Sunshine Sunday Installment 2

Sunshine Sunday Installment 2 The actions listed above are the pieces in SmileMove, a project devoted to, uh, smiling moving. OK, thats not a good summation. Ill let the founder share why he, uh, founded the project: My daughter and niece opened their lemonade stand at the front of our neighborhood. Lemonade stands were everywhere that weekend. All were raising money for cancer research; it was a community service effort, part of a city-wide program. Sitting at a distance, watching the girls work as cars pulled over to patronize their stand, I noticed what seemed to be a less than positive and energetic approach to serving their customers. It reminded me of the adults that Ive encountered in too many places, who seemed put out or moved with complete indifference. In a lull between visitors I asked, Why are you doing this lemonade stand, girls? To get our community service hours for school, they said. Any other reasons? To raise money for cancer. Right,” I said to their pre-teen eye roll. Can you think of anything else? Silence. Dad, please. This was a core value issueâ€"one worth the effort and challenge. These people are stopping to be served lemonade because they might be thirsty but also so they can help you help people with cancer. Theyre your customers and they have places to go but theyre giving you their support, their time, and money. You need to approach them happily, with a smile. And then you need to move quickly to get them their drink so they can enjoy it and move on. Youre not doing them a favor. Theyre doing you a favor. They dont have to buy the lemonade and they dont have to buy it from you. You need to smile and move, girls. Smile move. From there, the site gives great tips on how to smile move ( no smarty pants, they dont just say Smile. Move.), like: To make better connections with people (and learn much more), when youre talking with someone be sure to allow a small gap of silence between what they say and your response. When asked to do something for someone else (friend, family member, colleague, customer) does your YES say yes, if I have to or yes, it would be my pleasure? How many excuses do you allow yourself to give others when you dont deliver? How many do enjoy hearing from others? Yknow, when I worked as a cashier at Barnes Noble in Union Sq (where I rung up Meryl Streep!) during college, I was asked more than once by my co-workers how/why I was so happy/nice/friendly towards the customers during my shift. My response was always, Have you ever went into a store and asked someone for help, or had someone ring something up that acted like you were bothering them? Or interrupting them from a nap? Or stopping them from daydreaming about blowing the place up? That always puts me in a bad mood. So, I always try to be friendly happy when people come to my register. And, its my day too! Why would I want to spend a 6 or 8 or 10 hour shift wearing cranky pants? Hope you took off your cranky pants are enjoying your weekend! Keep on smoving!