Reflective Essay: How Can You Improve Your Social Skills?

No matter how great your social skills are and how smoothly you talk, if you're not confident in your skin and don't genuinely care about the person you're talking, you won't be able to make a meaningful connection and leave a lasting impression.

How you feel is much more important than how you want to be perceived. You can learn canned phrases, or practice certain body language moves, but whoever you're talking to will be able to tell that you're faking it and will feel uncomfortable.

I always thought that I needed to know exactly what to say and how to behave, to be successful in a social interaction, but that's just wrong. There's something much more important that you need if you want to leave a good impression.

There's a lot of truth to the expression, "it's not what you say, it's how you say it," and if you take it to heart, you'll be much more successful in your future social

You can learn what to say and how to smile, but nothing beats being genuine.

Of course, going from a negative attitude towards people to a giving one isn't easy, but you can start with doing small favors for others without expecting anything back and see how they react. Performing this experiment will be well worth your time, I promise.

## 3. Learn to Accept a No

Have you ever met someone who was really pushy and didn't respect your boundaries? Did you want to spend time with them, or did you do your very best to avoid them?

For me, one of the most important things I learned and am still learning was the ability to ask for something and then being okay if they say no. I know being told no can be incredibly painful, but you need to learn to not take it personally. There are a ton of reasons why someone could say no to you, and you don't have to take it personally.

No matter how good your social skills, if you carry this underlying fear of rejection, you'll make it much harder for others to like