Diagnosis Bad Mood: Killem' with Kindness

I had this crazy thought over the weekend.  I discovered best way to get rid of a bad mood - is to kill it with kindness.  Like most guys, I'm a fixer.  I want to solve whatever is going on so I can move on to the next issue or problem.  However my brain couldn't comprehend there was no way of fixing this particular issue.  Yes, even Mr. Good Natured Doug can get down every once in a while.

Let's just say I was having a bad day, actually a bad week.  So during a visit to Dallas to see an old friend, we hit a mall near his home to pick up a few things.  I found myself borderline whining about my problem to my buddy Mark.  The fixer in me thought, "Well, the more I talk about it, the more likely I'll come up with a solution".  However the common sense in me quickly realized that just wasn't possible.

So here's my remedy to the problem.  I'm in a town where nobody knows me, inside a mall where I know no one, so I thought, what the heck!  I set a goal that during my time in the mall, I would perform at least six random acts of kindness.  I do get a positive feeling after I feel like I've helped someone.  So six R.A.K.'s should do the trick, right?  

The first act out of the hat?  A random sneeze which could be heard throughout Neiman-Marcus.  I let out the loudest "God Bless You" imaginable just as I began my trek down the escalator.  I'm sure one person really appreciated it, but likely dozens of others could have done without my yelling.  Soon after I was holding doors, joking around with "I hate my job" sales clerks until they cracked a smile, and I even suggested to a Footlocker manager how one of his sales reps should be promoted to assistant manager due to her incredible job of showing me where their socks were located.

But above all the silly waves and handshakes with people who had to be thinking, "Who the heck is this dude?", the best R.A.K. of all wasn't so random after all.  A simple thank you did the trick.  I thanked my friend Mark for listening.  He had to hear me whine, gripe, complain, wish, describe, contemplate - you name it -- the entire weekend.  So here's to you Mark, and everyone else that has been forced to be within earshot of me recently, "Thank You". 

And chances are this online "Thank You" will be noticed by a few hundred, if not thousand more people than the ten or so ladies shopping for make-up in Neiman-Marcus.

Doug Warner    

Doug.warner@news9.net