Have A Good Day!

How many times a day do you do you catch yourself directing someone you know or perhaps even a few people you don't, to "Have a good day!"

It's become a reflex, hasn't it... A smile. A wave. And, a friendly, thoughtless edict.

Meaningless.

What does it mean when something becomes meaningless, especially if it is a 'something' you yourself  are guilty of doing countless times a day! I know I just said it a few hours ago when the last person to pick up a vehicle before we closed paid their bill and started toward the door: "Thank You. Have a good day!"

Absurd!

No matter how you determine what a 'normal' day is, at 6:15 in the evening that day is just about over. There certainly isn't a lot of time left for something 'good' to happen. So, why bother suggesting it?

I could understand wishing someone a "good day" if we could all agree on what a good day looked or felt like. But, that hasn't happened... Has it? If it has, I must have missed it and I don't think I did. And, if that's the case, now might be a good time for us to give it a shot. What have we got to lose? Directing someone to have a great day would certainly be a lot more meaningful if everyone could agree on what it really meant to have one.

My son called this morning after he ran in the rain for an hour-and-a-half, and with his best John Wayne, declared that "A day without training is like a day without sunshine, Pilgrim!" 

Does that mean a day with training is a "good day," or at least the start of one? I'll bet it does.

If you are in business, is a good day a profitable day: a day where you have somehow managed to make a little more than you spent? It certainly would be "good day" in this economy! Is it enough to define a "good day" simply as one that hasn't managed to become a bad one? What do you think? I've experienced more than my share of days like that: days where just having nothing bad happen looked and felt pretty damned good by the end of the day! But, is that really enough?

I'll bet most of us have had enough bad days to recognize a good one if we came across one. It would probably have a lot more to do with content than with meaningless activity. It would be filled with more laughter than tears, more satisfaction than frustration. I'm sure there would be a sense of service thrown in for good measure. There would be at least a little appreciation, some recognition and maybe even the sense you actually managed to accomplish something that day floating around as well.

Maybe, that's what we're really trying to say. And, if it is, then we should just say what we mean...

Thank you! And, have a meaningful day! Thank you! And, have a rewarding day! Have a day filled with satisfaction and accomplishment, a day filled with love and respect! Have a day filled with people who make you laugh and smile, people you are genuinely glad to see and be around!

Now, that would be a "great day," wouldn't it! And, if you think about it, I'll bet it was!