Talking to others to understand yourself
Today, the fear of reaching out takes over
Today, everyone in the street has their AirPods in and lives inside their own head most of the time, myself included.
Because we have grown used to the comfort of solitude, I think we have forgotten how to interact.
Since COVID, we have been moving a little deeper into our bubbles every day.
Obviously, this isn’t the case for everyone.
And, fortunately, I think it is quite simple to fix: we need to change our mindset.
Others are not fundamentally bad
We often imagine the worst when we think about talking to someone, regardless of the goal (romantic, friendly, or even just “transactional”).
We play movies in our heads:
- What if it goes badly?
- What if I get rejected?
- What will this person think of me?
And so, we stay in our heads, thinking about all these possibilities. Meanwhile, the person we wanted to talk to is already gone.
What I deeply believe is that most people crave these interactions, these exchanges.
We live in an increasingly individualistic and, truth be told, quite terrifying world. So, having these moments of sociability, outside of our usual circle, is a way to break that individualism.
Creating encounters
One of my goals for this year is precisely to reach out more to others and take more interest in them, regardless of my status or my fears.
Because ultimately, I believe it is one of the actions with the highest opportunity/time ratio. It is often said that one encounter can change a life forever.
So, to develop this area of my life, I would like to implement the following method…
I will try this thought whenever an opportunity for interaction arises:
At worst, the person rejects me. So what?
Then, I will go directly to talk to the person, without asking myself any more questions.