For the sake of humanity, stop being nice.

Instead, be kind.

It’s simple. It really is.

It seems absurd that I am telling you not to be nice. Our parents, teachers, and other adults told us for years to “be nice, say you’re sorry” or “I know Billy is mean, but be nice.” Well, I’m here to inform you that the people that told us to ”be nice” were so wrong.

Don’t ever be nice. Nice exuberates false feelings, attitudes, and actions. 100% guarantee you when our parents told us to be nice, we really didn’t want to be. However, we put on our big boy or girl pants and put on a happy face, even though deep down inside, we were steaming like a pouch of microwaveable steamed vegetables. Nice is not sincere and is often done to make one’s own self feel better.  Nice does not  equate to sincerity at all.   

Kindness, on the other hand, is the greatest thing we have in this world. Kindness is genuine. Kindness is honest. Most importantly, kindness is strong. Being nice is a weakness, kindness is the farthest thing from weak.

When we are nice, we place ourselves first and others second. We are polishing our own image by carrying out this nice and seemingly perfect persona to the world. Many individuals can sense when someone is being nice, rather than kind. You can too, I bet!

That’s not how our world should be. What happened to true compassion and kindness for our fellow man? We are a “me” society, when we should be a “we” society.

When someone is nice, they’re building a facade, or an artificial appearance that benefits no one.  I have encountered many nice people throughout my days and they just exude the “what’s in it for me” mentality. Why choose to live like that? It’s truly disgusting if you do.

Being kind doesn’t require putting yourself second. Kindness means an individual values themselves as a person and others. There’s a healthy balance between the two. Kindness will benefit you and others; you’ll feel awesome and so will others that are lucky to come into contact with you.

Kindness is legitimate. When you encounter a kind person, you can almost feel their rays of kindness radiate onto you, as cliché as that sounds.

Kind people aren’t afraid to let their true self come forth to anyone they encounter. Kindness doesn’t lie to make others get what they want or to hide their true feelings. That’s what is so refreshing about kindness: it doesn’t require you to be something you’re not.

Be who you were made to be, wear that dress or say what you are feeling, live authentically and others will clearly see that whether you want them to or not. The confidence you receive by being kind, cannot be found anywhere else.

Think about this: there’s a reason why we perform “random acts of kindness” and not random acts of niceness, it just isn’t right and doesn’t make sense.

Choosing to be kind over being nice will alter the lives of people around you. Trust me, I’ve been the recipient of this.

If you don’t believe anything I have written, I will leave you with this to chew on.

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” -Og Mandino

It’s simple. It really is.