Last night I was cutting the grass and listening to my music I have stored on my iPhone. Instead of picking an artist or playlist, I chose to listen on shuffle. It was amazing how, with each song, I thought of different people. People that, if I was sitting with them at the moment, it would have been perfect and we could have enjoyed a great conversation.
I obviously wasn’t with them but I easily could have stopped the mower and called them right then and there. You know what’s interesting? I’ll bet most of them would have taken my call and been happy to chat.
I heard a Tom Petty song and thought of about 8-10 of my fraternity brothers. I heard an Uncle Kracker song and it reminded me of my Detroit friends like Michael, Mark or Gwen. When ZZ Top’s “Waitin on the Bus/Jesus Just left Chicago” shuffled in next, I could have easily picked up the phone and called Joe or Andrea, Leslie or Amy, Donna or John or many other Windy City peeps just to say hello.
Bruce Springsteen starts singing thru my ear buds and I quickly think of George or Sharon or Lindsay or Mike.
Bob Seger? Time to call Mike and talk about SEC football, or real estate, or being a Dad or anything else. We don’t talk as much as we should but any time we connect, it’s like we just chatted yesterday.
Pearl Jam? Linda or Debra or Chavi or Kim. Little Feat? Hello Todd (or Susan or Matt or anyone else in Atlanta)
You see, we all have plenty of songs in our iPod or MP3 device. Some of us have 1000’s of songs “in our pocket.” We have our favorites and we have the “greatest hits” but it’s often those “other songs” that we hear only when we choose to shuffle that reminds us how good they are.
So many songs, so many memories. Songs that we have ripped from our CD libraries that we used to listen to in our cars or in our dorm rooms. We remember where we first heard the song, the bar we punched it in the jukebox or the concert we went to with our best friend from high school/college/work. Songs that remind us of our first love or our exes, our vacations and our homes are just a shuffle away.
What if you treated your data base or sphere of influence like your iPod treats your song lists? Start going beyond the names you always talk to. Go a few levels deeper to those names that you’d normally skip past for a myriad of excuses.
What might happen if you randomly picked 5 names from your list each day this week. Call them, send a personal note, drop an email their way or go connect to them on social media. “Your name just popped into my head so I thought I’d give you a call.” Before you know it, you’ll be deep in a memorable conversation.
You know, just like when you sing along to that song you had forgotten about…until it shuffled on.
Photo Credit: Margolum
Photo Credit: Lucius Kwok