Acts of Kindness
Group I Know
My family had never travelled to Europe and they have always craved about taking the whole family to Europe. But, my father spent most of his money on his children’s education and a suitable home for us. After working hard for past few years, I decided to give my family a gift and take them all to Europe. I booked everything myself and gave my family surprise on my parent’s anniversary. I will remember the happiness on my parents face when they learned about my surprise gift. Even better was their happiness when they were getting their pictures clicked in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Person I Don’t Know
I visited a local beauty pageant for tween girls in my local community and saw a young girl crying before going on stage. I immediately approached her and asked her if everything was alright. She told me that she was nervous to go on stage and I felt that she needed someone to give her support and confidence to move to the stage. I told the girl that she had nothing to worry about as she was looking very beautiful and she has a strong chance to win. I also told her that her dress is very beautiful and she needed to show it to the judges. With my kind words her face lit up with a smile and she walked the ramp.
Person I Don’t Like
There are some people that you like to avoid in life and there is one person that I prefer to avoid at work due to competition and office politics. But, one day I saw the same person stranded on the highway in the middle of the night, with his car punctured and smoke coming out of the engine. I wanted to avoid the person, but I could not leave someone alone on the highway around midnight. Therefore, I decided to stop my car and give the person a lift to the nearest service station and arranged for a tow truck. After helping the person, I felt better about myself.
Summary of Acts
Taking Family to Europe
The random act of kindness for the group I knew was taking my family to Europe for a surprise vacation. It was a pleasure to see the joy on my parent’s face when they reached Europe and visited the places they always wanted to take the whole family. It was my father’s lifelong dream to take the whole family, but for some reason he was unable to afford the trip. I felt that it was my responsibility to take care of my family as they are my source of joy and constant support system.
The gesture made me feel that I did something for my parents that they deserved after bringing me up, being the best parents they could have been and paying for my education. After performing the act, I felt like I finally achieved something in life and fulfilled my father’s lifelong dream. The act made me feel like a responsible son as I paid back my family for the happiness they have given me throughout my life. I also felt that after fulfilling all my dreams and aspirations throughout my life, I could at least return the favour by making some sacrifices for my family.
My father was delighted with my gesture as he had given up the hope of taking all of us together. I could feel that a huge weight was left was his chest as I completed his unfulfilled desire. I could see that my father was proud of me and felt that I had grown up to take my own responsibility. The kindness of his son was highly appreciated as he did not allow us to spend a penny on the trip as he felt that his son had done his part (Bushman, 2013).
Motivating a Young Girl
A few days ago, I saw a young girl crying backstage in a local beauty pageant and automatically felt she needed someone’s support and help. I went to her and told her that she was looking beautiful and her dress was great enough to at least go on the stage and compete. I had to console the young girl as looking at her I felt that she needed an adult to guide her and ensure she felt better about herself. Giving the girl a much needed boost made me feel better about myself as I remember people helping me when I was young.
I felt like I was placed in that position to help that young girl. After giving the girl a much needed boost, I felt like I was her guardian angel as she needed my help to realize her potential. I felt that I have the power to help people and motivate them for doing good things for themselves. As a person I felt better about myself as she was practically asking for help during her meltdown. Overall, helping the young girl based on my feeling empathy towards her, as I understood her pain and her need for help (Belacchi & Farina, 2012, p. 150-165).
After my motivating and optimistic talk with the girl she stopped crying and gave her best on the ramp (Senay, Albarracin, & Noguchi, 2010, p. 499-504). Her confidence shot up after I told her that she looked very beautiful and appreciated her dress selection. I do not know how she felt after the show, but my talk was clearly motivating for her as she boldly walked the stage without any panic. She practically shed her inhibitions and scares and showed her true self to the judges of the contest. It felt like she needed the boost and she fully took advantage of the motivating words that came her way from me.
Helping a Work Rival
The random act of kindness was to overcome personal grudges and help a work rival out in a difficult decision. The individual was stranded on the highway and had no other option, but to ask for help from people who were travelling at midnight. I helped the individual to arrange a tow truck for his car and dropped him and his car a nearby service station. Even though I felt the person did not deserve my help, I felt that I needed to show some concern for him as he had no other option and might have been mugged on the highway. Even though, I did not like the person, I did not want to see the person physically hurt.
As soon as I saw the individual on the highway waiting for another car to halt and help, I knew that I needed to help. After helping the individual in the tough situation, I felt I was a better person as I overcame my personal grudge (Wade & Worthington, 2003, p. 343-353). The act of kindness made me feel better about myself and taught me that I can keep my personal and professional life separate (Hill, Miller, Weiner, & Colihan, 1998, p. 667-670). I also felt that maybe my actions would help me in developing workplace relations with the individual and ensure we are involved in a healthy competition in the future.
As soon as I stopped my car, I could see the feeling of relief on the face of the individual. It seemed that he was waiting for hours on the highway and was scared of getting mugged. After I called a service to tow his car and dropped him to a nearby service station, I could see that the individual felt completely different about me and might be willing to work with me and develop a better relationship. The individual personally thanked me for my gesture and assured me that he will work to improve our relationship. Overall, I learned that my kind gesture touched the individual’s heart and changed his perception about me.
Conclusion
Random acts of kindness tend to show how people are willing to help others or willing to sacrifice their personal needs for others. Random acts of kindness can be done for people that you know and love, those you have never met before, and also for people you hate. Every act of kindness brings human emotions to the fore and makes people understand themselves better. I helped my family and took them to a trip to Europe that taught me that I appreciate the things my parents did for me throughout my life and wanted to pay them back. I helped the young girl as she brought out empathy inside me and it forced me to take action and motivate her. My act of kindness towards a person I hated taught me that I had the ability to overcome personal grudges and value relationships.
References
Belacchi, C., & Farina, E. (2012). Feeling and Thinking of Others: Affective and Cognitive Empathy and Emotion Comprehension in Prosocial/Hostile Preschoolers. Aggr Behav,38(2), 150-165. doi:10.1002/ab.21415
Bushman., B. (2013, 19 June). Some Parents Want Their Child to Redeem Their Broken Dreams. Retrieved 15 July 2016 from, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/brokendreams.htm
Gillis, H. M. (1997). The Scared Child: Helping Kids Overcome Traumatic Events. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 18(5), 352. doi:10.1097/00004703-199710000-00013
Hill., E. J., Miller., B. C., Weiner., S. P., & Colihan., J. (1998). Influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance.Personnel Psychology, 51(3), 667-683. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1998.tb00256.x
Senay, I., Albarracin, D., & Noguchi, K. (2010). Motivating Goal-Directed Behavior Through Introspective Self-Talk: The Role of the Interrogative Form of Simple Future Tense.Psychological Science, 21(4), 499-504. doi:10.1177/0956797610364751
Teisberg., E, Porter., M.E. & Brown., G.B. (1994). Making Competition in Health Care Work. Retrieved 15 July 2016 from, https://hbr.org/1994/07/making-competition-in-health-care-work
Wade, N. G., & Worthington, E. L. (2003). Overcoming Interpersonal Offenses: Is Forgiveness the Only Way to Deal With Unforgiveness? Journal of Counseling & Development,81(3), 343-353. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00261.x
