Before

Have you ever felt trapped in the same routine? Day in, day out, same things happening? Going to work, going out and chating with the same friends, watching TV, having coffee at the same coffee shop, etc. Just like a cuckoo clock: singing sharp on time. Not a second late. Not a second early. Every day. Over and over again.

I know I have felt like that quite some times. Just to give you an idea of how bad it was, I used to go home and sleep at 7pm (until the next day in the morning)! Because I simply believed I had nothing better to do. It was that bad.

“The Red Paper Clip challenge”

But then, two weeks ago, during the Paper Clip Challenge, I realised how to never end up being stuck in routine. Ever again!

Some of you may already be familiar with what happened: basically, tpgether with a group of friends, we decided, for one week, starting from a paper clip, to trade it for other objects, BIGGER and BETTER.

Now, nothing spactacular so far. But after the challenge started, then it all changed. As I found myself totally caught in the game.

I started trading my paper clip…and from trade to trade, I got myself more and more excited about the challenge.

One thing, I learnt a LOT!

From thinking strategically (you can’t go on trading your object for a McDonalds Shake- people will think you drank from it and they will not give you anything) to selling.

(when I tried trading my silver necklace in a tiny plastic bag (you know, that  cheap type they give it to you at the store when you can’t afford to buy a decent wrap) people were offering me crappy things in return. The necklace looked chep. But when I took it out before trading and had them hold it and feel it, then they thought is was much more valuable!)

I also had massive FUN, while talking to different people on the street. Of all ages and nationalities. From teenagers who, almost with tears in their eyes, gave me some of theur cigarettes, to two ladies in their 50s from Canada who turned out to have relatives from my country, Romania.

And also, I was really challenged.

Talking to strangers on the street wasn’t my strong point (so I found it quite difficult to go and approach them to trade). And the cherry on the cake was when I went to a condo and literally knocked on people’s doors. (I figured: well, it is their home …they should have more objects there!) You should have heard my trembling voice when the first man came and opened the door, staring at me while asking: “What do you want?”

So, all these things combined gave me incredible energy. I ended up dreaming paper clips in the night. I even read the book (to learn smarter ways of trading)

And, most importantly, I broke free of my daily routine. And did something 100% Exciting!

After

My main learning our of the challenge is again: it is all up to us! Living a routine life or living an exciting one! The choice is ours!

And it is really easy to choose  excitement.

We do not even have to trade Paper Clips all the time for this (though it is a GREAT thing to do!).

Start a group, a community! For example, together with a group of friends, we started the “Laughing all the way” Group (this is the place the idea with the Paper Clip came from!). We have tons of fun at our meetings!

(BTW, the Red Nose Week is ON ;))

Dream of something big and begin doing something about it!

(after the Paper Clip challenge, I realised I wanted to do something about my sales calls, at work. I had just gotten into a boring routine (like the cuckoo clock again, singing at the exact same hour- only I wasn’t singing the time, I was singing my sales pitch). So I just decided to set myself an incredibly high objective, to get myself motivated : in one month, i want to make 10 times more sales than ever before! And it works: i started reading books on sales to become even better at it, I make more sales calls as I am drawn towards my goal. I even have more fun on the phone with people : one of my prospect clients invited me to go trecking with him. And we never met!!)

Or even simpler things: brush your teeth with your left hand instead of your right hand. Decide to go to work on a different way each day for one week. Have dinner in a different resturant for one week. etc

Conclusion

There are so many things that we can do to stop being like the cuckoo clock! To start singing the song whenever we WANT to!

As long as we choose to, we can live an exciting life every day!

So, what are you going to CHOOSE?

PS. Maybe some of the people who were part of the Paper Clip challenge can also say how they experienced it. Basti, Yasmine, Rizwan, Maggie, Anca, Cristina, Alina…wanna add some impressions?