Have you ever felt that other people's lives seem more exciting than yours?
Is life passing you by? Does opportunity knock on everybody else's door?
It's all in how you tell it. Pick out the unusual bits. Extracting the tiny snippets of excitement from an otherwise ordinary life makes your life sound exciting. You don't have to lie. You don't even have to exaggerate. Quoting one-liners without the rest of the story forces people to make up their own background story - often with more drama than the original.
Now here's a trick to make your life sound even more exciting. Among a group of unusual statements about yourself, add one complete lie. But don't be dishonest about it. Simply add a statement admitting that one of the statements is untrue. You have just added a modicum of intrigue to spice up your life, and you didn't even have to tell fibs e.g.
Only one of the following statements is untrue:
- I designed the house I currently live in.
- I've played Scott Joplin rags on a cathedral pipe organ
- I invented and patented a mathematical algorithm
- I have a bullet wound in my left thigh.
- I played keyboards at a new year's eve concert in a Kylie Minogue tribute band.
- I co-designed an instrument quality, UV sensitive CCD camera chip.
- I played in a German accordion band.
- I've been force-fed gourmet jelly beans in a corporate gulfstream jet flying over the USA.
- I've worked in an Australian steel mill.
After writing the list I found there were lots of other memories just waiting to pop into my head. I had to create a second list.
Only one of the following statements is untrue:
- I once visited 9 US states in 12 days.
- I've read over half of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings aloud.
- I was once strip-searched by a Japanese customs officer.
- I failed English in my Higher School Certificate (year 12).
- The one time I've been hit on in a night club was by a guy.
- I once wrote a Forth interpreter, used it to write a Z80 disassembler, then used that to hack into the bios of a Yamaha computer.
- I got security clearance to get into the Los Alamos National Laboratories.
- I was once delayed in customs while my colleague was questioned by an official about the legality of importing light into Australia.
- I used to play late 60's - early 70's rock covers in a pub band.
When you look at these lists you can see what a thrill-packed exciting life I've led. Hardly a moment goes by without something really zany happening. Yeah. Right.
