When I was in consumer advocacy, essentially a combination lobbyiist and public relations function, I used to say that “thank you” is the most important thing you can say to influence people. Everybody, from the President to the guy whose boot is stuck in the mus a few feet below the oil slick in the Gulf, appreciates being appreciated.
This is the thank you card my younger daughter prepared for her teachers this year…
Want to improve your face value? Smile more often. Here are four thoughts about smiles, just in case you need motivation to smile a little more often.
When they say someone was “wearing nothing but a smile”, that might be bad news for garment manufacturers, but it is wonderful news for humanity. A smile is the most important thing a person can wear. It is somewhat ironic that so many more people wear clothes than wear smiles. Perhaps we have misplaced priorities.
Be your own florist. You know how flowers brighten up a room? Just like a smile? In fact, flowers also brighten up people’s faces…causing them to smile more, too.
Want to brighten up a room? Smile more, and you will be your own florist.
Smiling Poem
Don’t cry when something is over
Don’t cry for the loss.
Smile because it happened,
Smile for what once was.
OK, time to pamper yourself. I mean, if you’ve been working hard to be a better person, to be friendlier and fitter and more generous and more efficient and make whatever improvements you feel you need, take a few moments to pamper yourself. Find something that is in sync with the changes you have made in your life (If you’ve decided to eat healthy from now on, a triple fudge sundae is NOT the right means to pamper yourself).
Pick something that makes you feel special and worthwhile. Perhaps it’s a spa treatment. Perhaps a few hours in a quiet place away from the chaos of kids and the chores of home. It might just be a hot bath with soothing music.
You are special. You do deserve it. So go ahead and pamper yourself.
Do you buy greeting cards for the people closest to you? Why not make them instead? Oh, sure, you won’t create a work of art or make some witty saying like those store-bought greeting cards. But it’s not for art or wit that you are giving the card, right?
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A hand-made card shows that you took the time to do something special for your loved one. Let me repeat that with the right emphasis: A hand-made card shows that YOU took the time to do something special for your loved one.
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You wouldn’t outsource your hugs. You wouldn’t outsource your hand shakes. You wouldn’t outsource your kisses or your smiles or your phone calls. Don’t outsource your greeting cards to some factory somewhere. Make your own and show that they really do come from the heart. From your heart.
Not just a big LOL moment, but words of extreme wisdom. If you are feeling bored, it is because you are not giving yourself a challenge. It’s time to decide how best to unbore yourself. Nobody but you can stop boring you.
Want to feel more energized and less stressed? Perhaps you spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, the TV or some other screen. Here are a few ways to feel energized.
The most obvious is to stop spending so much time in front of a screen. OK, not always practical.
So get up during commercials or every half hour and stretch.
In fact, get up and do some aerobic exercise, even just for 30 seconds. Jumping jacks. Dance. Fast-paced push-ups. Skip rope. Anything.
Every few minutes move your eyes away from the screen. Roll your eyes up, to the left, to the right, but most importantly, focus them on something closer and also on something farther than the screen.
Force a yawn. Stretching your face will boost that energy and reduce that stress.
Have you seen this Facebook app to support the positive psychology exercise “Three Good Things”?  Participants in this exercise record Three Good Things, and the reasons why they happen, every day. There are some other versions of this exercise out there (including an iPhone app and one on happier.com), but this is a way to make these exercises more effective using social interaction.
I have to admit, I’ll never understand suburbia. I get out of my car and I see perfectly manicured lawns as far as the eye can see. I would understand if one or two people had spent a lot of time on their lawns, perhaps gardening hobbyists, people with a fairly obsessive nature, etc.
But every single lawn is perfectly manicured. All I can wonder is , “Doesn’t anybody here have anything else to do? Does lawn manicuring hold such a high priority in their lives that, with all the competing pressures of modern life, they somehow all find the time to pay this much attention to grass?”
Then one of the neighbors comes out and starts pushing her lawn mower across an already low-cut lawn, somehow managing to cut it even lower. This is a lady with children. Is it just me, or is a huge section of society misplacing their priorities? Remember, your priorities are not what you say they are, but rather how you spend your life.
How do you spend your life? What are your priorities?
A father and his son, a young adult, were driving to the cottage. The father was worried, because his son had fallen into companionship with people who might lead him astray, and he was trying to help his son see that it was time for him to take his life a little more seriously.
“Aw, dad, I know you mean well, and I know I’m not really doing you proud, but I like to party. I’ll get on the right track some day. I don’t need to worry.”
They drove a little further, when suddenly the son said, “Hey dad, that was the turnoff for the cottage. You missed the turnoff.”
“I know,” said the father. “I think I’ll just keep driving this way for a while. I can always go back later to take the right road.”
A few more minutes – and a couple turnoffs – passed. The son began to think of the swimming he would miss if they arrived too late. “Dad, the farther you go down this road, the longer it will take to get back.”
The father replied, “That’s true. The further you go down the wrong track, the harder it is to get back. So when were you thinking of turning your life around to head down the right track?”
Where do you want to go? What do you want out of life? Most importantly, what are you waiting for?
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