Smile
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one’s strength.”
Proverbs 17:22
When was the last time you smiled?
For me, it happened just a few seconds ago. But hey I’m a pretty happy guy, most days. Lol.
The simple act of smiling can change your entire life and the life of those around you.
Jenna has a saying that she uses with the kids when they are grumping or mad.
She says, Smile right now! you can’t be pissed and smile at the same time. It confuses your brain. So, SMILE NOW!!! Then she’ll do something that makes them smile.
Her advice is spot on.
Try this right now.
Think about something that gets you upset.
Like, how you were looking forward to the leftover meatloaf or taco fixings, then when you opened the fridge, you find, the container, and the kids ate it all and put the empty container back in the fridge.
Got yours?
Ok now with those thoughts going through your mind. SMILE!
DO IT NOW!
Notice the immediate change in your thoughts.
It is impossible to be mad and smile at the same time. Unless it’s an evil smile. Lol,
We have a dog that smiles. Abby smiles anytime she thinks that she might have just done something wrong. Like I caught her sleeping on our bed. Or maybe she ate the cat’s food.
I’ll come up from my office, and she meets me with a smile wagging her tail.
What she has found is that if she smiles at me then most of the time it defuses my temper.
When I see her and she is smiling, I KNOW that she has just done something. But it’s not as big of a deal because she just threw water on my dynamite temper.
It’s really hard to light a wet match.
So, I have started taking advice from Abby. when someone gets upset with me or something that we have done. I slap a smile on my face and then I write the email that defuses the situation.
Or.
I plaster a smile on my face, then I make the call to the client that has an issue that they need to get resolved.
It’s actually one of the ways that I teach leaders how to influence others.
Smile.
You have to try really, really hard to be upset around someone who is smiling and happy. And it is virtually impossible to be mad if you smile.
I understand that it can be tough to smile when things aren’t going the way you want them to. Or something horrible has just happened.
But this is one thing that I KNOW. laughter is the best medicine for ANYTHING!
The reason for that is that when you laugh your smile. And when you smile it releases endorphins throughout your body.
So, smiling could quite literally change your life.
Take Action
Today I want to encourage you to SMILE!
Try listening to this song by Sidewalk Prophets called Smile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjurY5mR2hs
It’s pretty simple to take action!
Just SMILE!!!
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile.
God, today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit.
God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son’s Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen?
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team was amazing. and it is not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so,
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That is when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I’m getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well..
After they called the BIG Guy they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It was Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the BIG Guys couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here is the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it did not take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the Big Guy , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer