Whilst the full details are yet to emerge, it is believed that the scheme will be funded by a tax on people doing it wrong. Critics of the scheme have pointed out there are far more people doing it right, than people doing it wrong so the figures just don’t add up, however a government spokesman said ” What critics of this scheme fail to realise is that people who do it right often expected no award at all, so any government pay out would not necessarily be equivalent to the good work done, but more a token gesture of thanks”

We at You’re Doing It Right Towers have been fooled by schemes like this is the past, but it has never stopped us doing it right and saying You’re Doing It Right to others.

Mr Ydir

Sadly I’ve not really been out much this week so I haven’t come across a wonderful waitress or cheerful checkout assistant but if you have, please make it known that they did a great job. You can let me know about it and I can give them a mention on this site and I’ll make sure the message gets back to them, or if you want to follow the example of Dusty (this site’s creator) call over their manager and tell them what a good job someone is doing, better still do both so their good service gets the full recognition it deserves.

Just because I haven’t been anywhere interesting doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to find people doing it right, as although it rarely makes the news there are people doing it right all over the place, you just need to start looking (this blog isn’t a bad place to start)

So the first YDIR award goes to a group of cyclists who are currently in training for a charity bike ride that covers 7 countries in 7 days. The event isn’t until the end of September so I expect the fundraising and publicity will step up closer to the event but in the meantime you follow them on Twitter @7insevenbigbike , wish them well and feel guilty about not cycling as much as you could.

I wasn’t sure about mentioning this next person, 1 because they are famous and I don’t want to look like a groupie (although clearly I am) and 2 because I did mention I would try and so something to help and then simply didn’t, but then I realised that my own worries and embarrassment shouldn’t get in the way of someone getting a YDIR that they clearly deserve, plus when I  was walking my dog, someone was actually shouting this person’s surname, which for me was a  pretty big sign that I should include them. (It turns out the person was calling in their cat that was at the end of their drive, I have no idea what the chances of me being there at that moment and the cat sharing the name of someone I was thinking about writing about are, but I’m thinking about buying a lottery ticket and using numbers that people shout out when I am near by)

Anyway I would just like to say to Mark Watson, You Did It Right in running a 25 hour show to raise money for comic relief. I enjoyed watching the stream as & when I could and I was surprised about how often I hit refresh in an attempt to see Rufus Hound do something that normally I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch, but I was caught up in the incredible event that Mark created.

If you want to donate to Mark’s event the sponsorship page is here, and if you want to find out more about comic relief and maybe do your own fundraising event, then you should definitely go to rednoseday.com soon as this year it is due to take place Friday 15th March.

Well done to Mark and well done to everyone who made it happen, including those who were sponsored for a variety of 25 hour challenges, including knitting, poetry, maths, countdown, getting hit in the face with pies, you did it right!

I think what made the Mark Watson event great was the was how he brought people together to contribute to a good cause, which leads me on to the next YDIR award.

#We Will Gather is harnessing the power of social media to help people connect and make good things happen in their community. If you go to wewillgather.co.uk you can see if there is a good thing happening near you or you can create your own good thing an invite people to come along, a bit like those Facebook parties that turn up on the news every now and then, only people will be looking to make something better and not trash a teenagers’ parents house.

I far as I can tell there are 3 people driving this project, so that is another 3 YDIR awards to add to the ever growing list.

Dan Thompson, Sophie Collard and Lloyd Davis, You’re Doing It Right!

There will be more YDIR awards next week, if you would like me to feature anyone my e-mail is mrydir@gmail.com or you can tweet me in their direction @Mr_Ydir

Mr Ydir

Very limited edition, if you’re doing it right you might get one in the post

Ok so on with the YDIR awards, first up is Jodi Ann Bickley who is busy making the world a bit nicer by sending out lovely letters, to anyone who feels they need it, her site is onemillionlovelyletters.com and her twitter account  is @jodiannbickley

Doing it right can take on many forms, since I jumped on the you’re doing it right site I have always been drawn to people who are doing good things for charity, but when Dusty set up the site he liked to give shout outs to those who gave him (or others) great customer service, and I’ve always loved it when someone or a company exceeds my expectations, but living in the UK, great customer service is something that both companies and customers struggle with, although when you actually start to look, you don’t have to look that hard to find people doing a great job.

And with that in mind I’d like to say thank you to the the two members of staff at Robert Dyas in Bristol, who couldn’t be more helpful and friendly when sorting out a product I needed to return, I often hear stories about obstructive and unhelpful staff in a variety of different places but I am very pleased to say that wasn’t what I experienced with Robert Dyas, so clearly they are doing it right.

