What do we want from life? Happiness right? Before asking for anything else, the one thing that remains constant is happiness. Without it, all of us are incomplete. No matter then how much rich, successful and settled we get. Happiness remains constant.
But how do you know you are happy or upset? Till I have observed, people are so ignorant they don’t even acknowledge they are low. If they don’t think they are low, they think they are happy. That’s when we look for the ways to improve intrapersonal skills, as the need of improving these skills is seen.
And to bring out the best in you, I have covered the 6 ways to improve Intrapersonal skills, so you don’t see emptiness in your life.
Then what about interpersonal skills? If you successfully improve intrapersonal skills, you will need to improve interpersonal skills as well, right? Well, you need not worry about it. This is a complete intelligence guide focusing on Interpersonal and Intrapersonal intelligence.
What Is Intrapersonal Intelligence?
Intrapersonal intelligence, one of the 9 types of Intelligence, is about finding oneself.
To understand your feelings, your emotions, and your thoughts, intrapersonal skills will help you. It is the way of directing your life in the right direction. If someday you’re finding yourself stuck, controlled, or somebody you are not, these skills will do the job of bringing you back to who you actually are.
In other words, it is the way of discovering your inner word. Your thoughts, your imaginations, all the emotions that you feel are a part of intrapersonal intelligence. It gives you the capacity to understand why do you feel the way you feel? Then goes with everything connected to your inner self.
Why Intrapersonal Skills Are Important?
We humans lack the capacity to understand ourselves. We would spend our whole life doing things based on what others want, but won’t take a moment to know what do we want.
It develops a better understanding which helps in creating better relationships, strong bonding and contributes toward Interpersonal Skills. If you don’t develop your intrapersonal skills, you will never understand who you are, which will reflect your interpersonal communication as well.
That is why there’s a need of improving it. And to help you with, I have showed the 6 ways to improve intrapersonal skills.
6 Ways To Improve Intrapersonal Skills
1. The Mirror
What is it about the mirror?
Forget it.
How long do you stand in the mirror? 1 second? 5 minutes? Or until you feel the satisfaction?
We wake up, we look in the mirror. We get ready, we look in the mirror. Why? To check right?
If you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and see yourself dull and pale, you will improve it right? You will get freshen up, take bath, get ready and come back to the mirror. You will do your hair, put on accessories and finally you will be all set to go out.
Because now you are looking what you wanted to. You are going out. You must look the best and now you look the best.
Similarly, you need to be your mirror. Basically, Without avoiding certain emotions, feelings, habits, behavior and actions, you need to acknowledge them. When you acknowledge them you understand the route to it.
If you don’t figure out where these emotions, these habits and behavior or actions come from, you will not know yourself. And you will never know what kind of emotions, thoughts, actions and habits make you happy or sad.
2. Kill The Self-Consciousness
Anything that destroys the self-confidence, completely, is self-consciousness. We will get conscious even on the statement that says your watch doesn’t look nice or if somebody said your glass of water is so kiddish. You will stop using them.
Forget about body shaming, gender discrimination and judgements, when we can lower our confidence on tiny things.
You need to start accepting all the statements, all the criticism. People made fun of me when I recited my first poetry. They commented to stop doing it because I don’t know how to speak. I took it to my mind so much, I started blogging instead of making a video.
Do you understand what can it do to your self-esteem?
It destroys it, completely. Now, when I understand myself, I am improving. I have started taking all that comes my way. Because I make sure, more than anything, what I conceive and what I implement needs to be valued.
So, start valuing yourself, communicate with yourself, kill the consciousness and improve all that you think is not right to you.
Then you will win.
3. Short Vs Long Conversations
What kind of person are you?
Basically, introverts find it difficult knowing themselves. So, I don’t know who you are. But if you struggle starting conversations or completely avoid them, I really get you. It’s normal.
But one of the ways for developing intrapersonal skills is to know how to communicate. If you don’t communicate at all, to strangers or to whoever, you will not know how you communicate. You will have problems making friends, meeting people and having conversations with them.
To know how you communicate you need to start having conversations. However, short conversations do not give results. They are weird and boring. If you take a step ahead and go for long conversations, you will know what kind of people you like. How do you express? What are your reactions to certain things or situations? And how do you expect others to be?
4. Opening Up To New Ideas
Beliefs are acceptable, until they make sense. We still allow orthodox mindsets to create our mindsets. We allow people to feed old beliefs to our head. When it gets heavy with what is right and what is wrong, we forget what we want.
This is the generation of new perspectives. We think of many things, imagine them and create ideas and views in our mind, yet let it all go because it’s not acceptable to orthodox minds.
Here we forget that, until something doesn’t come out, you will not know its value. If only you bring it out, you will know its value.
Be bold to what you feel. Be acceptable to what comes in front of you. Stop being judgmental to what others do. When you, yourself, will accept everything, who says what would stop bothering you.
