Today I wrote about the magic of just learning to say Hello. Most people complain about not knowing where to meet people yet they walk past a few thousand people almost every day. If not you really need to get out more. It was a rather extensive chapter but I for the first time ever will release the juciy deets to you early. Day 3: I wrote 2,093 words in 139 minutes thats 4,894 of 50K http://bit.ly/aIl6bx I’m 107 words off pace!
You Had Me At Hello
The moral of the story is if you really want to get you dating started on a fast track and not even read the rest of the book you could start simply by launching a few thousand hellos with a smile. You will be surprised how many extra doors you can open just my being cordial to the people around you. Worse case scenario, you could place a smile on the face of a person who was otherwise having a shitty day. I don’t for one second want to take away the pain from senseless incidences like office and school shootings, but when you ask the gunmen why they sparred the lives of the few survivors they will routinely say they were the people who were nice enough to say hello to them.
Action Steps a.k.a Homework
For the next 30 days make it a point to offer a smiling greeting to every person you have eye contact with. Like we say in the Islands… “Spread the Aloha”!
Keep track of your greetings! Track how many you give out and how many you receive. Record the reactions and interactions created by just saying hello.
Record in a journal how you felt during these interactions. pay close attention to all of your surroundings and describe this in detail in your journal.
Example Journal Entry
Today I launched over 25 greetings. Initially I felt sick to my stomach but the more I let them fly the stronger I felt in side. It was like I was SuperHello Man complete with anger proof vest and a cheer the hell up cape.The more I let my greeting flow out I could almost feel a wave of warmth all over my body. I spoke to this one person at eh local Starbucks how looked like they were having a bad day and after hello I extended a few thought on how much I liked her shoes, she looked down and released a small laughed held back by the boiling anger from her day. when she looked back at me she said thanks and then apologized for her stalling. She informed me of how her boyfriend never payed any attention to her outfits even though she spent so much time trying to dress up for him to notice her. It felt good. I hope I see her again soon. Now when I smile at people and say hello I can’t help but smell the pungent aroma of Pike’s Peak coffee burnt to a crisp by an inept barista. Her name was Stacie, Stacie with the red shoes. ###
Soon you will find you have solved the mystery of the cold approach.
Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars..
Les Brown
Moleskine 101: Goal Setting
Of course there are many reasons to write in your Moleskine but here goes another one. Goal setting can be a major help in increasing productivity as well as a general life hack. The thing about setting goals is the provide you with guideline and milestones to let you know you are on the right track and more importantly heading the right direction. It really does not matter how fast you are running if you are running in the wrong direction. I have heard that saying or something close to it in about six different languages all from different cultures; therefore, there must be something to live by no matter how you were brought up.
Your Word Is Your Bond
Many people say the number one cause of stress is broken promises, especially those promises made to yourself. A good way to ensure you are keeping yourself stress free is to keep your pledges to yourself and others as if your life depended on it… because it does… stress is a powerful killer.
So the first ting to know about goal setting is to stop calling them goals. Goals are a thing you attempt to do and you know as well as I do we all need to stoop attempting and actually do it. I have made a conscience effort to to reframe the word goals to pledges or promises. I actually spent about ten day with Bill Bartmann a Billionaire Entrepreneur. He drilled in my head this idea of making promise cards what basically amounted to a set of 3×5 cards to carry with you daily and to be refereed to several times a day until the things you want to change are second nature.
I use my Moleskine for this. In your pocket journal sized notebook save a hand full of pages at the front or the back for you Promise Pages(Sorry Bill cards are too messy for me). The full system is an entire blog post by itself but here’s the Cliff Notes version:
Write down the six things you need to do this week
Write down the six things you need to do this month
Write down the six things you need to do this six months
Write down the six things you need to do this year
Then you look at this list six times a day and check stuff off as you go if you don’t do it move it over the the next list, if you move it six times you need to reframe, rethink, refocus or you’ll regret it. Ok i made the last part up but it works for me.
This system has a lot more to it and I’ll surely get in the details in a later blog post but start with stop calling the goals first. They are Promises! Promises to yourself that should never be broken.
Conclusion
The size and ubiquitous nature of the Moleskine pocket sized journals or smaller are a great place to do a little life planning and course correction. Let me know how you set your goals opps promises and what tricks if any can you share. Leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com
@DocRock and @Yoon001 talk about the “LiveScribe Echo” (http://www.livescribe.com) digital note-taking pen and goal setting.
In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.
My good friend @Yoon001 and I Introducing my latest project: In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.
We talk a little bit about GTD, David Allen, Notebooks and yes even the Mead Trapper Keeper.
So What’s it all about… Writing, GTD, Brain Dumping, Free Writing, and Creativity
