Be a Kindness Ambassador and Give Yourself A Kindness Challenge

The past nine months have been some of the hardest I’ve faced in my life. However, I made it harder by staying all wrapped up in my head, sulking. Things don’t get better when you wade into an ocean of self-pity, they transform through your relationships with other human beings.

One of the things I committed to doing through my illness and recovery was acts of kindness. Our family always donates to charity throughout the year but, I wanted to do things that had my eyes looking into the eyes of another human being.

[Tweet “When you’re wrapped up in me-me-me you miss out on the power of we.”]

Something strange happened…

The more kindness I spread, the more grateful I was for my life and that I could give, without expectation of anything in return.

Doing good is a fast path to more joy and fulfillment in your life not because you feel like you’re a super awesome person who’s so incredibly generous that you should have a holiday named after you. (gag) Doing good feels good because it’s making a connection and honoring your humanity and another’s humanity in the process.

Imagine

You’re walking down the street on a hot summer day, and you’re incredibly thirsty. You see a vendor ahead with ice cold waters, and it’s like a magnet pulling you forward. You open your wallet to pay and glance to your left and notice a homeless person not ten paces down the street.

Do you buy one bottle and go on your way or do you buy two?

You may not buy two every time but what would change in you if you did this time?

Let’s talk for a second about honoring your kindness instincts.

When you have the instinct to do something kind… like clean up a messy break room at work despite the fact that you weren’t the one who made the mess, do you honor it or talk yourself our of it?

Honor it: “I didn’t make the mess but I’m here, and I can do it. Why wait for someone else? I’m sure people would appreciate it.

Talk yourself out of it: “I didn’t make the mess, why should I clean it? In fact, I’m not so pig-headed that I would leave a mess for someone else to clean up. How self-centered are the people I work with?”

See what happened there?

When you honored your instinct, you were a kindness ambassador without malice. You were kind because it felt like the right thing to do; honoring your instinct.

When you talked yourself out of it, not only did you justify yourself for leaving the mess but also made out others in your life to be terrible people.

Instead of horribilizing others, choose kindness.

I challenge you: Be a Kindness Ambassador and Give Yourself a Kindness Challenge

Over the next seven days look for opportunities to be kind, helpful and giving. You don’t have to do something remarkable, just do something.

Challenge yourself to see how many moments of unexpected kindness you can put out in the world.

Will you go for seven (one a day!) or 14?  Even if it’s one, that’s one more than if you did nothing out of the ordinary.

Here are some ideas to get your kindness challenge started:

• Wait an extra ten seconds walking into a store to hold the door for the person behind you.
• Let someone jump ahead of you in line at the grocery store because they have three items, and you have thirty.
• Buy a bottle of water for the next person you see on a hot day because if you’re thirsty, you know they are too.
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen near you.
• Bring dinners to a friend who just had a baby… or surgery. Don’t wait for them to ask.
• Pay the toll for the person behind you.
• Make your kid’s beds for them today.
• Donate the clothes that you were going to sell on eBay.
• Bring books to the kids in the pediatric ward at the hospital.

However…

There’s more to this challenge.

Do not post your good deeds on Facebook.

Resist the urge to tweet it.

Don’t host a Blab about it.

Nobody but you needs to know. You’re not doing it for kudos or high fives; you’re doing it because you can and because it’s important to you to spread good in the world.

Okay, want to tell your spouse or BFF? Go ahead. Tell them what you did and tell them why you did it and how it made you feel.

There is something really delicious about moments of kindness when they’re not broadcast but allowed to be present within you.

Let the joy spread because you’re the first domino, not because your humble brag is really just a brag.

When you’re kind, what changes inside of you?