Skill a Month: Better Conversations
February's skill of the month: better conversations. Now, I can do small talk and have good conversations with friends and all of that. But sometimes I notice - especially with acquaintances or people I've just met - like I'm not offering up much of myself in conversations. I'm very task-focused: give me a task, I will complete that task. So when someone asks me a question, I will sometimes answer that question without offering any additional information. Why do I do that? Sometimes I might be afraid of saying something dumb (when people ask me "what's new?" I feel like I need to come up with some awesome response). Or sometimes I literally might not be able to think of anything to say. Sometimes I worry I'm talking too much about myself. What I realized more and more throughout this month is that everything helps - it's about offering the other person something, anything, to work with. So here's what I did this month: Tried ...