R.A.K. -- Try It; You'll Like It!

Random Act of Kindness -- RAK.  Such a simple concept.  Do something nice for someone with no expectations.  Open the door for someone.  Pick something up they may have dropped and return it to them.  We have opportunities many times every day at RAKs.  But I can tell you from personal experience that it is easier said than done for most people.

I have an incredible life.  The opportunities I have been given, the people I am surrounded by, the life I lead -- all fantastic!!  A random act of kindness is a chance to pay back.  I even think it's a chance to pay forward. 

When I was in the corporate world I was sent to many management classes.  One of the lessons that stuck for me was the "10 to 1" rule.  This concept proposed that people will remember a negative comment or reprimand much longer than most positive ones.  Therefore you had to do 10 'positive' things to balance each negative.  The context this was in pertained more to people management and positive reinforcement but I apply the same theory to RAKs.

I try to do as many RAKs as I can to balance the many negative things that I tend to do -- which will go un-mentioned in this post, but those who know me best -- KNOW.  And I believe this works.  There certainly is a lot of good stuff going on in my life in spite of my screw-ups so it must work.

Many times a RAK is such a simple, effortless thing for you to do and yet can be a big thing to another.  For guys, I think many times testosterone gets in the way.  Things become a competition in our unending efforts to be the best.  But if we slow down and look at the big picture -- put things in perspective of what is REALLY important in the long run, not 'just this moment' -- I believe better decisions will be made.

Perhaps the one RAK we can all do -- me included -- would be to drive friendly.  Pretend we actually KNOW that person in the other car and are going to see them again face-to-face.  Be nice.  Drive Friendly.