How To Be An Interesting Person

The secret to being an interesting person has less to do with our job or achievements than it does with how attuned we are to our abnormalities.

FURTHER READING

“Many of us crave to be more interesting people. The question is how we might become so. We rightly tend to associate being ‘interesting’ with achieving difference from the norm: with being able to serve up some unusual and intriguing stories and ideas. But what might be the best way to lay our hands on these?...”

MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE

Watch more films on SELF in our playlist:

SOCIAL MEDIA

Feel free to follow us at the links below:

CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Natalia Ramos

Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions

[michaeleberl]

Interesting is subjective.
Be authentic, not interesting.

Be authentic and you will find the tribe who finds you Interesting in a healthy way.
Sometimes seeming Interesting to the wrong crowd can be very dangerous or at least lead to a miserable feeling.

[avidhossanmansur]

I think our interests make us interesting. A lot of, being interesting has to do with finding like-minded individuals and having interesting things to do and talk about. It takes a level of openness and extraversion to properly communicate our thoughts. These skills either come naturally or have to be learned through pracrise.

[trinaq]

To be an interesting person, we need to be open minded, aware of each other's differences, and not afraid to step outside of our comfort zones.

[Eduardado]

Magnificent.

I got to know recently a woman, aged 22. She still has that "under 7" magic way of simply being herself. She has never travelled or wore fancy clothes or read intellectual books and yet, she is FASCINATINGLY charming because she is so... alive and connected with her feelings and able to share them ^^.

Thanks for your videos. They are educating and entertaining and the most useful way possible. Love them

[Antikia]

I was encouraged to be myself from a young age and let me tell you people have treated me pretty poorly because of it. It's like adults choose to interpret it as mockery or a personal attack on them if you have a slightly different opinion, it's ridiculous. Being yourself is a vulnerable state to be in, freeing but lonely.

[anamikajoshi]

There is a very thin line between being interesting and obnoxious.

The factor in point is how open a person is to learn and genuinely share their interest with others rather than showing off what we know!

[FinlayHolden]

My take is that to be interesting, you just have to be interested; being passionate about something (anything) gives you meaning and purpose and, although this shouldn't be your focus, other people will see that.
Hope anyone reading this can find something in this weird world to care about and give them joy 🖤

[nirmic]

As someone that has an hard time appreciating my own personnality, this video is needed.
Thank you, The School of Life, for doing so many different videos that so many can relate to, trully helps.

[arphanaaz]

This was nice. My take: to be a nice/interesting person you gotta be authentic with yourself before you're authentic with others.

[SunSatlON]

Accepting yourself, being unique and being interesting are completely different things. You can have issues with yourself and still be interesting, you can be yourself and still be boring. There are various traits that would make you interesting, and you need to work on them to actually get there. Open minded, knowledgable and expressive are what you need to work on. And suppress the fear of failure, negative behaviour and lazy attitude.

[belledecaucase]

One crucial way is to be calm and internally peaceful. You get incredible ideas when your mind is still. You 'see' solutions appearing clearly in your mind, when your mind is not being jumpy, but still. Inner stillness creates very interesting results. Breathing deeply helps. There are breathing methods that are widely available for us to learn from. Remember to practise a useful inner stillness method that suits you. There are many methods to calm the mind down. Have fun exploring them and see what wonderful ideas you can manifest and create something fun with it.

[milesthomas]

Being interesting requires curiosity, authenticity, open-mindedness and having a passion and fascination with the world you live in - of people, ideas, events and human creativity.

[hiddenname]

I have lived almost 55 years and I never once asked to myself, "How can I be more interesting?" Who actually does that? I just live my life the way I want to, do the things I want to. Maybe others will find that interesting, maybe not. Why should it matter?

[ShiningEyeBrigade]

To summarize in another way: resist the pressure to conform (with a few caveats around things like hatred) . Beautiful observation and one that fits the most interesting people in my life.

[Rayon.Miller]

To the person reading this You are talented and motivated, even when you're tired and frustrated. Be patient with yourself. I'm so proud of the person you have become!🙏🏽💙💫

[iviivdn]

I strive to be my authentic self with others, it is always scary to do so. I am afraid of rejection most of the time. I feel many of us do. But there are always people who will love and cherish our real selves. Lots of love. 💕

[MILLSKILLS]

The School of Life always dropping videos when I need it most.

[anjalikukreti]

I feel that one who just doesn't try to be interesting or out of "norm" is the one I find most interesting.
The trouble with trying to be interesting is, you will get frustated real fast once someone don't find you interesting or charming or whatever. It's like giving your control to someone else.
And there is another very interesting take on it. I once read a chapter about Private Quelch who has knowledge over vast variety of things! The man can't shut up even if he tried. And guess what was the result? His colleagues began drifting away from him(irritation and stuff). So, one more thing which anyone can surely learn is listening and learning when to shut up. Makes you way more interesting.

[Rayon.Miller]

You are talented and motivated, even when you're tired and frustrated. Be patient with yourself. I'm so proud of the person you have become!🙏🏽💙💫

[gw]

From my brief 21 years on this world one observation I have made about people and what makes them interesting is individual identity. When you talk to someone who is just a bundle of stereotypes and espouses things that everyone else in their group says they're boring and un-interesting. Individuals are fascinating because not a single one of us grew up in the same place, with the same family, same personality etc. Each person is genuinely unique. If you just talk about you and your life without trying to fit in or tailor the story to seem cool to a specific group of people you will be interesting. People won't be able to get a read on you because you don't say or think what everyone would expect someone like you to say or think.