Your ability to connect with others – Will determine the amount of success you have in your life.
An old friend calls me up on the telephone tonight to tell me that they’re leaving the country behind… They wanted to invite me to a going away party and that I was one of the few people they wanted to invite because I actually took the time out, in the hustle and bustle of their busy lives – to really get to know them.
A friend tells me recently that their father has died and that they were the first person they thought of, with whom they could be open with and talk too…
Another friend recently tells me of their infidelities with their partner and how they’re not sure if they should tell them or not…
Each of these phone calls, each of these conversations and the ability for my friends to connect with me – Has come from both the trust, the acknowledgement and the ability for each of us to connect with one another… And it has been this ability to connect with others, which for me which has crossed all cultural barriers, all genders, all forms of relationship (sexual, kin or otherwise) and has allowed me the opportunity to share times of intense emotional impact with others.
But how is it, that some people are able to connect with other people in an expert and professional way, making each and everyone of us feel good – While others cannot connect.
Is it, like selling the concept that some are born naturals and others are not… What about the idea that connecting with others is a learned art – One which can be worked on hard and once attained can be practiced for life. The latter for me is how I personally have learned to connect with others.
In life, other than a months worth of guitar training – I have only ever learned to use one instrument. That instrument was my voice and in high-school I loved to perform, to sing and felt that I was good at it.
What training my voice taught me was that whether I was good at singing or not was irrelevant – it was how much was my singing making an impact upon others. I would soon see, depending on the genre how others would react to me if I was great, if I sucked or if I was okay and would thus adjust the calibration of my voice accordingly.
The same happened to me when I learned sales… I thought I was good at it and later found that I got better when I would calibrate my skills such as my pauses, my eye contact, hand gestures, voice and excitement around with and towards others. All of this took the eye of a salesperson and learning calibration as a life skill.
Regarding life skills – It was, in my more personal life the art of social calibration and social connection which my personal life coach taught me – when I learned to calibrate myself to relationships around and with other people. What he told me was that in order to connect with others, you must first find where they are at emotionally and go from there.
You need to listen to the sound of their voice, watch where their eyes are moving, see if they are smiling and watch how they are breathing. But he also taught me that most people are looking for something socially as an emotional need and that when you find these needs and address them that people will want to connect with you better – and in more deeper ways than ever felt possible before.
So, I have found that in order to connect better with others – what you need to do is focus on another person and actually treat them as well if not better than you would like to have yourself treated. You actually need to spend time out with another person (I have found the minimum is 3-6 hours) for them to actually connect with you on a deeper level.
If you have any social status such as a rockstar, a politician, are popular in business etc. and have something of high social/cultural or personal value to give to others then this ability to connect with them and influence them is significantly reduced in time and exposure… I.e. It you had 30 minutes to talk with your favourite musician – then this time spent with them could have more impact on you then upto and including 10-15 hours spent with someone else.
Thus the more influence you have on other people, the more you can connect with them… The inverse of this equation is also true, the more time you spend with other people the more time you are able to influence and connect with them. This is why I believe that even less better looking people in the world can still attract and bring to them attractive friends or sexual partners. I believe this is because all that these proper need to do is spend more time around others, meeting their emotional needs (as my mentor has impressed upon me) and that this then will affect and further reflect upon their personal relationships.
What these emotional needs are will be addressed in future articles.
Until then and next time,
Count. Daniel John Fogarty @ reallifedevelopment.me on Tuesday the 11th of March 2014.