This morning I had to call a customer service line which routes me half a world away to a call center in India. I don't share the resentment that a lot of Americans have for being transferred to someone in India, or where ever. My issue was unrelated to outsourcing and politics and restricted to my very small, intense world. I realized mid-conversation that I was taking it out on "Jenny" who was earnestly trying to help me find a solution to my problem. It wasn't the piece of mail missing from my mailbox, or the archaic system such a large corporation continues to employ that was driving me to harsh tones. It was other things, a combination of things unrelated to Jenny, which was the hot poker at my side. Jenny represented one part of the whole, and she didn't need to take on the totality of that mess.
So I stopped talking and I smiled (a crooked, forced and awkward smile) and said I'd like to start the conversation over again if she didn't mind. She obliged and I restated my problem, minus the nasty tone and said that I needed a solution because it was in fact an emergency. Jenny put me on hold and came back with a solution. A real and perfect solution. Problem solved, I can move forward.
But that forced smile of mine, the one that I needed to push out past the stress to save a conversation being consumed by my bullshit, was REALLY awkward. It felt forced. It took a few, very long seconds for it to even feel like it was attached to my face. I'm prepping for the next few weeks to be extremely intense, and if you see me out and about looking like I've just stuck my face in a batch of rotten egss...
I haven't. I'm smiling. To. Crush. The. Stress.
3 comments:
I LOVE the idea of stomping on stress with a smile. LOVE it! I used to do that when I was doing long-distance runs and the general sense of discomfort made me want to stop. I FORCED myself to smile and bang! better.
Way to go, Erika, for smiling at Jenny AND reminding me of this little trick
It's funny. I just read a passage in a Dick Francis novel that used the same trick.
And now you've totally inspired me to write about it in my blog. Thank you for that, too.
it was hard! ah!
i'm glad it inspired you to go back to the power of the smile! it's so important.
A smile really is the cure for so many ills.
Go Erika!!!!
Post a Comment