{"id":893,"date":"2009-01-21T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/21\/say-hi\/"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:56:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:56:47","slug":"say-hi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/21\/say-hi\/","title":{"rendered":"Say Hi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The best advice I ever received to improve my social life was simply this: say \u201chi\u201d to people. This one habit has made me more friends, taken me on more dates and made me happier than just about any other skill I\u2019ve worked towards. I\u2019m often amazed at how much friendlier the world becomes once you start saying hello to people.<\/p>\n<h2>If This Sounds Ridiculously Simple, That\u2019s Because It Is<\/h2>\n<p>Many people have a reactionary view towards life.\u00c2\u00a0 As Earl Nightingale put it best, \u201cThey feel as if they would be nicer to other people, only if other people were nicer towards them. What they don\u2019t realize is that it has to start with us.\u201d Although it would be nice if everyone you wanted to meet came and introduced themselves to you, that isn\u2019t how the world works.<\/p>\n<p>If you commit to taking the pressure off of other people, they will often be grateful for it. I\u2019ve made friends in buildings I\u2019ve lived in by walking around, knocking on doors to meet the neighbors. While some people might be unfriendly or rude, those people aren\u2019t worth meeting anyways, so there\u2019s no loss if you don\u2019t start a great conversation.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve realized that as soon as I stop following this advice. As soon as I become too self-absorbed or self-important to say hello regularly, I start missing out on opportunities. My social connections wither and I have less fun.<\/p>\n<h2>What If You&#8217;re Shy?<\/h2>\n<p>Then start small and say hi in situations you\u2019re comfortable with. You can even start by saying hello to acquaintances you would normally ignore.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re incredibly introverted or completely gregarious you can still improve.<\/p>\n<h2>Ways to Get Started<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019m not going to spin this into a long article, because doing so would be an insult to your intelligence. It isn\u2019t difficult advice to understand, even if it\u2019s advice we don\u2019t often apply. Here are some ways you can get started:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Introduce yourself through an email to someone you\u2019ve always wanted to meet.\u00c2\u00a0 What\u2019s the worst that can happen, they won\u2019t reply?<\/li>\n<li>Say hello next time your in an elevator, bus or waiting in line.\u00c2\u00a0 They aren\u2019t going to run away, and the only risk you have is that a conversation won\u2019t follow (which wouldn\u2019t have happened anyways if you didn\u2019t speak up).<\/li>\n<li>Phone\/message someone you haven\u2019t talked to in awhile. What, were you waiting for them to talk to you?<\/li>\n<li>Introduce yourself at a group event. Go around and say hi to everyone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The best advice I ever received to improve my social life was simply this: say \u201chi\u201d to people. This one habit has made me more friends, taken me on more dates and made me happier than just about any other skill I\u2019ve worked towards. I\u2019m often amazed at how much friendlier the world becomes once [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[679,15],"tags":[293,290,291,292,39,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nc-habits","7":"category-communication","8":"tag-friendly","9":"tag-hello","10":"tag-introduction","11":"tag-meeting-people","12":"tag-social","13":"tag-social-skills","14":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Say Hi - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/21\/say-hi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Say Hi - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best advice I ever received to improve my social life was simply this: say \u201chi\u201d to people. 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