Smiling on purpose

What if your sole purpose today was to be the reason that someone smiles?  Sure you’ll have plenty of other stuff to do that has to get done but I’m talking about your purpose. The reason why you will get out of bed today.

This was the challenge I was set by a colleague the other day and it really makes you think about how we go through our day. So often we are entirely and completely absorbed with our own ‘to do’ list, the pressing tasks that must get done and of course they hopefully all have a genuine purpose too.

But what if we centred our core purpose more in the heart and as a result really connected with others with the express intention of making them smile? That could be because we smile at them, or because we help them in some way, or cheer them up or offer a metaphorical arm around the shoulder?

To really make this a purpose focus I realised it had to be more than a mental note to self.  For sure that’s the starting point – we have to establish a level of awareness for ourselves (or, as in this case, have someone else do it for us). Once that awareness is established though we then have to look more deeply inside ourselves, take a breath and properly connect from an open heart, with each person who crosses our path.

What if leadership had this as one of its cornerstones?