Mastery Mondays

Always be a little kinder than necessary.

1. Leave a dollar in a vending machine. Boom. Free candy bar for the next person who comes along. Everyone loves free candy, even if (or maybe especially) if they just think it was at the cost of someone else's oversight.

2. Share your umbrella. Is it raining? Are you using an umbrella that isn't one of those stupid umbrella hats? You have the real estate to cozy up with a poor, wet stranger.

3. Pay for the people behind you at a drive-through. Cross your fingers that it isn't a soccer mom getting burgers for the whole team, but realistically, you'll be out $20 tops and you'll cheer up the person behind you.

4. Leave a great note and a big tip for an employee. Sometimes it's as simple as letting someone know you had a good professional experience with them. Actually do those surveys at the end of those customer service phone calls or chats. Give a tip over 20 percent and write "THANKS" on the receipt.

5. Give someone a compliment and DON'T BE A WEIRDO ABOUT IT. Stay away from really specific compliments that might come off as weird (I don't care who you are, "you have nice eyes" when you're the only two people at a train station late at night is creepy as hell). Just tell someone they look great or they remind you of a celebrity, or compliment their dress. Then leave. That's the other key to not being weird. Don't, like, run away or anything. Just don't try and strike up a conversation.

6. Let people go ahead of you in line. Especially if they have a gallon of milk and you just loaded up your cart with Count Chocula before it's off store shelves.

7. Put money in a parking meter. If you've got some extra change you're not going to use, throw it in the meter next to you. It's a nice thing and as a bonus, you won't have it jingling loudly in your pocket all day, making you self-conscious when you're walking around your office.

8. Help someone struggling with a bunch of packages. This should go without saying, but don't just stand there when someone is trying to open a door with their hands full or trying to get up the stairs with a heavy suitcase.

9. Open a door for someone. Simple but effective. This one never goes out of style.

10. Give them change or let them use your store card. Behind someone in line who can save 50 cents on their SpaghettiOs but they don't have a card? Give them yours.

11. Rate their video or post, or just leave a friendly comment.  It takes balls to throw your stuff up online. Rate some kid's cover of a Justin Bieber song five stars on YouTube, or just leave a friendly comment. There's no reason to leave a horribly negative comment on an inoffensive post, and more people need to see words of encouragement.

12. Give up your seat on a train or bus. To anyone who looks tired enough to need it, not just the obvious pregnant or elderly people. 

13. Brush off their car after a snowstorm. If you were in a public lot when a freak snowstorm hit, brush the car off of the person next to you. It'll probably take you a minute, but it'll put the person who walks out to a clean car in a great mood.

14. Let them follow you to your car. Specifically, in a crowded parking lot when you've got a prime spot. And only in this instance.

15. Just know that you have no idea what other people are going through. Before you flip out at the guy who cut you off or the woman who walked through you in the supermarket, remember that you have no idea what people are going through. They could be having the worst day of their lives, and it's not worth giving them crap back.

Altruism & Kindness

What's one thing that always makes your day?