It’s a brilliant concept of doing three good deeds for three people without expecting anything in return but all you ask of those three people is to ‘Pay It Forward’.
As in do three good deeds for three people and if they do three good deeds for three more people and so on and so on.
This probably explains things better than I can. Not exactly ‘Pay It Forward’ but you get the idea.
Pay It Forward Day is the 28th April each year and it’s a global initiative.
We always try to embrace this each year on Pay It Forward Day if and where we can.
A personal story
Quite a number of years back when my office was upstairs at Bridge House and part of a shared space offered by another business, rather than where we are now, downstairs. I’d to go up into the village of Honley to the sandwich shop for my lunch.
One time when I walked in a guy at the front of the queue was giving the lady behind the counter a right earful. Let’s call her Helen to make things easier. Very embarrassing for Helen and for the rest of the people in the shop, of which there were about five or six.
No-one came in after me and when it was just me and the other lady serving, Helen burst into tears. They served me and I left. But that whole experience left a mark on me.
No-one ever deserves to be shouted at or abused in public, in private – ever.
I didn’t know Helen at that time as I only went into the shop maybe once a week if that.
But as the next week it was Pay It Forward Day, I made the decision to go back up to the shop with a couple of bars of chocolate to give to Helen, the lady who the customer has made cry.
When I got there Helen wasn’t there. I was hoping that she hadn’t decided to take what they guy had said to heart and left her position. But no, she was just in a meeting with the owner of the shop.
I handed the chocolate to the person serving, who happened to be the second lady serving on the day of the incident. I explained about Pay It Forward and asked her to give the chocolate to Helen. Then thought nothing more of it.
A week or so went by and I called back up for a sarnie and immediately both ladies recognised me. Helen’s eyes lit up, she came around from the back of the counter, gave me the biggest hug and we exchanged names.
Even before this the customer service was always great, but from that point on I was always greeted with a massive smile, an exceptional cheerio ‘Hello’.
Make someone’s day today
So, you never know who’s day, week, year you’re going to make by just doing one small gesture of goodwill.
So why not give it a go and do something nice for someone today, just because.
Although Pay It Forward it doesn’t have to be contained to one day of the year, do think about who you could help out especially today.
Pay for someone’s coffee, give someone a bigger tip than usual, help someone carry their shopping bags, show someone a random act of kindness and appreciate them.
Spread the word: #payitforward
www.facebook.com/PayItForwardUnitedKingdom
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