Make People Feel Special

There’s an iconic Maya Angelou quote that you’ve probably heard before, that when put into practice can absolutely transform the quality of your relationships. The quote goes “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

In particular, people are missing feeling one certain way - Special. We all live in the center of our own world and see life through our own two eyes. As much as we pursue different perspectives our experience is limited by the vantage point we view. 

Even though we exist in a sea of people, as part of complex cultural and societal systems, we don’t want to feel like just another person. We want to feel like we’re different, like we’re extraordinary, like we’re special, to find more meaning in our lives.

And that’s something that you can help with. You can be intentional about making someone feel special.

Talk about the qualities and characteristics you see in them that you don’t see in most people. Tell them how well they’re doing and how you see them putting in their very best. Validate their uniqueness and give them encouragement that they’re doing things no one else can do, and capable of things no one else is.

If you can successfully start to do this, you’ll find people become really attracted to you.

But the tricky part is, you need to train your perspective to see the good in everyone. You need to be able to reframe their weakness into a strength, see the force in people’s flaws, and have an open-mind to consider how their differences are actually the best thing for them.

It demands that you are secure with who you are so that you don’t project your own limitations and insecurities on others, and you can see them for who they truly are.

So many people are in desperate need of this. They’re questioning their path, questioning their intentions, and even questioning themselves. You can give them a boost by helping them see themselves through your more positive eyes.

Like I always say, a better world starts with a better you. This is true not only for how you see your world, but the impact you can make in other people’s lives by making them feel special.