Useful Social Skills

What are useful social skills that can be picked up quickly?

1. Stare at the spaces between the eyes- most people are not comfortable maintaining eye contact and this is the perfect substitute. Just stare at the spaces between the eyes and the person will think you're maintaining eye contact.
2. Come early- this is my number one trick. If you want instant popularity at any event, all you have to do is come early. When you come early, you get to talk with the participants as they come. You can get to know as many 10-15 people before the event starts and this will give the false impression that you know everyone.
3. Wave at empty spaces- I learnt this from my Guru. When you're at a party and you don't know anyone. Just go around and wave and smile at the empty spaces between people. People will think you're are waving at the person behind them. If you do this enough, people will approach you as you'll seem to be the popular guy. And nope! Nobody will notice the lie.
4. Mute your phone- this conveys instant respect when you do it as the conversation is about to start. It shows that you really value the person.
5. Breathe before responding- how many times have you had your sentences cut short because someone can't wait for you to finish. I know it pisses you off. God knows I hate it immensely. People will hate you too if you're fond of doing this. Instead, develop the habit of breathing before you respond. Don't jump in between people's sentences. Breathe. It shows the sign of high self esteem.
6. Refuse to say it in public- some times we notice some bad things about our friends and as social dummies, we say it out loud. This is very wrong and it'll lead to resistance and broken friendships. Refrain from giving your criticism in public, wait until you're with the person one-on-one before you offer your criticism and make it specific.
7. Give compliments freely- It's so simple and easy to give compliments but I see that people don't do it most of the time. The other day I gave a waitress a compliment that she's beautiful and well becoming. You can imagine the look of surprise on her face before she told me that I was the first person to compliment her since she started working there 5 months ago.
8. Call people by their names- we do it all the time, we shorten people's name and call them by nicks. It's not fun at all since a lot of people ain't cool with this. It makes you special if you call people by their full name and you pronounce it properly. It'll only take you some extra few seconds to memorize someone's full name, so don't sweat it.
9. Always remember the topic- people don't care about your sport team, goals, problems, ideas or whatever unless it has something to do with them. Stop blabbing about you all the time. Remember that people love talking about themselves and if you want scintillating conversations, talk about them or something relating to them. And voilà. Magic!
10. Dress nice- of course it's a social skill, people rate you immediately the second they see you on how you dress and your body posture. When you dress becoming it puts people at ease.