10 Simple Tips to Get Ahead in Life

In 2025, our lives are happening in parallel lines, with our real life as a physical human being, and in the virtual online world. Many people are struggling with social connections and communication. Let’s be honest, some people can be weird.

By learning a few psychological insights into the human brain, you will learn to navigate the real social world much better. These traits will help you find love, succeed at work, and discover what you want out of life. These traits will help you understand the psychology of human behavior and give you an advantage over others who rely on instinct and emotions to guide them.

1. Make eye contact with the person you are speaking to. Many people find this hard, but science is behind this. By maintaining eye-contact while talking naturally increases your charisma.

Hint: If you find this tricky, check out the person’s eye color. The time it will take you to check out what color eyes someone has will make the person like you more.

2. Dry or warm your hands up before you shake someone’s hand.

If you have a meeting with someone important like a new client, it’s important that you make the best first impression. If your hands are clammy or too cold, your handshake will emanate that feeling.

Hint: Rub your hands together before you shake hands with someone you want to impress. Your hand will feel dry and warm and give the person a nice handshake.

3. Ask questions.

Hint: Asking questions will make you seem interested in the topic of conversation. It’s also important to listen and respond to the replies you get.

4. Avoid sitting right next to someone.

Hint: People like space. Give yourself plenty of room from others. Not only is it awkward to turn and talk to someone right next to you but if the conversation gets heated it would get uncomfortable real soon. Another reason is body odor. I’ve been in meetings where someone is wearing too many clothes and not enough antiperspirants. Give people personal space and everyone is happy.

5. Check out people’s feet.

Hint: You might think I’m crazy for mentioning feet in this article but believe it or not, feet tell a lot about someone. If someone’s feet are pointed towards you when you are speaking, they are interested in what you are saying. If they point away, their mind is probably somewhere in Piedmont’s wishing it were the weekend.

6. Utilize the “See one, do one, teach one” methods to master new skills.

Hint: Pay it forward. What you have learnt can help others too. We use this in Scouting where we teach our young people a new skill. They then go and try it out a few times. Then we ask them to teach another person to do it too. By teaching someone a skill, you retain that knowledge more than if you just continued doing it alone. Sharing is caring after all.

7. Go with Ben Franklin’s advice: Nudge someone to like you.

Benjamin Franklin noticed that if you do someone a favor, they are more likely to warm up to you.

Hint: It goes the other way too. If you dislike someone, then try do something nice for them and you will feel better about being around the person.

8. Don’t reward people for doing something for you.

Hint: If you reward or bribe someone to do something for you, it will drain the enjoyment of its intrinsic value. Basically, it will tell the person that the task only has monetary value for them, while reducing their will to do it for free in the future. It sets you up for heart ache and money problems.

9. Give people a lasting impression.

Hint: Most people cannot remember details of entire conversations in meetings. We tend to only remember the first and last bits of information in detail. Everything else is mostly fluff. Everyone knows that first impressions are vital but treat your lasting note the same. Give the person a high finish to make them remember you.

10. Give your date a night they won’t forget in a hurry.

Hint: If you are dating someone and want to impress. Don’t settle for a meal and a box of chocolates. Instead, give them something they won’t forget like a roller coast ride, rock climbing, or a camp out under the stars after a hike. Give them an exciting time and they will remember you from the way they felt.

My name is Lizzy. I’m a trauma survivor, a wife, a mom, a teacher, and an author.

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Here are a few links to my top articles:

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