Seven Quick Tricks to “Have a Good One!”

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“Have a good one!” the clerk said to me as I walked toward the door after my purchase. I thought to myself, “Have a good what?” Of course I knew what she was talking about: she wanted me to have a good day. So, how do you go about “having a good one” with all the trials and tribulations of everyday life? Here are seven quick tricks I came up with for myself because I really do want to “have a good one.”

Look good. “Having a good one” starts early in the day. I don’t care if the latest fad on TV and the movies is a man with a 3-day beard dressed like a vagrant. Scruffy look, unwashed face, unkempt hair, unbrushed teeth and sloppy dress means you are having a bad day even before you leave your house. Good grooming is an essential part of communicating confidence to yourself and to others.

To look good starts with you face, but it ends with the way you dress. Wear nice clothes, they take just as much effort to put on than ugly ones. I see way to many people go out in public looking like their mother never taught them how to dress. Their shirts are not ironed, their trousers are dirty, their shoes are uncared for, and they look horrible. It makes me want to slap their mother! When you put on nice clean well coordinated clothes you feel better because you know you look better.

Walk with good posture. Once you step outside the door to face the world, stand up straight and walk with confidence. My mother always reminded my brother and me to “stand up straight and look people in the eye.” There really is something about good posture and a confident step that makes you stand out from the crowd. Get your hands out of your pockets (it causes you to slouch), don’t fidget with your hands, push your shoulders back, and look like you really are somebody. I’m not talking about boisterous arrogance; I’m talking about quiet confidence.

A study done by researchers at Ohio State University1. concluded that If you sit up straight in your chair you are much more likelier to think positive thoughts and to believe positive things about yourself. By golly, Mother was right!

Yet another way I found to “have a good one” is to talk with good words. Have you noticed an increase in the use of vulgar words in daily language? Some movies are filled with “F-bombs” and crude language that contribute little to the story. That use of offensive language has crept into our daily conversation. If I would have use the term “pissed off” in front of my mother she would have washed my mouth out with soap. Now it is a common phrase.

When we use positive, encouraging, uplifting words we feel better about ourselves and we have a more positive impact on the people around us. No one ever complimented someone because of their very effective use of vulgar language. And people who use vulgar language very seldom get very far in life.

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Smile even when you are alone. People who are “having a good one” smile. So if you want to join them, start smiling. I learned this many years ago when I started selling advertising which required me to walk into a business and ask to talk to the owner. It didn’t take me long to discover that a friendly smile opened more doors than a dour, “May I speak to the owner or the manager.”

Your day will go better if you smile even while you’re alone. A housewife can smile while she irons, a business executive can smile while working on a project, a student can smile while writing a paper, a retired person can smile while gardening in the back yard. Everyone can smile. Someone said, “Keep smiling and one day life will get tired of upsetting you.”

Compliment instead of criticize. Have you noticed how easy it is to criticize and complain? I cannot think of anything easier to do than to criticize. Ben Franklin said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.”

A large group I was with ate at a restaurant that was jammed full before we arrived. It had been that way all day so the wait staff was tired and I’m certain the kitchen staff were too. We had to wait much longer for our food than is normal, but we decided not to complain but compliment – especially our waitress, who was not responsible in any way for the delay. We all had a better time and our food even tasted better.

kindnessAct with great kindness. Helping someone else may be the very best way to “have a good one.” When you lend a hand to someone in need you know you’ve done something right. No one has ever done something good and felt bad. You might have felt uncomfortable or inconvenienced, but you seldom feel bad when you do something good. Look today for an opportunity for you to do a random act of kindness; when you do, two people will “have a good one.”

Work with purpose. The average person will spend 100,000 hours of their lives at work. Not all of those hours will be spent doing fun and exciting stuff. I guess that is why they call it work. If you have a sense of vocation, that your work helps others, provides a useful service, is more than an income, you will be able to get through the humdrum parts of your job with ease. Work with a sense of meaning and purpose in life, our work becomes easier, no matter how hard it is.

I would love to hear how you “have a good one”! Leave your comments below!

 

  1. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091005111627.htm

 

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