My March challenge: RAoK

Rather than focus on myself this month, I've decided to focus on others. 

For the month of March, I will perform a Random Act of Kindness (RAoK) each day. It feels good to do things for other people and I hope I can spread a bit  of love and joy around.

I'll keep track of my daily deeds on this post and check in at the end of the month with my "results". Maybe my good deeds will inspire YOU to spread the love. 

Heeere we go!

**starting a few days late**

MARCH 3: Planned a party for a friend. I volunteered to host a virtual baby shower for a BFF who lives 12 hours away in Michigan. Today, I set up the Facebook site. Here's the banner I created. Isn't it adorable? 

I also created an evite that I'll send out to our friends via text using Red Stamp (love this app). 

I AM an Event Planning rock star ya know! Virtual baby shower? No problem! Who says you need to be all be in one place to have a celebration?

MARCH 4: Donated money to a meaningful cause. I stumbled across a request for donations on a friend's page from a person I don't know and have never met. After seeing the photo, I couldn't help but stop and read the story behind it. 

I was touched and decided in an instant that I wanted to give something. I sent some money to her via Pop Money and said a prayer that the money would be used as intended and I prayed for Melody's strength as she fights the C-word. 

RAoK #2! Wrote a sweet love note. I'm on a roll today. I wrote my beau a little love note and left it on his pillow with a decadent piece of Gnosis Fleur de Sel chocolate tonight. Sleep tight boyfriend. 

MARCH 5: Sent an anonymous gift to a stranger. I looked for opportunities throughout the day to perform a RAoK and nothing was shown to me. Fast forward to 8 PM tonight. Sitting at home on my laptop and I checked out www.randomactsofkindness.org for inspiration. There I saw the idea to give a stranger a gift from their Amazon.com wishlist. I didn't even know you could do that! I randomly picked a woman named Maria and purchased a Kindle book from her wishlist with the following note. 

MARCH 6: Baked cookies and gave them away. My boyfriend was the recipient of today's RAoK. I surprised him and baked his favorite grain free, sugar free chocolate chip cookies. I used to make these delectable morsels all the time. I haven't made a batch in eons. Needless to say, he was a happy camper. 

MARCH 7: Paid bridge toll for the car behind me. On my way to the gym this morning, I pulled out a $10 bill and decided to pay the Ben Franklin Bridge $5 toll for the person behind me today. 

After I went through the toll, the woman in the car behind me, sped up to me on the right, honked her horn and waved THANK YOU as she passed me. That made me feel good. I continued my drive to the gym singing to the music on the radio. 

MARCH 8: Gave away coupons at the grocery store. Ever go into the store and next to the item you're looking for is a coupon that someone has left there? BINGO! Today, I cut out a bunch of coupons from Whole Foods and left them scattered around the store. 

MARCH 9: Gave a friend a bottle of bubbly. I was invited to attend a networking event at my neighbor's apartment. Rather than show up empty handed, I dug into my stash of bubbly and took a chilled bottle for the event (which was GREAT!). 

MARCH 10: Let cars in front of me. While driving around, I made a conscious effort to let cars merge into my lane in front of me.

MARCH 11: Smile at my fellow fitness comrades. Today, the temperature outside went up to 65 degrees. I took this time to shut my computer down early and go outside for an afternoon run in the park. Rather than pass my fellow joggers/runners/walkers with a stoic face, I intentionally gave a smile and a wave as we passed one another.

MARCH 12: Offering my event planning services at no cost. 

MARCH 13: Allow the pedestrians to cross...even when they don't have the right away! I drive a lot in Center City Philadelphia and there are pedestrians everywhere. Usually, I am pretty mindful of letting them cross when they have the right away, but there are always those few who love to cross in the middle of the street. Today, I let those dangerous folks cross instead of whizzing by them and rolling my eyes. 

MARCH 14: Saving my magazines to give to a friend. I have a pile of magazines that I save for one of my girlfriends. She loves readying MORE magazine so why not recycle by letting someone else enjoy them?

MARCH 15: Paid compliments to my Facebook friends. Rather than scroll down and hit like, like, like, I actually took the time to right a nice, complimentary comment on posts that I thought were meaningful. 

MARCH 16: Gave money because of an awesome sermon I heard. I heard an inspiring sermon today at church, We are More Than Conquerors. Rather than drop a few dollars in the basket for the preacher, I gave what I felt matched my level of spiritual fulfillment. 

MARCH 17: Completed those store surveys. Target, Walgreens, AMC...I did three today and one of them, I commented on the nice service given to me by the Target check out guy and gave his name. Maybe I'll get a gold star from his store manager. 

MARCH 18: Wiped down all the treadmills in the gym. I worked out in my building's gym today which only has 3 working treadmills. As I wiped down my machine, I figured why not wipe them all down quickly. I may have saved the next person from contracting a yucky virus! 

MARCH 19: Treated myself kindly. Today was a super stressful day. So stressful, I had a know it my back because I was so tense. Rather than work on school work tonight like I had planned, I turned off the laptop, grabbed a book and a glass of wine and chilled out for the rest of the evening. In about an hour, the knot was gone and I felt much better. 

MARCH 20: Called a friend in need. I reached out to a friend who was going through a troubling time...not by text, but an actual phone call.

MARCH 21: Coupon Secret Santa! I went grocery shopping last night and left coupons around the store again. Doing that is so much fun!

MARCH 22: Officially donated to a cause through Kickstarter.com. You can donate to the Camden Sophisticated Sisters - Goodbye to the Water Tower campaign as well.