The trick is finding other people and opportunities to get and give smiles. This can be easier and harder than you think. But here are a few simple suggestions to get you started:
1. Start the day with a smile. You know the old cliche about getting up on the right side of the bed, so make sure the right side is the one you always get up on. Wake up, turn so your feet are off the bed, stretch, then smile.
If you make this a habit each time you wake up, no matter what side of the bed you end up on in the morning, it will be the right one! Starting off with a smile sets the tone for the rest of the day.
(Of course, you could always push the bed against the wall, but that's not always an option for everyone.)
2. Find smilers. S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, was once asked how he motivated all of his employees to smile all the time. He replied, "I hire people who smile."
How often do the people you're around smile? If you'd like to smile more often yourself, it might be beneficial to seek out friends and acquaintances who smile a lot. It's pretty much a Scientific fact that people who smile a lot have more fun.
3. Stay in places with smiling people. There are a few places that are almost guarenteed to have smiling people in them. Yours may be different, but libraries, playgrounds, YMCA's and Soup Kitchens are great places.
There is something about books that has an unusually positive effect on people. It must be something about our human nature to be curious and learn something new. Libraries also have lots of programs for kids to get them reading early. If you hang out at the library in morning you'll notice a lot of kids running around with big smiles on their faces, its great!
Playgrounds and YMCA's have lots of active, and young, people at them. You may be surprised to see how many faces have smiles on them that aren't of school age! Sometimes you'll find the happiest people volunteering at places like this. It must be something about helping kids.
Lastly, Soup Kitchens can be a great place to find smiling people. This may be the opposite of what you think because these types of places have people down on their luck and are not happy about their circumstances. But, when you're down on your luck one of the things that will bring a smile to your face is a hot meal on a cold day. There's a certain inner smile that shines through when you hand someone a meal who needs it.
These a just a few sugesstions for finding more smiles in your day, I'm sure you can think of many more, and hope that this short list helps to find more. Once you find more smiles in your day, hopefully others will seek you out because they'd like to have more of what you've got!
