1. Shut your fat mouth. No one likes a boring Chatty Cathy.
2. Listen to what other people say.
3. Compliment – everyone loves to have nice things said about them, but make sure the compliment is sincere, legit, and meaningful, as in “Man you sure are tall” is not a meaningful compliment, that is an observation and might get you labeled as a “Captain Obvious”.
4. Time – when you spend time with someone it shows them they are worthy of one of the most valuable resources each of us has.
5. Do Something – when was the last time you ever saw someone that was really popluar that didn’t do anything exceptional?
6. Be Generous – No one likes a tightwad. If you can’t afford to buy someone a nice gift, then spend what you do have, time, creativity, thoughtfulness – any or all of these will do.
7. Be responsive – communication is great, but it is only affective when you get a response. Delaying a response to an invite may keep you from being invited again. This is a strategy that may be employed when trying to avoid accepting an invitation, but it is much better just to respond with a “No”.
8. Serve – it is rare that people are willing to give freely of their time and service, so rare that people will normally be baffled at your willingness to do something for them without expecting anything in return. However, before offering your service make sure you are competent at what you are offering, there is nothing worse than someone who offers to help only to spend more time training them than actually getting your work done.
9. Be Teachable – Don’t be a know-it-all – sometimes people want to share something with you that you may already know. Don’t interrupt them and say, “I know”, maybe instead allow them to finish and then say, “Sure, I’ve heard of something like that before” or just ask them a question about it that will further educate you on the subject.
10. Be Independent – there is nothing worse than a friend who is a constant burden. It’s one thing to help someone in an hour of need, but a lifetime of need is exhausting. Sometimes you need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and solve your own problems.
11. Be positive – don’t whine and complain all the time about anything and everything.
12. Be interesting – if you don’t have something interesting to say, then think of interesting questions, or be interested in what others have to say. People like it when you act interested in them.
13. Humor – hands down this is the best way to be well-liked. Everyone loves a good laugh and if you can’t make a good joke then be sure that you are at least able to laugh at yourself. NEVER take yourself too seriously.
14. Be humble – arrogance is annoying.
15. Be confident – confidence is something people pick up on, you don’t have to tell someone over and over, “I am good at….” instead, let them see for themselves. When it comes to confidence actions really do speak louder than words.
16. Have your crap together – smell good, occasionaly wear nice clothes, understand what is going on in the world to some degree. Take care of yourself.
17. Bloom where you are planted – I saw this quote and loved it. So often we get stuck somewhere we hate and instead of making the best of it, we make the worst of it. Instead, bloom, use that adversity to challenge yourself and if that doesn’t work then uproot yourself and change your circumstances.
18. Say Thank You – there is something wonderful about being appreciated. If you can’t reciprocate, be sure to appreciate.
19. Be Respectful – If we respect each other and our surroundings then everyone has a better quality of life.
20. Read Posted Note religiously.
Category: Culture
Categories
I’m on Twitter
I have these simile’s, metaphors and analogies floating through my head at random times and no place to store them for later retrieval. I’ve decided to use Twitter for them since I can post to it from my cell phone.
For example: She was one of those girls you just wanted to pour into a tall glass and then drink with a crazy straw. Or… His dancing reminded me of the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” if not a little more rigid.
What is Twitter? Well, click on the link and see for yourself.
Also, can anyone guess what in the world that first word is on the word verification section?
I mentored this guy while he was in high school and he is still like my little brother. This makes me so proud as many of you know that I am a huge fan of SNL’s Spartan Cheerleaders…
Here are his comments…
So my agency was tasked with creating and submitting the some “America’s Cheers” for the 2008 Olympics. It’s for a promotion we’re helping Bank of America launch since they’re the official bank of the Olympics this year. One of the BANK execs set up an inter-agency competition to help kick-off the promotion with the winners receiving 2 free tickets for an all-expense paid trip to the games in August. We all split up and submitted our own “cheers” for the competition.
Categories
Resurrected
For the past year I haven’t been going to church and I have loved it. I haven’t been reading my Bible because I didn’t want to. My whole life I have read my Bible “religiously” because that is what you are supposed to be as a Christian. Growing up our pastor used to say, “Get up early, get something addictive to drink and read the Bible for an hour.” In Bible study we would tell our students to read their Bible EVERY day and for most Christians we feel a twinge of guilt if we are not serving in some capacity, not tithing 10%, and not following at least the 10 commandments.
Being a Christian can be exhausting – that is if you follow what everyone else has to say instead of following you heart.
