Are You One of Those People?

Are You One of Those People?

Quick story. At the grocery store today, it was a madhouse. Busy, busy with people everywhere and only 3 checkout lanes open. Self-checkout was about 10 people deep. A young girl came walking by looking around with a single item and nothing else. I told her she could cut in front of me if that was all she was buying. She looked at me very concerned and said, “What about the people behind you?” Fair question. I looked back, turned to her and said, “Let’s find out. This young lady only has 1 thing. Anyone in this line have an issue with her going in front of me?” All three people in the line behind me shook their heads. “Looks like you got the A OK.” She thanked me multiple times. As she was getting ready to have her item rung up, I said to her, “You know, there are a lot of us out here.”

“Us?” she said.

“Nice people that are nice for nice sake” was my reply. “And now our ranks have grown by one, right?” I smiled at her.

“Yes, indeed they have” she said smiling.

Nice is free. It cost me nothing but about 50 seconds of my day to have that young lady go ahead of me in line. If she is indeed one of ‘us’ now and pays my act forward just one time, my 50 seconds of kindness has now doubled. The more she does something nice, those 50 seconds will grow exponentially. If the 3 people behind me do the same, even more kindness will find its way into our society. All of this begs the question…

Are you one of those people too? Will you let someone merge in traffic? Will you let someone ahead of you in line if they only have 1 or 2 items? Will you smile and say thank you or have a nice day to a stranger and mean it? Smiles, just like scowls are contagious. I was no fan of the recent pandemic, but it did slow us down. It helped me realize and recommit to the idea that kindness costs nothing, but its value is immeasurable. Are you one of those people who openly gives it away? Are you one of those people who gains more in your emotional bank account when you free give kindness withdrawals?

Here in our Tribe of Up, if we truly advocate for more joy, we must spread joy. Perhaps that young lady in the grocery store forgot about me letting her cut in line before she left the store. Perhaps she will forget it the next time someone cuts her off in traffic. But maybe, just maybe she is one of those people now. If we advocate for more joy enough, eventually others will too.

Are you one of those people? Sometimes, it is hard to be one of those people. If it was easy, everyone would do it. To quote a line from A League of Their Own, “It’s the hard that makes it great.” Nice is free but sometimes nice is hard. I would challenge you all to be nice anyway. Sometimes people will give you grief for being nice. Be nice anyway. Advocating for joy allows us the freedom to be the people we always wanted to be. One of ‘those’ people. Wear that badge with pride. Who knows, maybe by creating a community of those people, we can create a region of ‘those’ people and then a state, then a country and then…Well, you get the idea. What’s the alternative? Being sour and bitter and down all the time? I view down like cauliflower. I have tried it many ways and, in many forms, and truly can’t stand it. I feel the same way about down. I have found many other vegetables I love and eat those. I can’t do cauliflower. No thank you.

Are you one of those people? If so, shine your light for the world to see. If you aren’t, we need you with us. Try it once. Then try it once more. Let me know how you feel after you try it. The person you wait to hold a door for or let cut in the grocery line may feel good being the beneficiary of your kindness, but you know what? I bet you will feel better. I double dog dare you to tell me I’m wrong.

Steve is a Dexter resident and Owner, Chief Those People Officer and Success Coach for BetterPlace Consulting. Reach out to him and let him know you are one of those people at