Charisma: Are you born with it?

There are some people who are just, what is the word I'm looking for? Charismatic?

These kinds of people can just enter a room and everyone flocks to them. Is that being charismatic or friendly? I'm not sure.

What is charisma anyway?

It can sometimes be hard to define the word charisma but I suppose the easiest way to define it is someone who has excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

I watched in awe this morning as another one of our gym members was basically chased around the gym so the other person could say hi. I doubt it would have been noticed by other people but it blew my mind.

This particular person is very friendly and always says hello. Is that being charismatic? Maybe. I'm not sure.

Lets ask the above question again:

What is charisma?

Well it turns out that you aren't necessarily born with charisma and the things you need are learnable. So lets go through some of the things that may make you charismatic.

1. Confidence

By making the right decisions you can become more and more confident. By decisions I'm not talking about which house to buy or which car you should fork your cash out for. I'm talking about whether you should have that salad or karaage for lunch. (I always go for karaage by the way. Japanese fried chicken (JFC) is the best.) I'm talking about whether you should watch that rugby game to write that blog post. I'm talking about whether you should walk five minutes to the shop to buy your loaf of bread or drive the car. With every decision you make throughout the day can either build your confidence or hurt it.


2. Optimism

You are charismatic if you optimistic yourself but you also help the people around you become more optimistic.


3. You are an interesting person. You are also interested in what other people say.

Charismatic people are good at telling stories. They are engaging and they listen to other people and ask relevant questions.


4. Brainy

Charismatic people can have good conversations. There conversation ability goes more than:

"I got so wasted over the weekend."

"Yeah. What did you do?"

"Well, we went to Gazza's place and he had a keg. Then we hit the town and hit on some chicks."

No, not at all like that. They will have some knowledge on something and they will keep well abreast on what is going on in the world.


Being charismatic is about having positive body language. It is about having passion and being self confident and optimistic.

Basically it is about being the type of person that people want to be around. The type of person that people want to hang out with. Have a drink with. Confide their utmost secrets with.

You can learn everything that I have talked about today just as I have or am still learning about.

Does the person below look charismatic to you?

I'll let you decide.