The post originally appeared on PICK THE BRAIN
This November 13 is World Kindness Day! In honor of this important holiday which fuels kindness around the world, we’ve put together a 30-day kindness challenge for you that will fuel an incredible amount of positive energy into your life. Each of these acts of kindness is designed to take no more than 30 minutes of your time, and in most cases just a few minutes. We want this challenge to be realistic and attainable because we know that its successful completion will leave you pumped and energized about your life.
Day 1 – Write a letter or send a card to someone you love “just because.” We shouldn’t need a holiday or occasion to be kind!
Day 2 – Post a picture of you and a friend on social media with a comment about the positive impact they’ve made on your life.
Day 3 – Try playing the role of a doorman for 10 minutes.
Day 4 – Walk down the street with a bag of quarters, and add a quarter to any meters you see with less than 10 minutes.
Day 5 – Create an annual holiday celebrating someone you love. For example, we declared June 1 “Eva and Sophia Appreciation Day” to celebrate our wonderful children.
Day 6 – Leave quarters taped to a vending machine with a note saying “Your treat is on me. Have a sweet day!”
Day 7 – Buy an inspirational book for a friend going through a tough time. Some of my favorites are Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman and The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
Day 8 – Write a thoughtful comment on a blog post where the author clearly invested a ton of time and energy crafting it. Bloggers love to get positive feedback from readers.
Day 9 – Offer a bottle of water or fresh fruit to your mail carrier.
Day 10 – Write a colleague a glowing recommendation on LinkedIn. You’ll be amazed at how grateful people are to receive recommendations.
Day 11 – Send your friend a thoughtful text saying what you appreciate most about them.
Day 12 – Leave a book you find interesting in a public place (e.g. a bus, restaurant, or park bench). Hopefully the next person will enjoy it as much as you did.
Day 13 – Send an article that moved you to a friend. If you need some inspiration, here’s one of my favorite articles of all-time about what happened when Joshua Bell, thought to be one of the world’s greatest violinists, played violin outside a Metro Stop in Washington.
Day 14 – Say “Hello and have a great day” to every stranger you pass by for 1 hour. You’ll be surprised by how good you feel after this little experiment.
Day 15 – Promote a friend’s business on your Facebook or Twitter. It will only take a moment but will mean the world to any entrepreneur trying to get the word out about their business.
Day 16 – Bring water or coffee to your local school crossing guards to show that you appreciate their hard work.
Day 17 – Go around the house and find five items you can donate to charity. Here’s a good start: gently worn shoes, clothing, canned food, books, and electronics!
Day 18 – Call someone you usually ask for help from to just say thank you, and make them feel how much you appreciate them.
Day 19 – Tape a lotto scratcher ticket to a local gas pump with a note that says “Good Luck. I hope you win!”
Day 20 – Put 31 complimentary notes in a jar and give them to someone you love, and tell them to open a new note each day to make it a great month.
Day 21 – Say hello and engage in conversation with a homeless person. The vast majority of people ignore the homeless as if they don’t exist. In most cases, you’ll find the homeless person to be grateful that you’ve taken the time to say hi.
Day 22 – Donate blood and join the Bone Marrow Registry here, if you haven’t already. You may just save a life!
Day 23 – Spend 10 minutes leaving compliments on your friends’ Social Media posts.
Day 24 – Send a letter to the elderly to let them know someone is thinking of them. Here is a great website — http://www.lovefortheelderly.org/ — with further information.
Day 25 – Schedule a meet up with someone you’ve been putting off seeing, and this time make it happen!
Day 26 – Grab a big trash bag, put on some latex gloves, and spend 30 minutes picking up trash at the local park. We need to be kind to the environment too!
Day 27 – Call a person you’ve held a grudge against and make peace. You’ll feel a giant weight off your shoulders when you do.
Day 28 – Pick five people who have made a positive impact on your life, and send each one a handwritten notes of thanks.
Day 29 – Deliver flowers to a nursing station, and request that they be given to patients who could really use it.
Day 30 – Congratulations for completing the 30-day challenge. To celebrate, buy yourself a gift you’ve been longing for. Don’t forget that you have to be kind to yourself too!
I hope you enjoyed this list, and that you accept this kindness challenge! Just imagine for a moment how fulfilled you would feel if you performed an act of kindness for 30 consecutive days. And of course, if you have any other ideas for acts of kindness, feel free to do those instead and we’d love to hear your ideas in the comment section below.
This is a guest post by Alex Karpman. Alex, his wife Olga, and their 6 year old daughter Eva are running a Kickstarter right now for SuperKind, a personalized product where your child is transformed into a SuperKind hero saving the world with acts of kindness. Each set includes custom cards and stickers featuring your child’s face, and you can see some examples of their illustrations in the post below. To get your own personalized SuperKind set, please visit their Kickstarter page here. There is also a FREE digital version for those who share their Kickstarter (details on Kickstarter page).
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/30-of-acts-kindness-30-days-growth/
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