As one year ends and another begins, people tend to rethink and reminisce over past decisions, the things that made them laugh, smile and cry, and the times they spent with loved ones. The mistakes of the year are reflected upon and solutions are created in order to avoid repeating missteps of the past. These solutions become one’s resolutions for the New Year, one’s goals and expectations, adventures and possibilities.

My personal resolution of 2015 is to make someone’s day. Whether it is a friend, a family member, or even a stranger, every week I will try to do one act to cheer someone up, make someone smile, make someone feel loved, or just simply remind someone that the world is an amazing place. The first step of my resolution was to create a list of ways I can make someone’s day, which I have listed below.

Ways to Make Someone’s Day

• Hold open the door for five people I do not know
• Decorate a random person’s locker
• Write an encouraging note and give it to someone I do not know
• Give a stranger a balloon- because who does not love balloons?
• Approach a stranger with a rose and ask, “Do you accept this rose?”
• Dance the Hokey Pokey and get eight people to join me
• Go to a restaurant and sit with someone who is alone
• Collect articles of clothing I do not wear and donate them
• Surprise a friend with a Starbucks
• Give someone a ride home who usually has to walk
• Pay for the person behind me in a drive-through
• Give an unusually generous tip to a waiter or waitress
• Thank my mailman and ask about his day
• Give free hugs
• Smile
• Let someone go ahead of me in line at the store
• Say “Please” and “Thank You”
• Bring my neighbors homemade treats or do a favor for them
• Say “Good Morning” to everyone I see
• Write a handwritten letter to an elderly family member (not email or text!)
• Encourage my family and friends to follow their dreams because the world is full of possibilities
• Ask a relative for an old family recipe ask him or her to teach me how to make it

I challenge everyone to make someone’s day at least once in 2015. It is impossible to know what others are going through, but a small act of kindness can make a huge difference. These acts not only help others, but can also help one meet incredible people. Here is how to take on the challenge: choose a day of the week, and on that day each week, simply pick an act from the list and make someone’s day.

Send The Kilt a picture of your act of kindness and it might be posted on the @ahs_kilt Instagram, #adamsmakesyourday2015.