share our own stories but people who are interested, they share a lot of positive energies like acceptance and tolerance. They have a broader way of thinking because listening is the most important tool for effective communication.
After every conversation, I ask myself, do I know more about the other person or do they know more about me? If I know more about the other person, the conversation was a success. In this activity, I talked to my friends and asked about themselves. I realized that without being interested, I will not be able to have a good conversation with people and I couldn’t enlightened and appreciate them. I realized that deep listening is the rational way of understanding others. If we can focus on true listening, other people will appreciate our presence and discuss important things with us. This requires a lot of practice but practice makes a man perfect.