Today, while enjoying afternoon tea with a good friend, we chatted about 'magic moments.' What are magic moments? They are those special, uplifting things that happen, often each and every day. Unless you make a conscious effort to do otherwise, they more often than not slip away from your mind and are forgotten and lost. The importance of capturing and treasuring them, and how and why we should do that, I shall discuss in an upcoming post. For now I wanted to introduce the concept with an example (originally written in November 2009)...........
Here is a true story that happened to me, and which taught me the importance of magic moments in life and of making genuine, friendly connections with strangers or people you meet for a few seconds each day - in this case a Starbucks coffee shop counter server.
I was staying at the JW Marriot Hotel outside Orlando, Florida, where I was attending Tony Robbins' Date With Destiny seminar. Now strange things can happen at Tony Robbins events, but I still had a little bit of scepticism after he had told the 3,000 or so attendees to expect something unusual to happen at 8.07 a.m. the following day.
The next day - the final one of the six-day event - and shortly before 8 a.m. I took the elevator to the lobby and made my way to the Starbucks outlet inside the hotel.
Unlike on previous days when I arrived freshly showered and neatly dressed, on this day I was unshaven, had messy hair and did not have my name tag around my neck. Why? Well, there were still quite a few hours to go before the start of the seminar's final session and I figured I'd wait to shower and dress properly once my washing was finished in the hotel launderette on the third floor.
Unkempt and without any identity tag, that was me. So how did the Starbucks server 'Leigh' recognise me and address me by name? Not only that, she even remembered what my usual coffee order was.
During the week thousands of delegates had used that small coffee shop every day. I visited once each morning. Yet here was the counter server remembering me on sight, by name, after only a few days and addressing me like an old friend. On all the other days when I had been wearing my name tag I had not been addressed by name as far as I could remember.
I was taken aback. Now, you're going to have to take my word here, but I swear that this is true. The exchange at the Starbucks counter happened at 8.07 a.m.
How had Tony Robbins been able to predict that a magic moment that would happen at 8.07 a.m.? Perhaps because my mind was unconsciously on the lookout for something to happen at that precise moment in time my senses were fully alert taking in every single thing that was happening around me.
Whatever it was, this was my magic moment.
I chatted briefly with 'Leigh' and took a mental note of her name tag for the first time, that is why I can remember her now as I write, and why I returned the compliment and addressed her by name the following day before I departed.
In an unexpected but quite beautiful way I had been taught the power of making a connection with a stranger - a real, genuine connection, addressing them by name and showing that they matter in your life enough to acknowledge them in a friendly and direct manner.
Look out for those magic moments in your own life, and learn the name of the person who serves you coffee in the morning, or drives your bus to work, and use it to make that magic moment connection.
Monday, November 25, 2013
A magic moment at 8.07 a.m.
Today, while enjoying afternoon tea with a good friend, we chatted about 'magic moments.' What are magic moments? They are those special, uplifting things that happen, often each and every day. Unless you make a conscious effort to do otherwise, they more often than not slip away from your mind and are forgotten and lost. The importance of capturing and treasuring them, and how and why we should do that, I shall discuss in an upcoming post. For now I wanted to introduce the concept with an example (originally written in November 2009)...........
Here is a true story that happened to me, and which taught me the importance of magic moments in life and of making genuine, friendly connections with strangers or people you meet for a few seconds each day - in this case a Starbucks coffee shop counter server.
I was staying at the JW Marriot Hotel outside Orlando, Florida, where I was attending Tony Robbins' Date With Destiny seminar. Now strange things can happen at Tony Robbins events, but I still had a little bit of scepticism after he had told the 3,000 or so attendees to expect something unusual to happen at 8.07 a.m. the following day.
The next day - the final one of the six-day event - and shortly before 8 a.m. I took the elevator to the lobby and made my way to the Starbucks outlet inside the hotel.
Unlike on previous days when I arrived freshly showered and neatly dressed, on this day I was unshaven, had messy hair and did not have my name tag around my neck. Why? Well, there were still quite a few hours to go before the start of the seminar's final session and I figured I'd wait to shower and dress properly once my washing was finished in the hotel launderette on the third floor.
Unkempt and without any identity tag, that was me. So how did the Starbucks server 'Leigh' recognise me and address me by name? Not only that, she even remembered what my usual coffee order was.
During the week thousands of delegates had used that small coffee shop every day. I visited once each morning. Yet here was the counter server remembering me on sight, by name, after only a few days and addressing me like an old friend. On all the other days when I had been wearing my name tag I had not been addressed by name as far as I could remember.
I was taken aback. Now, you're going to have to take my word here, but I swear that this is true. The exchange at the Starbucks counter happened at 8.07 a.m.
How had Tony Robbins been able to predict that a magic moment that would happen at 8.07 a.m.? Perhaps because my mind was unconsciously on the lookout for something to happen at that precise moment in time my senses were fully alert taking in every single thing that was happening around me.
Whatever it was, this was my magic moment.
I chatted briefly with 'Leigh' and took a mental note of her name tag for the first time, that is why I can remember her now as I write, and why I returned the compliment and addressed her by name the following day before I departed.
In an unexpected but quite beautiful way I had been taught the power of making a connection with a stranger - a real, genuine connection, addressing them by name and showing that they matter in your life enough to acknowledge them in a friendly and direct manner.
Look out for those magic moments in your own life, and learn the name of the person who serves you coffee in the morning, or drives your bus to work, and use it to make that magic moment connection.
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