How friendly are you?

I think that you will find that a good measure of adventurebolts in your life may get missed if you do not have some basic characteristics of friendliness.

For example, while browsing in the book section of  a store, a woman next to me was looking at books just down the shelves from where I was standing.  Out of the blue she just began making random comments, not in a bad way, but it was like she just had to talk to somebody.  It reminded me of our three year old, talking about everything she sees.  This woman talked about how the books were (dis)organized, and then shared a book with me that she had found about golden labrador retrievers, because her husband's best friend has a labrador retriever, and even though it's not a golden lab, it's a black lab, this would still be a good book because it talks about what good birders the labs are and he really likes to go hunting...Whew!  I can imagine this woman has no problem making friends!

"We should remember that people around us in everyday circumstances are people just like us"

But it got me to thinking, how many opportunities for adventurebolts are missed when we don't open up to those around us.  Maybe we're embarrassed to say anything sometimes; maybe it isn't appropriate.  I know for me, personally, I typically will not hesitate to strike up a conversation with someone if I have something to say, but certainly not to the level of this woman in the store!  God bless her, it wasn't offensive in the least, but I am still amazed at how much she could talk!

We should remember that people around us in everyday circumstances are people just like us, and are probably experiencing the same frustrations if they are standing in a long grocery check-out line with us, or they may be laughing with us at something funny that happens in the next aisle.  I have found that approaching these types of situations with humor usually keeps everyone in a good mood, and sometimes opens up other topics to share as well.

Open up a little to those around you.  What friendly experiences have you had in public situations?  How can you foster ways to make this happen more frequently?  What expectations do you have to interact with others in these types of situations?  Leave a comment; start a discussion...