The Goodness Account

If you want your relationships to thrive, you must invest in them by being a giver rather than just a taker.

Everywhere you go, strive to make relational deposits into peoples lives, encouraging them, building them up, and helping them to feel better about themselves.

When you’re out in public, uplift random strangers. Try not to premeditate what you’re going to say. Life will give you the words. Just walk in love and care about people.

Just the simple fact that you went out of your way to make a person feel better, makes a deposit into the account of goodness. Your active kindness builds trust and respect with yourself and with those around you. You can make a deposit into this account by simply:

• Smiling at somebody today
• Acknowledging them today
• Being friendly today
• Being pleasant in ordinary circumstances

When you complement people, you’re not merely giving a compliment, you’re making a deposit into the account you share with that person.

At home, you make deposits into this account by giving your partner a hug and a kiss, reminding them what they mean to you. You make deposits into this account with your children by spending time with them, by listening to them, by going down to the park and watching them.

A subtle yet amazingly effective means of making a deposit is by overlooking a fault. Maybe a coworker or child or partner was rude to you about a meaningless matter. Instead of retaliating, you can just let it go. You don’t bypass it, but rather you instead unintentionally fill up the goodness account with affirmations that are honest and relating to all the things people don’t see about that person.

Living can be hard. And sometimes circumstances can be so challenging, that it feels like the air is been sucked out of that room. But I think you were designed to be a refreshing breath of fresh air during those moments. That and so much more.