What We're Reading Now

Kindness Girl Delights and Inspires

23 April 2013

Allison heard Patience Salgado (aka Kindness Girl) speak at a conference this morning and found herself nodding her head, laughing out loud, and excited to dive into Patience’s blog.

Tags: allison read, brene brown, gratitude, happiness, kindness, self-compassion, ted

This week I’ve been at the 2013 VA SHRM Conference chaired by our Vice President, Rachel Brozenske. I’ve enjoyed brainstorming with Rachel about the conference for more than a year and have watched with admiration as she donated so much of her time to this annual event for 450+ human resource professionals. Rachel and a committee of stellar volunteers put together such a fabulous week of programming that my brain feels like it might burst with new ideas and inspiration.

When Rachel first got off the phone with Patience Salgado a few months ago, there was a smile on her face and a joy in the stories she told me about her conversation. I knew I was in for a treat. I’d heard about the article on Patience in O Magazine, but I decided to wait to read it and her different blogs until I saw her speak today. I knew she was the “Kindness Girl” and well-known for the ways she shows that small acts of generosity make a big difference in our lives, but nothing prepared me for the delight that was her keynote address this morning.

Patience is funny, silly, goofy, sweet, irreverent, generous, sincere, and just exudes a deep down, in the bones sort of kindness that makes you feel like everything will be okay. She’s become known for Guerrilla Goodness, or “intentional, anonymous acts of kindness performed in playful, creative ways for strangers, friends, and family.” (You simply must visit the site and learn about The Great Ding Dong Ditch and all the other ways you can have fun with this concept.) Or perhaps you should peruse The Magic Wand Project if you’ve lost your wonder and need help making a change. You may find yourself thinking, “Well sure. This is kind of cute, but how does it really make a difference?” Just read about the Pennies in Protest Project and watch that video, too. I think Patience is right. "Kindness changes everything."

Patience’s stories made me want to dive into her Kindness girl blog. I’ve read 20 of her posts tonight and realized I'd better stop reading and start writing if I want to make my “blog every Tuesday" goal a reality today. As I read post after post, I found myself thinking about my own ups and downs and was comforted and inspired by the way Patience cheerfully stumbles through the tough stuff that life dishes up, raging when the sadness demands it, and then getting back to the business of doing the best she can for herself and others through kindness and authentic living. She lives and breathes the vulnerability and courage Brené Brown wowed the world with at the 2010 TEDx Houston (one of the most watched talks on TED.com, with over 9 million views).

So much of the current research on how to be happy and why it matters for our lives (both at home and at work) points to the fact that gratitude and kindness are important pathways to happiness. As Patience said this morning, "If you need love, you gotta be love. If you need grace, you gotta be grace." And if you want kindness in your life, you need to put kindness out there. Let's all read up on her advice and get busy being kinder in new and fun ways.

Finally, Patience asked the audience "What would happen if our corporate world let kindness reign?" I think something pretty powerful could happen, and hope you'll join me in exploring that possibility with genuine curiosity.

« Return to What We're Reading Now