{"id":384,"date":"2010-07-19T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html"},"modified":"2010-07-19T12:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T12:01:00","slug":"giving-back-kind-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html","title":{"rendered":"Giving Back: Kind Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Bed headhsot.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/91\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt\" height=\"149\" width=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/span>I&#8217;ve been posting in my Giving Back series to alert you to the importance of paying forward for your blessings. DoorMats give to gain approval. Being liked is most important to them so they give to get approval and to delude themselves that people stick around for their company, when often it&#8217;s for the favors and to be with someone who always defers to what others want.<\/p>\n<p><b>Kindness with an ulterior motive isn&#8217;t kind. Doing something to brighten a person&#8217;s day is!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>One simple thing that picks a big punch is speaking to others with kindness. While NYC isn&#8217;t known for its friendly people, I&#8217;m friendly and try to say nice things to others when I can. When friends walk down my block with me or ride my elevator, they&#8217;re astonished to see how many people know me and say hello. I&#8217;ve been asked many times where I&#8217;m from, since people can&#8217;t believe that I&#8217;m from NYC. But I am. <\/p>\n<p><b>And all I do is say kind things to people.<\/b> <\/p>\n<p>When someone gets off the elevator before me, I always say, &#8220;have a good one!&#8221; If I haven&#8217;t seen a store clerk in a while and there he is, I&#8217;ll say a version of, &#8220;Good to see you. It&#8217;s been a while.&#8221; If someone looks good I tell them. I hold doors for people and when they say thanks I say I&#8217;m happy to do it. I&#8217;ve even written letters to people in customer service for products I like to tell them how much I like it. And if someone thanks me for doing something, I usually say, &#8220;It&#8217;s my pleasure.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>It is my pleasure to offer kind words to people. I appreciate getting them so I give them freely too and am happy to brighten someone&#8217;s day by saying something nice. How do you feel when you get a friendly hello, or someone tells says you did a good job, or that you look good or that it&#8217;s good to see you? It feels good. Why not do that for someone else?<\/p>\n<p><b>Kind words don&#8217;t cost anything but they go far for the people receiving them. And, it feels good to say nice things<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Kind words can put YOU in a good mood. So it&#8217;s a gift to others AND to you, since it gets you focusing on what&#8217;s positive instead of thinking about what&#8217;s wrong or complaining to friends. It also attracts more kind words back to you. Being someone who says kind things to others makes you a co-worker that people like working with, a friend people like being with, and in general, a person people like to see. <\/p>\n<p>Years ago I stopped at a place each morning to pick up coffee. One week I didn&#8217;t go to work. The following week the elderly man behind the counter asked with concern if I was okay. He was worried when I didn&#8217;t come all week. I didn&#8217;t know this man except to order and pay for my coffee. Yet he said he missed me. When I looked surprised to hear that, he explained that he looked forward to me coming in since I always had a kind word for him and the others who worked there. He said I brightened his day. That emphasized for me the importance of saying nice things to people as much as I could.<\/p>\n<p>Mother Teresa said, &#8220;<b>Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless<\/b>.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>If you tell someone he or she looks good, it can enhance their confidence for the whole day. The warm feelings from a compliments or a comment that shows you care can keep a person smiling for hours. Be generous with kind words for others. This doesn&#8217;t mean making things up to score point. But if you feel it, say it! You&#8217;ll feel good as you make them feel good&#8211;a two-for-one benefit!<\/p>\n<p><b>Please leave comments under my posts so we can stay connected.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been posting in my Giving Back series to alert you to the importance of paying forward for your blessings. DoorMats give to gain approval. Being liked is most important to them so they give to get approval and to delude themselves that people stick around for their company, when often it&#8217;s for the favors&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giving-back","category-nice-people-can-finish-first","category-positive-mental-attitude"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Giving Back: Kind Words - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giving Back: Kind Words - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve been posting in my Giving Back series to alert you to the importance of paying forward for your blessings. DoorMats give to gain approval. Being liked is most important to them so they give to get approval and to delude themselves that people stick around for their company, when often it&#8217;s for the favors&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-19T12:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daylle Deanna Schwartz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Giving Back: Kind Words - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Giving Back: Kind Words - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","og_description":"I&#8217;ve been posting in my Giving Back series to alert you to the importance of paying forward for your blessings. DoorMats give to gain approval. Being liked is most important to them so they give to get approval and to delude themselves that people stick around for their company, when often it&#8217;s for the favors&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html","og_site_name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","article_published_time":"2010-07-19T12:01:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg"}],"author":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html","name":"Giving Back: Kind Words - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-19T12:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-19T12:01:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bed%20headhsot-thumb-199x149-14613-thumb-199x149-14614-thumb-199x149-14685-thumb-199x149-15122.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2010\/07\/giving-back-kind-words.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Giving Back: Kind Words"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/","name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Daylle Deanna Schwartz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35","name":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","caption":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz"},"description":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz is a speaker, self-empowerment counselor, best-selling author of 15 books, including Nice Girls Can Finish First (McGraw-Hill), All Men Are Jerks Until Proven Otherwise and founder of The Self-Love Movement\u2122 where she's giving away her 13th book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start &amp; Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}