Teach Your Kids This Small But Powerful Skill

Who knew something so small, could become so important. 

How easy it is for us in the 21st century to meet someone new, someone a complete delight to talk to, walk away from the interaction, only to realize not 2 minutes later that we have already forgotten their name. I've done it more times than I can count. 98% of people in the world have too. 

There’s a saying that I recall Isaac Moorhouse saying. “You never know when you may be entertaining angels.” In other words, that relationship might be more important than you realize. Developing a relationship is invaluable when it comes to building a career or any other avenue of passion. And the first and biggest step- the door to opportunity and new friendships- is a person's name. Sadly, it often seems as though this teachable aspect of meeting new people is being less and less emphasized by parents today. 

In Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, he states “The sweetest sound to a person’s ears is their name.” 

The easiest and quickest way to get a person to like you is to address them by their name, it creates a feeling of importance in the other person, and isn’t that what we should be striving for? To build each other up. 

That’s something that we focus on at Acton Placer. We have a morning handshake amongst each studio and an afternoon handshake to say goodbye where each person looks the other in the eye and warmly says “Good morning/Good afternoon (insert individual’s name).”

If you haven’t actively been practicing this then I have a challenge for you. Learn every new person's name. Or start small and just remember the Starbucks barista’s name. As soon as a person says it, repeat it in your head as many times as needed until it's engrained. Picture their face in your mind and begin to associate the name with the face. 

Maybe you’ll see them again and have the opportunity to address them by their name, and hopefully help make their day.