Loving Thursday 4

by Alastair on January 1, 2010

Greetings!

Visiting the blog, A Sudden Unexpected Twist (I love that title because the word EXPECT is dead-central to it!), I left a comment on a quotation of Oscar Wilde. Then I thought it would make a post here, as I have been naughty and not added more posts recently. Though, I see I have 129 junk comments , mostly in Russian, to clear from my Dashboard!

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Oscar Wilde entertains, with clever words. But, wisdom is usually elsewhere. I think there is a danger in the first sentence, if anyone applies it personally. It disempowers. Of course, the second sentence explains his meaning.

The quotation reminds me of something in one of Leo Buscasglia’s books. (Yes! What a surname! He was the first to offer a university module in California on Love. Outrageous at the time. Called ridiculous! Quite unnecessary! Hundreds applied.)

One of his students criticised him by saying, “Leo, you said something quite different on Monday!” He answered, “I was a quite different person then!” He meant we constantly grow and change. We should aim to do things differently and to create new experiences constantly.

Change habits. Why do you put your right shoe or sock on first? Dress differently every morning because it adds curiosity and creativity. How many ways can you shower? And tie your shoelaces? Always do something you have never done before: small and large. Speak to new people. Find something amazing about them, and tell them. Then, find more. Find things to love, genuinely. (This interests interesting people.) Fascination is all around us. In the eyes of a baby. The way we always comb our hair. An insect that is frightened. (Not in the hair!) Our hidden motives. The choice of words. Why certain things are said and done first. Every breath and expression is a clue to the individual beneath the facade. It is rewarding to be a loving, expectant detective.

Robert Louis Stevenson said he had 6 true servants, named Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, to help him write. But, I think the best investigative assistant is WHY. It unlocks the world for kids. And us, too!

So, in my opinion, we are never other people. We borrow thoughts and opinions. We imitate lives, (literally walking in others’ shoes when tiny!) We need quotes to populate our thoughts and react to them. And thus create our own.

So, Wilde the self-publicist (like George Bernard Shaw) was only offering a comment for clever minds. If he said it to any insecure person, he could shock and devastate. (Still, I like the quote.)

Hope you enjoyed your visit to Wales. (But, you were a different person in December, weren’t you? And have moved on since then.) Happy New Year, Katrina, to you and your visitors.

My blog is left aside, at the moment. I want to write a film script in January. Never done it before. So, why not? As the ideas run hot.

In closing, as I see it is 12 minutes to midnight, 31st December 2009, I wish my visitors and friends all the very best in 2010. May your New Year provide a host of Daily Differences! And heartfelt fulfillment.

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Loving Thursday 3

by Alastair on December 10, 2009


Kiss and make up!

To be really successful in a job, you need to love what you are doing. If necessary, get another job. To succeed in a good relationship, love is not an option. It’s essential!

In business, the same rule applies. Love your customers! Show fascination in what they do. Ask how you can make their lives better for them. Plot how to amaze them. Link a string of amazing surprises, focused intently on the customer. And you get appreciation back. And loyalty. Keep-up the genuine intensity, and you create an unpaid ambassador recommending you personally. It is hard work, however. Love is. But, joy and reward nevertheless.

You have ten fingers. Count on them those businesses that you are convinced really LOVE you. Perhaps just one. Or one less? That’s my point! There is virtually no competition! You get service, attention, assistance, efficiency. But, when last did your supplier wrap the product with love, when you paid for it?

A friend on mine has a book shop and asked for my advice. I watched a queue of customers at the till. A lady bought a thin, low-cost book. The assistant lifted it and wrapped it as if it was made of gold leaf, remarking it was a magnificent choice. The lady beamed. However, when the next customer handed over a book, ten times the value at least, it was just wrapped in silence. The smile was casual. He walked away as though his face had been slapped!

Invisibly, a future customer was quite possibly lost.

There is a shop I avoid going in. I go out of my way to avoid it. One of the women at the till, a part-timer, conveys such disinterest bordering on dislike. No amount of cheerfulness or friendly remarks change her. She has been there years. She is a paid saboteur.

Make people happy! Or lose the business and become bankrupt. Or, be the most sought-after person. It’s a choice. Love pays best!

It is all about contact, mentally. Conviction emotionally. Gratitude and appreciation conveyed without words. Tone and body language are almost all. We only pay attention to 15% of what people say. 85% is about what we see and feel.

Whoever loves customers sincerely has wonderful feedback BEFORE even expressing anything directly.

Why not, (every Thursday perhaps), plot and plan and enjoy planting what I call ‘love-bombs’ to explode and give pleasure to your unexpected ‘victims’? They may be highly surprised. They certainly won’t forget! Why? Because you may be unique in their current experience. Being different daily adds up to being unprecedented in your field.

Have a lovely day! I wish to wrap up this matter sincerely and gently, though I cannot see you. Change that to a fabulous day!

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American Group Hug

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A Mind Change Living in Britain, the song God Bless America can make me squirm. Often triumphalist. A tear-jerker operated for politicians by Party loyalists. However, I came across this rendition via StumbleUpon. Scroll down to it and be happily surprised. Perhaps delighted. Do you like it? And do you live outside the USA? A [...]

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Loving Thursday

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December 1, 2009

Fastest post yet! My mistake is being too slow. Thinking too much. Not acting. Being too intellectual. And the like. I have 10 minutes before I go out of the house to catch a bus. (I have given up driving. It’s more peaceful. I can be slow, think, not act, create big thoughts. And repeat [...]

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Hug Special 1

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Have a whale of a time! Take your hug-experience “to a new level!” as the stock phrase says. Imagine you are the person riding this white Beluga whale in the freezing ocean! What a wonderful sense of delight and achievement! As you cannot be affected by the cold, are guaranteed the sensations of a lifetime, [...]

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New Flag for a Democratic Europe

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The EU is democratically-illegal! The majority of the British people believe that the main Parties, in collusion with the EU Commission, have stolen democratic authority from them. Few realize that by so doing, those involved have also made the Westminster Parliament and the three main Parties within it democratically-illegal organisations, too! For, merely passing laws [...]

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A New Magna Carta: from the People to Representatives

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Second Draft of the Electors Charter [0.1] Introduction Tony Blair (British Prime Minister 1997-2007) We are not the masters. The People are the masters. We are the servants of the People… What the electorate gives, the electorate can take away. (1997) Masters, yes! Necessarily. For, politicians can never be fully trusted. In democracy, the People [...]

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