So Shall Butter Fly
It wasn’t a New Years resolution, but when I came home from the IMS New Years meditation retreat, I launched a major social initiative, making an effort to reach out and establish meaningful connections with people and putting an end to a lengthy period of self-imposed isolation.
As you’d expect from an off-the chart Myers-Briggs ‘J’, I’ve quantified and tracked my progress, and the results so far are actually pretty surprising.
Over the month of January I counted 44 meaningful social interactions, which I have defined as face-to-face exchanges that are more substantial than just a quick greeting or business transaction. And I met 8 new people.
Despite being a shorter month, February was even more active. I tallied 58 social interactions and met 16 new people!
So overall, for the first two months of the year I had over a hundred interactions with sixty different people, two dozen of whom were people I hadn’t known before.
And the first half of March is booked pretty solidly, too.
How’s that for stepping out?
Of course, volume doesn’t necessarily correlate with quality or satisfaction, but I am pretty happy with the connections I’ve fostered so far. And it tells me that it’s not that difficult to overcome the inertia of rest, and that the effort one puts into it is rewarded more often than not.
So if you’re one of those folks I’ve interacted with in the past couple months-and especially if you’re a new friend, or an old one that I hadn’t spoken with in ages-thank you! I’m glad to have you as part of my life.
And if I haven’t spoken to you yet, please feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear from you.