Ready for Conversational-Confidence On-Demand?

Diamond rings are not beautiful, an open heart is beautiful. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. Never build Comfort before Attraction.

How to make us laugh is to have fun. Here's a video version of that guide for those of you who don't like reading! There is nothing wrong with being either.

1. Look past the façade and see the real person beneath it. - She must have the same level of education as me.

The same is true with women. Not all women are alike. What makes each person wonderful is that they are individuals. They each have their own loves and hates, hopes and dreams. I know this looks hopeless. If all women are different individuals with different tastes and ideas, how in the name of all things Holy can you learn to talk to each and every one of them? What I am about to share with you is a secret. It is the secret of how to talk to anyone no matter who they are and to build interest and ultimately love with them. Look past the façade and see the real person beneath it. Underneath the clothing of skin and bones, we are perfect people. We have crappy baggage and things in our past that haunt us but these things are not us and we know that. No one likes to be reminded of the bad parts of themselves or their painful past. What we are most proud of is who we are innately. We are most proud of the perfect person underneath. When you talk to a woman or a man or a child look for the perfect person and talk to him or her. In some people it is easier to see this perfect person than in others, and in some it is so hidden by strange pseudo personalities and other weird baggage that it is almost absent. If the person you are talking to makes it too hard to access that perfect person underneath, move on. Take the time to build common ground and understanding. Go to the supermarket or somewhere where you will have to interact with people. When you get to the check out, find something you like about the checkout person. I find that women love jewelry and take time and effort to choose and wear pieces that look nice. If you find a piece of jewelry on them and you comment favorably to them about it, you will be met with the person looking up and seeing you and not some nameless, faceless person. They will automatically start feeling a little better about you. Let the person talk about herself. This is the easy part. All you have to be is a good listener and respond with things that are pertinent to the subject at hand. It really is a piece of cake. For example, you have just commented favorably on a piece of jewelry or a sweater or scarf and the conversation has started. Generally they will tell you a little bit about the piece. Scroll down to continue reading article Resist with all your might the impulse to start talking about yourself. This conversation is all about her. If you keep this up each time you go through the checkout line, you will find that soon you are friends. From there an invitation for coffee is a perfect next step to get to know each other better. Avoid subjects on which you do not agree. There is no quicker way to make someone hate your guts than to take an opposing viewpoint to theirs and then try to convince them that they are wrong. This is a big step. If you do this, this will be your last date and you will have no one to blame but yourself. Instead find things that you agree on. If you disagree on politics, avoid that subject like a five day old burrito stub that you have just dug up from under the sofa because your negative comments on the subject will be just about as welcome. Stick to the things you wholeheartedly agree on and you will be fine. Your adorable clerk is a woman. She has had her share of guys trying to cosy up to her and get close. Respect her by giving her space. Trying to move in too close when she is not ready for that is a violation of her limits. To her this may mean that if you violate limits now, who knows what limits will be violated when she allows you into her world? Get your personal hygiene handled! Brush your teeth and comb your hair. If you just had coffee and a cigarette, chew some gum or something! Pay a little attention to your wardrobe. If they do and do not want to talk to you because of them, they are not worth it anyway. There are many wonderful ladies out there who are looking for a caring and nice person like you. Most people love gifts but there are times when gifts are unwelcome. She does not want to be put under an obligation and too many gifts make her feel that she now has to do something for you. While this may sound great, it feels awful. Have you ever shown up at work and forgotten that it was pot luck day and you brought nothing? How did you feel? Did you go around telling everyone that you forgot it was pot luck day and then ate only chips? Did you sneak out the back and give the whole thing a miss because the obligation was just too much? Do you see what I mean? If you want to impress her, wash and clean your car. Ask her what kind of movie she likes or what she likes to eat and make reservations at a restaurant you know she will love. Take time to create an evening that she will find magical. What will impress her is the care you took and the respect you had for her to take that time. Not all women are desirable just because they are women or because they are pretty. A pretty snake can still kill you and a woman who is negative, antagonistic, or passive aggressive also referred to as covertly hostile