Henna Pryor

yes so social muscle atrophy is the gradual weakening of our social skills due to underuse or a lack of meaningful practice so sometimes thinking about that in the reverse is helpful we can build social muscle strength in a few ways it's through repetitions

So more opportunities to talk to people, to have a difficult conversation, to ask for help, but also not just reps, meaningful practice, meaning the quality of the conversation.

Saying, hey, how was your day?

And you, John, say, hey, it was good.

Yes, technically that's a rep versus John, I feel really embarrassed.

I really wanted to answer that question differently.

Could we consider rerunning that segment because I don't like the way that I showed up, right?

All of a sudden in the span of one sentence,

I asked you something that was a little bit vulnerable.

You got to learn something about me and the way that I like to show up in the world.

That's a much more meaningful interaction than, hey, how are you?

How was your day?

So these are the types of things that in the hybrid, in the AI world, in the technology world, in the generational world, we have started to see decline.

There's just not as much need to do these conversations in this way.

And when

you don't pick up a weight at the gym for a year, two years, three years, that next weight time you do, that weight feels very difficult to pick up and you certainly aren't going to pick up a very heavy one.

Same thing metaphorically applies in our social skills.

If we don't use them, we lose them.

And if we don't try to have meaningful conversations from time to time, then it will be really difficult for you to ask for a promotion, to give difficult feedback, to ask for guidance from someone.

We need to practice in the small ways.