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Man: How are you doing today?

Me: Living The Dream! and yourself?

Man: ha, I guess if you say so.

Me: Have a good one!
So what do you see here?  A fairly normal interaction between 2 strangers at say… a grocery store.  For me this is a fairly standard reaction from people when I am asked how I am doing.  See, “living the dream” has been my signature greeting since about 2002.  I had a friend Rob who used this greeting one day as I was walking in to work at the Citrone restaurant in Redlands, CA.  At this point in time I was working 2 Jobs. One as a Dishwasher at Citrone and the other doing the unloading AM shift at UPS, all while going to Community college.  Well that was my story… I was grinding on my own and didn’t recognize that it for what it was.  A blessing in disguise.  My friend Rob made me Chuckle that day.  He made me laugh a little at his comment because in my eyes he was a line cook at a restaurant in a small-town.  So me, in my judgement, i thought “living the dream, yeah right!” When I inquired. Rob explained to me that he was from Pittsburgh and this was better than living there. It was his dream to be in California, in the sunshine!  And he was… that day I looked at my life and took a sec to think about that and realized I was also living my dream! I may have been grinding my butt off, but I was doing it! and I was doing it on my terms. That day I started using that greeting. initially just when I saw Rob, but eventually I was using it with everyone. Eventually I wasn’t even thinking about it, it was just coming out of my mouth and then I would be like….”Yeah, I am living the dream!” Even if I may not have felt like it before I said it.

 This one little tweak starting rippling into my life and people started associating me as the positive “can do” attitude guy.  This is a tool for making big changes in your life. If you are working on improving your level of happiness or gratitude, this is a simple but impactful way to make it happen. When it comes down to it, our words create our thoughts and our thoughts create our reality. The more intentional we are with our words, the more intentional we will be with our life.
When I started managing restaurants I became extremely sensitive to words. Every word is so important in a customer service experience.  A few of the phrases I would always train my team to use would be the good old fashioned “you’re welcome” or “my pleasure. So many times today people forget to use these simple phrases. The more common terms are “no problem” or “no worries. Which may seem kind enough but If you look at both of these phrases you will see that they are double negatives making a positive. Just like in math! See how that works? The underlying impact of using these phrases are the negativity that gets communicated on the subconscious level.    Our subconscious is extremely sensitive to all of our communication and has more power than it often gets credit for. One of the superpowers of the subconscious is keeping us congruent.  What does this mean? In my experience this means our mind works tirelessly to make us right, or congruent, no mater what we say or think.  In the words of the great Henry Ford:

“if you think you can or think you can’t, your right”

This is one of my favorite quotes because it is so simple and true.

So, if we are continually using negative words in our greetings or in any interactions with people. our subconscious will make sure to bring that into our reality.  it doesn’t stop there.  whomever we are interacting with, they will also be associating us with our words.  As a personal brand this can open or close doorways of opportunity in a hurry.  This goes double for what we put out in the world of Social media.  In some cases your thoughts and words are then attached to you forever (or until you delete the post). As this comes to an end I hope that some thought goes into the words you choose and how you are speaking to your inner-self.  Everyone can use a little boost of positivity so why not be that for yourself as well as the people you interact with. This can be as simple as saying “you’re welcome.”

If this post landed for you please send me a message with your thoughts.  Have an amazing day and remember to live your dream!