will make your life, and the life of any children you may have, miserable. Think ahead before getting serious. Beauty can fade over time when it is only on the surface. Real beauty that you see when you see the perfect person underneath is forever. Life is a tough game and only someone who has integrity, compassion and commitment will be there for you when you really need her. The others, if they are self centered or psycho will be long gone the minute you need a friend the most. Recognize when she is not interested and move on. If it is clear that she does not want a relationship, then ok. You are not wrong and neither is she. Perhaps you can be friends. There you have it! The important information on how to talk to anyone. Now go forth young Jedi warrior and use your power for good. I expect an invite to your wedding or at least send me a slice of the wedding cake! Featured photo credit: Be honest: how many good friends do you have? If you are a man, the chances are slim that you have a tribe of good friends. As men we tend to become isolated. You may have hundreds of social media friends. But how many of them can you call at 2 AM to help you in a crisis? I started out in a small Vermont town. Everyone knew you… and your business. There were not many places to hide. I felt secure in knowing others were watching out for me. I can remember years ago living in Phoenix sobbing as I read a Vermont Life magazine article. In that moment I longed for community and close friends. Not having close friends since high school, I created a plan to develop them. We are helping other men start groups and develop deep friendships. The core of what we learned was the ROC formula: Relax, Open and Connect. They are the first three strategies to generating close friends. How to Thrive in Friendships Using the ROC Formula I started out in a small Vermont town. There were not many places to hide, and I felt secure in knowing others were watching out for me. I can remember years ago living in Phoenix sobbing as I read a Vermont Life magazine article. In that moment I longed for community and close friends. Not having close friends since high school, I created a plan to develop them. We are helping other men start groups and develop deep friendships. The core of what we learned was the ROC formula: Relax, Open and Connect. They are the first three strategies to generating close friends. Step 1: Relax We live in a world that continues to run faster with more to do. Your nervous system starts to habituate to that pace along with all those around you. Once you begin to accept and experience your pace you can start to relax. In relaxing, you may feel anxious. This is a lifelong process. You need to start to see results. Mindfulness is a great tool to speed the development of this skill. By slowing down, you are more able to do the next skill. Step 2: Open Once you begin to accept your body, mind and emotional experiences you have more room to open up to being vulnerable to others. This is THE KEY to close friendships. You may be rejected, hurt or shamed. Without vulnerability, another person has nothing to connect with other than your external mask. With vulnerability you are real, you are human. Sure, some will not like you. Step 3: Connect Once you relax and open, you are ready to reach out to connect to another. If vulnerability is the key, connecting is the door. When you step through your fears to reach out to another while being present and vulnerable, you upped your game. Shifting from being passive to active by moving forward to connect has you give up some control. Sure you can connect from your hyper-persona, but you know what that will get you. If you want more friends sooner, apply these three steps tomorrow. The Key Points of ROC Creating a Safe Space This is critical to the ROC formula and friendships. To the extent you feel unsafe your physiology will shift into its survival state. If you feel unsafe, there is a good chance the other person feels unsafe. You can push your way through by denying your physical and emotional feelings. Or you could slow down to allow yourself to feel the lack of safety AS your risk to move forward towards connecting. A safe space is the fertile soil for friendship. Clarify What You Want When you slow down to connect to the kinds of friends you want you are more likely to create them. Rather than hoping, you get clear so you can create a plan. If you want friends that enjoy nature, hanging in bars may not be the place to meet them. Joining a hiking club would set you up to meet nature lovers. Sure, a good friend is there for another when he or she is not receiving from the other. You know what I mean. When you see his caller ID, you hesitate to pick up. If you fill your life with relationships that suck you dry you will have no room for those that can nourish you. Start saying what you truly feel and want. Sometimes the truth will set one of these people free. Others speak of having good boundaries. I say fill your boundaries with all of your feelings and wants. Be courageously authentic and the need to work on strong boundaries will be irrelevant. Those that you would want will be attracted to you. Scroll down to continue reading article Go for Something Bigger Than Yourself We are attracted to people who have a purpose in life. We read books and see movies about people who stand up for something that puts them at risk. Go for more than finding your passion. Explore what you want to live and die for. Enjoy Your