Success Tips Slideshow: 10 Ways to Make Others Happier
See the Five Uses below the slideshow.
Find the good in everything. Point out the positive aspects of a person or situation. Emphasize, even embellish, the good news.
Replace bad news, criticisms and horror stories with good news, compliments and success stories.
Give people hope, support their dreams and encourage them to win.
Increase the amount of communication between you and the person. Increase the quality and quantity of messages, calls, meals or events with the person.
Increase your affinity for the person by finding more and more things you like about him or her. Give extra physical contact, like handshakes, back pats or hugs (when appropriate).
Look for more reasons to agree with the person, and for the person to agree with you. Form additional agreements to take your relationship to a new level.
Get the person into a creative mood. Anything to do with creating things can make the person happier.
Ask, “What new ideas might help you with ___(problem) ___ ?” “Have you been creating new ____ lately?” (clothing, paintings, advertisements, flower arrangements, websites, plans, etc.)
Create something together. “I think we should redecorate your living room. What do you think we could do in here?” "What kind of startup business do you think we could create?"
Stressed-out unhappy people are often news media junkies. Help them break this bad habit.
Ask, “How much news are you getting?”
“How does it help you to know the news?”
“Can you do anything about it?"
“If you knew you would feel safer, happier and optimistic if you ignored the news, could you do it?”
“Let's drive around and see what's really going on around here.”
Introduce him or her to a new activity or hobby. Take the person somewhere that is new to them. Show them a new device or a new website.
Do something physical the person rarely does, like exercise, bowl, hike, dance, travel, shop or swim.
Make two people both happier by introducing them to each other.
Help the person learn to experience anything.
As long as you listen to the person, any question can help them feel happier. For example:
1. “How are you doing today?"
2. “Is anything bothering you?”
3. “How's your health?”
4. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
5. “How do you feel about ___?”
6. “What are you proud of?"
7. “What's good about ___?”
8. “What do you want to improve about ___?”
9. “What do you like about ___?”
10. “If you could control the future, what would you make happen?”
As covered in “How to Make People Happy,” one of the most powerful people skills you can master is to give or allow people to be whomever they wish to be.
If someone irritates you, grant him or her beingness. If someone is different than you, grant beingness. If a friend or family member gets on your nerves, grant beingness.
The instant you grant beingness to someone, focus 100% of your attention on them. Perceive who they want to be and grant THAT beingness to them.
You can find a way to make anyone laugh. Five tips:
1. Ask yourself, "What might make ___ laugh?” A great comment or joke may just pop into your head.
2. Prepare a secret list of reminders of funny stories or great jokes. Keep the list handy somewhere on your phone.
3. Do not joke about politics, religion, race, sex, other people or anything that might offend the person. Jokes about you are best.
4. Exaggerate something about yourself. For example, if you are a micro-manager say, "I need to be more involved in your work. I'm going to check on you every five minutes now. Sound good?"
5. Tell funny stories that happened to you. "When I woke up, my cat was sleeping on my face . . . " "Guess who texted me at 3AM?"
Pretend you are meeting the person for the first time. Make sure the person knows your role or the hat you are wearing with him or her.
Really find out what they need and want. For example, do not assume the person needs more money to be happier; maybe they want more freedom, a bigger game or more power.
Make it clear what YOU need and want from the person. He or she might be surprised and happy to know this.
Certain people try to take advantage of you and pull you down. You try to help them, but you fail. They hope you will keep trying . . . and keep failing.
Instead of you making them happier, they make you UNhappier.
In this case, you need to change. Either use better methods or slowly retreat with kindness. Do not join them in their misery.
Make sure your happiness has top priority. The happier you are, the more able you are to help others.
Five Uses
1. You care about someone who is doing poorly.
You swipe through the slides until you see a tip that might make this person happier. You give it a try. If it works, you repeat it. If it does not work, you try another until the person is happier.
2. You are in a meeting that is not going well for you.
You look at a few slides until you see a way to make the people in the meeting happier. Once you make the people happier, the meeting goes much better for everyone.
3. You and a spouse or friend are not doing well together.
Your relationship is getting worse. You review all the slides, pick one that you believe might improve the relationship and give it a try. You persist until the relationship improves.
4. You need someone’s help, cooperation or support.
Instead of just pushing them to do what you want, you find a way to make this person happier. If he or she does not cooperate or give you the support you need, you find another tip and another until the person is much happier. Sooner or later, you get what you need or want from the person.
5. Your own mood needs a boost.
Every chance you get, you make someone happier. You get faster and better at this important people skill until everyone around you becomes happier just because they see you. YOUR life becomes a joy.