Put a grin on your face.

“I really do believe I can accomplish a great deal with a big grin. I know some people find that disconcerting, but that doesn’t matter.” (Beverly Sills) from my favorite source for quotes – the Jack’s Winning Words Blog. I suppose going through life with a grin on your face is better than with a frown. Grins are happy expressions that are almost a smile. Some may wonder what you are grinning about, but that’s good; maybe they’ll ask and that will start a conversation.

One of the things that I always disliked about ex-President George W. Bush was the little smirk that he often displayed right after he’d said something that was sure to appeal to the right and tick off the left. A smirk, it seems to me is half of a grin and somewhat sinister in nature, rather than happy and inviting. You smirk to say, “I win and you lose” or “I know the answer and you don’t.” Smirks will stifle conversation, rather than encourage it.

I suppose that Beverly Sills had a point about seeing someone grinning can be somewhat disconcerting, especially for anyone paranoid enough to think the world is somehow thinking about them. A grin could mean lots of bad things to the paranoid, like “you have something stuck in your teeth” or “your fly is open” or “you’re having a bad hair day.” In those cases the paranoid person sees a grin as a suppressed laugh (at their expense). A more normal person might just assume that the grinning person that they just met has remembered something pleasant or funny and might ask what they are so happy about.

So, go practice a pleasant grin in front of a mirror (making sure that it does not appear to be a smirk) and try that out today. See, if like Beverly Sills, it helps you accomplish more or maybe just interact more with the people that you meet. And if we meet and you see that I’m scowling, put on a big grin. I’ll spend the rest of the day wondering what the hell that was all about and you are then allowed a smirk.