I read a quote on my Facebook wall today,

I hope you always find a reason to smile

It made me think. Yes, we need to be optimistic in life and from good or bad events, we need a reason to smile everyday. We need to be grateful for what we have and for what we don’t have today. But after providing ourselves a reason to smile everyday, won’t it be great if we

Give someone a reason to smile

At times I feel as if people have forgotten to smile and laugh. Look around you in offices, in trains and buses, in cars, when meeting someone face to face, how many genuine smiling faces do you see? And I genuinely hope that there is a bigger number here. Make someone smile. I can count on at least two people that make me smile everyday and that too a genuine one. My 4 year old daughter and my 16 month old son. No matter how many day has been, they give me a reason to smile.

People in Customer Service should know that they can give each person they deal with a reason to smile and they can do it by providing the best service possible. By making dealing with them as painless as possible. Receptionists can give a person reason to smile by providing a really warm welcome on the phone or face to face. I can provide my manager a reason to smile by performing my best and making him look better. Prime minister can give people reason to smile by following up on their promises and making people proud of their decision to vote for them.

And I have a reason to smile everyday and thank God for the lovely family I have.

This story is of Joe. Joe was a busy and hardworking immigrant working in Australia. He worked hard climbing the corporate ladder and was a shining star in his eyes and eyes of his peers. One day while in a meeting he gets a call from an unknown number. He ignores it. After seeing someone desperately call for 5 times, he finally answers the call. “Hello, Joe speaking!” He hears a question from the other end “How are you son?” in a slow but firm voice.

“Oh mother, I am good. I am in a meeting, will call you back in few minutes”, said Joe and disconnected the call and continued with his meeting.

Next day, in the afternoon he gets a call from unknown number again. He answers and before the person on the other end can finish saying something, he blurts “Ahhh, I am busy right now, will call you back soon” and disconnects the call.

After two days, when he checks in to his Facebook account, he see a lot of wall posts and private messages. One message said,  “Sorry for your loss Joe”, another read “Heart felt condolences. Your father was a good man. RIP.” The sky crashed on Joe and he felt as if lights have been turned off and he’s sitting in complete darkness. He immediately realised that why his mother called him twice in two days and that he has not returned her call yet. He visualised his mother walking 3 kilometres just to make the phone call from her village without phone lines or mobile phones. He had neither words nor excuses. It was already too late.

He later finds out that the first call he received was when his father became really sick and was still alive and second call was when his father left this world.

This is a tragic story. I can only begin to imagine that what would Joe go through for the rest of his life. There are few lessons from this story but the important and simple lesson being “Call Back” when you said you will. When you promise someone that you will call back or sent an email, do so and do it as promised. Make it a matter of discipline.  Make it a matter of choice and do it every time.

You never know how desperately someone is waiting for your call or the information that you can provide. You might not understand completely how much your loved ones miss you and want to hear back from you. Keep on your words on calling back.

I have to admit that I am no saint at this and I miss sometimes calling people back, but I am constantly working on it. Do you call back? Do you do it even more when you don’t need anything from the person at the other end?

This post is part of Improve Your World series of posts and this is post #3  for year 2012.

I know and I know you know that right food in the right level of quantities is beneficial to our body. We know that any excessive diet can be detrimental to our health and thus body. Still lot of us at numerous times over indulge and thus creating a negative effect on our bodies [chocolates anyone?].

Similarly we know that Knowledge is Power. Having the right information at the right time empowers us in making the right decisions and coming to appropriate conclusions. One way we can get this knowledge is consuming the right information. But consuming data randomly and over indulgence of information without focus can confuse us, distract us and does not assist in achieving results.

To improve your world in 2012, have some kind of diet routine for the information that you consume. Go on an information diet. Once you form your routine and can feel the benefits for yourself, share the concept of information diet with others.

Information is everywhere around us and we consume information through TV, books, Internet, our music players, e-readers, talking, newspapers, tablet devices, games etc. It is only going to benefit us if we selectively consume the information that is going to benefit us in the near and long term.

By the way, do you remember all the YouTube videos and sports scores that you watched last week, or for that matter yesterday?

This post is part of Improve Your World series of posts and this is post #1 for year 2012.