You probably know that October is Mental Health Awareness month, but did you know it is also Emotional Intelligence Awareness month? This is a topic I would like to dive into later this month, but to kick start the Demand Digital blog I thought it would be nice to make a list of 10 things I think are kind acts you can do for someone—although two of them (1 and 6) should be a given in my opinion! But it’s been something I have been thinking recently; you don’t need to spend money to do something nice for someone. Everything I have listed below is either free, or costs no more than a cup of coffee.
You’re never too important to be nice to people.
- Hold the door open for someone.
- Pay for the coffee for the person in the queue behind you.
- Bring in your neighbour’s wheelie bin.
- Offer to babysit for someone who really needs a date night, or just a night off to go sleep somewhere!
- Send a handwritten note to someone who needs a pick-me-up. This could be an actual card you send to someone, or even something as simple as a sticky note on a colleague’s desk.
- Give up your seat on a busy train or bus.
- Give an honest compliment to someone. If the person serving you in Aldi/Dunnes/Tesco/wherever has a nice watch or lovely nail varnish, tell them! I have done this many times, when I genuinely mean it, and it just makes people smile and they always say thank you. I sometimes think those in a constant consumer-facing role need a bit of extra love, as it’s difficult to put on a brave face for the public if you’re genuinely having a bad day, and we never know what someone else is going through.
- Say ‘have a nice day’ to people, and mean it. Any phone call you make or person you interact with in a meeting, store, gym, wherever—let the last thing you say to them before parting be ‘bye, have a nice day,’ because it’s a nice thing to say.
- Let someone go in front of you in the shopping queue.
- Make dinner and drop it over to a friend or family member you know is run off their feet at the moment.
Being nice and smiling as you go about your day doesn’t cost anything. I know not every day is wonderful, but I guarantee you that if we all put our issues in a pile in front of us and saw what other people are going through, we’d gladly take our issues back. It’s nice to be nice.
Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest upon reciprocity ~ C.S. Lewis
Have you done any of these things I’ve listed above? Is there something on this list that you do regularly? Or perhaps something else that I’ve not listed here? I’d love to hear about your thoughts on simple kind acts we can do towards others—be it a colleague, a client, an acquaintance or a dear family member or friend.
