Hello Kind People!
I'm happy to be guest posting here to tell you a little bit about my February Compliment Challenge. Alison was good enough to link to it in her last post here, and I'm hoping to grow it even bigger in the remaining days of February.
The basic idea is this: Compliment someone each day. I bet there are plenty of times when you see someone rocking awesome shoes or cute earrings, or you discover that someone you know has a totally unexpected skill, and you think a compliment. If you're like me, at least 50% of the time, that compliment begins and ends in your head and the awesome recipient never hears it. "They'll think I'm weird," you might say to yourself. "Better stay quiet."
But put yourself in their shoes. Think of the compliments you've received in your life. Granted, every so often a compliment might strike you as odd or squick you out (I advise against "you smell good," for example, unless you know the person really well) but much, much more often, it totally brightens your day. As Amie Kaufman said on this blog about a month ago, Say It Out Loud!
So, for the month of February, I'm trying to give a compliment a day. Since I don't work outside my home every day, Facebook and Twitter are great tools for this (I could literally spend the entire rest of the month giving compliments JUST to pictures of my grad school classmates' babies on FB. Seriously. And they're babies; they really are all adorable.) Since I've started, I've found that it actually gives me a nice boost, because even on days when I'm feeling grumpy, it forces me to stop and look for something positive. And so far? No one has called me a weirdo or even edged away quietly.
Here are some guidelines:
- Be sincere. (Telling your co-worker she did a fabulous job finishing her muffin will either come off as sarcastic or creepy, for example.)
- Be specific. (It's more fun to hear "Cute sweater! That color really brings out your eyes," than "You look nice.")
- Be safe. (Obviously, don't approach a large stranger in a dark alley to compliment his or her cool hacksaw.)
--Jess Silverstein
Sounds like a great idea Carolina and a good way to get out of the grumps. I have a really hard next week at work next week and I'll try this.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Natalie, but it's actually Jess Silverstein's idea! LOL It's a guest post. I'll add that to the title.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea, Jess! So glad to have you guest posting about your challenge. It's a great way to take up kindness on a daily basis, and very simple!
ReplyDeleteThis is a WONDERFUL idea! And it's been relatively easy to do in my classroom. Hopefully, I'm brightening some days. It sure does brighten mine. :)
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