Work Hard & Be Nice to People.

here's one that's somewhat similar. (affiliate link, disclosure)

I got this sign at Francesca's a few years ago because it's a good reminder of what's important in life.

We've all heard this said before, but it's true: It costs you nothing to be kind. 

I had a crappy day yesterday. My day started at 5:00 and by 6:00 it was obvious that I was going to be drowning in work all day. Jack had his first injury that involved blood (he's fine, but the first time that happens is terrifying). A freak, twenty-minute wind storm happened that picked up our hammock and used it to take out our string lights and pots. Just weird things all day. 

But it was just a bad day! Totally fine. I was going to keep working my to-do list and being productive and just powering through all the weird crap that kept happening. 

And then I got an email. And it wasn't an outright mean email, or someone purposefully trying to hurt me. It was just a little bit rude. And it was the one little thing that just pushed me right over the edge and made me want to give up and go back to bed and try again tomorrow. 

Guys, I raged over this email. I huffed and puffed and put all of my feelings from the whole day onto this one email. I thought, it would have taken them no time at all to word this in a nice way. It would have taken nothing from them to choose to be kind, and then I wouldn't be having this kind of afternoon. 

And then I thought, I wonder how many times it would have cost me nothing to be kind, and I just wasn't. 

The truth is, I can't blame my bad day on this one email. But I can choose to learn from it. I can choose to add kindness in where it doesn't automatically grow. 

In my rushed email responses, I can be kind. When someone goes above and beyond, instead of just saying thank you, I can tell them I think they did a great job. When someone writes a killer blog post, I can take 3 seconds to tell them so. When I know someone's had a hard day, I can ask them about it. See where I'm going here? Quick email responses and saying thank you and not mentioning a blog post and not asking about someone's day doesn't make me rude, not at all. But those things cost me nothing, and could really turn someone else's day around. 

So PSA: Be nice to people. It's the right thing to do. All the decent humans are doing it. And if you wanna get really crazy, go all in and add a little extra kindness. It costs you nothing and you might even find you like doing it. 

I Want to be Like Her.

On Sunday, Christopher and I tried a church in our new town. I'll tell you a secret: I hate trying new churches. I love finding a good church, but I hate trying them. Mostly because I'm pretty introverted and meeting new people stresses me out. But I'm trying to push myself to meet people in our new city, so we went to church. 
As we were leaving, I told a lady who was standing by the doors saying goodbye to people that I liked her necklace. She said thank you, and Chris and I walked to the car. We got Jack all packed in and started to leave when I realized that the same lady had chased us across the parking lot and was waving at my window. I rolled it down. 
"You said you liked my necklace!" 
I'll be honest-I thought she was going to try to sell me something. Like, oh, you like my necklace? I actually sell them! But she didn't. 
"Sorry, I had my hands full back there. Here you go!" And she took her necklace off and gave it to me. 
She had nothing to gain from me. For all she knows, I'll never be back to that church again. She could have done a kind deed in front of a bunch of people right when I told her I liked it, but she didn't. She waited until it was just Chris and me. She just did something out of pure kindness, and it touched my heart so much. 
So much, in fact, that I'm still thinking about it five days later. 

Here's the thing about what she did...it didn't just make me feel loved and happy. It challenged me to be better. It challenged me to want to make others feel the same way. 
Churches are supposed to be a safe place, a place of love and kindness. But, as we've sadly all seen, that isn't always the case. Sometimes, it's the opposite. Sometimes, a church looks nice from the outside, but from the inside, they're not so great, because they're full of people, and sometimes, people aren't so great.
But here was this lady, doing her part to make the inside just as good as the out. 
Wouldn't it be nice if everything was like that? 
I don't know who she is, but I want to be like her. I want to brighten other people's days, even when I have nothing to gain from them. I want to throw kindness around like confetti. I want to shower people with love, just because I can. And I want people to leave encounters with me feeling so loved, that they want to go love on other people. This stranger was living out love, and I want to be like her. 
Happy Friday, friends! Cheers to a weekend full of kindness. 

Work Hard & Be Nice to People.

I have a sign hanging up in my house that says "Work hard and be nice to people." My mom bought it for me while we were shopping for my birthday last year. I saw it hanging in Francesca's and loved the simplicity of it. It's some of the best advice, but it's so, so simple. 

When considering what we should do and how we should act, I think we sometimes overcomplicate things that can often be boiled down to these few simple words.

Work hard. At your job, on your hobbies, on becoming who you want to be. Work hard on making your dreams a reality, on being someone you can be proud of. Work hard at the things you are supposed to work hard at and work hard on the things you can sometimes forget deserve hard work, things like bettering yourself, trying to be a good spouse/partner, being kind to people, or standing up for yourself. Life is too short to take the lazy way out on the important things. Work hard. 

Be nice to people. Be nice to those who are nice to you, and be thankful for their friendship. Be nice to those who aren't nice to you, and wave goodbye as you ask them to leave your life. Life is too short to put up with mean people in your life, but it's also too short to be a mean person yourself. So no matter what, be nice to people. Be sweet. Kill 'em with kindness. 

Want to become a better person? Work hard and be nice to people. 

Want to move up in your job? Work hard and be nice to people.

Want to make your life a happier place to live? Work hard and be nice to people.

See? So simple. We overcomplicate things.

Happy Monday, friends. It's a fresh new week (birthday week over here, yay!), and there will be plenty of chances to work hard and be nice. Take them!