I love reading “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books - I find them so inspiring and thought-provoking. There’s one poem in the “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul” edition called “Smile”, written by 13-year-old Barbara Hauck. The poem starts off with “She smiled at a sorrowful stranger/The smile seemed to make him feel better.”

Such an easy act of kindness from a stranger led to so much good, as the poem finished with “One of the boys that he rescued grew up to be President/All this because of a simple smile that hadn’t cost a cent.”

Now, this poem is of course exaggerating to make a point, but the message remains clear: doing something as effortless as smiling at a sad stranger could do a world of good. There are so many simple actions that we can do every day to cheer people up and make them just a little happier. After all, that’s something that we should be striving to do - brighten other people’s days and spread kindness and joy.

1. Hold the door open for the person behind you

Also, if you see someone who could use a little help with the door (like they’re carrying a large box or pushing a stroller), open the door for them.

2. Hold the elevator

If you’re in the elevator and see someone walking towards you, be courteous and hold the elevator door open for them.

3. Call (or email or text) someone who you haven’t talked to in a while

If you haven’t spoken with your parents, siblings, grandparents, other relatives or friends in a while, call them to catch up and just to see how they’re doing. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but they’ll be happy to hear from you!

4. Help someone bring their groceries to their car

If you see a person struggling to carry their things to their car (and you have a free hand to help them), offer to lend a hand.

5. In a fast food drive-thru line, pay for all - or part - of the order of the person behind you

That is, if you can afford to do so. You can even tell the cashier that when they inform the next person that their order has been paid for (in full or partially), to also ask the customer to pay it forward, so that you can try and start a chain of people paying for the order behind them.

6. Get to know your waiter/waitress and if they’re nice, leave them a larger-than-normal tip

It doesn’t have to be this extreme - this is pretty generous! But for those that can financially do so, the server will be pleasantly surprised and you can even include a nice note along with the tip.

7. After you order, leave a tip in the jar at the coffee shop, donut shop, etc., that you order from

I have a feeling that not many people do so, since a lot of people pay with credit cards anyways, so they don’t get change back that they can easily put in the jar. Tipping is a nice way of showing that you appreciate the employees there, especially if you frequent that particular shop.

8. Put a little extra money in the parking meter

If you see that most spots are taken and it’s likely that someone will pull into your spot soon, drop some coins in the meter before you leave, as a nice surprise for the next person.

9. If you grab coffee before work, bring one for a security guard, custodian or staff member

They’ll appreciate the gesture at least, if they don’t like the coffee itself (because some people don’t drink coffee and for those who do, they often like their coffee made in a specific way). It’s a nice way of letting them know that you respect them and the work they do.

10. Leave positive notes inside your favorite books at the bookstore

I’ve wanted to do this for the longest time - it’d be a nice surprise to find a positive note inside a book. It’ll be fun for other book lovers who are looking around and reading the back covers of books, trying to find out what they want to read next. You can encourage people to read your favorite books and maybe even leave notes of their own in their favorite books!