CBS Sunday Morning has featured stories in recent years on “Secret Santa”, an anonymous, wealthy, businessman who gives away $100,000 in $100 bills every Christmas. The story illustrates how he lifts the spirits of people he randomly touches, and we feel good just watching it!

Random acts of kindness are unplanned good deeds that are extended without the expectation of anything in return. When you offer a random act of kindness, you feel good and the recipient feels good….a classic “win-win” scenario.

Most of us don’t have the means to give away as much as the aforementioned Secret Santa, but we do have the ability to give small, ordinary things.

When you offer a kindness to someone, you feel good, and that good feeling even helps to put your challenges into better perspective. Consider these ideas as starters:

+ Thank the people you usually forget to thank.

+ Offer a coveted parking space to the driver who was a split second too late.

+ Let someone go ahead of you at the checkout line.

+ Offer your seat on a bus to someone who looks especially weary.

+ Offer a compliment to someone who is always grumpy.

+ Publicly thank your staff for their hard work this year by highlighting one special contribution by each person.

+ Give encouragement to someone who really needs it.

You can come up with hundreds of ideas like this, but ideas are cheap if they’re not acted on. Offer acts of kindness, not just during the holiday season but all year round.