Yesterday I ended the Smile at Everyone experiment, which consisted of smiling at anyone at all times. Initially, I set 15 days for a period, but I decided to extend it until 31 days to go into more depth. Here the introduction of the experiment.
As in each experiment, I will dissect the results by classifying them by areas…
Experiment Smiling at Everyone
To finish, I recorded a short video with my more personal and close experience and impressions:
Keep smiling, all the time, there’s no better hack for having an easy, happier and abundant life.
You just need to smile, even if don’t feel like.
Photo credit: JD Hanckock.
Dashboard and follow-up
I designed a little scorecard where I tried to count the people I met every day and the number of smiles I was giving at all times.
Other parameters used have been:
- Reactions: within each most prominent reaction, what type of response.
- Surprises: when the other person reacted unexpectedly.
- Wrong answers: an adverse reaction due to my smile.
- Observations: additional notes.
* The days marked in yellow correspond to the Vipassana meditation retreat.
Go to the scorecard and follow up.
Objectives and final results when smiling at everyone
The aim of the Smile at Everyone experiment was to extract data from these five objectives:
- The answer from other people to a confident and happy answer
- The programmation of my attitude towards anything. I think that smiling at all times makes you feel more awake and aware, in addition to charging you with positive energy and joy, I want to test if this is true. And what happens as the relationship between yourself and your environment changes when you enter this mode
- How the smile can change the game and the result. I think that approaching with a smile to any person and at any time can only bring good things. So I’m going to try it out for 24 hours for the next 15 days.
- I like it, and I feel comfortable, calm and relaxed when I’m serious, is my most common facial expression and default. However, I want to prove what happens if I force myself to go to the other extreme, smile all the time.
- The connection with the people you can reach smiling, or not.
Objective # 1 – Reactions:
A. As the scorecard shows, the negative responses have been almost non-existent. Except in the period of the Vipassana meditation retreat where each person was there for self-absorption. As I continued with the experiment, although we practiced the Noble Silence, I didn’t stop smiling, and that seems to bother whoever tried to remain sterile to everything.
B. The response of the people that I’ve seen in these 31 days has been very positive. In most cases, by smiling and even exchanging some words with gestures of cooperation. It’s funny because on many occasions it has gone from being a smile to a flirting situation, not only with girls, as you smile at everyone.
Objective # 2 – Reprogramming:
A. My mood has improved, during these 31 days, I have seen things with less transcendence than usual.
B. The attitude with which I face things is more casual than usual.
C. My character is more cheerful and carefree, undoubtedly. Now I wake up smiling involuntarily.
D. The experiment has helped me downplay most things. What I have called the rule “importance -x10”.
E. By not blinding myself so much with the irrelevant, I have been more conscious about things that don’t let me go further
F. When I took the smile to my professional activity, I didn’t lose perspective of the things that could nullify me or suppose a headache.
Objective # 3 – Change the game:
A. The moments of tension have disappeared only with a smile.
B. Approaching people you don’t know with a severe face and smiling changes the game because almost everyone ended up smiling.
C. The response and perception of people are more positive and resonant.
Objective # 4 – Personal status:
A. You remain just as calm and relaxed, but you feel the sensation of being at peace and feeling good.
B. During the first 7 days, I was as always, but from day 8 I noticed more energy and mental restlessness. So much so that I haven’t slept as comfortably as always.
Objective # 5 – Connection:
A. You sympathize and tune in more, and the positive response is much greater and closer than the opposite to smiling.
B. You connect, of course. First, professionally when you are with clients or audiences. Second, personally when you are with friends, family or colleagues.
Discoveries and other conclusions
Additionally on the Smiling at Everyone experiment:
- It’s easy to replace a smile with an “I’ve noticed you.” It is easy to confuse a gesture of joy with one of flirting.
- The results of objective # 2, together with starting to practice patience, will help you to be imperturbable.
- Every morning I wake up with a smile that I extend for at least a minute or two. It is has become a high-performance “hack” that I practice as a daily super-habit.
- The rule of “importance -x10”: to everything that happens and to what I worry about, I take away 10 times the importance that I give it.
- 90% of the publications that I made on Instagram (smiling during the experiment) have had a 70% reach more than those in which it appeared serious. The positive reaction and comments increased by 60% more. Something similar happened in the videos I recorded.
- You can force yourself to change your mood, proven.