I pay attention to my kids and the lessons that I can learn from them. The newest addition to our family is Tucker; he’s six months old, and he is the true definition of “a bundle of joy”. He’s got to be the best smile-at-a-moment’s-notice baby I’ve ever been around. At this point, that’s his number one attribute; of course, there’s also his amazing ability to make eye contact. I noticed the way Tucker’s smile and eye contact worked on people at a restaurant recently, so I thought I’d give my “Tucker Theory” a little play and see what happened.

Today I tried to make eye contact with, and to smile at people when I approached them or was about to interact with them. So, when I was trying to get a ticket at the airport changed this morning, I watched the man to whom I would eventually speak, and I noticed that he didn’t smile once as he interacted with the people in front of me. As I approached him, I made eye contact with him and I smiled. He smiled back, and became very helpful and tried to help me solve my problem.

The point of this blog is to learn from Tucker as I did.I found out that when I smiled and made eye contact, people smiled back and the communication barriers came down. Be a bundle of joy to deal with and people will reciprocate. The book, Fish! Deals with this subject very well; it comes from the perspective of “Making Someone’s Day.” I liked their take on it, and it’s a fast, fun read. As a last note I want to tell you that smiling and making eye contact are skills that are much easier to maintain when you have ONO.