14 Social Skills Resources for an Amazing Social Life
I spend maybe 30 minutes a day reading other people’s blogs and websites. Not just in social skills, but other topics like behavior, business, and being a bad ass. I then recommend these on Twitter and Facebook.
Over the past year I’ve collected some great resources on social skills I’d like to share with you now. Some are from friends of mine, myself, and just others who’ve given good insight into a topic.
From improving your social skills, overcoming anxiety, and starting a conversation, all the way to ongoing conversation, being charismatic, and making people laugh, here are some great resources I recommend you read even if they take you a while to get through (each of these great resources will open in a new window so you keep track of this page):
1. How to Improve Your Social Skills: 8 Tips from the Last 2500 Years
Henrik Edberg has some good social skills insight to share. A lot of what he discusses builds on from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Read some of his other posts on communication and socializing if you have the time.
I mostly teach people how to deal with their past, rework their mind, and get into the present to overcome social anxiety, but this post has some good alternatives to deal with anxiety disorders. Read it if you’re shy and struggle talking to strangers. It’s unlikely to cure your social anxiety though it will help make you more comfortable in social situations.
3. 101 Conversation Starters People Love
A goldmine from none other than yours truly. You get everything needed to start a conversation with anyone.
4. 40 Ways to Make a Good First Impression
According to research, if someone judges you as “attractive”, “friendly”, and “open” within 100 milliseconds, they’re likely to think you’re all that by the end of the conversation. In this killer article of mine, you’re given 40 tips on body language, conversation techniques, and mind strategies to quickly and permanently impress people.
5. 7 Hacks to Remember Any Name
End the embarrassment of forgetting someone’s name by using seven neat mind-tricks. Charismatic persons like Richard Branson are masters at remembering people’s names. You may not become a billionaire by knowing John is John, yet people will feel special, you won’t feel awkward, and your relationships will be richer.
6. 3 Quick Ways to Never Let Your Conversation Run Out
There’s a lot of garbage advice out there on how to keep a conversation going. Most people just don’t know what they do to continually talk to anyone. You’ll want to read this short article by a guy called Schmidty to help you keep talking to people.
Onto some cool skills now that make you a better socializer. Even if you’re a serious type of person, you can lighten and learn how to be funny. Your ability to make people laugh will win you many friends, business deals, and glances from the opposite sex that make you glee in delight.
8. 50 Body Language Secrets You Need to Succeed In Life
Though the start of the article mentions a major communication myth, you get 50 great little tricks to improve your often overlooked nonverbal communication. You can say all the right things when socializing, yet ignore your nonverbal communication and you may look like a weirdo. Get your body language down pat to be cool.
9. 10 Ways to Instant Charisma
You’ll notice this post on charisma summarizes points in other resources mentioned here. Read it if you want to become more likable and win the respect of people you don’t yet know.
10. Tips on Effective Listening
Listening is another topic of many where many “self-help experts” give ordinary advice like “maintain eye contact” and “repeat the person’s words”. There’s more to socializing, rapport, and friendship than the surface aspects of communication. Written by a therapist, this article on effective listening will have you more deeply connecting to people. Listening most times is at least 50% of a conversation so make sure you master this skill if you want to be popular and make cool friends.
You might be surprised to see something about presence here. Someone “present” is in the Now. They are fully absorbed in the present moment. Presence is a secret skill in Big Talk. When you’re present in conversations, you’re free from anxiety and you deeply connect to people. You get the feeling of being in the zone as time and worry banishes.
12. How to Make Friends and Get a Social Life
Author Chris use to be a shy, awkward loser. I can call him that because I used to be as well and I’m linking to his article! If you’re not good at making friends and have a social life of stalking others on Facebook, you’ll get a lot of practical tips and theories in this useful resource.
13. How to Network with Busy People
This 12-part series written by Steve Pavlina, a leading self-help blogger, shows how to get in contact and build relationships with hard to reach people so you dominate life. Should you become a successful networker, life becomes easy because you have resourceful and trustworthy connections.
14. Your suggestion
Have something amazing to share with other readers? Contact me or comment below. If I feel it’s a one-of-a-kind helpful resource, it may appear in this list!
I hope you enjoyed these social skills resources. Make sure you follow me on Twitter and like Tower of Power on Facebook for more great resources, books, and lessons to build friends and influence people.
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A great list of social skills resources, Josh. I haven’t read them all yet though. It’ll take a while to plow through this interesting list!
I particularly like how many skills are given like charisma and body language. All are an important part in training yourself to become good with your social skills.
social skills
just be yourself.
force yourself to talk to as many people as possible.
be silly, be goofy, be different. people will see that u are carefree and eventually warm up to you.
cast the fear and shyness away. remember dont pretend to be somebody that u are not. people can see the fakeness
number one is SMILE, SMILE, SMILE this is very important. when u smile u look more friendly. force your smile if you have to. people can see that at least u are trying.
think CONFIDENT in your mind. visualize all the great past experiences with people in the past. put that visualized picture in your mind, when talking to people. always remember that smile from a stranger in the past. the good deed someone did for you. remember always the people that love and care for you.
just be BRAVE, and EMOTIONALLY STRONG.