#WMYST – What Made You Smile Today - The Movement Begins

Making the world happier one #WMYST at a time

So, a young man from India, named Rahul, who I didn’t know, emailed me about a difficult time he was going through. I wrote back “Namaste Rahul,” with a short suggestion and ended it with my new closing, “What made you smile today?”

He wrote back, “What made me smile today was that you wrote back and typed my name. I keep touching it and then your name, because no one as famous as you has ever written my name before and signed their name.”

His response not only made me smile. It made me cry to realize how little it sometimes takes to make another person happy, even for a moment.

If you check my LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that it says that the I am the Founder at Scaling Compassion: Humanizing the Workplace and World, One Conversation at a Time.

My exchange with Rahul gave me an another idea of how I might do that and how you might do it as well.

There are many “faceless” (in that we treat them as functions rather than people) workers who wear name tags at their businesses (because they obligated to), from cashiers to TSA agents, to DMV clerks, to post office workers, to firemen and policeman and many more.

Many of those people – yes, they are people – can often feel like functions or even worse, like appliances, taken for granted or treated poorly when you and I are in a rush. And many of them could use and deserve a shot of compassion and something to brighten their day.

So I have taken it upon myself at least once a day, whey I run into such a person (who doesn’t seem agitated or too stressed and would not want to be distracted), to pause after they have “rung me up” and say (in a truly want-to-know the answer tone), “Thank you (their name), my name is (my name) what made you smile today?”

In nearly every instance, they stop, take a double take, smile as they remember what it was and then tell me - "Just waking up!" "It's a beautiful day!" "My children" "My grandchildren" "Seeing you sweetie!" - with an even bigger smile.

With that I pull out two wrist bands that say #WMYST on them (and https://wmyst.com on the inside) and say, “(their name) I’m very glad to hear that, and you just made me smile. Here are two wrist bands. One to remind you to smile each day and one to give to someone else. Have a great day!”

The exchange works on many levels.

1.    They get to hear their name acknowledged.

2.    They get to remember something pleasant that they may have even taken for granted.

3.    By telling me (or you) what it was, they get a second hit of pleasure.

4.    They get to feel grateful to me or you and gratitude is a great counterbalance to frustration or disappointment that someone might be feeling.

5.    Most importantly both I and you momentarily get a break from our self-absorption and self-centeredness and that generosity of spirit alone can help give us a burst of feeling like more worthy people.

To feel the real power of #WMYST try it with a Uber or Lyft or taxi driver.

BTW if what made you smile was a person, why not make the most of that by sending them a "Power Thank You" which has three parts:

a) Thank them for what they specifically did

b) Acknowledge the effort they made to do that by saying, “I really appreciate the effort (and/or sacrifice) you made to do it.”

c) Tell them what it personally has meant to you (and if you do this genuinely you may find yourself becoming emotional and tearing up)

What made me smile today is that you took the time to read this far.

What would continue to make me happy would be if you would try this practice at least once a day for a week and report back to me what you notice.

By the way, I announced the beginning #WMYST at the Hive Global Leaders Summit 2019 in Silicon Valley on August 17 (a true launch will take place at TEDxResedaBlvd on November 17, more information on that to follow). If you attend any of their upcoming events they will also make you smile and we might get to meet and make each other smile.