NormsMilfordBlog

“Thinking about somebody else’s smile always make me smile” – Sluggo, in the Nancy cartoon. In the cartoon in which that appeared, Sluggo had just sent off a letter to Santa asking him to give his toy to someone who had no one to buy them a toy. He was thinking about the smile that the toy would put on someone else’s face on Christmas morning.

When someone thinks of you, of seeing you, or being with you last; does that thought bring a smile to their face? Did they see a smile on your face?

Smiles can be contagious. If someone sees you and you are smiling, maybe they’ll be like Sluggo and that will cause them to smile, too. Then the two of you see someone else and perhaps there will be four people smiling. It can go on and on. It’s sort of like that Jimmy Dean sausage commercial that’s running on TV – the one with the guy dressed like the sun. First one person than then others pass-on the sunshine that was started by him sending his wife off to work with a good breakfast. Soon everyone has the little sun spikes glowing above their heads.

The same thing can happen with smiles, even if you didn’t have a Jimmy Dean sausage breakfast. I wrote recently about making sure that you are smiling and not letting your “at rest” face be off-putting to everyone. That was for you and this is for everyone else. Your smile can be the contagion that sweeps through your work group or maybe the whole building. If you work in retail it can be the thing that causes the customers to buy and leave smiling themselves. The benefit to you is that it can make everyone that you come in contact with a bit more pleasant. The other side benefit is that it comes back around to you. When you see them start to smile, it may have the same effect on you as it does on Sluggo – it will make you smile, too.

When you think about it, sharing a smile with someone is the least expensive thing that you can do with the least effort, but the biggest potential return. There’s a Kay Jewelers commercial tag line that says “Every kiss begins with “K”. But well before you get to that kiss, every relationship begins with a smile. After all, how many people go over and introduce themselves to someone who is scowling at them? We take a smile as a positive sign, an inviting sign or at least a sign that that the smiling person is in a happy and upbeat mood – all things that encourage that first step towards a relationship. The Filipino rock band Rocksteddy put those thoughts into a song – Smile at me.

So, before you start your day, whether it will be at home or at work somewhere, put a smile on your face. Maybe no one else will see it, but if you happen to glance as you pass a mirror, you’ll see someone smiling back at you and that will make your day a little better. And, if you happen to have to go to work somewhere, think how much better your whole day will be if you end up infecting all of the people around you with your contagious smile. You may have seen the recent ad where the office guys goes around dropping off packages to everyone and when they open them up they are full of dodgeballs. A happy game of dodgeball breaks out and everyone has fun. Well, maybe you can’t really do that at work, but if you go about your workplace dropping off smiles soon the whole room/building could be full of people having fun smiling at each other – maybe even the boss.

Several years ago I used to write occasionally about a manager that we had in our little real estate office who I often called Little Mary Sunshine. She was the most upbeat, energetic and fun to be around person I’ve known. At first it was occasionally annoying; but it was impossible to hold out against for long. She would always have everyone smiling and upbeat after a short time. It is impossible to be a Mr. Grumpy when she is around. She refused to join in your grumpiness and her upbeat and positive attitude was contagious. You can be contagious, too. Start with a smile and see where that takes you today.

Have a smiley and happy day. There’s more to be happy (and thankful) about that the fact that it is Friday. When I think of you smiling, it makes me smile, too.

Let’s end on an upbeat note with You Make Me Smile as sung by Detroit’s own Uncle Kracker.