How To Be A Friendlier Person

When the new year rolls around, I seem to get the cleaning bug. I think I like to have a clean, fresh everything to start a new year. Somehow, though, I seem to neglect the "junk drawer." Please tell me you have one of those. It's the grown up version of throwing everything under the bed.

As I was tackling the most ridiculous pile of odds and ends, I found my Dale Carnegie's Golden Book - something I received when I graduated from the Dale Carnegie Training. If you've never heard of it, it's a series of classes for business professionals to teach them leadership skills, how to speak confidently in public, and really just how to be an all around better person. Dale Carnegie was a salesman born in 1888 who wrote about his experiences with people, how he handled difficult situations, and shared how he did it. Dale Carnegie's book, "How To Win Friends and Influence People" is timeless and worth a read if you've never done so. The man really had keen insight into humankind and what makes people tick.

It was fun to read through this little book again, and it made me feel energized to make sure I'm employing these methods at work and at home. The steps below are called How To Be A Friendlier Person, but I really notice that I not only become a friendlier person when I do this, I become a better person.

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.

2. Give honest, sincere appreciation.

3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

4. Become genuinely interested other people.

5. Smile.

6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.

9. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.