Practice makes perfect
- OK so I’m going to keep things simple today and talk about the smile
- As the holiday season approaches people are generally more smiley
- Yet at this moment in time there is quite a bit of negative news and concern about jobs, housing, and the economy (and the holidays don’t automatically make everyone smile anyway)
- If ‘enthusiastic smiling’ is a bit of a stretch for you, the upcoming holidays are a good time to practice (its less likely that people will look at you strangely if you’re smiling more than normal when you’re usually Monsieur Grump)
- Although the Christmas carols are already being heard and the decorations are making appearances, you still have some time to practice
- Why am I actually telling you to smile more? Read on, its important…
Look around, and then look at yourself
- As I write this, I’m sitting in a coffee shop observing the conversations around me (I’m not ignoring my friend; He hasn’t arrived yet)
- The various conversations, animation, and smiling covers a broad spectrum here – from the morose to the exuberant
- But it’s the happy and smiley people that usually attract your attention when you gaze around a room
- Question: If the conversations were for sale and you were in the market to buy, which one would you choose?
- Next time you’re in a coffee shop or restaurant (or any other venue with groups of random people) look around and notice who is smiling and who isn’t
- Who would you rather sit down and join?
- When you go back to the office, would you rather work with the manager with the smiley and positive disposition, or the perpetually pessimistic and negative one
- Then think about the energy you give off; Someone may be thinking about your energy and attitude right now…
Big ROI
- Time is precious for most everyone and many people are lacking sufficient energy (often due to their less-than-positive outlook)
- Its always been said that it takes more effort to frown than it does to smile
- Even if you’re a neutral smiler (you don’t much of either smiling or frowning), the ROI on smiling is significant and the benefits far too often overlooked
- I regularly work with management teams on leadership and communication and have seen excellent results and successful rapport building by the managers that simply choose to proactively smile and be more positive with their staff (i.e. greater respect, more motivation, greater ideas put forth, less squabbling, etc)
- And all this simply as a result of a commitment to smiling more; How easy is that?
- And then there’s the ripple effect of a person’s conscious effort to smile and be more positive then impacts their family, friends, neighbors, etc (Your children smile more, invitations to events increase, help with renovations suddenly materializes, etc)
Practically speaking
- I’m going to guarantee that if you smile with gusto for 21 days in a row, you will reap significant rewards in either your professional life, personal life, or both
- And if you’re currently distressed about the economy, your job, or another worrisome situation; Smile, because better times are coming
- I’m serious about this
- For the skeptics out there; Yeah you, the guy smugly guffawing at the touchy-feely nature of it all – whose bald spot is growing as quickly as his job security is plummeting, while at the same time his kid badly needs braces before his confidence is fully eroded due to the repeated harassment by his fellow classmates
- You too need to smile because it will all work out in the end, and smiling just accelerates the process
- Even the most negative and unhappy person can ‘fake it till you make it’
- For a swath of easy and practical smile enhancers, get in touch; I’ll share