Welcome to the 12th habit in the #GiveMe30HabitProject!!
See this post for all the details and backstory!
This month’s habit is to practice random acts of kindness!
This month’s habit challenge is designed to help you achieve a higher sense of joy by instilling joy into the lives of others.
It sounds counterintuitive, but the fact is that practicing selflessness is one of the fastest ways to put yourself in a good mood that there is.
I felt like the holidays were a good time for this challenge, because we are all more stressed and busy than usual. Many people also struggle with their mood during this season. Not only will you get the opportunity to brighten the day of someone else, but he will brighten yours in the process.
You can plan to do the same thing for someone different each day, for example buying the coffee of the person behind you in the Starbucks line, leaving a $1 or $5 bills for someone to find, paying a compliment, etc., or you could come up with something specific to a need you find each day.
Try to find a way to remember your habit each day. Put a sticky note with a code word on your computer at work, set an alarm on your phone to remind you, etc. Try to do it as soon in the day as is feasibly possible so you don’t forget and so that you aren’t scrounging for an idea later in the day.
I came across a fantastic idea for focusing attention on giving during the holidays and thought it would be perfect to share in the post. It is called The Giving Manger. Here is the description:
“The Giving Manger helps families shift the focus of Christmas back to giving. A piece of straw is placed in the manger for each kind deed or act of service performed. On Christmas Day, the Baby is placed in the manger filled with service and love. As your family works together to give gifts of service you will find your hearts and home filled with more joy during the holiday season than ever before.”
Here is the site you can order it from.
OK, so now that you have an idea of what the habit looks in practice and the benefits of practicing it, it’s your turn! You don’t have to do every single one of these, but these are some ideas for you to implement.
For the next 30 days:
- Every day for the next 30 days, look for a way to do something kind for another person with no expectations or strings attached.
- Practical Tips: If you can, find a way to do it anonymously.
- Note how you feel after doing the gesture.
- Practical tips: Call these feelings to mind whenever you don’t feel like following through on your habit.
- Ask a friend or your spouse to join you in this habit.
- Practical tips: Check in with one another and share your ideas and struggles so that you can help each other stay excited about the habit.
- Come up with a list of ideas to pull from over the course of the month.
- Practical tips: Call these ideas to mind whenever you find yourself in a situation where you can use them.
- As the month goes on, see if you can identify ways in which practicing these kindness gestures makes your quality of mood, relationships, or productivity in your life overall better.
- Practical tips: Come up with ways to make sure you continue to practice this habit moving forward past the 30 days!
- Bonus: Use The Giving Manger as a fun way to get the family involved!
- Practical tips: Make it a new Holiday tradition!
Don’t forget to share this project with others! You can share the link to this blog post as a status/post on Facebook. Feel free to save and use the image from this post, or use the ones I’ll have on my Instagram page. Whatever other means you have to get more involvement will make this project more fruitful! Tweet, email, pin on Pinterest, etc.
Also, I encourage you to keep track of your journey and use the hashtag #GiveMe30HabitProject on social media. Please tag me in your habit progress and insights! I’ll also be glad to troubleshoot sticking points. I’m Kaci M Byrd Cheeseman on Facebook and @CheeseGirlPA on Instagram.
If you want to check in daily for accountability, you can post either a photo and/or status and use #GiveMe30HabitProject #Day1, #GiveMe30HabitProject #Day2, so on and so forth. I’d love to see how it goes and repost—only if you give me permission, of course! I’ll be searching the hashtag to see who is joining in.
Remember: What is it you want to achieve? Who do you want to become? How do you want to serve others? You may not know how to get there, or even how to get started. I just ask that you trust me and help spread the message to others so they can become involved. Keep showing up, and together we will get you there, one 30 day habit at a time!
Are you ready? Let’s get growing!!
| Kaci
Reader Questions:
1/ Do you have a good idea for a random act of kindness?
2/ How do you overcome the holiday stress?
P.S. If you are interested in working on a specific habit and need someone to help you troubleshoot, keep you motivated, and hold you accountable, I offer coaching a variety of ways, which you can learn more about here.
My specialty is habit change and my approach is to work on mindset alongside the habit, so that it is healthy and sustainable, and this is best done via 1:1 Coaching which you can learn about here. Whether it involves your health, finances, nutrition, exercise, relationships, or personal growth, habits are the key to success. We are the outcome of what we repeatedly do. Without addressing that, there can be no change. Learn more here!
What Can Be Gained | «Small Wins Create Massive Success» 