#818 I create the weather
I was jogging in my neighborhood and as it happened the route I was taking when I started out had the sun at my back. As I made my way down the street I saw a car down at the end of the block coming in my direction. It was a dark colored sedan like my friend and neighbor Bob drives and I thought, “I wonder if that’s Bob Shirvanian." As the car got closer, I strained to see who was driving but the sun glare was too strong and I could not see inside the car. I decided to smile and give wave a big in case it was Bob. As the car got closer and closer the glare receded, like a curtain being lifted from the windshield, and I could make out the total stranger waving back at me and smiling. I thought, “Hmm; that’s interesting.” So as the next car got to about 25 yards out, I smiled and waved again. Again, as the glare receded I saw another stranger waving at me. On the next three cars I didn’t wave and guess what? No one waved at me either. For the next four cars I waved and smiled and went four for four on return waves and smiles. I proceeded to do this for the duration of my run and it worked out the same each time. I wave, they wave, I don’t they don’t.
I thought, maybe it’s a Jersey thing so I tried it in NY... Same results. I tried it in Texas, California, and in Washington DC. Same results. I tried it overseas in Spain, London and Italy and, again, got the same results.
The point is this:
The world is nothing but a big mirror reflecting back to you the face you bring it everyday.
The world is nothing but a big mirror reflecting back to you the face you bring it everyday
I set the tone, I create the weather. Everyday and in fact in every moment I have a choice and that choice is my attitude. I can’t choose what happens to me but I do choose my reaction to it and for me that choice is a conscious, positive choice as often as I can muster it.
This experiment takes the idea of choice a step further. Rather than just reacting positiveily to what comes at me, I'm shaping what comes at me. I am leaning in to my environment with a smile and a wave and eliciting that same thing back.
Here is a great Italian saying that talks about the flip side of today's post:
Chi Causa de sua male piange lo stesso.
Which loosely means People cause their own problems and then cry about them.
Own your sales gene...