How Can I Help You Today?
I have always been guided toward helping others. No matter what mood I am in, I always make a point to be kind toward another person. I remind myself daily we are all going through our own stories and everyone is dealing with something. I set a goal to be kind to at least one person per day and although this might seem unrealistic, it is not.
People tend to believe we need to extend ourselves enormously with gestures in order to do something nice for someone else. People have helped me in ways that meant a lot to me by simply being kind. I was in a tremendous amount of tooth pain Monday and I needed to go to an extending office due to availability. After I was checked, I found out I needed a root canal. The dentist, unplanned, completed my root canal and I was finally out of pain. She didn’t need to immediately take me, she could have scheduled me another day but her act of kindness stopped me from being in extreme pain.
I experience this within my job, which includes helping others but not in the way I would have thought. Several times a week, I will work with my participants and they will end a conversation with, “Thank you for everything you do. I just need help and you are always willing to help me. You have helped my family and I more than you know.” And to me, I am simply doing my job but to them, I am helping them like my dentist helped me.
We never know what people are going through and being kind to one another sometimes makes life a little easier or even their day. Us being negative toward each other isn’t going to accomplish anything. Simply saying please and thank you to others who are serving/helping us is something we can do every day. Complimenting someone randomly because you like something they have on. Smiling at someone who passes you by.
I was in a store last week and the cashier was getting annoyed at the customer and whispered annoyance under her breath. I wasn’t present during the entire interaction, so I can’t make assumptions on before I arrived in line. The cashier looked like she wasn’t having a good day and the customer looked at her and stated, “You know, you need to change your attitude. I have been nothing but pleasant to you since I came in line and I don’t know what your problem is.”
After checking her out, I greeted the cashier with a smile and a, “Hi, how are you?”. She half smiled and said, “Good, how are you?”. I continued the transaction without saying much more, checked out and said, “Thank you” with a smile on my face. The cashier smiled, cocked her head in surprise and smiled back. Now, I don’t know the full story but I choose to be kind regardless.
Sometimes being kind or asking, “What can I do for you today?” can make someone’s day. Sometimes being there for someone and letting them know you are there if they need anything is enough. We all go through our own journeys and it is nice to be asked if we need help, even if we don’t take someone up on their offer. I smile when someone goes out of their way to be nice to me or ask how I am doing. In a world filled with so much hatred, it isn’t going to hurt us to be kind to one another; we can all use some kindness right now.
