"Have you wondered about kindness lately? In our fast-paced and highly competitive world, it seems that kindness is better reserved for special people like the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa than for the average person trying to survive. This reminds me of a quote often attributed to baseball player and manager Leo Durocher: In fact, Durocher even named his book with the same words, "Nice guys finish last.""
"As you can imagine, Durocher believed that above all else, winning was the only thing that mattered. Being that we live in a fiercely competitive environment where winning is highly valued, many might believe Durocher got it right. So, that raises an interesting question: Is there a place for kindness to even exist in our modern world? Or is kindness an outmoded concept that should be relegated to the trash bin of history?"
"Before we toss kindness into the garbage, let me share a very different quote, this one from Robert Louis Stevenson. It was in a letter that he wrote, "It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters ... I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.""
Modern competitive culture prizes winning, which can make kindness seem impractical or reserved for exceptional figures. Historical perspective notes that accumulated kindnesses make life tolerable through kind words, looks, and letters. Kindness aligns with mindfulness by focusing on reducing harm and requiring mental self-discipline to overcome knee-jerk reactivity. Kindness invites positive energy, caring, love, and support into relationships and can be framed as a form of winning rather than weakness. Kindness varies by person and manifests uniquely across contexts, producing personal and social benefits.
Read at Psychology Today
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