What a fleeting feeling this is, no? How quickly it evaporates and the difference between being in the pocket of this one and just outside it with no chance to recover is almost impossible to tell in the moment.
The true value of leaving on a high note doesn’t measure up in all groups. Generally speaking, if you’re the alpha in the group it typically isn’t a big deal for you to have that ‘on top’ moment. You know you’re gonna get the rock passed back to you again, the coach is going to draw up the shot for you regardless of how it all goes down.
But let’s say you’re at a work meeting wherein you’re one of the lowest ranking people in the room… or, despite being in your 30s and being well past caring about how cool someone is, there’s still that guy or girl you want to impress in a non sexual way… or, you know, any dating situation.
In any of those, this conversational joy can arise.
Unlike most of the feelings on this list and particularly those located higher on the list, the greatness of this idea isn’t just how rare it is but rather how quickly you can dance into the exact polar opposite of the feeling and how bad that can be.
It’s truly a matter of timing. One more joke, one more off-color comment, one more anything really and you could lose the momentum.
For someone like me, with a tendency to drone on and on and an inability to self-censor, it’s far easier for me to blow way past the line and never leave on a high note. Greed kicks in and you start believing your own press clippings, that if you could get to this one high note, of course you can do it again and again.
And to be clear, there are those silver-tongued enough among us out there that can dance with the devil in the pale of the moonlight. But, for the rest of us, the pocket is small.
You get in, you get out.
scott spinelli 