kind·ness |ˈkīn(d)nəs |
noun
the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate
As I pulled up to the Starbucks window, ready to hold out my credit card, I was told the car in front of me had already purchased my drink. What a wonderful surprise, as I too had done this for others in the past. My good karma came back to reward me! If only paying it forward was a never-ending cycle celebrated by everyone.
We all have a choice each day when we wake up as to whether we want to better the day of those around us or make their day worse. I would rather put a smile on someone’s face and I believe the majority of people don’t start their days looking for ways to ruin the day of the people around them.
Although I’m wired to be nice, my first real hardcore look at myself when it comes to being kind came from the loss of my cousin. In 2014, at 30-years-old, he was killed in a car accident on his way to work leaving behind his wife and three young daughters. During the week of his first heavenly birthday, his wife put together an event called #RAKforMAK (Random Acts of Kindness for Matthew Alan Kever). It was a way to honor a man who always went out of his way to help someone on the side of the road or help someone move or volunteer his time to make someone else’s day better. This event is still going strong each year during his birthday week, and while I try to do random acts of kindness throughout the year, I pay special attention to my actions during the last week of January every year to honor my baby cousin.
I’ve compiled a list of 60 ways to be kind. Some of these are for adults, some are for kids and many are for anyone! Some involve money, some involve time and some don’t take any time or money at all! It’s so easy spreading some kindness!
- Let someone in in traffic
- Pay for the person behind you in the drive thru
- Place a sticky note on someone’s car window or desk when they’re not around with an inspirational message or something nice about them
- Surprise someone you know with their favorite coffee/smoothie/soda
- Compliment someone on their outfit/weight loss/new hairstyle
- Volunteer your time to help those less fortunate
- Tell jokes to make someone smile
- Donate items instead of selling them
- Introduce yourself to a new neighbor (with your mask on)
- Help someone do a chore
- Offer to return a frazzled mom’s shopping cart after she loads the car
- Color a picture for a friend
- Open a door for someone with a big smile on your face
- Invite someone sitting alone to play or eat with you
- Put a treat in the mailbox for your postal worker
- If someone drops something, pick it up for them
- Give up your spot in line
- Have water bottles and granola bars in your car to hand to people on corners
- Leave an extra big tip for your waiter
- Leave a small pack of wipes at a diaper changing station
- Send cards to service men and women
- Donate pet supplies to an animal shelter
- Pick up litter while on a walk
- Donate your no longer used books/movies to a library
- Donate your no longer used toys to a children’s hospital (check with hospital on rules of what they’ll take)
- Write uplifting messages with chalk on sidewalks or at bus stops
- Visit a nursing home and volunteer to spend time with the elderly or entertain them if you play an instrument
- Compliment a cashier who seems to be having a bad day
- Place a small bucket with a variety of lady hygiene products on the counter of the women’s restroom in your workplace
- Send cards to a hospital for their patients
- Mail actual birthday cards instead of sending just a text or social media tag
- Leave a microwaveable pack of popcorn taped to a Redbox for the next customer to take home with them
- Leave a box of snacks and water on the doorstep for delivery people
- Serve lunch at a food kitchen
- Have a lemonade stand on a hot day without charging
- Bring donuts to your coworkers, public library employees, daycare teachers
- Assist an elderly person across the street
- Candy cane bomb a parking lot at Christmas
- Bring a flower to your teacher just because
- Mow your neighbor’s lawn or water their flowers or shovel their snow when they’re out of town, or even when they’re in town
- Deliver a treat to your local fire department or police station
- Bring dinner to a struggling family or have dinner delivered via a food delivery service
- Leave uplifting post-it notes on lockers at school
- Stop to help a dog or cat you see running loose
- Give a balloon to a child
- Leave unused coupons on the matching items in stores
- Create a new friendship by asking an acquaintance/coworker out to coffee/lunch/happy hour
- Call an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a long time
- Just smile at someone
- Surprise your significant other with a kiss when they’re least expecting it
- Truly listen to someone who has come to you with a problem
- Plant a tree (being kind to the environment)
- Leave quarters at the laundromat or in kid candy/toy dispensers at the store
- Say hi to the new kid at school
- Paint positive messages on pumpkins and leave on doorsteps (in the fall)
- Take your neighbor’s trash or recycling bin to the curb for them
- When you find yourself about to say something mean or rude, stop yourself and don’t
- Compliment a parent on how well-behaved their child(ren) are
- Let the other person have the parking spot you were both about to turn into
- Pray for someone
There are SO many ways to be kind and many of these suggestions can be incorporated into your everyday activities. With how divided this country is and with how much hate is inside many people’s hearts right now, all we see anymore in the media are the bad things. There is good all around us. I have to believe there is more good in the world than bad. Be the good. Pay it forward. Hopefully others who were recipients of your good will also pay it forward. Be the pep in someone’s step. Brighten the light in someone’s heart. Be the reason for a smile. We are all humans and we all have a heart. Don’t waste what your heart has to offer. If every single person did even one of these random acts of kindness each day I believe the news outlets wouldn’t have as much to report on because we’d all have a bright spot in our day to fall back on instead of finding ways to be more destructive.
We can BE better. We can DO better. Just be kind.
