Issue 385 - Mon 25th Sep 2006

Hi,
I hope Monday finds you well.

After last week's issue I got some emails telling me that I had given enough coverage to my groin adventures.
One of them was quite succint, a simple 'Groin Groin, Groan'!
Another one I got within a couple of hours of it going out...

'It is disappointing to see you use so many 'groin' jokes as a 'crutch' on an otherwise interesting 'tasty handful' of ideas. You always manage to throw a 'sac of balls' up into the air - so that we, your many readers can 'grope' amongst them on their descent - to find our own 'support' in life. We all envy you, your amazing 'testicular fortitude' in searching for a new girl friend, and pray that you can for evermore hold 'hernear'. It will happen 'trussed' me.'

That made me smile good and proper, written by my buddy Les Miserable from the BluesMothers.
You can see his site here: http://www.bluesmother.com

Right, today I want to talk about one of my favourite words, it's one of what I like to call the 4 magic words beginning with 'A'.
In fact I wrote about it in my 'Transform Your Life in 21 Days' book.

The word is 'ASK', and it can bring amazing results, I like to use the theory as much as I can.

A while ago I had toyed with the idea of making videos (and no, not THAT kind) to sell online.
The trouble was that the resulting file was of such a massive size ( no jokes) that I didn't know how to handle it (sorry).
It suddenly occured to me that someone I knew from the music jam sessions had put a video on disc for someone else, so he seemed a good bet to ask.

I asked him, and he gave me 2 tips that I could use, the 2nd one being maybe the most useful - 'you're are using a dvd instead of cd aren't you?'

I wasn't.
A simple answer, and all I had to do to get it was ask!

Last week I was trying to record some audio onto my old pc.
I couldn't use my laptop, becauase what I wanted to record was something I was getting online *from* the laptop.
Anyhoo, the input socket on the pc didn't seem to work, so I gave up, assuming it was just old, and therefore knackered (much like myself).

When I mentioned it to a friend, he said he knew what the answer was - that the factory default was to mute the input, so I would have to go and unmute it.
I went and looked, and sure enough, all I had to do was unmute it!
That must be the most absurd default setting I've heard of.

That's a design meeting I'd love to have been at...
'Hey, I know, let's make the default setting for the line in to mute'
'But why, that doesn't seem to make sense' (good question)
'I know it doesn't make sense'.
'Ok then, let's do it.'

So despite the fact that the surreal exchange above actually must have taken place, the answer to my problem was simple, and all I had to do was ask.

Ask - a magic word.
If you want to read about the other 3 magic 'A' words, you can get my book here:
http://www.transformyourlifenow.com

Ok, that's it for today - talking to people about your plans and goals can lead to some huge information coming your way.

Have a good week.
'Til Next Time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
Get my self-improvement book at:
http://www.transformyourlifenow.com