Take Time to Smile. . .Daily.

Recently I was participating in a twitter chat and the question was asked "what advice would you give someone to make tomorrow awesome?" I thought for a moment and responded "do something that makes you smile".  In all honesty, it was a response that just popped into my head and was very off the cuff.  But since then I have been thinking about it more and more.

The world we live in makes it far to easy for us to over extend ourselves and get so busy with things that we think we should do that often the things we like or enjoy doing get shoved to the side. I know that at times I am guilty of thinking "I will do that once all the work gets done." Unfortunately the to-do list many of us carry around just gets longer and we never reach the end. I mean I don't know about you but I go to work and there are phone calls, emails, paperwork, and accounting work that all needs to be done, then I come home and the yard needs to be mowed, the house needs to be cleaned, bills need to be paid and there is a never ending list of home improvement projects to work on.  It becomes easy to see how a day can go by and a person doesn't "have time" to do anything they truly enjoy.

Here's the problem with living like that.  I often encourage my clients to look at their energy reserve like a bank account.  We all have things in our lives that take from our energy, think of those as withdrawals, and we have things that restore our energy, those are deposits. If you spend your entire day doing things that take from that account without ever doing anything that adds to the account it results in a situation where you are low on energy and if you keep that up for too long it can become overdrawn. 

When we reach the low or overdrawn energy reserve we get short tempered, irritable, and tired. These are the moments when we snap at someone for asking a simple question, or we go home and lay on the couch for hours because everything feels like it's too much.

The frightening part to me is that it seems sometimes like our society puts a great deal of value on being able to live for long periods of time with little to no energy.  I can't tell you the number of times I have asked a client when was the last time they did something that they really truly enjoyed and they will stare at me for a few moments because they actually have to think about it.  To me the saddest thing is when the answer is "I don't know."

I say screw that. Being a martyr isn't cool or a fulfilling way to live.  How many of you out there remember having a Walkman at some point in your life? (If you don't because you are too young to know what a Walkman is I don't want to know) You remember what happened as the batteries in your Walkman were running out of juice? The tape started playing slower and slower until and the music got more and more distorted until they finally just died.  That is what trying to continue life on an almost empty energy tank is like.  You are still moving and kind of getting things done, but you are gradually getting slower and slower and the quality of the things you are doing is like that music, getting more and more distorted till it's not really music anymore.

This is a Walkman.

So here is what I challenge each and every one of you to do each an every day.  Do something that makes you smile and I'm talking that big I can't help but smile because it's coming from the core of who I am kind of smile. It can be anything big or small. Go to coffee or lunch with a friend, go to a movie, take time to do a hobby you enjoy, watch a funny video on YouTube, go for a walk, hug someone you love.  I could go on forever with ideas. Some days when I get home I just lay on the bed for a few minutes and pet one of the cats, I love them so much and they usually do something that makes me giggle at some point. Whatever you decide, do it, give yourself an energy deposit for the day. I'm giving you permission to make yourself a priority and if that means the vacuuming doesn't get done, ya know what that's okay it will still be there tomorrow and you will have more energy to do it :).

Since I gave that off the cuff answer to the twitter chat a while ago I have been thinking about it a lot and trying to implement it into my daily life.  At the end of my day I ask myself have you done something that makes you smile today? Sometimes the answer is yes and some days the answer is no. Hey I'm a work in progress just like the rest of you. So go forth, take on the world, and don't forget to smile :)

If you need a laugh still today watch any of the videos on this page: http://whineaboutit.tumblr.com/