Kindness Calendar for June
A small act of kindness each day, for yourself or for others
It’s here: June’s Kindness Calendar! Each month, you’ll get a calendar that features one small activity each day, to show kindness to yourself or another. June’s themes are Warmth, Bright Sunshine, and Fatherhood & Family, and activities range from going outside to feel the sun on your face for a few minutes to having a living room dance party with your family. You don’t have to do all of them—you don’t have to do any of them!—but when you try one, it might just change your day a little bit.
What does this have to do with leadership and inner development? It turns out that kindness—both for others and for oneself—is an important part of being an effective and vital leader, the sort of leader people want to follow. What does this mean? It means that a leader using the wisdom of Miriam is one who shows empathy for others, who gives herself permission to be less than perfect, who models behaviors that reveal that other people (all other people) are valuable and important. Sometimes these behaviors are tiny, like pausing to hold the door open for the colleague with his arms full, and sometimes they are bigger, like starting a volunteer rota to make sure the beloved department administrator has hot meals after she comes home from her surgery. And because it’s easiest to behave in kind ways when we practice, I created the idea of the monthly Kindness Calendar to remind you (and to remind me!) to invest just a few minutes into practicing kindness.
As always, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried any of the activities. Whether you’ve tried it as written, changed it up, or mixed it with another activity, pop into the comments to let us know how it went. Would you do it again? Would you adjust it next time?
Every month, the 10th is Progress Report day - let us know if you’ve tried an activity or if you plan to try one later in the month.
The 20th is Picture Day - share a photo or drawing of an activity this month. It can be representational or not, symbolic or not, or a selfie with your dancing family.
The last day of the month is Bring it Home day. Each month you’re invited to repeat your favorite activity from the month to bring it home.
Whether you share your Kindness Calendar activities this month or not, I hope you’ll give some of them a try, and I hope you’ll enjoy them. And maybe the example you set will inspire others to practice kindness as well.