Today I heard about one of the coolest ideas ever so I couldn’t help but share it with all of you.

In 2012, a woman decided that for her birthday, rather than having anyone give her gifts, she instead challenged all her friends to perform a random act of kindness for someone else on her birthday.  She asked people to register with their name and location so they could track who planned to do an act of kindness that day.  Then for those who wanted to, they could choose to share their experience of doing the act of kindness for others.  The results were nothing short of amazing.  People registered from around the United States and it spread to several other countries as well.  All these people committed to do a random act of kindness for someone else on her birthday – November 19^th – and then after it was over many people wrote and shared their experiences that day.  Individuals got involved, entire schools got involved, and the acts of kindness ranged from something as simple as giving a hug or taking someone a batch of cookies or carrying someone’s groceries for them, to handing out roses to strangers, to gathering diapers for a childcare center, to giving a gift card to someone in need, to sending cards to soldiers in Afghanistan, to donating food to a shelter or blankets to victims of Hurricane Sandy, to large donations of money to charities.  The acts of kindness spanned all types.

Reading these stories of people’s experiences that day was so inspirational.  Some of them are posted on http://www.sistersonpurpose.com/kindness-on-purpose.html if you want to read more of them for yourself.

The success of the birthday challenge was so amazing that she has decided to do it again this year for her birthday and I, for one, intend to commit to doing it this year.  In fact I am totally excited about it and I hope to get everyone I know to join in on the challenge of Kindness on Purpose Day.  And November 19^th is a perfect day to do it because it is right in the month of Thanksgiving and what better way to give thanks than to help someone else?  I love the idea of it and I can’t wait to be involved.

All you do to join in on the fun is to register that you will perform an act of kindness that day so that they can track it – all you have to provide is your name and the state you live in so they can track the count of how many people will participate in the project. Then on November 19^th do an act of kindness of any sort – it can be something as small as a smile for someone to as big as you want the act to be.  Then if you want to, after you do the act of kindness you can share your experience on their website so you can share the story with others.  You don’t have to post your story if you don’t want to, but it was honestly inspiring to read the stories people posted last year and it helped motivate me to do it as well, so I think sharing the story is a powerful way to also grow the kindness challenge.

What a wonderful, selfless idea this Kindness on Purpose Day was in lieu of getting birthday gifts.  I wish I had come up with such a great idea myself!  But I am excited to be a part of this and I think we should all try and make it an annual tradition- maybe if we get enough people to join in on it we can get that day turned into an International Holiday where acts of kindness are performed all over the world!!!!  That would be AWESOME!  I hope you all join me on November 19^th and please spread the word to others.

Thanks!

~Amy