Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.

Smile first, deal with feelings later

There's something almost mischievous about this advice, and that's exactly why it works. W. C. Fields isn't telling you to be relentlessly cheerful or to fake positivity through gritted teeth. He's saying something simpler and more honest: just smile at the beginning, get the awkwardness of starting the day out of the way, and then move on with real life.

Most of us treat mornings like a hurdle—we drag ourselves through them hoping to eventually feel like ourselves. But that resistance, that heaviness, often shapes the entire day that follows. Fields is suggesting a small trick: don't negotiate with your mood. Don't wait until you "feel like it." Just smile, let it feel a bit silly or forced if it needs to, and you've already broken the tension. The day can actually begin instead of just gradually happening to you.

The unexpected part? Once you've smiled, even performatively, your brain often catches up. There's real neuroscience here—your expression influences your mood more than most people realize. You're not pretending everything's great. You're just refusing to let inertia be the first decision of your day.