I think this is a great lesson or us all, or perhaps more of a reminder to be nice. Earlier this week I attended my Creative Networking coffee morning networking event in Peterborough and a lady that I had not met before (Kerry), presented me with the most beautifully wrapped bunch of daffodils (my favourite flowers).
Kerry had seen me on LinkedIn being nice to other, being positive, connecting others and genuinely networking with other people in a friendly and kind way – so she wanted to give me some flowers to say Thank-You for being nice and positive. It was a lovely surprise.
Later that day Kerry put a photo up of me with the flowers on LinkedIn and replied to my thank-you saying;
“You are sooooo welcome Hazel, I know how time consuming networking events are and you are soooo upbeat on LinkedIn promoting and matching people, you are so deserving of my words and the daffs are always the happiest flowers around so they are perfect for you”
The day continues as normal and I decide to treat myself to an iced coffee from Krispy Kreme on the way back to the office. I go through the drive-through and on ordering at the first window the man takes my order and tells me to go to the next window.
I pay at the next window and he apologises for being rude to me when he took my order, especially as I was so lovely. I explained I definitely hadn’t noticed how rude he was. He gave me my drink and asked me to wait and he reappeared with a free doughnut, to say thank-you for being so nice and lovely.
Later that evening I am telling my partners children that I was given a free doughnut for being nice and one asked what I said. I explained the conversation and she said “But isn’t that just being normal?” I replied that I thought exactly the same.
She then said “Well, I suppose, some people aren’t nice normally so he was surprised and that was why he thought you were nice. Shouldn’t we all just be nice all the time?” Before her brother quickly added “Then we could all get free doughnuts!”
But it’s true; we may not all get free doughnuts for being nice but the one kind thing that Kerry did put me in a brighter mood and perhaps I was nicer to the man at Krispy Kreme than I am normally am because of that positive mood.
It’s like the contagious smile, an act of kindness passes from person to person – I was just lucky enough to be on the receiving end of two nice things on that day!
