Remember riding in elevators?
The hardest part was knowing where to look. Some looked at their feet, carefully avoiding eye contact. Others watched the floors change or calculated cumulative mass to ensure the elevator would not collapse under the weight of fellow riders.
Ah, the good old days before coronavirus, when we blithely got into elevators without a care in the world.
Everything is different this year. We’ve been confined to quarters for weeks or months without access to real people. It’s been lonely and a bit isolating.
It is time to change the narrative!
On National Talk in the Elevator Day, July 26, I challenge you to talk to a stranger. Any stranger. In an elevator or not. Put on your mask, get out of your house, and talk to someone you don’t know yet. Just for the heck of it!
Comment about the weather. Ask about their family’s health. Ask what they learned from their quarantine experience. Compliment them on their beautiful mask. Anything to get the conversation started. Once they are talking, you no longer carry the burden of conversation. You might learn something. Or make a new friend. Or not. That’s ok too.
Talking to strangers is the first step in learning to network with people we don’t know yet. This is a life skill we can start perfecting on National Talk in the Elevator Day, July 26.
Change the narrative! Change yourself!
If you are shy or introverted there is no shame in that but it may be blocking you from getting the career you want. There is help for you!