I used to say I dislike small talk. This is true to the extent that I find repetitive small draining. This is especially true when someone asks what you do and you see judgment in their eyes as soon as you respond. It’s much more fun to have an engaging, meaningful conversation, a conversation where you can connect with another person, if even for a few minutes.
You may need some small talk to break the ice when meeting someone new for the first time, but don’t get stuck there. There are many alternate points of entry into more of a heart connection with someone else.
5 Alternate Questions for a Meaningful Conversation
Think about your life or the life of the other person to come up with interesting topics of conversation. Here are 5 possible questions:
- What have you discovered that you found exciting or surprising this week?
- What are you passionate about lately?* (or What’s the scariest/most exciting thing you’ve done recently?)
- If someone is visiting town for a couple of days, what are three things that they must do in the vicinity?
- What would you be doing if you weren’t here right now?
- Did you ever imagine that we’d find ourselves here, at this moment? What would your younger self think?
Maybe one of these questions can work for you, or perhaps you already have a favorite question. If so, please share it in the comments.
*Be careful with this one as not everyone has a passion.
Other Posts in the Series
The daily prompt for January 16, for the Bloganuary challenge, was “What is something that you’re passionate about and why?” I’m using the prompts to get me posting on this blog (almost) every day more often and approach them flexibly.
Featured image: “string of hearts” by jude hill is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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