How To Matter

Do you have the misfortune of having to deal with a know-it-all, the humility challenged, a certified screw-up? If so, a little sympathy is coming your way. These humility challenged experts on everything are out there, just itching to screw something up and then point the finger at you, as they creep away. -- Let's dip into this a little further.

Six for Sunday may sound like something special, but not this time. It's just a six-pack for everyday that happens to be posted on Sunday. Even so, I think you may find at least a couple of these little tidbits worth a minute or so for quick consideration.

Here's the thing. For those of us who cannot see, there are dozens of skills and strategies potentially available to us to do what we want to do, when we want to do whatever it is. For the sake of discussion, let's say there are seventy-two skills and strategies (Call them tools.) out there for any of us who goes to the time and bother to master them. Sure, there are way more than seventy-two, but since I can only handel quite a bit fewer than seventy-two, I'll stick with seventy-two. There is no point in totally overwhelming myself before I even get started with filling up my tool box. Just for starters, there are three tools that are already there for the taking; and we may not have even noticed that they are there for us. The cool thing is that these three tools are free and only require putting them into our tool box. They do have a down side though. Just like a tiny hammer won't do the job if we have a big nail, a weak tool won't serve us very well when we need it for a big job. But it does not need to

  Communication Matters   Look Up   When I was young, my mother told me and then told me again to look at her when she was talking to me. One time I responded by saying, "I'm blind so what makes the difference?" Her response? "Yes, you are blind, but that's never an excuse for being rood or lazy."   I suspect that you get my point. For my mom, not being able to see was never an excuse for not doing what I was able to do. Even if I couldn't see her, I definitely could turn my head in her direction when she was talking and at least act like I was paying attention.   I could look up and in her direction. That was at least the place to start. Success required feedback though. The problem was learning not to look too high or too low, too far left or right. I needed to focus on her voice and where it was coming from. The technique I developed is to focus a little below where I think the voice is located. It helps to shift my head and shoulders, so my shoulders are squared with the person talking.   The

There are the regular fools among us. They neither know better nor do better. We tend to give those folks a pass, since they have no control over just how stupid they are at times. And there are the rest of us who don't have the excuse of being standard fools. We are just damn fools, yes all of us. We do our foolishness despite knowing better. We just don't do better. This is not a permanent condition unless we extend our foolishness beyond five minutes a day. Gary has the skinny on this universal fact of life.

Giving advice when asked is dangerous; and giving unsolicited advice is just stupid. Hearing Gary's take on this may be worth a listen; but of course, that is not advice, just an opportunity.

The title says it all. There is about five minutes of me fussing about my SM7b microphone and my mixer; but after that, some nice country music from Kevin is there for you.

My guess is that you don't personally remember the Nelson family. No problem. Gary will get you up to speed. Spoiler alert! It's all about "Nice."

Happy Happy plus peace and health from us at Audio Tidbits to you and to those who love you. Please enjoy Kevin's Christmas concert.

You have believed in Santa or at least you likely have. If you are one of the lucky ones, you still believe. But the more important question is, "Does Santa believe in you?" Gary has a couple of tips for making sure that he does.

I'm not sure whether this episode is important wisdom or trivial nonsense, but there is a point worth a couple minutes thought. Is happy actually optional? Join Gary for his take on the question.

You may not have noticed that there are many ways to do nothing. It may look as if something is being done, but therein lies the illusion. The much easier approach is to do nothing, with intention. Gary help us sort this out.

Amateurs at the success game believe that the more people they know, the more successful they will be. How silly. The real question is, "Who knows you and what do they know about you?" Gary shares his take on how this works.

I suspect that you think talking to a brick is right up there with watching paint dry, but you would be wrong. Talking to a brick has hidden benefits that most people never consider. Gary has ten for your evaluation and enlightenment.

Dave Barry has a problem, although he disagrees. He thinks having no friends is a wise financial decision for him. As might be expected, Curious George disagrees. It's all about diplomacy, or the lack-there-of. Gary has the scoop for you.

Gary has a really quick self-check. Easy Peasy. Just give yourself a thumbs up or perhaps not on each statement. The only catch is the standard: every time, with everyone, no exceptions, no excuses.

Are you into being creative or perhaps an inventor? It's actually pretty simple. Just think a thought that no one else has thought. For the skinny on that little trick, listen to this episode of Audio Tidbits.

You may think I have a run of the mill public speaking tip for you, not particularly different than a hundred others. But this tip is from Blackie, a guide dog extraordinaire. You didn't know that guide dogs gave public speaking tips? That would be silly talk. Regular guide dogs may not, but Blackie was far from regular. He was a good friend of Denny, who was himself a professor. I think you may as well listen to pass your own judgment about the unexpected brilliance of extraordinary guide dogs.

Do you like to gossip, or are you content to be a passive consumer? "Neither," you say? Well, OK; but I don't think I easily believe you. I suspect if you ask a hundred random people if they believe that you neither gossip nor consume gossip, they would just laugh at the silly question. At any rate, Gary has some thoughts on the topic. As with most good gossip, it's short and vague enough to make sure you aren't sure one way or the other.

There is a secret the most successful people are slow to admit to. They trust their hunches. But you worry that your hunches may be wrong? Sure, they may be, but so may be your best, considered judgment. The point is that hunches are more often right than wrong. Ignore them at your own risk. Gary shares some thoughts about intuition and hunches on this episode of Audio Tidbits.