World Kindness Day falls on 13 November. It’s a day to inspire individuals to create a kinder world. So we challenge you to carry out a Random Act of Kindness and get yourself a ‘helper’s high’.

What is a Random Act of Kindness, you ask? Well it is a selfless act to either help someone out, or simply make them smile. If you are the receiver of a random act of kindness, the idea is to pay it forward to someone else.

It is not fully known where the R.A.O.K movement came from however, the phrase is said to have been put together by author Anne Herbert in 1982. Whilst sitting in a California restaurant, she wrote “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” on a place mat. The phrase became the inspiration for her book Random Kindness & Senseless Acts of Beauty which was published in 1993.

Since then the movement has grown and grown. Many are inspired daily to pay it forward, often with no recognition.

Ready to R.A.O.K.?

Here are 15 ideas to get you on the road to being randomly kind!

• Order a meal for someone who is homeless:
  Two Good Co is an initiative in which you can order a hot meal for yourself in either Melbourne or Sydney, and the chef will produce an identical one to be delivered to the homeless or to a domestic violence refuge. Or, if you want to skip the meal, you can simply donate it to someone in need.
• Deliver your unused clothes:
  to an op shop or shelter, or give your unwanted work clothes to Dressed for Success. They have outlets in Sydney, Brisbane, the Mornington Peninsula, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth.
• Make a donation:
  to your favourite charity. If your place of work has Good2Give’s workplace giving platform, you can sign in here. Workplace giving is a tax effective, time efficient, ethical way to give.
• Promote praise:
  There’s a lot of talk about celebrating success and team building, but nothing says ‘you guys rock’ like someone saying ‘you guys rock’. So do that. Give a shout out to your colleagues via email or Yammer or your workplace LinkedIn group, or at your All Staff meeting and let them know how much you appreciate them and that you think they’re doing a great job.
• Write a card: Or make one:
  Give it to your partner, or post it, and tell them how awesome they are and why.
• Surprise your favourite relative:
  Take them out for dinner or lunch or brunch or a brownie. Not because it’s their birthday. Just because.
• Send a thank you letter:
  Gratitude is often overlooked. We feel it, sure, but do we express it quite like we should? Put pen to paper and thank an old teach or lecturer who inspired you. Thank your kids’ teachers, the day care crew, preschool teachers, sports coach or swimming instructor for being great role models.
• Pay for a stranger’s coffee:
  It’s easy, you order your skinny almond milk turmeric latte, and then you say to the nice barista: “next one’s on me”. And you pay for two. That doesn’t mean the next person has to choke down the same hipster muck as you, they can have a hot chocolate with full cream cow juice if they like, but you’ve shouted them a drink. That’s the important thing.
• Share food:
  Buy a box of doughnuts and hand them out in the street. Or if that’s too weird for you, at work is fine. You can even have them delivered. Because everyone likes doughnuts.
• Let someone skip in front:
  Yes, this requires you to get off your phone while you wait in line and actually observe the human beings around you. You might be standing there with a stacked trolley that is very well prepared for the imminent Zombie apocalypse, but the person behind you just wants to buy a loaf of bread. Let them go first. This generosity can also be applied to parents with overtired and ratty kids, if you notice someone might not be feeling 100 per cent, or just because it’s a nice thing to do.
• Pay for someone’s groceries:
  Just do it.
• Give flowers from your garden:
  Cut them up, put them in a box at your desk at work or next to your letterbox and add a ‘take me I’m free’ sign.
• Send someone a gift voucher:
  To a retail outlet, to have a massage, for a restaurant or for tickets to the cinema.
• Give a gift with the beauty of charity:
  LUSH has these fantastic products called Charity Pots. It’s just one example, but you can buy numerous products where the proceeds go to charity. You get to surprise someone you love with a randomly kind gift, and you support a great cause in the process.

To celebrate #GivingTuesday, we are asking Australians to give a little each day and then share their efforts with a photo or post on Facebook or LinkedIn. All you need to do is tag @good2give #GivingTuesday with your post.

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