How to stop being ignored despite being quiet

In this post, we will see how you can stop being ignored even if you are quiet. I will give you some tricks you can use without having to be noisy or overdone.

Let’s start with the part where many quiet people have difficulty, which is keeping and capturing people’s attention. This is often complicated because we can be run over by the most extroverted people in the group.

But in that case, there are some tricks you can use.

How to stop being ignored?

Use your hands to express yourself
Share your compliments with others
Use your body language
Don’t overreact
Make eye contact

1. Use your hands to express yourself

Even if you are the quietest person in the group, making a hand signal a second before you start talking will get everyone’s attention. By occupying space with your hands while speaking, you signal that even if you are speaking quietly, you deserve to be heard.

Another trick you can use is to maintain eye contact. Believe you are talking to someone or giving a presentation, maintaining eye contact conveys confidence and keeps people engaged with the speech.

If holding eye contact for a long time makes you nervous, that’s okay. It’s particularly difficult to command respect if you don’t make any eye contact, but just looking away sometimes helps make your conversation more genuine.

The secret is not to maintain eye contact without even blinking but when you have thought of what to say.

Another common mistake calm people make is to make long pauses at the end of their sentences. That leaves you vulnerable to being interrupted. Not necessarily because people don’t respect you, but because they think you won’t say anything else. It’s important to know how to tell a good story.

So, in order not to be interrupted, remember to pause in the middle of your sentences. Doing this will help you to capture people’s attention because it will make it clear that you are not done talking. And it is not by stopping that you will become a boring speaker.

Pausing for a second or two can also be a way to make what you are going to say funnier.

2. Share your compliments with others

If you are more quiet or shy, you may want to radiate confidence and command respect but may not feel the need to always be in the spotlight. Therefore, a great trick to redirect attention while still being charismatic is to share your compliments with others.

This habit is super useful in any team environment or with friends, whether in sports, group work, or at work. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the best way to not be ignored and to gain respect is to get full credit for what they are involved in.

By sharing your compliments with others, you gain respect, for your accomplishments and show yourself humility by making others feel special. And as a bonus, if your friends hear you sharing your compliments with them, they’ll like you more for it.

The goal is not to shy away from praise or minimize your achievements. Therefore, you must acknowledge the compliment with sincere thanks, and then you must redirect the compliments to the people who contributed.

It’s not a matter of lowering yourself but of raising others.

3. Use your body language

You must use your body language if you don’t want to be ignored.

Loud people tend to have louder body language with lots of movement and energy. Nevertheless, this is not the only way to be charismatic and not be ignored.

When you are sitting, for example, it is important to convey confidence. For that, you can do three things:

Lean against a chair or sofa
Sit asymmetrically
Occupy the space around you

Maintaining a relaxed posture creates a sense of comfort and confidence, conveying an image of authority.

4. Don’t overreact

Another good trick to keep your poise is not to overreact. Sometimes not reacting is all it takes to look confident. Being non-reactive shows that you are comfortable in your ability to deal with what is happening.

It’s hard not to respect someone who keeps his cool in situations where most people would lose. That said, you don’t have to be a Stoic to make that impression and not be ignored.

The ability to smile or even laugh calmly in a situation where other people might be freaking out demonstrates a lot of self-confidence. You’re saying that whatever you face, you’re going to be okay.

Of course, the objective is not to convey a false idea of calm and fullness. It is to cultivate a genuinely strong and deep inner confidence. By doing this, you will naturally command respect in situations where most people would panic or be nervous.

5. Make eye contact

Establishing eye contact is super important and not to be ignored.

When you look at the person, they see you with more conviction. In addition to giving people a feeling of authority, they will unconsciously realize that what you have to say is something relevant.

So by building this image in your group of friends or work, you will rarely be ignored when you have something to say.