I have been inspired by Susan Mazza one of my Twitter Friends. Her blog, Random Acts of Leadership has touched me at many levels. I just contributed to Susan’s blog with my own two stories of Random Acts of Leadership.
After reading her blog, Random Acts of Leadership, I had this experience.
I was in the local supermarket car park. As I wheeled my cart back to my car, there was a plastic water bottle lying squashed on the path. My fleeting thoughts were judging of some irresponsible person leaving it there, as I wheeled around it. In a flash, I thought, you don’t like it, do something – show a “random act of leadership.” So I went back, picked it up and threw it in the trash bin. (Unfortunately, there was no recycling bin.)
What came up immediately for me was the desire to follow Susan’s example. It seemed to me that I had performed an act of service. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to invite people to share their stories of “Positive Acts of Service”. When we perform acts of service, no matter how tiny, we experience a positive affect and that leads to more positive actions, and the recipient, if there is one, shows gratitude, and is likely to also perform some positive future action.
Recently, I was on crutches with a fractured hip and I experienced countless acts of service from strangers, opening door, holding elevators, carrying parcels to the next corner, carrying goods to my car. I was both amazed and delighted by the amount of support and kindness shown to me.
There are more quiet positive acts in the world than negative ones, yet we don’t publicize them. Here is a chance. Let’s do it. We can! Please contribute your own story below.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
What a beautiful way to encourage people to take notice and care of each other’s needs and the needs of our world. I have an example to share…when my mom was recovering from breast cancer treatment that came very close to ending her life we were looking at home care options. My husband and I run full time businesses from our home and we have a young child so we clearly needed help. My neighbor, who had already become a very dear friend of our family, came by and made an extraordinary offer. She insisted that my mom come stay with her. At first we felt it was way too much of an imposition for anyone. She persisted and we figured we would try it for a week. She was there for 3 weeks and their friendship grew enormously. They had both lost their husbands, the loves of their lives the prior year and their time together despite the crazy circumstances turned out to be a gift to both. Mary has become an integral part of our family. With no family of her own she celebrates holidays and special events with us. She and my mom are very close and continue to support and watch out for each other. I can never thank her enough for all that she has provided. We love having her as part of our family.
Hi Susan,
Your story of Mary stepping in to serve your family, when it was needed is a reminder that people notice when we least expect it. “Expect to be surprised” is a mantra that I remind myself of when such serendipitous acts occur.
Mary demonstrated all sorts of positive acts: leadership, kindness, service. These are the virtues we cherish at the end of the day when we stop to breathe and ponder what it’s all about.
Knowing that these quiet positive acts far outweigh the negative acts in the world, wouldn’t it be helpful if the media started to focus on such positive acts?
I thank you for your contribution.
Robyn – it is quite amazing sometimes to discover this “surge of help” form strangers. I recently experienced it my self:
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/confessions-techie/200903/how-i-lost-my-wallet-and-maintained-my-innocence
– Ran
Hi Ran,
Thank you for your story. It was the spontaneous acts of service (plural in your case) that sparked such positivity in you. It seems the turning is described in the quote below.
“New Yorkers are neurotic because they expect the worst from people, and so did I. And I couldn’t have been more wrong. The first to surprise me were the reps on the phone when I called to cancel the cards while my wife drove us home to the suburbs. All of them genuinely expressed interest, asked me questions, and reassured me that no harm would be done. Then, when I got home around 2am, an email was waiting in my inbox titled “your wallet”! A nice midtown dentist who had gotten in the taxi right after me found my wallet, and emailed me the taxi medallion number. He emailed me from the taxi in real time – “sent from my iPhone” – thank you technology!”
Great story. By the way, I have a marvelous New York cab story to tell. Stay tuned.
Lisa, I so appreciate your contribution. I, too, am bowled over by how my life has changed since I have become engaged in social media. The significance at so many levels is too exciting to contain. What you say about the exponential effects of all this information, knowledge and connections as being in our collective consciousness, and the sense of reciprocity and generosity that pervades the space between us all, is what strikes me at such a deep level. I feel so grateful and celebratory. It is transformative. Your blog post, 7 Things in social media I find fascinating, is wonderfully insightful. Thank you for such provocative, thoughtful questions.
Robyn, your post, along with Susan and Ran’s beautiful stories got me thinking about an interesting phenomena in my own life. I think that I have become a nicer, kinder person through the use of social networks and social media, someone who is able to do “positive acts of service” day in and day out,
Before social media, I didn’t always know *what to do*. But now, it’s as if someone handed me an instruction manual and said “here’s how you can help”.
Part of the reason, I think, is that your actions are simply more apt to seen. I would like to believe I am the type of person who – when no one is looking — would pick up a squashed water bottle and throw it out. But the truth is, often things like that *aren’t even in my consciousness* when I am alone. It’s not that I have a problem with picking up a water bottle. It’s that I don’t even *see* it.
Now, I see the problems that need to be solved because they are part of a ‘collective consciousness’. And I see the results. And I have been able to make fundamental shifts in my behavior that spill over into my real life.
I was at a meeting where and we were talking about the fact that maybe ROI on places like Twitter should be called “Return on Generosity” instead. The guy I was talking to said that he truly believed that seeing all of the overwhelming sharing and generosity on Twitter had caused him to be a better person in real life. He gave the example of just holding doors open – now, even if someone is many steps away from the door he has the patience to hold it open, really wait for them to go through, and interact with them as they do. Like me, he now “sees that squished water bottle” wherever he goes, acts on it, and gets rewarded tenfold each time.
Thank you for your thoughtful post.
Hi Susan,
Your story of Mary stepping in to serve your family, when it was needed is a reminder that people notice when we least expect it. “Expect to be surprised” is a mantra that I remind myself of when such serendipitous acts occur.
Mary demonstrated all sorts of positive acts: leadership, kindness, service. These are the virtues we cherish at the end of the day when we stop to breathe and ponder what it's all about.
Knowing that these quiet positive acts far outweigh the negative acts in the world, wouldn't it be helpful if the media started to focus on such positive acts?
I thank you for your contribution.