Solitude The more you enjoy your own company, the more others will. The more you enjoy being by yourself the less you have misplaced needs. We instinctually and biologically, let alone psychologically, need others. I am speaking about being OK with your own company. Connection Can Be Critical We are trained to understand, diagnosis and fix a problem. We are social animals; we are hungry for connection. We want to be heard and witnessed, not analyzed and lectured to. The next time you find yourself not being heard or see yourself go into problem-solving mode, slow down. Use the ROC formula to reorient. Back away from seeing the person as a problem. Encourage the person to express vulnerable feelings with your actions and words. If it feels right, you may touch the person. Research proved that touch is a powerful connector that can immediately tell someone they are OK. Shared moments of heighten connection. When a situation has intensity and possibly perceived danger we will move beyond our hesitations to reach out for help. Studies were down during the bombing of London in the Second World War. Rather than people fighting each other for the limited resources they bonded together to share. Going on a strenuous hike with another can cement a friendship. Maybe you got lost. Once you rediscover the trail, you start laughing at all the mistakes you both made. Those mistakes become your shorthand to remind each other about the experience and how good it felt. Plan special moments to catalyze a friendship. Creating connection rituals can be repeated shared moments. We need predictability in our lives. In lieu of no positive rituals, our unconscious will use negative rituals. A couple may have a date night every week. Through the week each person, rather than daydream about the last argument, can reflect on their weekly date that will be relaxing and connecting. Plan activities with friends that bring you closer. Most would not have thought hanging with other men would be fun. They know if something tough happens, they have their group. Listening may be the best quality of a deep friendship. Your ability to listen allows another to go deep into their experience. But how many people do you have that can sit with you for an hour and listen? When you look at listening as a mental task, it looks boring. When you look at listening as emotional intimacy, it can be scary or exciting. As the person speaks, feel your response. Notice how your body responds. Notice how you are opening up. You can reflect back to the person the impact what they are saying is having on you. When is the last time you were truly heard? Fun is the magnet that draws others to you. Laughter a social phenomenon opens us up. To have fun, you need to relax and express. I was one of them. It was when I started being like a kid that I started having fun. When I teased people in a loving way and laughed at myself that I started having fun. We are drawn to those who are fun. To be one of those people you need to risk making a fool of yourself. You will at first do or say something that is not fun. Write it off as learning. Keep putting yourself out there. Your failures will feel worse for you than others. Others will appreciate the risk-taking. Be your own friend first. Practice the above behaviors with yourself. Have a weekly fun activity. Use the ROC formula with yourself. If you are doing a lot of negative self-talk, go to the underlying emotions. Feel them so you can release them. Shift your state, get your body moving. Often as kids when we had no one to console us, we did it for ourselves. Now as an adult you have more choices. Choose to feel and express as you move through life. Stand up for yourself, as you would for a good friend. Others will sense how you take care of yourself which sets them up to believe you could do it for them. They will naturally trust you more. Give—to others knowing you may not get anything in return. Give the most precious gift, gift of yourself in vulnerable ways. Reveal not to get attention. Reveal to be the first to take the emotional risk. Tell the woman at the checkout she looks good in her dress. The more giving becomes a habit, the more you will be the person others want to be around. You want to have good friends in your life, first be a good friend to others. Be willing not to have others like you. Like in business when they say a product for everyone is a product for no one. Have your focus be less on making friends and more on relaxing, opening and connecting. Take on one of these skills every day. Go out of your comfort zone. Put yourself in new, possibly mildly scary, situations to expand your repertoire of friendship skills.

Open her eyes, heart, hopes and dreams. Many people often wonder whether persistence and constant chasing between works. Always keep one thing in mind to never speak about money and things of show off. If you want to impress her, show her that you are such an exciting person who lives an amazing and exiting life. Besides, even with all of the makeup, accessories and elements in the world, you cannot be beautiful if you do not. You would pay attention to her answers and follow up in smart, appropriate ways. This can be the football star among cheerleaders, or the smart guy who gets the best grades. Use double entendres, seemingly sincere lines which also have a hidden sexual innuendo in it. What makes each person wonderful is that they are individuals. You should cultivate natural advantages whenever you can.