Happiness…is a choice. It is not something that you inherit from your parents, or a daily pill that you take (unless you take an anti-depressant, I guess that can bring you happiness in pill form, but that’s not the point). Happiness however, can be learned. Happiness can be ingrained into your daily train of thought. Most people think that happiness only comes from major changes in your life, like buying a house, or getting married. If you ask Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy, he’ll tell you that “Happiness comes from little rays of sunshine that shine down on you when you’re feeling blue”. Happiness is like a pill though, in the fact that you need to have small daily doses of it in your life. Just like a pill, sometimes you need to take one, two, or several a day at different times or with meals. You cannot rely on a few major life events to supply your day to day happiness. It takes little things every single day to keep that tank full and keep you going, especially on the mentally tough not so happy days.
There was a study done that showed if you start your day by sending an email of gratitude to someone you know, not only does their level of happiness go up for the rest of the day, but your mood and outlook on the day becomes much brighter as well. Can you believe that’s how easy it is? A simple email (or text if you prefer) just telling someone something positive to start their day can benefit them AND you…for the entire day.. Incorporating this into your daily routine is simple, quick, and very beneficial.
One of the ways we do this at our dental office is by giving out “RAD” cards. RAD is an acronym meaning “Ready to Attack your Duties”. Each RAD card is a $5 giftcard to Starbucks (it literally says “YOU’RE RAD” in big bold letters on the gift card. We bought about 50 cards and give one or two away everyday to someone who is being “RAD”. That’s right….fifty $5 gift cards. That’s a total of $250 spent to keep your staff happy for the next month or two. If you are worried about the extra expense on your overhead, just do an extra filling or pull an extra tooth every now and then and the gift cards will pay for themselves. Just remember to say “Hey, YOU’RE RAD!” Everytime you hand one out (it can be any sort of gift card, not just Starbucks, and you can switch it up everytime you re-stock too).
Every staff member and employee you have should know and be able to recite the duties and responsibilies that their position requires. Fulfilling their duties and responsibilities daily is how they earn their paycheck. We constantly try to encourage and incentivize our staff to go above and beyond what is listed in their job description to help make the office more successful and a better work environment for all. One of the easiest ways to make sure the office is running at it’s best is to try and make sure everyone is happy and being appreciated for the work they do. Randomly handing out these gift cards to different employees showing our gratitude is one of the ways we give those little doses of happiness to our staff on a daily basis.
One of our staff members stayed about 20 minutes late one day to help finish up a patient who was getting a filling. BOOM! RAD card…That night she proceeded to post on social media about her little bonus she got for going above and beyond what is required of her.
One of our hygienists had a very busy and exhaustive day, but didn’t make a single complaint about the additional workload. BOOM! RAD card….The next morning she came up to me and the first thing she said was “You made my entire day last night by giving me that card”. A $5 gift card to Starbucks made her entire day. She definitely brought in more than $5 in additional revenue working as hard as she did that previous day.
You’ve heard the phrase before…”It’s the little things in life”. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’ve ever run a marathon or a race in general, you know that you need to take little sips of water throughout the race to stay hydrated. Chugging a gallon of water right before the race is not the best way to go about it. Maintaining happiness and contentment takes daily doses of little things. The best part, you don’t have to spend money everytime either. Complimenting someone, having a smile on your face, or saying a simple “thank you”, really go the distance in maintaining a happy positive day to not only the person receiving the gesture, but you get some benefit yourself as well.