No Smiling Grumps!

I have noticed a very strange thing. I need some people to try it and see if what I have found is true.

I deal with many many people a day...most of them being on the phone. And I must say many of them seem not to be in very good moods...or at least what I consider to be good moods. Now I realize that I am a basically "up" person...not giddy high...but a positive up person and some people are basically not an up person. However, when we deal with each other I think we need to remember to try to be nice to each other. As I have said before...what else to we have than each other?

I must admit that when you deal with these sort of down and nasty, humbug people all day, it can drag you down so you really don't care too much what they have to say. I can't do that. Number one my God and my parents don't want me to be that way and number two it is my job not to be that way. But I am here to tell you...some days it gets pretty hard!!! LOL

So I decided to try something I had heard many many years ago. I tried answering the phone with a smile. Do you know...it makes a difference? A BIG difference! When you smile...it is terribly hard, if not almost impossible to be grumpy or irritable or downright nasty!

I was astounded at what happened. So what do I do? I am sitting in my office all alone...trying...outloud to say things that are nasty. Acting even like I was really mad at someone! I couldn't do it! I really couldn't do it! Can you believe that??? I tried again. Couldn't do it. Tried again. Failed.

So my conclusion at this point after "rigorous testing procedures"...LOL...that you can't do it. I guess maybe it is in the same category as trying to sneeze with your eyes open! Can not be done!!

Thinking even more on this, now I am wondering if that is the way God meant it to be. Maybe...just maybe...God wants us to think about how we treat each other. And to smile...so that what I am saying matches what I am showing...I had to make a conscious effort to do it. I "wanted" to be nice. Maybe nice isn't really as built-in as I had thought.

It is so easy to get caught up in the day...in all the world around us. But we shouldn't do that. You know...each of our days are numbered...from the day we are born we start to die. I hate to think that we waste our precious time given to us by being angry, or moody or generally down all the time. Everyone has their days. We have emotions and God gave us those emotions. It is natural to be down sometimes. But we cannot afford to waste the majority of our time complaining and moaning and snarling and grouching and all those others things that bring not only us but most everyone around us down.

I need you to coddle me some. I need you to try this and see if what I found to be true. I am really curious about this. It was the strangest thing! I tried to think of something that really had upset me and went back to that and tried to growl and yell about it...and I could not do it! Weird is what it was.

Give it a try...would you? Let me know what you find out! I think you will find the same result. We can not smile and be a grump.

I am now trying to always answer the phone with a smile. I don't always succeed yet...but I am working on it. And when I do succeed...I find that my day goes much better and I go home in a much better mood. (As an aside...I think the same thing works when something goes wrong in the office. If I smile...I can let it go by...if I don't...it sends me down a spiralling hill!) Perhaps this affects more of life than I think!

Give it a try. I am anxious to hear from you!

My thought for today...

Enjoy