I am somewhat introvert. Living in a shell.
I find it difficult to connect with people.
Somehow, I believe, I have found a new way to interact with strangers.
I find it really difficult (really impossible) to introduce myself to a stranger
(Heck, life would be so easy if everyone just knew everyone).
Two months back I used to work either from my office or home.
I am into digital marketing. So mostly I work with VA’s.
It is the most efficient way for me to work on my projects, it saves me money and time.
I could finish and deliver my work within the time frame of any project.
However, two months back I realized that whenever I go to any events, I felt so uncomfortable to introduce myself.
If the someone, anyone takes an initiative to talk with me, then I am on fire. Like, bring it on!
Otherwise, I get an action paralysis, caught in my thoughts and their outcome?
What if I’ll make them uncomfortable with my questions, what if I am interrupting something, and a dozen what if’s make my head explode!
So after a month of torment, I decided to interact with as many people(strangers) as possible. And I found a way to do it!
I got a co-working space.
Yes, a month ago I have joined co-working space.
And I am working from co-working space and its excellent place by the way.
In the first week, I didn’t communicate with a single person, I just looked at them(sometimes we used to exchange a glance), and they looked at me with a neutral expression (neither friendly nor aggressive).
I don’t know if anyone of you guys notices these things.
Then I decided whenever I will make an eye contact with anyone (boy or a girl) I will try to smile.
Next day I finally made an eye contact with one person. My inner voice shouted “smileeeeeee”, I was baffled, I couldn’t smile.
At that moment I understood that the smiling is so hard.
Now, this is a little bit funny after few hours I posted one status on my Facebook wall.
And the status was “Today I realize that smiling is so hard, when I see an unknown person, and I want to make a decent genuine smiley face, it’s so hard to make a smiley face. Anyone ever experienced it before??”
and one of my best friends(Abhilasha) gives me a valuable tip.
She said ” I usually think of a happy memory for a natural smile .” and I was like this sounds interesting, and this is something I haven’t tried yet.
From next day I used this trick, and it worked.
It makes a difference but not so much.
After two days I came up with one crazy idea.
Now, this is so funny to me. Trust me; I am not high!
This idea is the instant hack however it could backfire; I don’t even know.
Here’s the tip, take a deep breath and listen to my secret hack.
The idea was whenever I will eye contact with anyone I will make a smiley face and “raise my eyebrow.” This little hack sounds crazy to me.
So from next day, I had started practicing with my males co-workers only.
I had one call from my client, so I went outside in lounge area, and I spoke with him on the phone.
Suddenly I saw there was someone coming towards me – a stranger.
I decided to verify my hack.
So, I looked at him, I smiled and raised my eyebrows. And magic happened.
Yes, it worked. Worked like a charm.
He came to me and said, “Hi, how are you?” And we had started a conversation, and my mind was like Bingo! The trick is working.
Then, I tried the same method with few other people, and it worked every single time.
The most important tip – there are many ways to raise your eyebrows (you know what I mean) so raise your eyebrows in a gentle way (don’t try to imitate The Rock, Dwayne Johnson) else it will backfire on you. Eyebrow-Raising time is maximum half second.
This is my eyebrow hack story. I would love to listen to your stories, how do you smile when you see a stranger!