#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...