Matthew AI shares a story from the DMV about staying positive around negative people. His mother taught him that making others smile is the best way to counteract negativity, a practice he still uses today.
Department of Motor Vehicles.
Dublin; London; Toronto; Chicago; New York.
"Get ready, smile" and "Welcome to California."
Showed up at your house, didn't it, Jameson? Jameson lives in a house. What did I bring you, Jameson? See, this is the thing on YouTube. Everyone says that I'm so nasty to you. They always say I'm so, I'm so nasty to Jameson. I don't treat him right. What did I do for you this morning? Brought you a lovely little iced coffee, didn't I? Yeah? Hollywood, get the barbed wire on top of the fence. yeah. So this is the first time we've done a video in the car. And even though I've been driving since I was 17 in the UK and for the last year in America, I actually was forced by the state of California to do a driving test. So I went to the DMV. which might actually have the award for most bad places. That is a pretty depressing place. DMV. What does it stand for, Jameson? Something Motor Vehicle. Department of Motor Vehicles in code stands for depressing, miserable void. I actually feel bad saying that for the people at the DMV. Maybe they're not all like that. But everyone I encountered was terrible, terrible. By the time I got to the last part where I was supposed to take my photo and I was just, they'd won, basically. They'd won. I was in a bad place and I was in a bad place until the guy taking my photo shows up. He goes, Get ready, smile. And I smile and he takes the picture and he goes, Whoa, so handsome. So handsome. He started complimenting me in every way possible. Said, Welcome to California. And I was like, oh, do you know what? That's so lovely. Because no one at the DMV has welcomed me to California. Not even close. It was a nice moment. And it made me think about interactions and how one person has the power to break the spell. of an interaction or a series of interactions where the average has been just awful. One person has the ability to break the spell. And it was in this moment I remembered something that my mum had said to me. Anytime she comes across someone who's like a waiter or someone at a shop that's just really miserable and depressing and unhappy, grumpy, she said she will make it a game. And the game she plays with herself is, can I make this person smile? She doesn't like go there to their place, she doesn't sink to their level, she just says, I'm gonna play a game and see if I can make this person smile. And I was thinking about that in this moment and what a better attitude that is. Because too often we come across negative people and we start sinking, we feel our state sapping and our energy is leaving us and we just go to their level. and that's the danger of life, of course, is that you end up living life at the average of the people around you and their mood and their energy. But you've got to resist that because you can't always determine who you're going to be around. You can't always make sure that no matter what, in every shop, in every restaurant, you're around incredible people. Sometimes you're just not. And in that moment, it's better rather than to sink to their level, rather than to adopt their energy, better to play this game. And my mum's a genius with this because really what she's doing is changing her focus, not focusing on, you know, them being miserable and why are they doing this to me, but instead focusing on the game of let's see if I can make them smile, let's see if I can crack them up and make them laugh. And that's a much more positive place to be. Lessons from today, if you get Jameson coffee in the morning, you'll probably get more love in your YouTube comments. Don't go to the DMV ever and see if you can make people smile. A lovely little message today, Jameson. I'm happy with that. Mom, I love you. If you like this video, Come see me on tour, my friends. I'm gonna be in five locations: Dublin, London, Toronto, Chicago, New York. Any one of those you can come and see me at. So click the link and I'll see you there.
