Author Archives: LeviWooten

Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today

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Joyfulness is a simple thing that can spread like wildfire. Just like wildfires, it always starts with a very simple and small act of kindness.

I work with a lady, and every morning when I walk in she’s right there waiting to tell me good morning. That is one of the best starts to my day. I know this because when she is sick or on vacation, I have a different attitude at work, just because my morning has started off at a different rhythm. Just this small act of kindness sets the pace for my day.

I want to be like her. She never has a bad thing to say. I can tell when she isn’t feeling the best but she still makes the effort to spread a little bit of positivity. Here are a few simple ways that can make someone smile today.

Smile

This is the easiest and cheapest form of spreading some joy to one another. Maybe you might have some anxiety about speaking to people or the people you are around you don’t know that well. A smile can work on anyone. Also, a smile works in all languages. You don’t need to speak their language to let them know you are happy to see them, just throw them a smile.

Simple “Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening”

This is slightly more involved than just smiling. You will need to make an attempt to speak to some people. This is not for everyone but like I said in the intro, this makes my morning when I walk into work. We also do have to be aware of our tone when speaking, so this becomes slightly more involved and can come across to people as something negative. Maybe you aren’t feeling it that day, just give those people a smile instead.

Ask them “How are you doing?”

This shows compassion and to some people who realize what is happening this shows that you are willing to take time out of your schedule to hear what they have to say. If you are in the work place and you are walking from point A to point B, you just happen to pass by someone mention this, there is a risk to getting their full load to the day. We want to be good employees at our work and keep conversations that might use company time to a minimum, but usually if you are saying this to someone, you know a fair bit about them and how they normally react. We all work with that one person that is just waiting for their turn in telling the story. Asking this can cause you to have to pause from your work for an extended amount of time, possibly not ending well. Most of the time I just get the, “I’m doing good”, or the dreaded “I’m here”, which I normally respond with, “We do get paid to be here, so that’s a plus”. If someone asks you this take some time to come up with an extremely positive response now and use it the next time someone asks. It could be as simple as “I’m doing wonderful”, or “Fantastic”. This changes the pace cause the person isn’t use to receiving this much positivity as a normal response.

Purchase something Small for Them

Everyone enjoys receiving a gift. Gifts are a way to display how you care about the person mostly because you have learned enough about them to purchase something they would enjoy. When I have a friend at work that is kinda down, I have in the past taken the time to go to the snack machine and purchase something I have seen them eat in the past, or even get them their favorite soda. This doesn’t cost much, usually less than an $1, but to see their face light up because you took the time out of your day and money from your pocket even though it wasn’t much, you just brighten their day.

There is a lot more that you can do, and there are many blogs out there about what you can do to be a positive influence in someones life. Just take the few moments out of your day to make a lasting impact on someones life today.

Justify your stance without sweeping your opponents leg.

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I have studied martial arts for over 26 years. Over that time I have studied the strengths and weakness of a lot of styles and have come to the conclusion that there is not 1 style that is best. You have to find the combination of all the teachings to be prepared in battle. With that, I have implemented my martial arts education into other areas of my life.

We are in the year 2021. A trying time with division inside our nation. Every time I am on social media I see the same thing. Attacking someone’s beliefs or opinions by destroying the reasoning for ones stance on the topic. This is a problem in modern society. What has been educated is to exploit the weakness of ones stance and then pounding it into the ground, instead of taking the strongest point of the opinion what the person believes in and building up on that.

There have been many times I have stepped in on arguments in the work place to try to deescalated the situation. The situation is always built on the same foundation. One person is stating to the other person “this is what you are doing wrong and here is why you don’t do it that way”, or “I don’t know why in the world you are doing it that way.” These 2 statements have always been a problem in educating and assisting people in the work place.

Dealing with multiple areas of line of work, I tend to approach a situation the same way. “Yes, you can do it that way, but can I suggest a different approach”. I’m not necessarily saying you are doing it wrong. For instance, you could type all the number 1-100 in Excel for a column. There really isn’t anything wrong with typing all the numbers if you take the time to confirm that you didn’t make any mistakes. There just happens to be a more efficient way to populate the number 1-100 by using the fill series capabilities of Excel. This eliminates the use of human error and also reducing the amount of time spent doing the task. Positive reinforcement is what we should be providing to our community.

I don’t want to make this a political discussion, but this is where I saw it the most on social media and discussions in the work place. Side A is doing this wrong instead of here is what side B is doing right. Instead of putting down what you are coming against, up sale your point of view. Look at here is what we can improve instead of pointing out what the actual negativity. Yes, the other side A is doing something wrong, but tell me what we can do to improve the situation. There’s no reason to point out an issue if you have no idea on how to refine the current process.