Kindness Challenge Success – Week 3

Photo credit: Andrea Booher

To all you folks out there spreading acts of kindness – do you realize what great leaders you are?

A leader is defined as someone who leads, guides, inspires, shows the way. . . and that’s what you’re doing.

You’re leaders for kindness

You’re getting off the couch, off the bleachers, or whatever metaphor one wants to use for sitting on the sidelines and watching life.  You believe in the power of kindness and you’re DOING something about it.  You’re sticking your neck out and connecting with other human beings.  You’re looking outside your own world and seeing others.  People you know and people you don’t.  People whose lives you can make brighter or lighter or safer or sweeter.

And the really exciting possibility about that? All those people who ARE on the sidelines, hesitant to reach out, or take action, or risk feeling uncomfortable – they’re witnessing your acts of kindness. And they’re going to be touched, moved and inspired by your willingness to make a difference. And they’re going to take action. And the people watching them are going to take action. And the ripple of kindness spreads.

So thank you for being leaders in a way that can truly make a difference.

Ok, so here are the milestones reached at the end of WEEK 3 (midnight 1/21/2012):

• Total acts of kindness logged in: 1619
• Total U.S. states and territories participating: 48 (still missing Alaska and Delaware!)
• Total countries who have visited the Kindness Challenge websites: 90 (added 22 new countries!)
• Total visitors reached* through this site and our facebook site: 39,205

*reached means they’ve been to our websites or seen our posts/blogs through their newsfeed.

You can find the weekly update under Log Acts of Kindness .

One Person’s Trash, Another Person’s Lifeline

Back on January 1, 2012, a simple act of kindness was logged in that said:

Gave friend my not being used laptop when theirs was stolen.

We want to share with you the backstory behind that act of kindness and some powerful thoughts the mother of that young man shared with us:

Last week while my son was meeting a friend for lunch, he learned that her house had recently been broken into and the thief got away with her and both of her roommates’ computers.  My son came home and spent several hours cleaning off and reloading programs and anti-virus onto an old computer of his.  He surprised his friend this weekend with the gift of a working computer.  His act of thoughtfulness and generosity may not take away the vulnerability or fear these young women may feel after a break-in, but perhaps it allows them to stay connected with those they love and help them reassemble their on-line world.  More than anything, hopefully this act of kindness inspires them to pass on kindness.

Coats for Kids - Photo credit: News10/KXTV

We all have things beyond what we need or use.   Sometimes we know the perfect match for who can use them but most times we just know that they are not trash and could be used and possibly loved by another person.

The next time you hear someone mention something that they really need, think hard.  Are you hanging onto something that could really help them?  Gift them and help yourself by passing it on to them.  It’s a small act for you, yet you never know the full impact your kindness has on them.

No, we don’t all have a computer lying around to give away but big results can come out of much smaller acts of kindness.  If you are running an errand and can save another person the trip by doing theirs, you’ve given them the gift of time and spared them going out into our cold Minnesota temperatures.  No act is too small.  They all have a warming effect.

The Goal really isn’t 1,000,000 acts

I’ve been thinking:

The Kindness Challenge Jan 2012 is about to begin. But on February 1, 2012, when the Challenge has ended, how will we know if it was a success? What measure will we use?

It’s easy to think,

“Well, the goal was to have one million acts of kindness performed and
logged by people around the world during January, 2012. Did we make it?” or

“How many people liked us on facebook?”

“How many blog followers, or twitter followers did we have?”

But none of those are the REAL goal or measure of success.

What’s the REAL goal of the Challenge?

The real goal, or question, will be:

• Did we create awareness of the power of kindness?
• Did we build momentum that shifted the world and changed people’s lives?
• Did we make a difference in the world?

Oh sure, it will be fun for all of us to watch the counter as people log in their acts. And to read everyone’s stories about sharing kindness. But how will we really know if we – all of us together – have made a difference?

How will we know if we’ve made a difference?

That, my friends, will come from each of us.  Each time one of us lets someone go in front of us in the grocery line.  Or strikes up a friendly conversation with someone at the bus stop.  Or offers to help a colleague meet a deadline — we’ll have a chance to “make a difference” or “change someone’s life.”

As you take up the challenge of spreading kindness this month, I invite you to become more aware — not of how great you feel when you do kindness for another (although it DOES feel wonderful) but of the recipient, how your act of kindness might really affect him or her.  There will be that connection – it may be a split second – but there will be that connection between 2 human beings and you’ll know you’ve made a difference.  And the fact that your attention is over there on THEM and and how THEY feel, increases the power of your gift all the more.

30 Acts in 30 Days Creates a New Habit

One more idea – while the Kindness Challenge is about all of us pooling our acts of kindness to build awareness and momentum, you can also use this as a personal goal for the New Year.  Many people take on the goal of doing 60 acts of kindness in 60 days for their 60th birthday.  Or 365 acts of kindness – 1 per day – for a year.

Just doing 1 act per day for the month of January is an easy goal to achieve and it’s all experts say you need to create a new habit – a habit guaranteed to change YOUR life.

How the Kindness Challenge came to be

People are asking how we ever came up with the idea of the Kindness Challenge.

It started in late October when I began a seminar called Self Expression and Leadership Program through Landmark Education (a global training and development company for creating an extraordinary life and living it powerfully).  The program is based around inventing a community project that “touches, moves and inspires others.”

Last summer I was reading a couple great books, “Happy for No Reason” by Marci Shimoff and “Journey to the Heart” by Melody Beattie (more  about these in upcoming posts).   I’d reached a lull in my life where life was comfortable and fun but not especially fulfilling – fulfilling in the way of really making a difference in the world.

These two books started to kindle a renewed desire to make a difference.  I didn’t know what it was going to look like but I was really intrigued by how a simple little change in one’s outlook had the potential to make a huge impact in people’s lives.

I had an “ah ha” moment about “kindness” and what about “1,000,000 acts in a month”?!  I quickly realized this goal was bigger than I was and reached out to my sister, Diane, and my cousin, Ann, to help plan and shape the project and what you see is how far we’ve come in 90 days.

We were also so lucky to be working with a talented young woman, Brianna, set to graduate from the University of Minnesota next spring with a public relations degree focused on non-profits.  She’s doing a phenomenal job of getting the word out, with the help of Sadie, another bright and passionate young woman who is working on the social media piece.

We’ve been racing to get an official website up and out-of-the-blue were able to connect with a young freshman at the University of Minnesota, Deep, who none of us knew, but who was so excited about the project that he, too, wanted to volunteer his time.  That website should launch in about 10 days and in the meantime, we’ve been using facebook and this blog to get the word out.

Excitement around the project has grown so quickly and we have family and friends and pure strangers reaching out – not only to take part in the Challenge itself next month – but to contribute their time and suggestions and energy.

We truly believe that “One act (of kindness) can change a life – one million can change a world.”