CAN YOU TEACH YOURSELF TO BE NICE?

Kim Willis, 41, gave it a go and discovered the simple joys it can bring

- KIM WILLIS

Peering at the chalkboard, I listened intently as my GCSE English teacher wrote the word ‘nice’ then aggressively scratched a thick cross through it. ‘Nice,’ she muttered, as if the word itself was nasty. ‘Never use the word nice. There are a hundred better words.’

She etched on my consciousness that nice is bland. We should aim to be exciting, unusual, spectacular and hilarious. Maybe we want to be brilliant, interesting or talented. But nice? No one should aspire to be, simply and humbly, nice.

LIFE ENHANCING

Over the years, I’ve pondered this. And recently, after reading On Being Nice, a School of Life book (a global organisation which aims to help people live more fulfilled lives) I wondered – what if we’re all so busy trying to be thinner, richer, better and stronger, we forget how life-changing it might be to be more patient, forgiving, warm and gentle? Being nice should be celebrated, because to be nice is to make the world a little bit better, surely?