Your Kindness Setting

Helvetica is the default setting for the typeface on my computer. It is a serviceable font. Good for all kinds of projects. Sometimes I jazz things up with Georgia Italic. Other times I embellish with Zaph Dingbats, but the settings return over and over to Helvetica; it’s reliable.

Default setting. What is it exactly?

It’s the choice made in advance when no option was specified. It is the go-to answer when a question is asked. Of course settings can be customized. The user can make a conscious choice of what they want. However, they have to think of it ahead of time what that will be, otherwise the default takes over. This is not a big deal, I’m just talking about a typeface on my laptop. Yet I got thinking about what other default choices I let happen around me? For example my default food choices are healthy. So I go the farmers market. I limit the number of times I eat out. And I enjoy cooking at home. I set my transportation choice to walking. I run errands locally and walk to the drug store, post office, library and dry cleaners. Saving on fuel and keeping the my body in shape at the same time. The default setting for my life is a positive demeanor. My glass is usually half full. I’m pretty good at seeing the up side of things. This is not to say I never get cranky or want to scream in frustration. But I choose the perspective of optimist. And I let my default setting be kindness.

It takes some discipline to be kind. Holding doors, letting cars merge in traffic, saying please and thank you, smiling rather than rolling my eyes. I have to think about doing the kind thing rather than the fast thing.

Some would say this is just good manners. And living in polite society we should all be this way. But it’s not always the norm. I have had folks be surprised when I say thank you. Or look at me with a funny smile when I tell them they’ve done a good job. It takes a little thought to be kind but the benefit flows back to you not just away. I just feel good being kind.

It is lovely to go through life with a smile on your face rather than checking your watch (or phone) all the time to see where you need to be next. If in your interactions with the world you look someone in the eye and say a kind word it goes a long way to making you both feel so much better. So this week I encourage you to have your default response to life be set to kindness it will benefit everyone.