Alright I finished the tasks for week one (spend 2 hours practicing eye contact, say hi to 50 strangers).
I started today out with 26 hi's, so I basically did half of the excersize today. One thing I found interesting is that this excesize (and I imagine all going forward) is easier to do when you mix it up with your routine. Unfortunately I work a lot during the week and I don't go out much, but I'll have to change that so that I don't have to cram everything in at the end.
First Lesson Learned:
I never fully realize how powerful strong eye contact can be. Sure you read all the time in this forum that its important, but you really see the magic behind it when you put it into practice.
Case and point, today I went to a coffee shop towards the end of the day. I saw that next week's excersize is to start having conversations with strangers, so I began talking to the guy in front of me about the Jets game today.
I saw the girl behind the counter and all I did was order my coffee, but looked her directly in the eyes. She held eye contact with me for maybe a second longer than you would usually with someone, and I gave her a little smirk towards the end, and she smiled. Although nothing was said verbally, there was a TON of NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION going on here, and I know we could both feel it. When she came back, she started asking me about my day and she began a conversation with me. There were other people in line but I could tell she was making it a priority to talk to me.
I ended the interaction by getting her name (I should've tried to number close! Doh!). Its alright though I've seen her working at there before and I go there a lot, next time I'll get it.
The point is, I'm starting to think that your body language/what you're communicating non verbally might be even more important than what you're actually saying.
Second Lesson Learned:
The other big thing I realized today was that its true that maybe 90% of people are going to be cold and nothing is going to spark, but when you find someone who you do hit it off with its worth dealing with all the jerks.
For example, today I got a lot of my hello's done at the mall, and most people were just annoying to deal with. Many of them were xmas shopping and didn't even want to be bothered with a hello. That being said, that interaction I had with the coffee shop girl was worth dealing with all of the other people because it made me feel great (plus she was such a hottie!)
This week there were a solid two girls that I definitely felt that I could've gotten a date or something with if I had pursued further. So although I said hello to 50 people, and 48 of them were annoying, if I slept with those other 2 girls that would've made the whole thing worth it!
Conclusion:
I'm feeling pretty happy about my results this week, and I think I'm doing much better with my body language after doing this. Next week is going to be tougher because I think you need to have 10 conversations with complete strangers for more than 2 minutes, but if this week was any indicator it should be pretty rewarding!
Anyways, can't wait to see the rest of your results guys.