Would You Commit a Random Act of Kindness, If It Took 1 Minute & Could Save 8 Lives?

In the happiness world, there’s a lot of talk about “committing random acts of kindness.”

As I wrote about in Happier at Home, I’m a bigger fan of non-random acts of kindness — but there is one random act of kindness that I absolutely believe in.

If you support organ donation, please speak up about it.

Take a moment to sign the donor registry. That way, everyone can easily know your wishes, should the need arise.

Also, let your family and friends know that you’d want to be an organ donor.  Post a message on Facebook or Twitter, send out a blast email, talk about it over dinner. If and when they had to make a decision on your behalf,  in a time of grief and shock, it would be a tremendous comfort to them to know what you would want. To make it easy to find what you wrote, add the hashtag #organdonor.

This issue is particularly close to my heart. For decades, my husband had hepatitis C, which attacks the liver (he got hep C from a blood transfusion during a heart operation when he was eight years old). Well, it turns out the liver is a very, very important organ to have.  A liver transplant was definitely a possibility for him, so I became very interested in this issue of organ donation.

By a miracle of modern science, my husband is now cured. Yes, CURED. Tears well up in my eyes, even just typing those words.  (If you want to read more about one of the happiest days of my life, go here.)

He probably won’t need a new liver, but so many other people will, or they’ll need kidneys or hearts or whatever.

It’s a rare and transcendent privilege to die in a way that allows others to live. One person can save eight lives, and improve the lives of up to fifty people.

Signing the registry, telling the people you love — these are such small, easy things to do, yet could have such tremendous consequences for so many people.

It’s a random act of kindness because we don’t know whether the chance will arise, or if it does, who will benefit. But it’s an act of kindness just to raise your hand to be identified as a willing donor.

I live in New York City, and yesterday was the very first annual Organ Donor Enrollment Day here. Sign up, speak up, today.

Many people sign up as organ donors at the Department of Motor Vehicles. That’s great, but it may be years before you’re back to renew your license. You can sign the registry or post a comment right now.

You may help many other people — and you’ll feel great, too.

Do good, feel good.  As Montaigne observed, “These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail.”

Have you signed the registry, or had a conversation about this issue?

Share this post on Facebook to tell your family and friends that you support organ donation.

One minute, eight lives.

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My sister and I have been doing our podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, for more than seven months now -- hard to believe. We're getting close to 4 million downloads. Zoikes! Thank you, listeners. Not sure how to subscribe to a podcast? Easy instructions here (and they really are easy, promise). If you'd like to get an alert by email every time we release a new episode, sign up here. 

Gretchen Rubin is the author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. She writes about happiness and habit-formation at gretchenrubin.com. Follow her here by clicking the yellow FOLLOW button, on Twitter, @gretchenrubin, on Facebook, facebook.com/GretchenRubin.

Photo: Karol Franks, Flickr