Haven't heard of the 30 Days of Kindness?  Click here to find out more.  Just starting?  That's okay!  Feel free to start this challenge right in the middle.  You can make up the days you missed through November, if you like.

Compliment a stranger.  I know, I know...  You're being forced to come out of your shell and reach out to all of these strangers.  The first four days of this challenge do revolve around communicating with strangers, but there is a purpose to this aspect of the 30 Days of Kindness.  Have you ever heard the story of a man called John Kevin Hines?  He actually jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in a failed suicide attempt.  He said once in a conference, "If someone had smiled... I would not have jumped.  [A smile] could well save a life."

Have you ever felt completely down while going about your day, but when someone offered you a sincere smile, you felt like a burden had been lifted off your shoulders?  When you smile, greet, or compliment a stranger, you are brightening their day.  What if your smile helped to save a person's life? 

When you compliment your stranger today, be sure to speak in a sincere voice and smile.  Compliment their hair, eyes, clothes...  Make them feel like you care. 

I want to hear your stories!  If you have a picture already, feel free to send it to me.  If you're blogging about this day, send me the link and I'll feature it on this blog.

Stay tuned until later today to see what my friends and I did for today's act of kindness.

TOMORROW: Hug a stranger!

Today, we went to the mall in search for strangers to greet.  Ali and I ended up saying hello to twenty people each, which means that we greeted forty people!  It was surprisingly awkward and difficult to come out of our shells and speak to someone we didn't know.  Most people seemed to be taken aback or even uncomfortable... with a mere "hi!"  Several times, my target would look me up and down and walk away without even saying hi in return. 

It saddened me that our nation has become so turned off to friendliness that even a mere greeting is taken as offensive or startling.  I plan to make it a habit to greet strangers more often.  This stiffness needs to end.

Me: So Ali, what did you learn from today?

Ali: It was just kind of different.  People aren't used to others saying hi to them, and so sometimes we'd get strange looks, and other times, I would wonder whether someone heard me or not or if they just ignored me!  A few times we got "hi"'s back, but most of the time, people just smiled and walked away.  It makes me want to change that, and I want to start saying hi to strangers more often and be more friendly.  I mean, I consider myself a friendly person already, but this showed me the opposite!

Me: So how do you plan on changing this? 

Ali: I plan on smiling and saying hi to people more often and caring for strangers, just by saying hi.

We learned a lot from merely saying hi to strangers.  What were your experiences from today?