Here are six ways that Dale Carnegie mentions on how to make people like you, in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
I've been thinking about something that I'm not even sure if I can verbalize it. I might as well spill out my thoughts onto my blog and see what sticks:
Everything we surround ourselves with, everything in our day-to-day lives has an affect on our feelings. Things, people, animals, food, drink, ... everything only affects how we feel, nothing more.
Let me give an example or two. On my commute to work I drive by some $1 million dollar homes. These homes are incredible to look at. They are absolutely beautiful. I specifically enjoy looking at the entrances to these high-dollar subdivisions. The entrances are colorful and inviting. No costs were spared. I can't help but thinking lately about why the entrances are so beautiful? I mean, they don't provide any real value to anyone, they are just nice to look at. So the only thing I can come up with is that the entrances in all their splendor, make people feel a certain way. We like to look at pretty and expensive things, but why?
Here is another example; the design of cars. You know how some cars you can look at and say outloud, "Wow!"? And then there are others (PT Cruisers for example) that make your stomach a little queasy. Why is that? What does the design of a car really have to do with us. Other than makes us feel a certain way.
What's in a feeling? And the question that I keep pondering is, "Can we change how we feel?" Or should we just be expected to manage around our feelings? Is that even possible?
We spend a lot of money, time and effort on things that only make us feel a certain way. Is that what our lives should be all about?
Just moving into a brand new house, with brand new grass, brand new windows and brand new bills . . . it is easy to fool myself into thinking that I don't have to do anything to keep everything looking nice and new. But nature is there, and slowly but surely picking away at my precious house and land. My house will need constant maintenance as long as I remain here. Some mowing, painting, cleaning, replacing, and protecting.
More important than houses, our minds need constant maintenance as well. Nature and those elements around us all want a piece of our minds. And if we trick ourselves into thinking that's not a big deal, then where will we be? Broke? Probably. Depressed? Maybe. Sorry? I believe so.
My challenge then is to stay sharp! Do the required maintenance! Read the book, see the movie, spend the time with family, give the hugs, tell someone how you feel, make time for friends, take the pictures, give to your church ... Do the things that are easy to put off. Do the maintenance necessary to ward off nature so that you can experience a fulfilled life.
I just started to read the book Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy and even though I am only 30 pages into it, there are some really good nuggets that I would like to pass along.
"First, I learned that if I didn't commit to achieving my own happiness, no one else would. If my aim in life was only to make others happy, I would always be at the mercy of the feelings of others, whoever they might be. And I found that trying to organize my life around making others happy was an unending exercise in frustration and disappointment, because it just wasn't possible.
Second, I discovered that I couldn't give away what I didn't have. I couldn't make someone else happy by being miserable myself. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "You can't help the poor by becoming one of them." I found that I couldn't make others happy unless I could make myself happy first."
