Kindness Challenge Day 2: Give Up Your Seat To Someone

Posted: Nov 2, 2012
Updated:
Jul 12, 2024

This is Day 2 of the 14-Day Kindness Challenge held in Nov 2012, where we do different acts of kindness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hellllooooo everyone!!!! :D Welcome to Day 2 of the 14-Day Kindness Challenge!!! :D

OVER 690 PARTICIPANTS!! We are ON and ROLLING!!!

First off, I want to announce that we now officially have OVER 690 PARTICIPANTS for the Kindness Challenge!!!

This officially makes our 14-Day Kindness Challenge the third largest challenge we’ve ever held at PE, right after 30DLBL (Live a Better Life in 30 Days) and 30BBM (Be a Better Me in 30 Days)!!! *throws party poppers again*

You guys ROCK. You guys seriously ROCK. I love how all of you are going FULL FORCE and jumping on board in this amazing movement!!!

1,000 Participants – Is It possible??

Now, the question comes to this—can we hit 1,000 participants?? Can we???

I think we can, if each of us get just ONE MORE, ONE MORE person to join the challenge itself!! Let’s all do our part to spread the word. Post the Kindness Challenge announcement link (https://personalexcellence.co/blog/kindness-challenge/) on your Facebook, Twitter, and blog. Let’s make this a WORLDWIDE movement, not that it isn’t already one!!!

IMPORTANT: Sign Up First Before Proceeding!

You HAVE to sign up, as part of a personal pledge, before you can be counted as part of the official rooster for the 14-Day Kindness Challenge. Sign ups are still open but won’t be for long. Here’s how to join now:

Challenge details: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/kindness-challenge/
How to sign up: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/kindness-challenge/#signup
Sign up here: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/kindness-challenge/#comment

We Are in Lianhe Wanbao!

For those of you who got Lianhe Wanbao (a Chinese evening daily in Singapore) yesterday, Nov 1, you would have seen that we were on the papers yesterday, regarding Kindness Challenge!!

Page 5 of Nov 1 issue of Lianhe Wanbao

The article talks about the 14-day kindness challenge, how it has just kicked off (Nov 1), how the first task is about hugging at least 3 people around you, and how this movement is currently praised and lauded by participants and people in the media.

Thank you all of you for your positive words of encouragement!! Let’s get the show going guys!! :D

My Day 1 Review: Hug everyone I see!

Day 1’s task was to give a hug to everyone you see!

My morning for Day 1 was spent in UFM 100.3 (a very large Chinese-language station in Singapore) as part of my promotional tour for the 14-Day Kindness Challenge as well as for a personality interview!

Inside the UFM 100.3 studio

Preparing to be interviewed in a bit! ;)

The interview was a complete BLAST. The UFM 100.3 listeners were SO sweet, SO endearing, SO positive, and SO encouraging!!! The interview was actually supposed to be just thirty minutes, but was extended to an hour because (I think) the deejays enjoyed talking to me and there were SO many smses, curious questions, and words of encouragement and support sent in by the listeners!!!!!

Me doing Day 1’s act of kindness on giving a hug to one of the deejays, Xiao Zhu (小猪)!

And here’s me giving another hug to another of the deejays, Yanwei!!! ;) Yanwei is the lovely sweetheart who approached me last week (while I was in KISS92 for my weekly segment) to come to UFM for an interview. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity, Yanwei!! :)

Guys, I’m telling you that I was literally SO HUMBLED as I sat in front of the computer screens and saw the smses pouring in. There was about a new sms coming in every five seconds or so expressing some form of encouragement and support for my work and/or to ask about my blog address (the radio station had a policy not to give out external URLs on air, so listeners had to text in to ask for my URL).

If you are one of the listeners who texted in yesterday, thank you so much. Your interest in me/what I do was/is honestly very moving for me on a personal level!! I’ll continue to work hard to give my best for PE and for all of you!!

GROUP HUG with all the deejays in the UFM 100.3 Morning Segment 不给一口叮!!

I went about the day hugging every person I saw (and knew) for the rest of the day, and eventually raked up a hug count of 10!!

