As you go through college, you constantly encounter opportunities to influence others. Almost every interaction you have is one of these opportunities, and you can influence others positively, negatively, or indifferently. Each time you interact with a teacher, a classmate, a roommate, a friend, a recruiter, a co-worker, a boss, your parents, or anyone else, you have the chance to influence their opinion of you, and that influence can often result in favorable treatment for you in the future.
If you want to gain favorable treatment from the important or influential people in your life, my advice is to spread the passion for what you love contagiously, and they will be inspired by your enthusiasm!
Emotions are contagious. How many times have you met up with a friend and the first thing they do is complain about their day? Conversely, how many times have you seen someone and they’re on top of the world? What happens to you when you’re around them?
Generally, you’ll find that when you spend time with a “Debbie Downer,” your mood deflates; and when you spend time with a “Peppy Pam,” your mood elevates. If you have experienced this phenomenon, as I believe most of us have, then you’ll agree that you can wield significant power over the emotions of others by managing your own.
Think back to how you feel around these people – when you are around happy people, you feel happy; sad people bring you down. After such an interaction, when you think of that person, or their name comes up in conversation, what kind of feelings do you associate with them? Well, positive feelings with people that made you feel good, and negative with people that make you feel bad. Pretty simple psychology, right? Now that you’ve mastered the concepts, you can start using that power to your advantage!
Knowing that you can affect not only others’ immediate moods, but also their lasting impression of you, you can have complete control over that impression!
Wouldn’t you like to be remembered, thought of, and talked about as someone happy, upbeat, and passionate? Think of the adjectives with which you’d like to be associated. Maybe they’re reliable, charismatic, friendly, nice, intelligent, or considerate. How do you want others to describe you?
Now it’s simple – just start acting out those words. It takes discipline to always “be on.” But just as I referenced in “How are you?” and “Fake it ’til you Make it,” you are in complete control of your personal brand. If you are lazy about building your brand, you create a sloppy, inconsistent image. Whereas if you show the discipline to behave in the manner you want to be perceived, you will eventually own those characteristics.
So, be mindful that how you behave affects others, and take that responsibility seriously. There are only three outcomes that can result from any given interaction:
1) You leave them feeling worse than when they met you
2) You leave them feeling better than when they met you
3) You make no impression on them
Which would you prefer?