The $14 invention, that will make you happier, richer and improve your health!

This little gizmo is called a tally counter

"When you find out what this little baby will do, I guarantee you will want one for yourself and one for your grumpy relative"

First, let me explain how I got to this discovery. I was reading an article in the paper that reported a study by Stanford University, in it they found that those who wear a pedometer (measures number of steps) got these benefits;

* lose more weight
* exercise more often
* and have lower blood pressure

What's important here, is the reason why the pedometer works? Lucky for us, I figured this out, all by my little self. This was really an 'aha moment' for me (I know you'll probably be thinking it was a 'well duh' moment). Anyway amigos, here is another

TRUTHTELLER INSIGHT

"any change that we can accurately measure has a built in motivation"

In case you missed the significance of my brillance, let me explain. Suppose you set a goal of doing 100 push-ups. I am assuming that you some desire to actually want to accomplish the task. Each day you do all that you are capable of doing and record that number of push-ups. By the end of the week you will see that the number you can do has increased. Now you have found the motivation, because you can monitor and be witness to your progress.

"This is important to you if you want to be happier, healthier, and richer"

Here's how I got there! You read the previous article on the benefits of smiling, right? If not, get your lazy butt back to the article (3 posts down) and then re-join us for this scintillating discussion.

Ok, we have already established the abundance of benefits if we just smile more. However, if I said .....you go and smile more and you get all those wonderful benefits, would you do it. Maybe, for one or two days you might, but more likely our little experiment might last an hour or two and would be quickly forgotten. Why? It's because we don't monitor the results and get the feedback we need. So just as the pedometer works by showing our progress, that little tally counter works to give us visual feedback of our efforts.

So I went to the office supply store and bought myself a tally counter like you see above

It's strangely motivating to see that you have smiled 54 times in just one morning. I smile when I think about...ooops make that 55. Playing with this thing, made me laugh to myself, a number of times. I smiled when I saw people, I smiled at a beautiful sky and I smiled a big ugly dude with tatoo's covering every inch of his body that visable (interesting he smiled back using the few teeth he possessed...scary).

I got so darn excited about my find that I had rush back and share it with you. I got happy for no good reason. One driver who was waiting at the red light beside my car, happened to see me laughing at my little experiment, probably thought I was loose a screw (he may be right) but who cares, this is better than drugs and cheaper too.

So get yourself down to the stationary store and ask for a tally counter and get in on the fun. Try your own experiment, you will be amazed that something so simple could be so much fun. Come on, admit it, you like simple things and we simple things appreciate it!

"smile, it makes us more attractive, and we need all the help we can get"

Eduardo