‘Do what’s right’–seems simple enough, doesn’t it?  But life teaches us otherwise.   Doing ‘what’s right’ doesn’t always come naturally.  In fact, seeing someone do what’s right can often take us by surprise.

To quote Mark Twain, “Do what’s right, it will gratify some and astound the rest.”

Why does it seem so difficult and often unexpected, for someone to do the right thing?  A couple of reasons come to mind.  An obvious explanation is that doing what’s right can seem difficult.  It takes too much time, it’s too expensive or it’s too hard are common excuses.  And of course, the proverbial “what’s in it for me” is often a factor. When the action at hand has no personal benefit, it can be easy to look the other way.

Another reason that people fail to do ‘what’s right’ is that they don’t recognize the opportunity at hand.  After all, the right thing can be somewhat subjective. What is helpful or important to me, may seem irrelevant to you.  Simple things that would make a difference can easily be overlooked.

When I was kid, my mom demonstrated this exact point, although I didn’t get it at the time.  If I happened to clean up someone else’s mess, she couldn’t be more grateful. If I just walked by the problem, she would be very disappointed.  Since it wasn’t my mess, her gratitude when I stepped up made sense, but the disappointment when I didn’t just confused me.

But now, being older and wiser, I get it.  Her disappointment was for my lack of awareness, and her gratitude was because I saw what she needed and did the right thing.  It really wasn’t about the mess someone else left behind.  It was about being aware and interested in how I could help her.

Maybe that is the real secret to doing what’s right.  What’s right is often as simple as choosing to act in a way that makes someone else’s day a little easier, a little brighter.  If enough of us took that approach, we would certainly gratify many more, and far fewer would find themselves astounded that someone actually did the right thing.