The Best Ever New Year's Resolution

It’s a New Year! Something we all look forward to, and something some don’t look forward to! It’s always our chance to make resolutions like exercise more, eat healthy, lose weight, quit bad habits, etc! But this year may be different, if we make it!

When 2020 came to a close, we were all just wanting COVID and politics to go away! Many of us were and still are processing 2020 and 2021. We have survived 2021, and now 2022 is here! COVID is still here, we are still arguing politics, and the fact that another new COVID variant is just around the corner is a given.

As I think about resolutions this year, what is something we can all do that is needed and will truly, actually make a difference? What is a physical and mental act that can be done by us routinely, and done over time, that can truly change someone else’s life and not ours? Something that is very simple yet almost absent from our life, is the simple act of kindness!

We live in such a reactive world. A headline comes out, and we think the world is coming to an end. Someone at work screws something up, and we think, “Wow, that just blew the whole day!” We go to the store, they are short on help, the check-out line is long, and we think our day is shot because we have to wait in line longer than normal. All things occurring in front of us and to us, in our mind, has become a catastrophe. We think the worst is going to happen or is going to come out of the situation. Rather than slowing down, taking a breath, thinking with “kindness”, and moving forward understanding that most any of the adverse things that happen to us don’t really have any true tangible lasting effect on us.

We also have someone at work that calls in sick for the 3rd time and we assume they are faking it. We have someone make a mistake at work, and we assume they weren’t thinking and they borderline did it intentionally. We get stuck in this routine of “assuming negative intent” by the other person. Thinking they are intentionally doing what they are doing to make our life worse. When our greatest opportunity is to think “kindly”, react “kindly”, and “assume positive intent”, versus thinking the worst in them.

We look back and find that ourselves and many others have automatically or instantly become unkind at the flip of a switch when confronted with a situation. I have been just as guilty as anyone! We have let our anger or fear get the best of us, and our knee-jerk reaction of “thinking the worst” leads to an extremely unkind action or outcome on our part and across the world we live in today. There is this developing mob mentality, as you have seen on social media and TV, in which if there is something disagreed with, a mob comes after the other person with swift vengeance.

All of us have many passions on topics or great concerns in many areas. We often build things up in our minds in a negative light, assume negative intent, or assume a coming catastrophe, rather than looking at things in a positive light, or assuming positive intent, or assuming life will move forward without great adverse effects on society.

My challenge to you this year, is there a better way? Can we have a determined respect and kindness throughout our daily walk of life even when we get angry, have fear, or have a valid concern? Can we assume positive intent by a person rather than assume they have a negative intent? Can we think positive and rest assured 99.9% of the everyday events won’t be catastrophic and will not have a long-lasting effect on us, and move forward with kindness? I believe we can do these things so that the many relationships in our daily lives can thrive and reach their potential for the greater good of our families and those around us each and every day. There are many unhealthy things around us every day. But if we can get thousands of people to be kind in all areas and times in their life, we will make the world so much better. And I believe, the New Year’s resolution of being kind to someone 2 times a day every day, and asking others to do this, is the best ever New Year’s resolution!!

Join Shaunti Feldhaun in her 30 Day Kindness Challenge! You can help change the world! But most importantly, I promise you, if you embrace this and do this for the next 365 days, good things will happen to you. Good things find good people. Good things come to good people. Good things happen to good people.