Olivia Fox Cabane

Whether you think you already have some charisma and would like to take it to the next level or you’ve been wishing for a bit of that magic but think that you just aren’t the charismatic type, I have good news: charisma is a skill that you can learn and practice.

Charisma has three essential components: presence, power, and warmth.

Remember that every time you bring yourself back to full presence, you reap major rewards: you become more impactful, more memorable, and come across as more grounded. You’re laying the foundation for a charismatic presence.

Rewrite reality by considering a few helpful alternatives to your current perspective. For maximum effect, write down your new realities by hand and describe them in vivid detail.

Visualization is truly a miracle method, helping you boost confidence, emanate warmth, replace anxiety with calm serenity, or gain access to whichever emotion you’d like to feel and then broadcast it through your body language.

To be charismatic, your vision must vividly illustrate the difference between the way things are now and the way they could be. Charismatic leaders often point out deficiencies in the status quo, contrast this picture to a glorious future, and show how they intend to get there.

Few things impair charisma more than bad eye contact and few things gain you charisma points more than improving your eye contact.

Goodwill means that you wish someone well without necessarily knowing how they’re feeling. Empathy means that you understand what they feel; perhaps you’ve had a similar experience in the past. Compassion is empathy plus goodwill: you understand how they feel, and you wish them well.