74. Stop at a kid’s lemonade stand and buy a drink. Always.
75. Leave a big tip.
76. Call someone you love. Tell them you love them.
77. Allow someone to help you. Let them enjoy performing an act of kindness.
78. Donate a small sum of money to a charity you love.
79. Spend a few minutes on Free Rice, a United Nations Food Program that will donate rice to hungry people for every question you get right on their learning web site. You can learn vocabulary, French, Chemistry and even answer SAT prep questions. This is made possible through the corporate sponsors you’ll see on the bottom of the pages. Free Rice has fed millions of people since its 2007 launch.
80. Write a love note and hide it in a magazine your partner is reading or somewhere else he/she will find it.
81. When you want to help someone, ask: “How can I help?” and also suggest specific ways you can help. People are less likely to come up with a way for you to help if you’re too general. For example, if someone just had a baby, you could say, “I’d really like to do something for you. Can I drop off groceries, babysit your older child or cook dinner this week?” If they say “no thanks,” you can ask if there’s something else they’d appreciate.
82. Carry around a $5 gift card so you can give it to someone who does something awesome. Or, create and carry “thanks for making my day” cards that you can give to people.
83. Help make audio books available to anyone who wants them. LibriVox helps you find books in the public domain that you can read out loud, record and make accessible to people who want them.
84. Involve kids in your life in community service. Donna mentioned that she takes her son to pass out food to people who need it.
85. During the holidays, my cousin takes her children to a store to pick out and buy a gift for a child who might not get many gifts. One year, instead of getting 8 gifts for Hanukkah, her kids got 7 and the 8th gift was one they picked out for someone else.
86. I read about a teacher who got her first graders involved in random acts of kindness by having her class collectively perform 100 random acts of kindness over a 2-week period. The class recorded each act on a small heart and organized the hearts into a collage. Perhaps this is a way to get your kids excited about acts of kindness and introduce your kids to the warm feeling from doing good.
Seek out an opportunity to help every day. Hold open a door, offer assistance, help someone trying to get a stroller down the steps or perform any random acts of kindness that move you. Every small interaction with someone is an opportunity to have a positive impact on both of your lives.
If you begin every day by telling yourself that you’ll find a way to make someone’s day, you will succeed. When you look, you’ll find opportunities to perform random acts of kindness and planned acts of kindness. When you take those opportunities, you’ll feel great.
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5 PAST RESPONSES
sharing lil bottles of bubbles in unexpected places where people are often stressed like airports, doctor offices, long lines at grocery or post office.
Another is: tucking kindness notes into library books for patrons to find.
And of course, saying thank you to every worker no matter where... "thank you for stocking the shelves."
Oh and Free Hugs. From 2008 to 2020, I arranged and shared Free Hugs across the US and in 29 countries. We connected across age, beliefs, culture, gender, religion, socio economics. I'm getting my sign out again on Valentine's Day. I've shared hugs in cancer treatment centers, homeless shelters, and even at protests.