If People Matter To You, You'll Remember Their Names

     Think about how you feel when someone you just met remembers your name.
      I often hear people say, "I'm horrible at names." I reply, "Consider that you're as good as you choose to be, and depending on what is at stake, you are quite good." I go on to ask, "If there were ten million dollars on the line and all you had to do is remember someone's name, would you succeed?" The answer is always, "Yes!" They say, "I'd repeat it write it down, tattoo it on my arm; whatever it took, I would remember their name." The truth is that somewhere between 'it doesn't matter very much' and 'ten million dollars,' our priority, ability, and capacity to remember are revealed. This simply means we're capable of remembering names but consider it so unimportant that we choose not to improve the practice.
     We have great potential to be socially outstanding on a number of fronts but tend to exercise our skill level based on whom we're with at the moment. We tune in or check out depending on what we believe the payoff to be, and therefore develop no consistency or habit or remembering names. The result is that we remain relationally anemic and miss great potential in establishing rapport with others. The value in remembering people's names is one of the highest social rewards that exist. It is the quickest way possible to let someone you just met know that you care about them and translates to instant trust. The results are nothing short of amazing. Remember that!

      Questions to yourself:

• Am I resigned to the lie that I am no good at remembering people's names?
• Will I practice this discipline starting today?

Don't Let Television Take All The Vision From Your Life

     Is watching less TV a 'remote' possibility?
     75 years ago a little black box entered the home. For a few seasons families surrounded it together, but before long families could afford another one, two, or five. Family members split into their own rooms, each with their own black box, and thus, a very insidious division of the family began. Family goals and activities got shelved for the sake of 'The Honeymooners' or some other chewing gum for the brain. Tragic! If ever a device has robbed more life, vision, and potential from people and families, it would be the television (aka take-a-vision). Lost in news, sitcoms, and reality shows are hobbies, goals, and relational growth. Things or people we've wanted to invest in just have to wait because 'The Voice' is on in ten. Two hours and a thousand calories later, our life-vision is a bit more blurred while TV puts us further into a fog. With all the options to watch and the ability to buy a TV for the price of a pair of sneakers, it's a pandemic issue, and TV is doing everything it can to keep you glued to the box. Its finances depend on it, and 'Big Television', by nature of its increasingly carnal content, has no interest in your family or your goals in life Its interest is in ratings, pure and simple. Are they evil? Of course not. They can't take away our choice. But do consider or that by the time a person hits age 65, they'll have spent about 80years watching TV...or one-eighth of their life.
     Do the math; New careers have been learned in a year, billion-dollar businesses built in three years, books are written in six months, relationships reinvigorated in one month, and the list goes on. TV is an addiction that will steal your potential. It will sideline you from the richness of life, love, relationships, and passions as surely as the remote has become the sixth appendage.
     Questions to yourself:

• Which of my passions and goals are sidelined because TV is center stage?
• Are there TV programs that can actually enrich my life and my goals?