Why you should talk to everyone.

I was watching a video on Youtube the other day and it was talking about engaging with people in shops and restaurants and places like that.

I know that I am the worst at it. I will go into a place like I did for lunch the other day. It is a make your own sandwich kind of place, very much like Subway. I go in there quite often. It would be a perfect chance for me to just say hi and to talk to the shop staff as an equal but I don't do it.

I'm not talking about flirting for you people wondering if I'm talking about that. If you are a guy, say hello to the guy behind the counter. Say something unusual, it might even make his day.

I know with shop staff I can get a little bit shy. By that I mean that I don't look them in the eye. I might not even grunt thank you to them.

If you start talking to shop staff, you are building your skills and then it makes it easier to talk to other people at events, in a business situation, on the street, basically anywhere.

I've been into a particular convenience store a couple of mornings a week for the last few weeks. A few times I have noticed another foreign guy talking to the shop staff. Not your normal small talk mind you but what looks to me to be a proper conversation.

I'm not sure if I'm correct but I am willing to bet that he goes into the shop everyday and he struck up a conversation with the staff so that now when he goes in he is made to feel welcome and the staff may even give him a discount or two. But the point is he sees the same people everyday and he has engaged with them.

I, nine times out of ten write my blog posts at a private library in which I am a member of. People use it as a study space, some use it to read, while there are obvious companies that work out of here as well. Have I engaged with people that I see here everyday? No, not at all. The only people I talk to are people that I know from outside the library. I sometimes I don't even say hello to the staff members who always greet the members. Isn't that terrible?

Here is my challenge to myself and to you, if you wish to accept it. Engage with one person a day who is behind the counter of a shop or serving you at a restaurant or anywhere really. You might be filling up your car. Chat with the people at the service station.

The picture you see of me above, I asked one of the library staff to take and then we chatted a little bit. She was more than happy to help me and I was friendly and I'm sure that next time I ask a favour that she will help me.

So is that my one for the day taken care of? No, I might have to find another place to engage with people.

Good luck to you and good luck to me.