“Kindness is cool” according to Amanda Giese, Founder/President of Panda Paws Rescue, in the opening credits of her show on Animal Planet.

Kindness is a lot more than cool; in fact, kindness can save lives according to new research.

And that applies to work, as well as the world at large.

Old research

A 1978 study looking at the link between high cholesterol and heart health in rabbits determined that kindness made the difference between a healthy heart and a heart attack.

New research

Just to give you an example — because I know that there are probably a lot of CEOs or managers listening to this — but studies have shown that the strongest predictor of a man’s death from heart disease isn’t cholesterol or blood pressure. It’s his job. Or her job. Everyone knows it’s important to have a good doctor, but it’s also important to have a good manager and to give people the skills that they need to be good managers. –Kelli Harding, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, and author of The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness.

Kindness starts with empathy, the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference…

The key here is “their frame of reference.”

This is why it’s so difficult for a man to truly understand what women go through or for a Caucasian to walk in the shoes of a person of color.

So while kindness may start with empathy, it’s also what takes over when empathy can go no further.

Kindness is the most essential trait to teach kids if you want to assure their success.

It will serve them well their whole life.

It’s a critical trait for team members.

It’s the hallmark of the best bosses.

It’s not something AI will ever be able to mimic.

Mark Twain said it best.

Kindness is a language which blind people see and deaf people hear.

And everybody benefits from.

Want to learn more about the benefits of kindness? Here’s a reading list of recent books.

Image credit: Ron Mader

Yesterday was election day of course and it was a doozie. I live in Florida and have found that it can be a bizarre state to reside in when it comes to election time.

Like most states there is a rural and urban voting divide. However, this state seems to be fairly even on that split and that results in extremely close elections.

I looked at past data for the state and it looks like 75% of eligible voters vote in the general election and around 50% vote in midterms. I am not sure what drives those numbers, but the election always comes down to less than 100,000 vote difference.

In Florida we are inundated with ads, money and agendas. I am registered independent (thinking it would spare me from phone calls, which it didn’t) and I received calls from campaigns, dozens of text messages and countless mailers.

I tend to tune it all out. I go search the info on the candidates and make a rational decision well before the election. However, I have found that Florida is anything but rational.

Depending on your leanings you believe your  guns will be taken, socialist are getting elected, migrants are being rounded up and so on. It seems that only the extreme version of both parties is presented to the public. What is funny though is when you actually listen to the candidates themselves they all seem fairly rational.

What drives us to our political camps? I know for me it was family initially; they all voted a certain way and so did I.

As I have come into my own I have learned to evaluate a candidate on their merits. Not by party or ads. Work and friends are another way. I am in tech and in an urban center. Most of my population is more left. As a result I tend to think most feel the same way. I could not be more wrong. Even in my county when you go to different areas you see a change in mentality.

Where else do you find the influence comes from? Religion and faith can drive it. Education of course. Income. I don’t have one answer but it’s obvious that it’s a cultural driver.

Now that the election is over maybe we can reach across the fence and begin mending it.

We are all in this together and have different ideas on how to get things done, but we gave value as humans.

Kindness goes a long way.

Image credit: Hiking Artist

In yesterday’s Golden Oldie I referred to the importance of noticing and touching “just one life,” as opposed to fixing the world.

It’s been just shy of a decade since I wrote it, so it’s worth asking.

How many lives have you touched? How many times have you, as Anne Herbert says, practiced random acts of kindness of senseless acts of beauty?

Let alone done it anonymously — no Twitter bragging, Instagram image or Facebook post?

For that matter, when did you last look up from your phone long enough to notice the opportunity to do either?

Image credit: Lion Multimedia Production U.S.A.

Expand beyond your computer.

Whether you officially celebrate Christmas or not today is not a day to be in front of your computer, so TURN IT OFF NOW!

If you are inside, embrace and enjoy the people with whom you share the space.

Pick up the phone and call people you like for no reason other than to hear their voices and share some joy.

Go outside and visit your neighbors.

Drive to where friends and family gather.

Perform at least one random act of kindness.

Look around and be amazed; amazed at the diversity of nature and the incredible world in which you live.

Have a wonderful day.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

I came across the following last week,

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

and it got me thinking about cause and effect; where things start and where they go from there.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do,” while Hemingway warns us, “Never mistake motion for action.”

Very true, ideas are all well and good, but they accomplish nothing as long as they stay in your head.

However, there is a problem we’re seeing a lot of now when thought becomes action that was best summed up by Goethe, “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

Ann Radcliffe says, “One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world,” while Brian Koslow reminds us, “The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have.”

But it is Colleen C. Barrett who nails the problem we face today, “When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.”

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Image credit: Mr_Ristoo on sxc.hu

I’m a bit ambivalent about Thanksgiving along with many other holidays, such as Mother’s Day. While I understand and even agree with the idea of honoring a certain attitude, it seems hypocritical when it’s done only on that day.

Sadly, many of the people most vocal about a holiday are the same people whose actions during the rest of the year belie their holiday attitudes.

That said, here are my suggestions regarding Thanksgiving.

No matter how bad things are in your corner of the world give thanks that you are alive to read this. As long as you’re breathing you have a shot at changing your circumstances or improving someone else’s. Several years ago I had a terminally ill friend. Her final Thanksgiving act was to sign papers consigning all her useable body parts to an organ donor program; She died just a few days later. Her action infuriated her family, but she had made sure they couldn’t stop her choice.

Which brings us to my second suggestion.

Remember the words of Plato, “Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle,” and follow the advice of Anne Herbert, “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” daily.

Get in the habit of doing one small, unplanned thing every day—drop a quarter in an about-to-expire meter; pick up a piece of litter; help someone across the street. Just think of the difference if everyone did just one random act every day.

And courtesy of the Internet comes just the right thought to round out this post,

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone—be sure not to farctate on the farcing today!

PS Enjoy a Thanksgiving special edition of mY generation, Thanks, But No Thanks…giving.

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