Week: 1 Day: who knows
Sorta been trying boot camp, but I've found it much more difficult than I expected, even for week 1. Definitely a lot of excuse making to not spend the time required, on my part.
Anyway, the 2 eye contact walks were not a problem. Felt a bit awkward in the beginning, but by the end of walk 2, I was doing pretty good. I still 'practice' EC all the time.
The Hi's are a different issue. I started off counting just "Hi" but by then end I was also counting "Hey" and "Hi/Heyless" random conversation starts as well. I didn't count talking to shop people, people I had 'business' with, or people who said 'Hi' first. Couple of observations: the EC-smile-Hi did NOT work well for me. I found that most people would not hold EC long enough for that to work smoothly. (Most people - we're talking 99% here - wouldn't do more than glance at me.) The ones that did, managed to 'Hi' with a good rate, though not perfect.
OK, breakthrough time. I started today with 35 hi's done over a number of weeks, and picked up 15 today - 3 during the day, and 12 within an hour or so at the grocery store. I decided that it's not about what THEY do, it's about what I do. That attitude let me hi people who weren't at all interested in being hi'd. I essentially eliminated EC as a requirement for making a hi. Reactions were predictably mixed, but interestingly I got a good number of hastily stammered hi's in return. I think these all count though, since they're harder to do than an EC/smile/hi combo.
An observation: people seem to make EC with people they find interesting in some way. The fact of the matter is - and no, not a whine
- I'm short, and not particularly good looking. Getting EC from good looking girls is like pulling teeth. These same girls openly ogle tall, goodlooking guys. So, the lesson for me here is that if you're tall, dark and handsome, you get certain things for free. A guy like me has to work for it - be more proactive, and take risks.
For all the AFCs out there who are like me, and having problems, look at it this way: a lot of things are gonna be harder for you. That's just the way it is. You have to compensate for your handicaps using superior technique - in this case, you may not get a lot of EC for free. You have to compensate by making cold hi's. Once you get that in though, you stand a good chance of getting a hi in return - all of a sudden you've been noticed instead of being another chump the HB won't remember passing in the street. boo-yah
Sorry for the long post (not really). Hope it helps someone