51 Ways to Be Nice To People

1. Say please and thank you.

2. Hold doors for people.

3. Forgive. Old stuff, new stuff, little stuff. Bad things happen, people are rude, just let it go and move on.

4. Never show up to someone's house empty handed. Even if all you bring is a snack pack of oreos.

5. If you're willing to help with something, offer. Save them the worry of asking and wondering if they're intruding.

6. When you can afford it, offer to treat someone instead of splitting the check.

7. Pick up your phone, call a friend or family member and have a conversation. (It's not hard once you start.)

8. Bring coffee to someone at work.

9. If you think something nice about someone, say it. 

10. Swallow your road rage. Maybe the driver's wife is in labor or maybe they are just learning to drive.

11. Write more fan mail. 

12. Don't bash anyone online. Ever. It often causes far worse harm than you had considered it might.

13. Tip as big as you can afford. 

14. Whenever you are waiting for anything with someone, put your phone away and just be there.

15. Compliment employees to their bosses. Especially if they help you with something.

16. Smile at strangers, even if they don't smile back.

17. Seek out people sitting alone at parties and talk with them.

18. Keep a calendar of everyone's birthdays (family, friends, boss, janitor...) and send birthday cards.

19. Give people books you think they'd like.

20. Hug your friends when you greet them or say goodbye and make 'em good, squeezy hugs.

21. Write nice things on other people's social media posts. Especially the frequent-posters. They're lonely.

22. Relay overheard compliments. Spread the positivity, people!

23. Offer to babysit for a busy parent and do it for free.

24. Be kind to salesmen/customer service reps on the phone. They're just doing their job! :)

25. Get prints of family photos and give/send them to your older relatives. Especially pics of the kids. 

26. Send a care package to someone you know or sign up to send one to a soldier.

27. Bring a meal to an expectant mother a couple weeks before she has the baby. She's tired.

28. Laugh at people's jokes, even the not-really-funny-ones. Now watch their eyes sparkle.

29. Put a bunch of extra quarters in the parking meter when you leave.

30. Compliment people on their homes.

31. Write lots of thank you cards.

32. Don't get easily offended over other people's lives/opinions/manners/anythingelse. It's called elbow room.

33. When kids or old people talk to you, LISTEN. It doesn't matter if it's not interesting. They are important.

34. Give away your whole pack of gum.

35. Make and give welcome-to-the-neighborhood cookies/gift baskets for new neighbors.

36. Send anonymous flowers to anybody with a cheery (and non-axe-murdery) note.

37. Leave pennies heads up where kids might find them. Kids love finding heads up pennies. :)

38. Don't shrug off anyone's problems. Even if they're silly ones. Empathize and then point out the silver lining.

39. Write postcards and send them while you're on vacation. Write something nice on them, like Sinatra lyrics.

40. Let people cut in line in front of you and don't let it ruffle your feathers.

41. Move over into the fast lane for trucks entering the freeway, it's hard for them to get up speed sometimes.

42. Turn down your music at traffic lights.

43. Don't smoke cigarettes (or anything else) in other peoples' breathing space. 

44. Don't give smokers dirty looks for smoking. It does not define them as individuals.

45. When the cashier asks if you'd like to donate a dollar to some charity, say yes.

46. Donate canned goods to a food drive.

47. Ask someone to teach you how to do something they are skilled at/proud of. And then really pay attention.

48. Leave sticky notes with positive encouragement on public bathroom mirrors.

49. Go to fundraiser dinners for the fire department, etc.

50. Return lost shopping carts to their stalls in parking lots.

51. Give away lots of chocolate.