Random Acts of Kindness

What would this world be like if each person did one nice thing a day? Just the smallest thing like say hi, hold a door open for someone, or allow someone to merge onto a road properly. I think it would be a much better world.

What made me think of this is all the little horrible things I see every time I go go shopping or driving even the shortest of distances – people cutting other drivers off, not using turn signals, people just walking out in traffic or in front of a store (do they not realize that even if you are doing 5 miles an hour that there is a breaking distance), people hurrying to get in front of you at the store even though you have so many items less than them… I could go on forever about these things.

My theory on why people aren’t nicer is that they don’t see it fitting in their schedule. It seems like so many people are in such a hurry because so much is asked of them in a short period of time. It wouldn’t be the worse thing if someone gets in front of you or you have to get behind someone else depending on how you are looking at this. Maybe in those few minutes you can take a couple deep breaths and slow your heart rate and de-stress rather than become furious, get angry, and feel the need to hurry even more. If someone slowing you down makes you late for something, then you just need to give yourself more time to get whatever you need to get done. It all comes down to procrastination. All of us are guilty of it – even in the smallest things.

Personally, I am a person who runs late. My friends know it. My family knows it. I have improved over the years, but still have more improving to do. I try to do too much in too small of a time period. But what makes me different than many of the people who are running late out there is that they get mean about it. It isn’t someone else’s fault that I am late… no matter how many red lights I encountered that I normally don’t… I am my own undoing.

So, to all of those family members and friends out there that I have been late to something, I apologize and I am trying to add “padding” to my plans so that I am either on-time, early, or at the least just a couple minutes late. I can say that my GPS has really helped with the plans when I need to drive a longer distance since I see the arrival time and am more aware of it.

I think I got a little off topic of Random Acts of Kindness, but I wanted to tell a story too since the story is what inspired the topic. Try to do something nice for someone else… you will help both of you in the process.