Random Acts of Kindness: 5 Ideas and Hints

Sayings that I try live my life by:

Be the change you want to see in the world. Be kind always.

I was nominated by Carly who blogs over at Mom Of Two Little Girls to do a Random Act of Kindness. Don’t worry, I don’t just stalk her, she does know who I am. Promise!

Upon receiving my nomination, I went through the different emotions of me:

• Elation and Excitement (it’s the same but I was that happy)
• Amazement (I was picked)
• Doubt and questioning (mmmh was this her Random Act of Kindness … why me?)
• Over-analysing (what will I do?)
• Procrastination.

 Yes, it is exhausting being me.

My mantra in life is to try be kind, always.

Yes, even when I am driving. It stems from a book I read as a kid where the lesson was that, even if you aren’t the fastest, cleverest or richest, you can always strive to be the kindest.

The lesson has stuck with me and it is one I hope to pass on to my daughters.

Then there was a movie called “Pay It Forward” which left another lasting impression on me. Check out the trailer below which gives you a pretty good idea of the concept of what paying it forward actually means.

Karma

I do believe in karma. Yes, I am a little bit of a hippy.

Life is hard enough. If by simply smiling and not being irritable makes someone’s day, isn’t that worth it? I think I have managed not to look too creepy smiling at the world.

Now the over analyzing part of the emotions can be quite crippling here. I am putting myself out there in the world. Blogging.

Yet I found myself most concerned that my random act of kindness wouldn’t be taken as nice, or maybe it wouldn’t be kind enough.

It really got me thinking. Yes, if possible even more.

Why does it have to be a grand gesture?

I still hope to be able to have my Oprah Winfrey moment one day, but for now “You get a comma, you get a comma and you get a comma.”

Then set in my procrastination – please refer back to the point of over analyzing. Followed swiftly by the usual, overachiever; the extra smiling and hugging people, and even a little robot dancing for the world, just to do my bit. Yes, it was exhausting.

Life as a South African can be awesome, but we all become a bit bugged down with the politics and not appreciating the sun enough.

I therefore, in my overachieving quest, have given 5 ideas to pay it forward, and ‘make’ someone else’s day thereby making your day or week even that much better.

1. Sign in without being impatient to the guard at the gate just trying to do his work with pride.
2. A kind gesture to your child or even their teacher in whatever they do. I take my hat off to teachers and find that we assume that because a teacher may work at a private school, or offer a service that is considered a luxury, it does not mean they are swimming in money. Buy them a coffee.
3.  Separate the plastic for the guys who walk our streets collecting plastics to sell. They get up early and they help keep our streets clean.
4. Donate; whether it is old clothes or your time. Give freely.
5.  Make sandwiches and drop them off. I always feel sad when I see they guys sitting on the side of the road waiting to do manual labour. I saw some ladies handing sandwiches out to them one day and thought, “What an amazing kind thing to do.”

Why not add onto this list of the little things that can make a big difference in changing the outlook of someones day.

And my nominations are …

I now get to nominate two other mamas to take up the challenge. If you get nominated, you have 48 hours to complete a Random Act of Kindness. This can be for a stranger, your domestic helper, your child’s teacher, your neighbour, absolutely anyone! Then you need to tag two more mamas to do the same, using the hashtags #RAK and #momswhocare. If you haven’t been nominated, but are feeling inspired, then step right up and nominate yourself!

Be kind and I am going to start by being kind to myself.