Stop Waiting

The first thing that was said to me, in my first class, on the first day of school when I first started college was, "If there is something you want to learn or do, go and learn it or do it. Don't wait for us to teach you. Don't wait two years for that class to come."

Of the 5 years in college that it took me to complete my undergrad, that was the first thing I learned and definitely the most important thing. If I forget everything else I was taught and remember only that, I will live a successful life. Heck I have forgotten everything else. It's true. Ask me what I learned in Calculus and I'll say, "I dunno." Okay so it's part true, there's a lot I remember. Like that one time I met this stunningly beautiful waitress at a mexican restaurant and she asked me to meet her after work where we ended up..... Sorry I was getting a little off topic there. Anyway, here's the point I'm trying to get at:

STOP WAITING!!!!

Stop waiting.
For guaranteed success. If there is something you want, go out and get it. If you fail the first time, get up, dust yourself off, pause, look at what just happened, learn, and then turn and keep going after what you want.

Stop waiting.
For knowledge. You don't need to know everything to go after what you want. You just need to know what you want. Many of the most successful people in the world are people that never went to college or dropped out of it. Look at the richest man in the world, Bill Gates. He dropped out.

Stop waiting.
For experience. You don't need experience to go after what you want. Experience will come with going for what you want. Besides there are plenty of people with experience that are willing to help you. You just need to ask.

Stop waiting.
For permission. If that's what you are waiting for, I give you permission to go for it. Besides, its been said that it's always easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. You can always say you're sorry.

Stop waiting.
For your kids to grow up or to get off for the summer or to go back to school in the fall or whatever. Children are not an excuse, they are the reason. Teach your kids something that's actually useful for them to know. Teach them to not wait, take risks, and go after what they truly want. Teach them that it's not okay to put their dreams on hold "until...."

Stop waiting.
For the right time. Most of the time, this "right time" thing is just an excuse. There isn't really a "right time." There are just times to do things and times where you definitely should not do it now. Here's a tip, ask yourself if this is the right time. If your answer is an "I don't know", a maybe, or something like that and then you start to talk yourself out of it saying it's not the "right time". That's a moment that's a right time. Now if you ask yourself that question and you immediately say that it is a "bad time" to do whatever it is you want to do, wait. Oh and here's a tip, most of the time is not a "bad time."

Stop waiting.
For a green light.

Okay so that last one is a bad example. If you are driving a car and come up to an intersection and you have a red light, you should stop and wait for a green light. Oh, but if it's yellow....

Seriously though. Stop waiting for something to happen in your life for you to do something with your life. Only when you do something with your life will something happen in your life.

Just, STOP WAITING!!!!

-Colin

Body Language, Part 1: Dating Signals

Body Language is an interesting thing. It is said that over 60% of all communication is through body language. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know that it definitely is a huge chunk of communication. I recently read a book by Leil Lowndes, on how to pick up on signals women use when they are interested in somebody. I studied it and learned the all the signals. Over the next few months, whenever I went to restaurants, bars, clubs, etc, I started watching for these signals. Now I don’t consider myself a ladies man in any way, so I wasn’t paying attention to these signals in relation to me. I was paying attention to the couples at each location. At first I didn’t see anything, then slow but surely they started to appear. The leans, the touches, and tugs, they were all there and they were right there just glaring at me. How could I have never seen them before? All these signals are so obvious.

I started thinking, and it made perfect sense. It’s like when you go and buy a new car. You noticed a few of them on the road every now and then, but now that you bought it, you start to see them all over the place.

Anyway, back to what I started to see. I took all the signals I was noticing at face value, because I couldn’t just get up and ask these couples, if she was really into him or if he was picking up on it at all. Then last week it all came together. I went on a first date with a woman that I met on one of those online dating sites. As the date went on, a few of the signals appeared here and there. As a result of what I learned in the book, I believed them to be true signals of what she was feeling and responded subtly to them. Whether she was specifically or consciously doing them, I don’t know. I do know they were signals that she liked me.

How do I know that? The date ended really well. I was walking her back to her car, when suddenly she turned and kissed me long, good, and hard. After which, she apologized saying she didn’t normally do that but she couldn’t help herself and she just had to kiss me.

Now you may be asking, what were these signals she was giving you and… Well based on Leil Lowndes there are 26 signals, just like the alphabet. I won’t get into all of them, but here’s a handful of them:

1. Girlfriend Gab. If you see two or more women talking, laughing, and looking at you (maybe even pointing). THIS IS A GOOD THING.
   
2. Jewelry Tug. She keeps playing with a necklace or earrings or something.
   
3. Shoe Dangle. She dangles her shoe off her foot.
   
4. Innocent Touch. She “innocently” touches you. Your shoulder, hand, something.
   
5. Space Invasion. She invades your space. We all have our comfort zone bubble and she enters it.
   
6. Lean to you. She leans in towards you.
   

The other thing to note is that any one signal doesn’t mean anything by itself. Her feet could hurt or you could be in a loud club where she can't hear you. It’s when these signals start to group together that they start to truly show what she’s feeling.

Now I must admit that this book was written for men in the dating scene, but I can see how this would be useful for women as well. If you are a single woman and you want to let a guy know you are interested, without him knowing you are telling him you are. Of course unless he has read this book.

If you want to know more, or learn all 26 signals, check out Leil’s book:
Undercover Sex Sectrets


-Colin