The end of 2020 is in sight! While not every moment of the year was bad, this year has brought major life changes, unimaginable loss, anxiety, depression, and financial hardship across the globe.

There are people fighting invisible battles daily and many are coping with the death of family members or friends. The world is hoping and expecting 2021 to be the turning point, however, these crushing events won’t be resolved immediately with 2020 coming to a close.

In 2021 choose to be kind. Spread kindness and love because you don’t know who needs a smile or a friendly gesture. Here’s a list of reasonable random acts of kindness that hardly take any effort: 

1. If you have old gloves, hats, scarves or coats that you don’t use, donate them to a shelter, leave blessing bags downtown or give the items to someone homeless.

2. If you have gift cards that you’re not using, leave them somewhere random as a fun surprise! You could leave a coffee shop gift card in a book at the library or book store. You could also give a restaurant gift card to someone downtown that looks like they would enjoy a hot meal.

3. Smile at a stranger – even if you’re wearing a mask, they can tell by your eyes!

4. Compliment someone at the grocery store.

5. Give spare change to the person holding a sign and asking for help or put it in a tip jar!

6. Donate money, blankets or towels to an animal shelter.

7. Offer to tutor a classmate.

8. Hold the door for someone.

9. Leave a sticky note with a positive message on the mirror in a public restroom.

10. Pay for the meal behind you at a drive thru.

11. Give your grandparent(s) a call.

12. Tape a dollar to a vending machine.

13. Say something nice to the person working in customer service because chances are they’ve heard a lot of negativity during their shift.

14. Leave a positive review for a small business or promote them on social media to your friends and followers.

15. Leave a note and treat for the mail carrier.