#41 How to be genuinely interesting in 2 minutes

Make people curious about your mind.

Think of all the ways you’ve ever tried to stand out. We try to look a certain way, aspire for a certain amount of money, a happening life and even sometimes tragedy to attract attention.

We try to be interesting because we believe it will give us stronger connections with people, will keep others around us a bit longer, will get us invitations to hangouts and will leave a bigger impression on others.

I’ve talked to hundreds of people in the last few months who are trying to strategise ways to stand out online. And the thing that noone seems to consider is: you can just stand out with your mind.

There’s nothing more fascinating than the way you work. How do you see things? What turns your mind on? What do you overreact to and how do you hurt? What gives you pleasure and what can’t you figure out right now? What keeps you up at night and what was your last 3am mental spiralling about? What makes your heart skip a beat and what does the voice inside your head sound like?

I think the power of our minds to turn each other on is so underrated. Nothing makes you stand out like brutal (and kind) honesty. Nothing catches people more off guard than genuine introspection. Nothing satisfies our need for beauty like openness and connection. So do that first.

You’re unlikely to have the richest, most chaotic, ‘interesting’, unique, luxurious or tragic life - so why compete at all? The chase for being able to understand and express the inner workings of your own little universe will lead you to a unique, un-replicable, creative, genuine, introspective and mature place. Then share it.

You’ll suddenly find yourself being more unique than you imagined (not that that matters), but most importantly, hopefully enjoying more of yourself and the world.