I pulled back from Church and from the Bible, but I don’t feel that I ever pulled away from God. I still prayed. I still knew he was there, he was and is still my rock and my foundation, but I just wasn’t “feelin” the routine and the rigidity and often times the condemnation that comes with being a Christian.
The Bible says, “There is therefore, now no condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
I decided that God doesn’t want me to be guilted into reading his word. I don’t spend time with my best friends out of guilt, I spend time with them because I enjoy their company and because I love them. I don’t do nice things for people so that I can get something in return, so I shouldn’t serve Christ because of what I can get.
So I decided to stop going to church for a while and see what God would do in my life. I enjoyed my Sundays off where I didn’t have to get dressed up and then go through the motions of smiling and making small talk.
I stepped back and re-evaluated why I was going to church. Why?
To be spiritually fed?
For Fellowship?
To be seen?
To make friends?
To meet my mate?
Because I am supposed to?
Because it’s what I’ve always done?
To worship?
To serve?
At one time or another all of the above reasons were true and I think part of the reason I stopped going was because Church started to feel like this machine that I thought I could hop into and it would solve all my problems.
The simple reality of life is that it is always going to be hard and you are always going to have problems. The Church is not a hospital for Christians, it is more like Boy Scouts of America where you learn to survive in this wilderness.
What I would like for my church to be is a place of refuge where I can go if I am hurting and perhaps maybe even get some long-term care. I remember when I needed to see a therapist and Denton Bible had outsourced that part of their ministry to a local Christian counselor. I had to pay $65 so that a therapist could tell me, incorrectly, that I had a pride issue. That was the basis of all my problems and many Christians problems for that matter. I was then given a worksheet to take home and work through before I came back for a second session. I never went back.
So today I went to church because it is Easter Sunday. Yesterday I had decided not to go. My parents hadn’t really planned anything for us to do as a family. I didn’t have anyone to go to church with and Easter Sunday just seems like a time when you should be going to church with at least some friends. I ended up going alone and enjoying myself immensely. I was going for me and because I wanted to spend time with Christ on this most important of days.
I went to Irving Bible Church and I love IBC because there is this feeling of refuge and warmth and love. I love it’s simplicity and the pastor Andy McQuitty who I got to spend a weekend with in Florida on a Song of Solomon trip. It was great to hear the wonderful praise and worship and to be in an environment where people were coming together to make a change not only in their own lives, but in the communities around them.
They gave a brief talk on www.waterisbasic.org and how they are changing the lives of Africans in Sudan by providing wells. This program has raised over 450,000 dollars so far and is providing fresh clean water to villages all around. It is a simple way to show the love of Jesus and that delights me.
Lately, I’ve been missing my Bible. I’ve missed hearing the truth of God’s word and it’s purifying quality that nourishes the soul. Christ died on the cross and then rose again after 3 days, but I feel like for the past few months I’ve been dead and now I’ve been resurrected.
“Moo, Mooo!” That’s all I heard as I stood like a slab of beef waiting to be processed at Best Buy. There were 8 cows in front of me, we were practically a whole herd grouped together shifting listlessly. I seemed to be the only one that was impatient. “Excuse me, Excuse me Old people with the two grand daughters who are wearing too much make-up and look like they took wigs off of dolls with their chopped bangs and stringy hair, yes, you. Do you think you could Moooooove forward because they just said no less than 3 times that they will get whoever is next at station 2.” One rather large-eyed woman in front of me turned around and gazed upward at me as if I were a bit crazy. Her big pink lips were fat and full, her nostrils round. Is she grinding her teeth or chewing cud? No matter, we are making progress.
I look around the room and see a half wolf half man sniffing over the DVD’s. His long reddish hair reminds me of that show where there is a lion man that lives in the sewer system and helps some woman, a would-be lover, fight crime. His features are flat and his eyes are beady. Moving on I see a family that looks like they could be related to Jared from Subway. Glasses and round white almost generic faces. Dad, mom, daughter, brother just waddling in quacking to one another.
Finally it is my turn at the register and the person in front of me is no longer of this Earth. I’m so annoyed from waiting in line so long that people are no longer humans, they have metamorphed into large amoeboid substances. Gelatinous featureless creatures that make sounds like “waa waaa, bah wah bah”. Any minute now I expect Captain Spock to beam me up from this hell hole that is Best Buy on Saturday afternoon.
When I arrived back home I realized that when I am in a hurry that I turn into a cretin… but don’t tell me that you don’t do the same. So to you, if you don’t want to be ugly, fat, or stupid, then please stay out of my way when I am in a hurry!