Being kind to senior folks, especially when it’s unexpected, has a tremendous impact and goes much further than you might think. The purpose of this blog entry is to remind you of the value of these kind acts, explain why they’re so useful and, hopefully, encourage you to act accordingly.

Why the elderly appreciate kind acts more than most:

It’s pretty simple when you think about it. Senior citizens, as they get on in years, have less and less going on their lives. This means they do less, see fewer people and generally have less stimulating lives. And when a person has less going on, he/she applies more focus to smaller details and, accordingly, these smaller details become more important.  These small details can be anything, including small, random acts of kindness.

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Being reliable is such a simple thing and yet so many people aren’t. Why is this? I think it’s because being reliable requires so much consistency. There are lots of little things that we can do to be perceived as reliable and each little thing, alone, may seem insignificant and therefore easy to skip. But, when you’re consistent with lots of little things (that are so simple), you can build, maintain or repair a reputation of being reliable.

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If you thought about it, you’d probably agree that most people are not great listeners. Think about the times when you have clearly noticed people not paying attention when you speak. I admit that I am not the best listener but I have worked hard to become better at it over the years. It’s not easy. In fact, it has been one of my New Year’s resolutions (for a number of years in a row) to be become better at listening.  I assume lazy listening is very common because it just takes less energy… our minds are racing away and we’re often generally distracted.

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Saying ‘thank you’ is one of the simplest yet most important things we can do. It’s important when you actually speak the words and just generally feel grateful (or have a sense of appreciation for all that is good in your life). I argue that people who don’t say ‘thank you’ and who are generally ungrateful are less pleasant to be around. And if you’re less pleasant, you’re creating disadvantages for yourself, fewer people gravitate to you and you miss opportunities. Two simple words do, in fact, mean a LOT. This is one of the first blog entries because being grateful is one of the most important things we should think about. It’s something applicable every day of our lives in almost all circumstances.

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The Urban Dictionary defines Dinosaur Arms as: An affliction commonly possessed by someone who is excessively cheap, resulting in that person being unable to reach for their wallet (or purse) to pay for something.

We all know people with short dinosaur-like arms who notoriously expect to be paid for, rarely contribute their own money and/or mysteriously don’t have money (when it comes time to pay for something). This happens most commonly at restaurants when a group is paying for the bill at the end of the meal. Whatever you do, don’t be the one with dinosaur arms. If you currently have or have had dinosaur arms in the past (or even a slight case of it), be aware of it and do something about it.

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