Maybe it's the midwesterner in me. Maybe it's just that I'm a nice person deep (somedays very deep) down. But I have a baseline of kindness I think most people should uphold.
LA gets a bad wrap in my opinion. "This place sucks" and "these people suck" are thrown around all too often for my taste. And just so we're all on the same page, "this place" is where you have chosen to be and you are "these people". Great, glad we got that out of the way.
Yes, it's a tough town and a tough industry, but yes, I do think we could all be a little kinder to each other.
So happy Monday and enjoy this list of things you can do for FREE right now to make it "suck less" (your words, not mine).
Smile at someone who walks past you. They are humans and so are you. Well would you look at that, you have something in common! Oh what fun.
Bonus points: say: hi.
Hold open the door for the person behind you. No, not if they are awkwardly far away...because that's just annoying for both of you. But perhaps in the bank, at Trader Joe's, or maybe walking in to your audition room.
Bonus points: smile and make eye contact. Then this will be even easier when you have to make these connections asap in auditions, on set, etc!
Let someone over in traffic. I know, crazy talk. But I firmly believe if we all let someone over once a day in LA, we'd have 1/3rd less accidents (this is not backed up by any research or reports, but doesn't it sound correct???).
Bonus points: don't flip off or scream at the person who missed this article along the way and doesn't reciprocate this kindness back to you. I find laughing at these scenarios really lightens the mood...it's very hard to do, but it works I swear.
Pick up a piece of trash. Depending on the area of town you are in, there could be almost none (Beverly Hills or Santa Monica) or a shit-ton (literally anywhere else). But when you're walking to your car, just try one time taking that plastic bag by the trash can and putting it in the trash can. Mother Earth and I both thank you.
Bonus points: putting a recyclable item into the correct recycling bin.
Don't tell someone "let's get coffee/a drink/dinner/any kind of meet-up sometime" if you don't want to. STOP saying this on default. It's not that hard to do. Nowadays when someone says this to me I take out my phone calendar and ask them how Wednesday the 17th works. Usually they have "something else going on," which is probably true! But let's stop blowing smoke at the proverbial hangout mentions. If you don't want to, they probably don't either. What do you say instead? Thanks so much, bye! Or I appreciate your time. Or whatever, you can figure it out. Watch the episode of friends where Chandler can't end a date without offering up another one, learn something from the classics.
Let me know if you have a chance to do these small nice free non-time consuming gestures this week. And reap the karmic reward that is: being a good human!