Can You Smile?

Do you realize a smile is the most powerful tool you have in your arsenal of connection? It announces before you even open your mouth that you are approachable, friendly and someone someone needs to know. It's one of the greatest Rippler makers of all time. Guaranteed!

When I give me customer service training I encourage my students to practice smiling every morning to prepare themselves to be more friendly towards their customers that day. In fact, I encourage people to utilize the same mirror that they use to brush their teeth, hair or put on makeup, to practice their smile before they leave the house. Yes, I said practice!

Give it a try tomorrow morning. Think to yourself....that Ripple guy told me to try this so let me give it a go. THEN SMILE at yourself. Tell me if that doesn't lift your mood. Tell me if it doesn't make you laugh..just a little...to yourself while you do it. Tell me if it doesn't make you think just a little bit about what positive effect you could have on those who may cross you path in the day ahead.

Smiling is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself and for others. Start practicing pulling it out and using it at least three times a day and I will assure you that many a Ripple will follow.

Here's a little piece I wrote about Smiling Costs Me Nothing if your interested
Click here to read it.

Remember to Smile and Ripple On!!!

Steve

Ripple Connection Question Of The Week

Ripple Connection Questions are a unique way to engage people in conversation. Whether with a complete stranger or someone you already know, but want to know better, using Ripple Connection Questions (RCQ) accelerate the dialogue and deepen the connection. The questions are by design, fun to ask and fun to answer, and can take your connection to an entirely new level. Come on, break out of that shell of yours and start Rippling.

How about we collectively make 2008 the year of connection? What do you say?

Seriously, why not use this brand spanking new year as our launch pad to make deeper more meaningful connections with the people who cross our path or already in our life somehow? The connections we make, and make better, will absolutely springboard you into something amazing for 2008 I promise. Why not use the Ripple Connection Questions to help you get started?

So with that in mind, this week's Ripple Connection Question Of The Week is:

WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT
THE UPCOMING YEAR?

For me this is an easy one to answer....

It's all the possibilities that 2008 holds for me. I want to do more trainings, more workshops, give more talks and speeches, write my second (and maybe a third) book. But most of all...the one thing that excites me most about 2008 is all the new and incredibly helpful people I plan to bring into my life through the power of connection. Yes, its the stories I will hear, the faces I will see, the experiences I will have by not fearing to take a chance and connect with someone new. After all, I do believe that someone or something will have brought them into my path for a reason. It's the discovery part of why that makes it most exciting for me.

So what about you? What is your answer?

Use The Holidays To Discover

So the holidays are here and for many of us that means spending hours, sometimes days, with family; many of which we don't get to see all that often. Whether it be with the grandparents, parents, cousins, in-laws, extended family, our own children, spouses and/or significant others an opportunity to do something very special is available to us all. It's an opportunity to learn about these people we call family. I don't mean just catching up on how people are doing physically or how the new job is going....I mean really learning about the people themselves.

When you take a broader look at our time on Earth, we realize that time is not infinite. For many of us the next year may or may not be our last. The time we all have here is so precious and yet so many of us spend our time focused on the things that aren't all that important. In fact, we fail to connect with those in our family on a level that reveals much about them at all. Sad when you think about that sister of yours that you know less about than the woman who sits in the cubicle next to yours isn't it?

Use the holidays to ask the insightful questions. Ask grandpa when he was your age what he dreamed he would be when he finally grew up. Ask your cousin what they are truly passionate about and what makes them tick. Ask the elders of your family how your family came to be and what they think of the family as it is today. Spend the time asking your mom and dad questions that let them be Jim and Janet (my parent's names) rather than mom and dad.

Is this hard? I won't lie to you....it can be. Especially if your a family that doesn't truly know one another. But families should know one another don't you think? So when you decided to really get to know the people who you seldom see but really should know better, blame it on your old buddy Steve. Tell him this crazy Ripple author guy suggested this as a way to pass the time over the holidays. Blame me if it eases the reason for doing it, but no matter what, do it.

As most of you know, my mom has Alzheimer's disease. There are so many of those Christmas afternoons I wish I had back. I wish I could spend that time not looking at the cool loot I had just been given but really talking, really communicating with her. I know she had to have had hopes, dreams, fears, opinions, things that excited her but my friends, I never asked about them. I now sit here writing this post and realize that her disease has robbed her of her mind and me of the opportunity to have known what once was floating around in there. I really never knew my mom and that makes me sad.

Don't make the same mistake. Everyone has a story and like I preach incessantly throughout my BLOG, my book and my speeches and training, you just have to have the courage to ask.

Use the holidays to do some asking won't you.

Ripple On My Friends!!!


Steve

A Little Ripple Goes a Long Way

When was the last time you recognized or complimented a coworker, good friend or even a complete stranger for something, anything? You know unexpected recognition, praise and encouragement can impact a person in ways that you could never imagine. Sure it takes a little risk on your part and can maybe at first seem a little uncomfortable but that's alright. The more you do it, the more comfortable you will get at doing it.

There is a particular coffee shop that I drop by nearly every day for my daily caffeine fix. The woman behind the counter is, I think, somewhat introverted. Her shyness could, and is, easily misconstrued as her being somewhat rude or aloof about her duties. I somehow recognized this about her after she first started working there and I consciously decided to do my part to take some action to change that about her; well at least when she deals with me.

I refuse to let a day go by that I don't at least try to joke with her on some level or compliment her either on what she is wearing or note how good it is to see her. This invariably makes her smile big as Texas and I like to think, happy that I come in virtually every day. She really seems to love it when I kid her when there is a line of people standing behind me. I don't know if my efforts somehow yank her out of her introverted dungeon of fear or if my jokes are just that funny and entertaining, but I can truly see the Ripple my efforts are creating. I watch as I step aside to prep my coffee and watch her personality really come out and shine with the next few people in line. My simple act of attention I believe helps her to be better at her job and the people who used to not care for her (and it was obvious) really seem to now enjoy seeing her every day.

What does my effort cost me? Absolutely nothing! I have had the opportunity to get to know a really nice lady whom I likely never would have gotten to know had I just been a mindless customer coming in for my coffee day after day. The changes that I have seen in this woman are nothing short of amazing and I believe are, at least in part, due to taking some action to recognize, compliment or joke with her every time I see her.

People matter and whether you are serving me coffee, driving me to the airport or taking my phone call, I like to show it through my efforts, my attitude and my way of Rippling. Give it try and just see how amazing a small effort on your part can impact another person and how incredible you feel for doing it.

You just never know what kind of Ripple it might create. This morning....my little investment of daily Ripple may have just gotten me a free day old Danish. Yummy!

Ripple On!!!

Steve