And you will become the best version of yourself!
Ways to improve intrapersonal skills
5. Become Your Master
Ever heard about it? If you don’t become your master, somebody else will.
People love controlling. There might also be something that you control. Everybody does. When somebody else’s money remains untouched for days, it becomes ours. That is what is with life.
If you are not looking after it, others will snatch the chance. They want to prove you that they can control you better than you, yourself. If something goes wrong later, they will completely change. So, become your master.
You own the right of doing whatever you like to yourself. Let it be you making yourself happy or upset. That’s your choice and won’t hurt you as much as it would do when you will act or behave or do things what others ask you to.
Parents are not excluded here. Not at all.
When you will do it your way, you will know yourself. You will master yourself. And you will see the results you always wanted to see. Because this is one of the best examples of intrapersonal skills. So, better consider it.
6. Practice Patience
I talk about practicing patient to my almost clients. Patience is the virtue. It is one of the effective intrapersonal skills.
If you aren’t patient, your interpersonal skills would need improvement as well. As it is one of the important ways to improve intrapersonal skills to reflect in your interpersonal skills.
Basically, both are connected to one another. Similarly, goes with being patience.
We meet many people. All those interactions differ from one another. If some of your impatient actions consistently hurt them, let it be at workplace or at home or in a classroom, you wouldn’t be valued. Arrogance is not great. It ruins oneself and all other relationships.
So, practice patience. Keep a control on your mind, on your words, but do not forget to express what you feel.
Ways to improve intrapersonal skills
Thus, we completed the 6 ways to improve intrapersonal skills. If you consistently work on them, I am sure you will become the master. Then guide others as well.
Now, let us see what is Interpersonal skills and what are the tips for improving it so, it becomes equal.
4. What Is Interpersonal Skills?
Interpersonal skills are the ability to create better relationship with others. While, you would want to look the best in front of others, you would also want to be respected. But how do you make it happen is connected with improving interpersonal skills.
4. Why Are Interpersonal Skills Important?
We all are surrounded with people. We go to workplace, we meet people. We go to family party, we meet people. We visit restaurants, we meet people, yet we fail to interact with them in the right ways.
Almost people are criticized for the way they communicate with others. However, they are very few who have mastered the interpersonal skills. They are already within you, you don’t make use of it. If you don’t use it, you will need to improve it.
That is why, to improve the relationships, the interactions, there’s a need of improving it.
3 Ways To Improve Interpersonal Skills
1. Empathy
Nobody would want to show interest in you, until you show in them. This is not about sympathy. You should know to go deep in somebody’s shoe to understand them. When you will learn to understand yourself, you will realize the importance of understanding others.
People don’t know to react to other’s situations. They only want to put forth their opinions, but what actually means to understand other’s problems is an ultimate interpersonal skill.
If you inculcate empathy, you will build stronger bonds than you already have. This applies to your personal and professional relationships both. And it includes everything from giving yourself a chance to understand others, and assuring them of your presence in their tough times too.
Interpersonal skills are, mostly, about communication skills. The way you communicate with others says a lot about you. If you are kind to every action of others, you become the good person. But you become the bad person when you show kindness to only those you know.
People actually observe. What do you do? How do you do? Because you are influencing them in some or other way. So, if you forget to be unclear, unkind, have rudeness in your tone, or make people understand with anger, there’s a need of improving it.
It doesn’t matter whether you are right or wrong, if your approach is wrong. That is why communication skills are said to be the key to success. There are multiple courses based on business communications for people to learn, apply and reach the path to success.
3. Be A Good Listener
When we find ourselves alone. Everything empty. We crave others presence. We want somebody to be there to listen. Those who are already there, we do not find them enough. Because we think they don’t listen.
Everybody of us want to be heard. When we can feel nobody listening to us, imagine how much others would want to be heard? This is about everyone. Not just at workplace, or in the meeting or during a lecture or with friends, but everyone. Equally, includes friends and family members.
Interpersonal means to connect verbally and non-verbally with others. If you fail to listen to what anybody else wants you to hear, you lose the connection. Mostly at workplace workers want their bosses to listen. Bosses want their employs to listen. Likewise, partners want their partners to listen.
When they fail, they lose the connection. But remember, success is achieved for all phases of life, not just one. You need to be as much successful in personal life as much you want to be in professional life. It all works together.
Thus, there are less interpersonal skills because intrapersonal skills cover most of them. When you will master all the mentioned ways to improve intrapersonal skills, the need of improving your interpersonal skills will decrease.
Hope I was of some help to you. And I wish you will apply all the ways to improve intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills to become a better person.
Rukayya Zirapur is a certified counseling practitioner and an author of two books. She aims at directing individuals toward self-healing. https://rukayya.com/
https://rukayya.com/ways-to-improve-intrapersonal-skills/
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