Random Acts of Kindness

The power of authenticity is discussed, specifically in relation to random acts of kindness. These acts are seen as authentic experiences because they go against the ego. Spending just a few minutes writing a note or paying for someone's meal can have a significant impact on others. By transcending the ego and connecting with people, we can create powerful moments that can have long-lasting effects. These acts of kindness have the potential to change someone's day or even lead to personal realizations. The power of authenticity is both scary and empowering, as it raises the stakes for how we choose to show up in the world. Random acts of kindness have the ability to create positive change and connect us with others on a deeper level. I just want to talk a little bit about the extraordinary power of authenticity, but particularly in the context of random acts of kindness. I think one of the things that probably scares us at a very deep level, a very unconscious level, is just how powerful we are, just how enormously powerful we are. That power really resides in our authenticity, and that's why it's so scary for us to step out of our ego and into our authenticity. One manifestation of that power is what we all know as random acts of kindness, or as I think Americans call it, pointing it forward. I think a random act of kindness is the ultimate authentic experience in a lot of ways because it's so against the ego, and we don't do it very often because the ego doesn't allow us to. I talk about power, and excuse me for getting a bit mathematical about it, but we've all done it before where we might have just spent ten minutes just writing a note to someone, or an email or a handwritten note, just telling them how much we appreciate them and how beautiful they are. And that ten minutes of our time, that investment of our time, which actually costs us nothing because it warms our heart actually doing the act, the impact that has on the other person is often a hundredfold. And we've all experienced that. Not often, I haven't done it anywhere near as much as I'd like to, but there is just such enormous power in that. Another classic example is if you're waiting in line somewhere, you might be grabbing a burger, what if you just offered to pay for the person next to you a burger? It's just a random act of kindness, isn't it? It works on so many levels because that person doesn't understand it, because the ego, it's illogical as far as the ego goes, they will just look at it shocked, but it will make their day, it will be the one act of their day, the one thing. They'll probably tell their friends about it, but they will carry that moment with them. And it just has enormous power, it will trigger something in them, it might come out five years later and result in some kind of realization, but it's the ultimate transcendence of the ego doing a random act of kindness. And how you define it, sometimes just appreciating someone, seeing them, abusing them, just going up and telling them. And today I tried this out, and the sheer power of it just struck me because I saw a waitress who had served me about six months before, and I remembered her, because I do remember people. And I said to her, I said, hey, you served me six months ago, and when I was talking to her, I saw her, I wasn't treating her as a waitress, I saw her, and I was present for her, and I said, you know, and you did a really good job, you really looked after me, and I really appreciated that. And she sort of smiled and we chatted for a bit, and this lady was a fair bit older than me, it was nothing, there was no romantic sort of vibe to it or aspect to it. She came back and said, hey, I'd like to have a coffee with you, you know, no rush, but if you ever want to, I finish work at 10.30. And there was nothing, she started telling me a bit about her life, and how people had stolen money for her, and a couple of things like that, she really opened up to me. And what I'd done is I'd connected with her, and I did nothing, like I, it took no, it cost me nothing, all I did was saw her, and I acknowledged her humanity, and you know, that's not a tangible act of kindness, because it didn't cost me anything, I didn't do anything physical, but it's just those acts where you transcend the ego, and then I walked across the road, and I was at a DVD shop, and I asked this lady something, she didn't give me a very good answer, I said, okay, that's fine, I asked her for an uplifting movie, and she said she didn't know any. And then, I just, sorry, I just need, I just need a little bit of time, sorry, I'm just busy at the moment, thank you. And so, so I see this lady, and I just started chatting to her, and then she was talking about how she had a few children, she had a 24-year-old son, and the lady looked very young, and I let her know that, I just smiled, I said, I can't believe you have a 24-year-old son, you look so young. And it wasn't just the words, I think she could see my authenticity and see that I was sort of reaching out to connect to her, making myself a tiny bit vulnerable, seeing her as a person, and everything changed. She got out photos of her family on her phone, which was about 15 minutes, looking at photos of her family, she was telling me about her daughter, her son, because I transcended the ego, I, again, not so much an act, I didn't do anything, so this might not be the precise example, but these things, when you transcend the ego, they have enormous power, now she would have, what's happened, she's been made to feel wonderful about herself, she'll go home and she'll be in a good mood to her children, and it just, what you can create in your life is magnified 100 times, good or bad, that's how powerful we are, and it's scary because it raises the stakes as to whether we really step into our authentic selves, but I think in random acts of kindness, in giving, in reaching out to people to connect with them, in seeing them, there's just an extraordinary power in that.