Me and myself

12. Me and myself

Failure to take on board what others are saying is one of the crimes of conversation. We respond by saying something relevant to the subject they started or commit the sin of diverting the conversation away from what they are talking about. The conversation criminals divert it towards something about them.

Looking away all the time and changing the subject is the habit of the hopeless. People like talking about themselves far more than anything else. Whether it about their job, their holidays or how marvellous their children are. Some characters always seem to have more dramatic things going on which must be announced to all and sundry. Those with the least to say, talk the most; allowable on occasions but irritating if it happens all the time.

If you have an interest in someone you need only keep the subject revolving around them. They will spiel endlessly giving you a chance of getting closer in their affection for you. Some can find it exhausting after a long while however, so learn when to make it more two-way. People that want to build up self-confidence will listen hard. They will spend much more time listening than talking. This is standard practice at first. It will not work if you can’t make sufficient eye contact. It really fails if you show more interest in fiddling with some device all the time as this can be the height of rudeness.