Update on the Friendly Mission

My latest challenge has been interesting. Sometimes it barely makes a difference and is quite easy. Other times, I really have to force myself.

Examples of times when it was easy to be friendly:

When a friend visited with her new 6 day old baby and slept peacefully the entire time.
When a customer complimented my homemade flapjacks.
When the weather was nice and I was walking along happily.
When I was swimming and someone moved out of the way for me.
When I was buying presents for a friend's birthday and getting excited.

Examples of times when it was not easy to be friendly:

When I was getting my tooth pulled out.
When there were lots of people standing around chatting in the supermarket and blocking the aisle with their trolleys. For ages.
When a customer shouted at me that it was "a korma, not a curry!"
When the same customer shouted at me "I'm in a bad mood today! I'm a manic depressive! Do you know what that means!?"
When I wanted to post a letter and had been waiting in line for ages then they closed when I got there, because it's Wednesday afternoon. All Post Offices close on Wednesday afternoons, didn't you know? (Who made this rule up? It is a stupid rule.)

Despite such adversity, I have pressed on with my mission. I find that smiling a lot more gets me in the friendly zone. Being helpful easily translates into friendliness. So if I'm not feeling friendly, I try to be helpful instead and it appears as friendliness, so helps me stick to my mission.

I must admit, I have not picked up any new best friends in a cafe or discovered I've got tons in common with my next door neighbour. Although when I was having my tooth out, I didn't see the dentist till 20 minutes after my appointment time because he was late and I was really friendly about it. That might possibly have been because I wasn't dying to get into the room and have my tooth out! Then when the dentist was tugging and pulling with a huge pair of tweezers (I'm sure they're not called that), I didn't fuss. I was all cool and chilled and friendly, although it wasn't nice at all.

I think the mission is going well so far. As long as no-one tests me too much!