At the beginning of the year I wrote about a very kind gesture by a man who bought me a cup of coffee because the coffee shop would not accept cash and I did not have a credit card on hand. His message to me was most memorable, “a guy needs his coffee in the morning. Pay it forward.”

Well on this day, following important US and China holidays, I figured I would dedicate today’s Monday Morning Mojo to inspiring random and non-random acts of kindness worthy of a larger audience.

One purpose of this blog is to bring to light stories that inspire. We are so inundated with worrying news, I just wanted to counterbalance this with things I have seen that strike an emotional cord.

Do Your Part

In fact, I was listening to a recent Tim Ferriss podcast with the famous Belgium psychotherapist, Esther Perel. She was asked by Ferriss, “if you had a huge billboard where you could put a short message on it, noncommercial but a short message, could be one word, could be a sentence, could be whatever to get out to millions of people, what would you put on that billboard?” She answered, “There’s always more you can do for another. Just don’t have your day end without having done something for someone that you don’t know, for that matter. Not just for the ones that are in your little circle. On a billboard, it would say ‘Do your part.’”

Perel went on to explain with more isolation and disconnection people have experienced with Covid, by doing something from someone else it can be an incredibly powerful anti-depressant.

Mohammad Ali’s Take

I saw a fantastic clip on this topic by none other than the great boxer Mohammad Ali talking about his legacy and life recipe.  Take a moment to check this out.

My kids also frequently share videos from famous YouTube influencers who perform acts of kindness and attract millions of followers. These influencers give away homes and cars, come to the rescue of people in need, and they offer others down on their luck financial, wardrobe and other support to help them get back on their feet. The bottom line is people love these types of stories.  In fact, my father used to love the television show, “Uncover Boss”, because it was so full of pleasant surprises for people in need.

Random and Non-Random Acts of Kindness

So in light of many of the world’s holidays taking place this weekend, here are a few stories I have come across that made me feel good about the state of the world.

The first is a story from California showing neighborly love does exist. This is from a few years back, but see how a community came together to help this small business owner find time to support his ailing wife.

What is reassuring is that this type of kindness is universal. I have witnessed such empathy in China many times, similar with what is characterized in this video.

Given we are in the middle of a fantastic Euro 2020 Football Championship, this football video I saw on LinkedIn of a Liverpool fan struck a chord.

For those with a little more time on your hands, here is a link to BestLifeOnline, an online site providing to a treasure trove of inspiring stories about the world around us. If you want to read something that just makes you feel good, take time out to skim this list of 30 heartwarming stories from 2018.

https://bestlifeonline.com/random-acts-kindness-2018/

Wishing you all the best of holidays. Let’s take a pointer from Esther Perel and “Do our part!”