My Friend's Son - Question 3 - Interested Over Interesting

I received while working recently with “My Friend’s Son”, my hope is, through this process, we can all improve our self-awareness, communication, and overall social confidence, and lean into proven exercises, tangible take-aways, and practical applications that can be applied on the daily.  

The question we’re addressing this week is… 

 “How can I remain interesting in conversations, without always trying to be funny?”

This is such an honest and real concern I’ve wrestled with for years. This question should give us pause and allow for some genuine and healthy reflection on the unnecessary pressure we can put on ourselves to try to be funny, in our natural and well-intended desire to be interesting.

At Game On, we believe in the importance of laughing with and in the power of positive humor, because we know there’s so much good in sharing a healthy and appropriate laugh together. With that said, and literally “with all jokes aside”, we also believe we can improve our interesting factor by focusing less on ourselves, and focusing more on being present, actively listening, asking good questions, and genuinely being interested in others instead of trying to be interesting to others. 

If you’re interested - as leaders, teachers, coaches, presenters - below is our 3-part ETA. 1. Exercise, 2. Take-Away, 3. Application format to help us all remain… interested over interesting.

1. Exercise: “Coins”: This is one of our foundational Game On concepts, and a staple in almost all our core signature programs. Coins are hobbies, activities, interests, achievements, unique qualities, and experiences that you value and that bring you value and meaning. They could be people who have impacted you, places that are significant to you, food you love, pets you’ve had, and anything else you think about that inevitably makes you authentically smile.

2. Take-Away: “Be a Coin Collector”: When we can identify and share our Coins, and most importantly, when we’re genuinely interested in seeking and hearing about other people’s Coins, we’re better positioned to develop empathy, understand what matters to others, and allow ourselves to be interested in their story.

3. Practical Application: Try to make this exchange into a fun and healthy game. The next time you find yourself in one of those inevitable conversations, socially interactions, networking functions, game the game, seek that gold, and make it your mission to collect at least 3 Coins. You do this enough, you’ll realize there’s some interesting people out there who may just need an experienced coin collector to help them find their value.

As we continue to go on this journey together, and in our desire to peak your interest and find that value, the question we’ll be addressing next week is…

How can I be the best version of myself every day, and amplify my best qualities as a person?

Stay tuned as we spend these next few weeks getting our… Answers On!