First of all, I have been thinking about my methodology for my random acts of kindness. As I previously have a year of daily acts of kindness under my belt, I have been thinking about ways to improve what I am doing. After performing random acts of kindness every day for a year, it kind of became a habit for me. Rarely do I not hold the door for someone or keep a person from turning out of a parking lot onto the road in front of me. Because of this habit, I feel like I am cheating myself and others when I use things like this as one of my random acts. In thinking about how to make changes, I thought of the purposefulness of these acts. Am I doing these things just to say I did something that day? In some cases, yes, I did. I would find myself near the end of the day and realize that I hadn't done anything yet that day that would count, so I would hold a door for someone or let someone in front of me in traffic. I was not doing these things with a purpose or with genuineness. And in thinking about some of the things I have done for these acts, I have been happiest when I have done things with purpose, like the gifting of the Target card a few weeks ago, or leaving the dollar at Barnes & Noble.
This brings me to my decision and change in the manner I do things. I am still going to try to find ways to commit random acts of kindness, but I am not going to insist on doing them every day. I am going to carry out a few acts a week, but make them more purposeful. I will continue to report on these as well, and rest assured that I will continue to be a world class door holder, but I will be challenging myself to be more purposeful and continue to search for new ways to make the world a better place, one act of kindness at a time.
On that note, in the past few weeks I have done several things:
- Brought in monkey bread for my co-workers
- After the "Great Toilet Fiasco" at our house, I called Home Depot a few days later and spoke to a manager about an employee that was especially helpful to us. She spoke with us on the phone, then recognized us and out situation in the store. Before she even clocked in after her break, she helped us find what we were looking for. It's a long story, and if I included the details it would make more sense, but just trust me when I say she went out of her way to help me and the husband. When I called to talk to the manager, you could almost hear the relief cross the phone lines as soon as I started talking about how great this employee was.
- Left notes for (most of) my co-workers, thanking them for being great and for their help and making the time I spent at the company enjoyable.
This brings me to my next change in life. I got a new job! It's been something that I've been thinking about for a long time, for a variety of reasons. And I was finally able to make it happen. It's strange, as this is the first time I have ever left a job voluntarily. Hmm, that makes it seem like I got fired a lot. It's the first time in my adult life that I have left a job for reasons other than relocation. There, that sounds better. I had my first day today and I met some of the families and kids I will be working with. I think this will be a really great fit for me and I am going to enjoy the change. I have to get used to some new things, and adjusting to this will be difficult. The adjustment period will be awkward I think, and I have a lot to learn, but I am always willing to learn new things, and this will open the door to so many other things for me. I just have to remember that change is good, and stagnation is not.
