Tag Archive for: Kindness Challenge

Last weekend was simply an amazing weekend for me.  I am so humbled by all the help from the volunteers as well as img_1048_editedthe participants for the Kindness Challenge on Sunday, April 26th.  In case you are unaware of what the Kindness Challenge was, here are the details.  We challenged the attendees of the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest to do 100 Kind Deeds in 100 Minutes on Sunday afternoon.  It was such a success, we completed it in only 41 minutes!  We added another 30 cards and completed them in 20 minutes!

One thing that I realized is that it was much more than 100 kind deeds because a number of the kindness cards that were pulled contained up to 10 kind deeds.  The totals for the event was 269 Kind Deeds completed in 41 minutes and another 140 completed in 20 minutes for a total of 409 Kind Acts in 61 minutes!  Thank you to all the  participants of the Kindness Challenge.

If you attended the event or witnessed any of the kind deeds, we would love to hear what you experienced.  All you have to do is comment to this message.  We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

With love, gratitude, and joy,

Bill

Press Release issued 4/6/09kindnesschallengebanner

KINDNESS CHALLENGE BOOTH OFFERED AT DENTON ARTS & JAZZ FESTIVAL

KIND DEEDS TO BE GIVEN ALL WEEKEND LONG
Sunday, April 26th, attendees of the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival will be challenged to do 100 kind things in 100 minutes.  But it will not stop there.  Kind deeds will be handed out and shared all weekend long.

The festival is scheduled for April 24th thru 26th and there will be a Kindness Challenge Booth set up to do kind deeds for others.  Sponsored by The Good Samaritan Society Lake Forrest Village and hosted by idontstink.com, the Kindness Challenge Booth offers a refreshing way to be of service to others and raise awareness of the power of kindness.

“We are extremely excited to be a part of this extraordinary event.  We pride ourselves in helping others but this challenge is to get others to do kind deeds also.” says Shannon Ratliff, Staff Development Coordinator at The Good Samaritan Society Lake Forest Village.  “I am truly honored to be in the company of so many outstanding volunteers for this event,” says Bill King of idontstink.com, organizer for the booth.  “Our goal is to inspire others to take a new look at how they live their lives, and to embrace the concept of doing kind deeds when they leave the event.”

The Kindness Challenge Booth will be offering a variety of kindness throughout the entire festival.  They will be handing out stickers, flowers, cards, gifts, coupons, and so much more.  When you attend the Arts & Jazz Festival, be sure to stop by and be challenged to do a kind deed.

When I was walking on the beach this morning I noticed several pieces of trash.  I walked to my regular spot where I turn around and head back when it dawned one.  How many people walk by noticing trash in the street, in a park, by a lake, by an ocean, etc. and don’t do anything.  I thought, why not me? and why not now? 

So on my way back, I looked for anything that needed to be taken to a trash can.  Very quickly I started noticing lots of cigarette butts.  Each time I bent over to pick one up I woud think, how is this really helping?  I continued this for a good 20 minutes and had at least 50 of them in my hand when I had a thought.  That thought was how can I really make a difference?  There was no way I could pick up all the cigarette butts up and it seemed the more I looked for them, the more I saw.  I continued for another 10 minutes and made 3 trips to the trash cans to drop off my collection.  I thought about what I was doing and it dawned on me, yes, I can and did make a difference, at least for this beach on this day. 

It is kind of like the kindness challenge on my idontstink.com website.  It all starts with one kind act at a time.  If you try to fix the whole beach, the whole city, the whole country, the whole world, you probably will not get very far.  Start changing the world you see by doing one kind act today.  Then if the urge exists, do more kind acts for yourself and others.  That is how you make a difference.  As Gandhi put is so clearly, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” 

Peace, love and gratitude,

Bill

Yesterday, my wife and I were on our way home from the office.  At a busy intersection, a car honked then cut in front of me to pull off the road.  Immediately, I put on the brakes to let him over.  I then noticed there was a guy pushing the car off the road.  I pulled in right behind him to stop my car and help but it was going downhill for the moment.  I put on the flashers and awaited for his momentum to stop.  It did as he pulled into a gas station. 

