smiling practice

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” Aristotle 

The supermarket is never busy on your way home from work, late evening, that’s why you love shopping at this time, only singles and the odd couple wonder the isles under the glow of florescent lighting. The plastic basket is loosely slung over your arm as you stalk the isles remembering what you came for, bread, milk....  

Facing the cold dairy fridge, you casually glance left, only 3 feet away, s/he is looking over at you and they are attractive, but before you can change the frown of confusion on your face to return their smile s/he looks away. Your disappointment increases the slide of the upside down smile, thinking to yourself, ‘why do I always forget to smile at the right times.’

Sound familiar, Aristotle was correct when he left this quote for us all those years ago. Smiling for many people is not a natural habit, for many reasons, forget the reasons. If an athlete wants to better his best time or a surfer wants to slash a better cut back or if you want to become a smiling person you need to practice, ‘practice is what makes perfect’, yeah, you heard it before I'm sure.

A habit is formed by repeatedly performing the task over and over until it becomes automatic. The first thing in my daily planner every day is to wake and smile, that’s my goal and it sets me up for the day. I'm not going to lie to you in the start, some mornings it seems like the hardest thing in the world to do, you’ll see when you look into the mirror one morning and you trying to force a smile, persuading those lips to curl, you’re eyes are squinting and your cheeks are lifting but your mouth is still ‘flat lining’.


Remember the athlete and surfer also have bad days, but it does not mean they are not back on the track or in the water the following day, trying again.

The best thing with life is we can forget and forgive, that’s with learning too; don’t be too hard on yourself you learning something new it takes time.

Remember back to the days when you first learnt how to ride a bicycle, yeah you fell and you picked up a couple of scratches, but you got back up again and kept at it until it felt natural, the wind blowing through your hair. Next time you out shopping and s/he looks your way to be met with a friendly smile and you leave the shop with less than normal, as you have a date for dinner Friday night, you’ll see how fast those scratches heal.

5 Top tips for learning to smile 

1. Start your day with a smile
2. It takes time so don't be hard on yourself
3. Don't criticize yourself, try harder
4. There will be bad days
5. The rewards are well worth the effort  

Good Luck.