Practice Smiling

When I interviewed Jo Ellen Soesbee for my podcast, she said something towards the end that I couldn’t stop thinking about.  She was driving along and happened to notice that she could see the driver in front of her in his side-view mirror and she thought, “Does that mean that others can see me in my side-view mirror?”

Apparently, the gentleman in front of her did not look very happy.  In fact, he looked downright grumpy by all accounts.  That’s when Jo Ellen decided to practice smiling.  She didn’t want people to think that she was grumpy!

This practice served her well when a client called and said, “I hired you because when I saw you in your truck, you were smiling.”  Wow!  Landing a job because you smiled while you were driving!

Jo Ellen has practiced smiling so much that on a recent girl’s weekend her friends accused her of even smiling in her sleep!  Now that’s some serious smile practicing if you ask me.  :)

I decided I would try it out and over this last week I’ve simply tried to smile while I was driving.  Honestly, I felt pretty silly at first and if I knew someone was close enough to see me I acted as if I was listening to some funny comedian on the radio and laughed out loud!

While I am not perfect at this smiling while I’m driving thing, it has changed my attitude while I drive to be a little more polite and a little more understanding of others while they drive.  Smiling matters!!

I will keep practicing Jo Ellen!  To hear more on Jo Ellen Soesbee head on over to the podcast, Lauri’s Lemonade Stand by clicking HERE. I bet you won’t be disappointed!