Make It A Priority To Make A Smile

​I heard Jerry Seinfeld say something recently that stuck with me:

“I want to put a smile on as many faces as I can. That’s a pretty good life if you get to be someone doing that.”

That sounds simple. Almost too simple. And maybe that’s why we miss it.

Because most of us didn't wake up this morning with a goal to make someone smile. We woke up thinking about productivity. Progress. Performance. We thought about what we need to accomplish, fix, earn, or prove.

We woke up to chase things we can measure. Things we can point to. But somewhere along the way, is it possible that we start overlooking something that can’t be tracked?

A smile.

We treat that like a small thing. But what if it isn’t? What if making someone smile is one of the most powerful things we can do in a day?

There’s a part of me that wonders if we are building lives full of achievement while quietly starving something essential inside all of us. Because we can become successful without being kind. We can become prosperous without being present. We can reach goals that impress people without ever truly connecting with them.

Is it possible to become prosperous without ever making someone smile? And if so, how big will our smile be in the middle of our prosperity?

Jerry Seinfeld has certainly been prosperous, but his prosperity has been built on the foundation of smiles. And so he smiles.

I don’t think we were created just to accumulate. I think we were created to connect. And sometimes connection doesn’t look like deep conversation or life-changing moments. Sometimes it looks like eye contact. A kind word. A moment of being seen.

Sometimes it looks like a smile.

We don’t always know the weight someone else is carrying when we cross paths with them. We don’t know how long it’s been since they felt noticed. Or valued. Or light. Which means something as simple as making them smile might not be small at all.

It might be the thing that breaks through a heavy day.

The thing that reminds them they’re not invisible.

The thing that shifts the momentum or a darkness we can't see.

Maybe the life we’re chasing isn’t found in the big things we’re striving for, but in the small things we keep overlooking. Maybe a good life isn’t just measured by what we build. But by how many faces we soften along the way.

Make it a priority. Soften a face today.