How Are You Doing Today?

"How are you doing today?" I am in retail, and I sell shoes. So therefore, I start a lot of conversations. "How are you doing today?" is one that I frequently ask of all the people that I meet in my day. And if I were to ask you, I'd probably find out that you ask the same question as well.

My thought today is, do I really mean it? When I ask someone how their day is going, am I willing to get in there and really try to find out? People have been asked this question so many times, that usually they just give the "pat" answer, "I'm fine, and you?"

I had to ask myself today, "What would I do if someone actually told me how they were doing, and their answer wasn't 'fine'." So I've decided to do a little experiment. I'm going to ask the various people that come in how they are doing today and see how many answer by saying "fine", "good", something like that, and how many actually tell me how they are really doing. It should be an interesting experiment. Also, to add to the experiment, I'm going to give a real answer about how I'm doing if I am asked in return.

I'll do this for a few days, then come back and update with the results....