He had run out of gas and knew it.  The problem was that the rest of the way was uphill.  I jumped out and immediately began pushing.  We had momentum until he accidently hit the curve and all of our momentum was stopped immediately.   Then, out of no where, it was like we were trying to push a brick wall.  The car started backwards and I told him to hit the brakes because there was nothing left in either of us.  I thought that maybe we could rest a bit and start again.  We waited a minute and started and we weren’t able to move it a single inch as it actually started rolling backwards.  The temperature was 100 degrees and it is amazing how quickly you can run out of all your energy.

Now the coolest thing happened.  Several other guys dropped what they were doing and came running up to help.  It was perfect timing because I was just about at the point that I was thinking we couldn’t push it the rest of the way.  I thanked both of these guys as a third guy came running up.  It was such a positive experience.  The guy with the empty tank looked back to me three times as I got in my car to drive away.  First he nodded and said thank you.  As I pulled off, he gave me a very kind gesture with his eyes that felt so good.  That is what true gratitude FEELS like when someone expresses it.

Peace and kindness,

Bill

PS – Pass it on!

One week into the Kindness Challenge has been a major success.  Currently there are over 1,100 kind acts logged.  THANK YOU!  Please remember to send me your stories of kindness by either emailing me at bill@positract.com or posting your comments under the blog post below.

You really are making a difference.  Thank you, thank you, and THANK YOU!

Kindness Challenge

Today is June 1st and the official start date for the Kindness Challenge of logging 5,000 kind deeds for the month.  When you have a good story, come back to this post to place your comments about your experience.  I really want you to put as many posts as possible because your stories will help others during the challenge.
Go to the landing page to get detailed instructions at:  https://idontstink.com/index.php?p=idontstink_kindnesschallenge to learn how to issue your own challenge.  This page should be operational by late Monday afternoon June 2nd.

KIND DEEDS INDEED!

June Kindness Challenge:  Can you make a difference?  You feel called to make the world a better place, but when you watch the news you think, “How can one person possibly affect real change?”  You are the answer you seek!  You can make a difference by personally practicing random acts of kindness everyday.  A fun way to track the impact you’re having is to play Bill King’s Kindness Challenge at www.idontstink.com.  (Stinkin’ Thinkin’ Stinks!)  Bill has challenged us to do 5,000 kind acts in June.  Are you up to the challenge?  Every time you do something kind in June, go to www.idontstink.com to log your kind acts and watch the total skyrocket!  No kind act is too small, and together we can make the world a better place, one random act of kindness at a time!

Today I needed to run a few errands.  As I started out, I noticed I was going to need to get gas soon.  I had plenty to do the things I needed to do but something told me to go get gas, so I trusted it.  The moment I started pumping the gas, I heard “thump, thump, thump, thump.”  Before I even looked up, I knew what that sound was, a flat tire.  I walked over to the car where a lady was wondering what was going on.  She rolled down the window and I asked her if I could help.  She was relieved and immediately replied, “YES!”  I finished pumping the gas while she cleaned out her trunk to get to the spare tire.  I changed her tire and as I finished she said, “Thank you so much.  You sure have done your kind deed for today.  This really the qualifies your kind deed for the whole week ahead.”  That was really cool.  I told her she was welcome and drove off.  I was now dirty and sweaty and needed to go back home to clean up a bit.  I didn’t get to all my errands but I sure felt good after doing the kind deed.

As I thought about this incident, I could not help but remember all the times that people showed up to help me when I had car trouble or needed assistance.  My intuition or gut told me not only to get gas, but which gas station to go to.  Since this gas station was in the opposite direction of where I was headed, I probably would have either waited to get gas or get it closer to where my errands where if I hadn’t listened to my intuition.  She was truly grateful just as I was truly grateful for others that helped me.  When you learn to trust your intuition, you will not only transform your life, you will also help lots of people.

Beginning June 1st, I am issuing a Kindness Challenge.  The Challenge will consist of logging 5,000 kind deeds on my Kindness Meter at www.idontstink.com for the month of June.  Get ready to be challenged.  Don’t wait until June 1st, start today.

Love and gratitude,

Bill