(PS: For those who are interested, will be posting recording of my interview with UFM in the Podcasts section later today. Stay tuned!)

Participants’ Responses for Day 1: Hugging

From the Day 1’s comments sharing, some of you participants actually did better than me—participant Luvena, for example, actually hugged 24 people on Day 1 itself!!

I was with a group of 20 people the whole of today — so as of now, I have hugged about 24 people – but no strangers. That was easy.. but over the day, I realised that some of the people needed a hug for no reason every now & then.. it was so fulfilling..

Congratulations for the awesome work, Luvena!! :D

Some of you improvised and gave out virtual hugs to people in your social networks and readers at PE!

Participants giving out virtual hugs on Twitter.

Participants giving out hugs via the shoutbox in the PE (Personal Excellence) sidebar.

I say, AWESOME work guys and I’m so proud of you for that!! :D

Here are some word-for-word comments from the participants for Day 1:

…came home from work. Had only eaten breakfast. Was so hungry. Found mum at home [with] lunch already prepared…. Gave her the biggest hug of the day :) – Participant lucy

Thanks Celes, Level 2 (of Day 1’s task, which is to hug as many people as you can) is exciting. Stretching my comfort zone. Good idea to blog about it, that will help crank up my engine again after such a long time not blogging. Although my daughter and me hug each other regularly, it is good share how we feel about it. She felt cosy and I felt supportive since she is rushing for her project work in the Polytechnic. – Participant Dolly Yeo

…I truly felt the depth of the HUG…. […] I’m so glad for this task today…makes me feel that in this big big world am not all alone….I’ve got the world’s most supportive people around me…. – Participant ASLO

Just because it’s Day 2 today doesn’t mean that Day 1’s task has ended. As participant Daria very adeptly put it:

After reading today’s task I only saw mom and dad (excluding complete strangers in the street), so I hugged them both and gave them extra kisses
BUT this isn’t over … I want to reach level 2 or at least 1.5, so I’ll see if I can do it in the upcoming days.

Read more Day 1 comments: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/kindness-day-1-hug/#comments

Let’s continue to give out hugs to everyone we meet as we continue on with the next 13 days of the Kindness Challenge!! Let’s rock on guys!! :D

Day 2: Giving Up Your Seat

Do you give up your seat to someone who needs it more than you, be it when taking the public transport or out in the public area (food court, dining establishments, and so on)?

I’ve to be honest with you that I don’t always do that. There have been times in the past when I jumped to get a seat because I was tired and I simply wanted a seat for myself. Sometimes I simply didn’t care as I had thought of seats as a “first come, first serve” personal right. This mindset is something I’ve been changing of late.

I recall the few times when I gave up my seat in the past few months. As I gave up my seat to the person (sometimes it would be an elderly person while sometimes it would be a mother with kids), the person would look at me with eyes of gratitude, like it really meant the world to him/her. The point wasn’t that it made me feel good. The point was that the person was WARMED by that one simple gesture on MY part. That in that one second where I decided to give up my seat for him/her, his/her life was positively impacted, even if it was in a very minute, small, way.

This is why, today I would like to challenge you to do the task of giving up your seat to someone who needs it more than you do. Let’s get started!

Your Task: Give Up Your Seat to Someone Who Needs it More Than You

Your task today is to give up your seat to someone who needs it more than you.

It can be while taking the bus, taking the train, sitting in a public establishment, in your work place, at home while talking to your parents, or whatever.

Even if you drive, see if you can find a way to execute this act of kindness today! Crack your brain. Think outside of the box. If you haven’t already realized, the reason why I called this the 14-Day Kindness Challenge is because this is to challenge us to find ways to weave in acts of kindness into our daily lives! I look forward to seeing what you guys can come up with!

(PS: If you can’t execute this task today, improvise or park this task for a later day of the challenge, then return to share your results on Day 2 later on after you complete the task.

Just make sure you really try your best to execute the task today, vs. looking at it and immediately thinking, “I’m not going to get the chance so I’m not gonna think about this task at all today!” That wouldn’t be giving your all for the 14-Day Kindness Challenge, would it? :D

At the same time, continue to live up to Day 1’s task of giving hugs to people you see!)