Hummingbirds can fly backwards and even upside down.
Their shoulders have unique ball and socket joints that allow 180 degree wing rotation.
This characteristic also gives hummingbirds the ability to hover in place by beating their wings up to 80 times per second in a figure 8 pattern.
Other birds flap their wings upward and downward, but hummingbirds stroke their wings backward and forward. That’s the reason for their amazing flight patterns.
They also take 250 breaths per minute, eat half their body weight every day, and fly 500 miles nonstop during migration (one species can fly 1200 miles without a break).
But this article isn’t about a fascination with hummingbirds.
This article is about a fascination with YOU.
I am writing this to help you be as interesting as the hummingbird.
I’m not suggesting you start walking backwards. Michael Jackson’s “moonwalk” stands alone on that one.
But a big part of life is conversation. People naturally gravitate towards those who are interesting. This is true in love, family, business, and life.
My goal is to give you the ability to fly through any conversation with nimble and aerobatic moves like the hummingbird.
These “moves” are stimulating things you can say to peak a person’s interest. But there is an art to mastering this skill.
You don’t want to talk about the ordinary aspects of ordinary things, like the weather today.
At the other end of the spectrum, don’t pontificate on the exotic or complex, what few know or care to know, like astrophysics… even though it may interest you.
The key to captivating is to talk about things that most already know something about, but don’t know fascinating things about, like the hummingbird.
You’ve seen hummingbirds and probably marveled at their grace and beauty.
But did you know that they eat half their body weight each day, can fly backwards, and go non-stop for up to 500 miles during migration?
Didn’t you find that interesting when I shared it in the beginning of this article?
That’s the key to captivating.
Talk about the extraordinary aspects of ordinary things.
For example, we all know we have bones in our body. Some people might even know how many bones adults have – 206.
What most people don’t know is we have 270 bones at birth and the number decreases to 206 by adult age after some bones are fused together.
Most people don’t know that our feet have 26 bones each, our hands have 27 bones each, and combined they comprise more than half of the bones in the human body (106 out of 206).
Most people don’t know there is only one bone that’s not connected to another bone. It’s called the hyoid, a bone in the throat shaped like a horseshoe, which gives us the ability to speak.
Most people don’t know that pound for pound, bones are actually stronger than steel, and that teeth aren’t considered bones, but they do boast the hardest substance in the body… tooth enamel.
This article is the first in a series I am writing called The Key To Captivating. I intend to write articles like this now and then, sharing uncommon knowledge on common ideas or things.
Just for fun, I might quiz you about previous articles in future articles. Are you becoming captivating?
I miss get togethers and parties. Once Covid is under control, I expect there will be a flurry of them to attend.
So in the spirit of captivating the people around you at parties to come, I leave you with a quote by witty Brit journalist, Emily
Maitlis, who said…
“Always come to a conversation armed with two drinks…if it’s dire you can pretend you were on the way to find someone else, and if it’s interesting, you can stay and down both glasses without moving.” -Emily Maitlis
