I am about 2 weeks into my month of constant smiling. The Charlie and Ben podcast inspired me to add something to my current challenge. I don’t generally do this mid-challenge, but this particular suggestion just works so well with intentional smiling.

Basically, I am going to answer the question “How are you?” or “How’s it going?” with “Fantastic!” As an alternative, I can use a witty retort like:

• Hunting dragons, you?
• I can’t complain. it’s against the company policy!
• Vertical and breathing.
• My lawyer says I don’t have to answer that question.
• [Place 2 fingers over carotid artery on neck] … beat … I have a pulse, so I must be okay!

Continuing forward with the theme that it’s possible to jumpstart happy feelings by replicating the actions and expressions we normally exhibit when we feel this way, I think adding enthusiastic greetings will be a great addendum to my current challenge.

Earlier this year I gave a speech about the three types of people that answer the question, “How are you?” They are the masker, the overloader, and the zinger.

• The Masker – This is the person that just mumbles an inaunthentic answer such as “Great,” “Good,” “Fine,” “Okay,” or “Present.” All of us have probably done this thousands of times (I know I have).
• The Overloader – This person pours out their whole life story, and generally it isn’t an uplifting one. Even when it is positive, I usually didn’t intend to listen to you talk for 5-10 minutes as I passed you in the breakroom or hallway.
• The Zinger – This is the person that gives a simple response, but one that injects some exhilaration, levity, or curiosity into the brief interaction.

I want to intentionally be the zinger in all of my brief interactions for the rest of this month’s challenge. Also, I am going to choose to use the question,

What’s the vibe today?

instead of the traditional call-and-response questions. I feel that even when others aren’t prepared to give a more authentic answer than just “Fine” to the question of “How are you,” they might be able to be more creative with the above question. Since it is not asking about the person specifically, but just about the “vibe” it sometimes can promote more interesting responses (like “purple,” “curious,” or “boxy”).

One greeting I would love to use more around the right type of people is “Namaste.” However, the few times I have used this recently, I just got really confused looks. So for now, I’m content to just use it in concluding my blog posts.

Namaste.