Improve Social Skills Routine
Improve Social Skills Routine - Intro
Socialization is critical for your well-being and overall health. Is not about quantity, but the quality of your relationships.
In one of the largest studies, Harvard University studied more than 700 individuals over 79 years and found that good quality relationships affect physical and mental health, increase life expectancy, and keep the brain healthy.
Social skills help you communicate better, positively engage in relationships, and ultimately improve your life.
Here’s a complete routine to improve your social skills.
Habits
Morning
Gratitude
DESCRIPTION - It is easy to get caught up in life’s difficulties, however, gratitude helps you to gradually develop a more positive mind frame. A better attitude may help you approach your social relationships in a better way. A positive perspective is important when it comes to interacting with other people because it often promotes a healthy attitude of others toward you. Gratitude is related to well-being and success and can change unwanted behaviors.
ACTION - Think or write down 3 things you are grateful for on a regular basis.
5X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Morning
Evening
Value Reflection
DESCRIPTION - Thinking about what matters to you is essential in improving your social skills. Your values greatly impact your emotions and reactions. If you are clear about your values, your assertiveness may be improved and your social relationships can be more spontaneous. Sharing your values with the people you care about is proven to make people happier. If you don’t know what your values are, your reactions could be more difficult to manage in social situations.
ACTION - Make a list of 3-5 values, prioritize them and review them weekly.
2X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Evening
Reading
DESCRIPTION - A good complement to social interaction is reading. Reading fiction has a strong relation with empathy, an essential social skill. When a story is able to activate the imagination of the reader and generate some emotional reaction, it may increase empathy. Empathy increases your assertiveness, communication skills, and helps you understand others. Most failed social interactions are because people are unable to take another’s perspective.
ACTION - Read fiction for at least 20 minutes daily.
5X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Evening
Journaling
DESCRIPTION - Journaling is a well-known technique that helps to develop self-awareness. If you are able to understand your reactions and control your behavior, your social skills improve. Journaling may help you to set goals and track your progress regularly. Writing after social interactions may help you discover and learn from your emotions and thoughts. It may also help to change your perspective on some situations, which is helpful in developing empathy.
ACTION - Write down your emotions and thoughts related to social situations on a regular basis.
5X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Evening
Any Time of Day
Socialize
DESCRIPTION - There’s no other way to improve your social skills than actually interacting with people. It is a basic human need and it is crucial for overall health. Good quality relationships are strongly related to life satisfaction and well-being. Whether it is with your family, your partner, your friends or co-workers, try to do activities with them on a regular basis. This way you can strengthen your social skills and get to know your reactions when you are with other people.
ACTION - Engage in social activities at least 2-3 times per week.
4X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Any
Successive Approximation
DESCRIPTION - When it comes to acquiring new skills, it is better to do it gradually. After all, true learning doesn’t happen overnight. By practicing your social skills gradually, you are more likely to keep working on your goal. By rewarding each step in the process of developing the skill, it increases the motivation to continue to strive. Developing your social skills needs consistent practice so that your confidence grows and it becomes automatic.
ACTION - Set a general goal, break it down into steps, and reward yourself every time you achieve them.
3X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Any
Mental Contrasting
DESCRIPTION - Developing the right mindset to improve your social skills is imperative. Mental contrasting is a visualization technique that may help you develop resilience and assertiveness. Use it before stressful social situations. Visualize the situation and the possible obstacles that you could face. Most importantly, plan how you are going to overcome the possible obstacles of your social interactions. By practicing mental contrasting you can develop prosociality and empathy, essential skills for relationships.
ACTION - Visualize your goals, the possible obstacles and how to overcome them on a regular basis.
3X / WEEK
Best Time of Day: Any
Why Core Habits are Important for Improve Social Skills
Plus Core habits
Sources
ExpandCollapse- Social relations and life satisfaction: the role of friends. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5937874/
- The keys to happiness: Associations between personal values regarding core life domains and happiness in South Korea. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6326475/
- Gratitude and Well Being. The Benefits of Appreciation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010965/
- How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559433/
- Writing to heal. https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun02/writing
- A Two-Session Hierarchy for Shaping Successive Approximations of Speech in Selective Mutism: Pilot Study of Mobile Apps and Mechanisms of Behavior Change. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30316494/
- Taking Responsibility for Others and Use of Mental Contrasting. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31928315/
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