Let's be Kind, not Nice.
The difference between these two adjectives may appear nominal, but they are worlds apart.
Nice
Being nice takes no effort and is usually done out of courtesy. It is an empty behaviour, with no value, designed to fool perception.
I think we act nice for many reasons, but I think if I have to be cynical, it is commonly done to:
Appear to be kind.
“Nice” is a deceitful characteristic, it appears harmless but it is rather devious. It is a slippery slope towards falsehood.
At some point, by forcing ourselves to be nice, we convince ourselves:
We’ve been kind.
We are surprised then when, on occasion, others don’t perceive us the same way we thought we appeared.
This is because we are human beings:
It is impossible to be “nice” all the time.
We should be acting like how we feel, trust me, it is okay if you don’t feel like talking today.
If we are not honest about how we feel, we deceive others and ourselves and this deception soon becomes a habit:
Our life becomes a show of acts, no one is behind the curtains with us.
Kindness
Being kind takes effort, it takes genuine interest and curiosity. It is constructive and adds value.
We don’t leave room for kindness to manifest itself if we lie to ourselves and others.
Embracing honesty frees us from the burden of lies, and focuses our attention on what matters, not on what appears to matter.
Kindness requires us to behave with genuine interest:
Kindness is to act with the genuine interest of the other person in mind. You want the best for them.
To act in the genuine interest of the other person, we have to be honest with them.
Genuine friendships are built on kindness, not “niceness”:
Friends are real with each other.
Conclusion
Let’s free ourselves from the burdens of “niceness” and appearances and be kind to each other instead.
I don’t want empty claps and empty compliments, I want genuine curiosity and constructive criticism.
Let us drop the masks and help each other genuinely.
I think the world would be a better place if we put less emphasis on how we appear and more emphasis on who we are.
