Smile :-) (270 days to go)
Thursday, January 8th, 2009Today I walked around a local icon here in Tauranga - Mount Maunganui. For those readers that are not familiar with my location, Mount Maunganui is part of Tauranga and a great summer holiday destination for thousands of New Zealanders and overseas visitors alike.
Isn’t it beautiful? Anyway, so there are hundreds of people on the beach at 9:30 this morning, with a couple more hundred walking around the mount at the same time we were. I thought is was interesting that most people were walking around the mount, didn’t look like they were having much fun at all.
Here they are, in one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s a lovely summer’s morning and they are moping around like they are doing something they really don’t want to be doing! So I tried a little experiment - I started smiling to everyone that walked past. Some people still ignored me, while others began to take notice and even smile back. Some people would even say “good morning” or “how are you doing?”. This just from a simple smile?
Why weren’t people doing this of their own accord in the first place? Because we all run on auto-pilot! If we are used to smiling and being happy all the time, then I bet that you would be smiling while walking around the base of the mount.
This experiment shows that people weren’t actually having a bad day, they just weren’t used to smiling or being happy all the time, as they did respond to a smiling face. When my 21 month old son started waving and saying “hi” to every person that walked past, he received even more smiles, laughs and even full sentences!
“The sheer joy of the young and innocent….”
And don’t worry it’s not too late - you too can be young and ecstatic again - just find what makes you happy and focus on it!
I’m off to a summer festival now, to spend time with some friends and family on this glorious summer’s day. I wish you all a fantastic weekend and I look forward to hearing more about your successes over the coming weeks.
Yours in success - The Kiwi Millionaire 
