Earlier this week, my husband and my dog Magic and I were on our daily walk in a downtown park. 

As happens regularly, our dog paused on the sidewalk and “pooped.” I, of course, got a bag out of my pocket, bent over, cleaned it up and tossed it in a trash can.

When I stood up, something caught my eye across the street. 

An elderly gentleman was facing us and smiling.  Then raised has hands above his head and clapped for at least a minute.  I shouted, “Thank you.”

As we continued our walk, I imagined the difference it would make if this “visible behavior” of acknowledging people in public doing desired behaviors happened more frequently.  Like when:

• A car driver pauses when a pedestrian enters a crosswalk
• A toddler puts on a bike helmet when they enter the skate park
• Someone takes time to pick up some existing litter on the sidewalk, and puts in the trash

And the real power of this is not just increasing the chances that the person doing the desired behavior will continue doing it, it also could be noticed and adopted by those who observed the happening.

Photo by Meizhi Lang on Unsplash