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.