The Kinetic Technique by H. A. Overstreet (1925)

Influencing Human Behavior by H. A. Overstreet was published in 1925. I purchased an old hardcover copy of his book over a year ago because, some other book I was reading referred to it as a master work. Overstreet's book has been sitting on my oak book shelf, which was built by a very nice Mennonite man in Maryland, ever since it arrived.

I spent the weekend of November 26th and 27th entering all my "print books" into a software program called Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com) which by the way, is mainly for managing E-books.

After saving the information from an ISBN import, I began reading. I stopped on page 12 after reading what Overstreet wrote about capturing one's attention using "The Kinetic Technique".

I stopped reading because this piece of wisdom so grabbed ahold of me, I wanted to let it seep into my mind.

Two days later on Tuesday morning at 1:45 AM I woke to a racing mind. "What book talked about a dot on the wall?" I kept searching, and searching my thoughts. Nothing.

"Ah, the influencing human behavior book."

Why was this so important that it woke me up? My website (read that as I) totally violated the principle of movement. Every page on my website has the same big-ass banner. I was making all my visitors (read that as potential customers) stare at a dot on the wall. How boring is that.

I jumped out of bed right then and there and started working on removing the dot from my website. It took me a few days, but I managed to get rid of that dot. But more importantly, I learned a valuable lesson from some ink that was printed nearly 100 years ago.

Thank you Mr. H. A. Overstreet. I can't wait to see what else of yours seeps into my mind.

Influencing Human Behavior - H. A. Overstreet (page 12)

Enjoy,
Gunny Mike
https://zilchworks.com

The question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is not just for kids.

1. Stop your busy life for just three-and-a-half minutes. 
2. Watch this video.
3. Answer this question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" in the comments.

How I use my "Like Buckets"

When I grow up, I want to tell stories. Not just any kind of stories. Stories that inspire people. People just like you. To help me get there, I joined Toastmasters two years ago. Right now, I have three priorities all competing for my spare time. One of those priorities is getting an updated copy of my software out there. The sooner this is done, the less competition there is for my spare time. 😃

What do you want to be when you grow up?

( Answer in the comments below )

Semper Fi

Gunny Mike

https://zilchworks.com

Stop saying "I don't have time" - Say "It's not a priority"

That little switch from saying "I don't have time", to saying "It's not a priority" is a HUGE game changer. I learned about this from a co-worker last week. She didn't invent it... she heard it and passed it on to me. So, I'm passing it on to you.

I started using it immediately. It's my new mantra. I've mostly said it quietly only too myself so far. An I can attest, it's already made a big difference in my life. I thought about making the title of the post click-bait. For example:

Stop saying "I don't have time", say this instead...

Making people click into the site to get the punchline. But that's not what this is about. This is about leveraging the smallest of things, and turning it into the biggest of life changers. As my good friend Bob Wight, would say, "Riley, that's what you call a woomera". A small little device that when used, gains a tremendous advantage over not using it. (R.I.P. Bob, I miss you a lot).

One of my favorite songs is "We will never pass this way again" by Seals and Crofts. It speaks to me in so many ways. And it's true! So while we go through life, why not pick up a little nugget every now, from wherever we find it, and pass it on to the rest of the world. You never know the significance one small little thought will have on someone.

Enjoy the rest of your day and tackle those priorities!

Semper Fi,
Gunny Mike
zilchworks.com

Say what you mean and mean what you say!

How often are you or your words misinterpreted? Do you even know? Would someone tell you? Or would you go on with life thinking everything is just honky dory. Only to find out later things were not just fine, you only thought they were.

I attended a Toastmasters Leadership Institute training session and was introduced to a "word exercise". This was the first-time I ever heard this done, or given any thought to how a simple phrase could possibly be misinterpreted. It never dawned on me that someone might take to mean what I said differently than I meant it.

Read this sentence to yourself: "I never said I thought your idea was bad."

Fairy straightforward, right. How did this sound to you? Is this something you may have even said to someone? I know I've said this or something very similar to someone.

Let's see how many different ways this can be interpreted. Read each sentence below putting emphasis on the "bolded" word below.

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

"I never said I thought your idea was bad."

Interesting right? Yeah that was the same reaction I had. It never occurred to me that someone might see or hear what I say in a different context than they way I mean it.

That explains a lot. Today, we are constantly texting or emailing people. It's not always your fault if you or what you say gets taken the wrong way. It depends on the way it gets interpreted by the recipient.

So even if you say what you mean and mean what you say it might still be taken differently.

Enjoy!

Semper Fi,
Gunny Mike
https://capecodgunny.com

Your feedback, and comments are always welcome. Don't forget to subscribe for email notifications of new posts.

The 20-Second Hug

program TwentySecondHug;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

{$R *.res}

uses
  System.SysUtils;

begin
  try
    Writeln('The 20-Second Hug');
    Writeln('Copyright (C) 2018 by Michael J. Riley');
    Writeln('(May be freely distributed worldwide)');
    Writeln('#20SecondHug #20SecondHugs #PilotLight ');
    Writeln(#13#10);
    Writeln('+--------------+');
    Writeln(' Instructions ');
    Writeln('+--------------+');
    Writeln(' 1. Squeeze recipient.');
    Writeln(' 2. Don''t let go until this window closes.');
    Sleep (20000); //Stay awake don't miss this part;
      { TODO 1 :
      Translate instructions into other languages.
      Ask Delphi programmers for help by putting
      translations in blog comments. }
  except
    on E: Exception do
      Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
end.

Enjoy,
Gunny Mike
zilchworks.com

What do you, me, Warren Buffet, and his pilot have in common?

Success. Each one of us; you, me, Buffett, his pilot all want success. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we each hunger for success. So, what separates the exceptionally successful people from the rest of us?

Check out this story about Warren Buffet and his long-time pilot then you decide.

Mike Flint was Buffett's personal airplane pilot for 10 years. Flint had flown for 4 different U.S. Presidents before, so he was pretty good at flying. Yet he still felt as though he hadn't achieved all of the career and life goals that he wanted to.

So one day Buffett jokingly says to Flint: "The fact that you're still working for me tells me I'm not doing my job. You should be out going after more of your goals and dreams."

So Flint asks Buffett for his help, and Buffett tells him to go through this 3-step exercise.

Here's how it works (you can play along at home, too)…

STEP 1
Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 goals - the things that came to mind when he thought of success in his career and life. So, Flint took some time and wrote them down.

STEP 2
Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals - the things that were most important to him and that he wanted more than anything else in the world.

This was a lot harder for Flint, since everything on his list was important to him (after all, that's why he wrote them down). But Warren insisted that he could only pick five, so after some time and thought, he made five circles.

"Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?" Warren asked. Steve confidently replied that they were.

STEP 3
At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled were List A and the 20 items he hadn't circled were List B.

Warren now asked Flint when he planned to get to work on these top 5 goals and what his approach would be.

Flint explained, "Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I'm going to get to work on them right away. I'll start tomorrow. Actually, no I'll start tonight."

Flint went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him, when he expected to complete each item…

And that's when Buffett asked him about the second list, "And what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn't circle? What is your plan for completing those?"

Flint replied, "Well the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in at a close second. They are still important so I'll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I'm getting through my top 5. They aren't as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort."

To which Buffett replied:

"No. You've got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn't circle just became your 'avoid at all cost list.' No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you've succeeded with your top 5."

Semper Fi
Gunny Mike
zilchworks.com