by Bill Woffington

Created on: June 03, 2010

How To Get ‘Older’ People To Like You

Here is a topic I had to run by my Senior Citizen Friends for an answer.  For the most part their answers weren’t very complimentary.

“Forget it, Bill.  You are just not a likeable person.”

Then there was, “Well, you might try buying us lunch every once in a while.”

Followed by, “Hey!  Who are you calling older?  Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

When we see such a question, most of us ‘older people’ wonder why people think we are different than anyone else.  Older people are not from another planet.  Older people are not a sub species of human beings.  Older people are people like your parents or your grandparents.  They are pretty much the same as you except they don’t ask questions such as. “How to Get ‘Older’ People to Like You.”

How do you get anyone to like you?  You become a likeable person.  If you are a likeable person, people will like you.  Even ‘older people’ will like you.

Of course, if you are a likeable person, you wouldn’t be asking the question because people, young and old, already like you and you have no need for the answer.

If you are not a likeable person, then you have some work to do.  You could start with books and videos because they have no likes or dislikes and you could try counselors because they are being paid to help even unlikeable people.

If you can’t afford counseling and don’t want to get into books and videos just yet, you could just be observant.  Watch the likeable people and see what they do.  See how they treat other people.  Notice that they are nice people.  They help other people even if it inconveniences them to do so.  They treat everyone, even the clerks in the stores and the people who take care of them in restaurants, as if they are equals.  They don’t look down on anyone.

If they are in a relationship they treat their partner with respect.  They may not be overly generous but they are not selfish.  They seem to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them and that it doesn’t owe them a living.

And guess what?  If young folks like them, older people do too.  Conversely when people almost always act like jerks it’s a given that they won’t be liked by anyone regardless of age.

If you are truly worried about your likeability cheer up.  You can become likeable.   Watch others, help others, read the books, watch the videos and  most of all, recognize the fact that you are not the center of the Universe.

Sources:

Any ‘older’ person you know and trust.

‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie

web page:

http://successcreeations.com/11/six-ways-to-make-peo ple-like-you/

Google.com (they claim roughly 567,000,000 results for this question.)

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