The last doing it right I’d like to mention is someone I have mentioned before (here) but I feel are worth mentioning again as they are still doing a great job and are looking for people to be part of their 2013 building project. The Moldova project is small in size, but big on ambition, for more info you can visit  www.themoldovaproject.com and you can find more about their 2013 building project by clicking here

Right weekly blog number 1 over, I just need to go back check for typos (some will still get through) and test links (let me know if they don’t work for you)

If you want to let me know about someone that is doing it right my email is mrydir@gmail.com

Mr Ydir

If you are a regular reader, well done for sticking with it, posts have been a bit thin on the ground, tweets were few and far between, and my profile picture remained a bit rubbish (if you know anyone any good at art that would like to make Mr Ydir look a bit more presentable, or anyone that is a bit good looking and would like to be the fake face of Mr Ydir, please do get in touch, although more about the design rather than the modelling as that was a bit of a joke)

Right let’s stop getting distracted and get back on with the blog. As I’ve alluded to at the start, things around YDIR towers have been a bit quiet, but I have put in place a plan to change that to ensure regular updates and maybe a bit more structure. With my day job, 3 year old son, dog and husband duties, writing a daily blog I feel is a bit much pressure, so I have decided to go for weekly blog, in which I’ll say ‘thanks for doing a great job’ to a number of people that I have stumbled across and/or people have pointed me in the direction of (which you can do by tweeting me or e-mailing me).

Anyway admin/explanations over let’s get on with awarding a YDIR!*

The title for today’s blog isn’t a reference to my new plan, although I do hope I will have a positive impact on happiness of those people I feature, but is a reference to a movement that I have been watching and appreciating for a while, and was then mentioned to me by Mrs Ydir.

It’s hard not to like a movement that is committed to building a happier society, but they have a very nice website, they tweet some inspirational quotes  (usually in the form a nicely designed image) and they have a number of resources on their site to help you, to help them in their mission to make the world a better place.

Founding members of Action For Happiness:  Richard Layard, Geoff Mulgan and Anthony Seldon, You’re Doing It Right!

@Mr_Ydir

mrydir@gmail.com

*YDIR short  for You’re Doing It Right and in the context of this site an award for being feature on the site

Shawna Wood has set up a not for profit organization, with a simple plan to get every US Household to donate a dollar a month, to help bring about positive change in the US and around the world, see I told you it was easier to understand than the other reasons the dollar has been in the news.

Now $1 can’t really get you much but of course if you add lots of dollars together you are able to support lots of charities, as shown on the dollar affect site. click here to see what charities they have supported

As if that wasn’t enough good work to be getting along with Shawna has also started a random acts of kindnes movement, which I am sure previous YDIR winner, Life Vest Inside (click to go back to the story) would appreciate. You can view Shawna committing random acts of kindness on her you tube channel. I love the idea but honestly struggle to watch the videos, I think it is because I am British and approaching strangers feels so unnatural that even watching some else do it, makes me feel very uncomfortable!

I don’t think I could do what you do, but Shawna Wood, You’re Doing It Right!

Mr Ydir

If my word press app has worked you should see a nice banner below which should take you to their site which will tell you all about what they do and how you can get involved, but basically they run a charity that sends and encourages others to send letters and gifts to sick children and their siblings, because of the simple fact that getting a unexpected bit of post does cheer up a sick child and makes the world a nicer place.

It was the idea of Vikki George who suffers with ME and noticed the one thing that cheered her up whilst she was bed bound was receiving things through the post, so now Post Pals exists to help spread that good feeling around.

Vikki George, You’re Doing It Right!

Mr Ydir

I don’t know if I can paint the picture well enough to make you understand how beautiful this was, but I’ll try. There was a table a few feet away with a dad and his two kids. The daughter was likely around 10 and the son perhaps 4. Before their food came, the dad went down to the bathroom and left the kids at the table (keep in mind it’s a tiny town so this is ok). While he was away, the waitress brought the food to the table. As she sat it down, she asked the little boy if he wanted her to cut up his pancakes for him so he could start eating. You should’ve seen how happy that little boy was. She got everything cut up and asked if he wanted syrup on them too. He did. She poured the syrup all over them until he finally told her it was enough. I don’t know if it’s just me, but there was something so touching about watching this simple act of kindness. It warmed my heart.

So well done waitress at Joe’s Dinner, You’re Doing It Right!

Today’s YDIR goes to vInspired which is a charity that is focused on helping young people do good things and as this site is all about people who do good things, it makes sense for me to say thank you to the people behind vInspired for inspiring and helping people do it right.

vInspired.com has loads of great projects and opportunities for young people to get invloved in the very worthwhile world of volunteering, although I am a bit concerned by the suggestion that young people are aged 16-25 as I am over 25 but still consider myself young!

A great example of one of their projects is Retail Ready People. I hope it will get another roll out soon as I especially loved it for using empty retail shops, as I think something should be done to turn empty shops into something positive for the local community, which would bring more people into the high street and invloved in their bit of the world.

vInspired, You’re Doing It Right!

Mr Ydir

As you might have guessed from the title, today’s YDIR award is related to the increasingly popular annual charity event, in which men raise money and awareness of men’s health issues by growing a supporters badge across their top lip.

If you’ve not heard of the event go to movember.com where you can read about the charity’s aims and perhaps satisfy yourself that you weren’t going mad and there were a lot more mustached men that all at once just disappeared.

I would like to award the YDIR to whoever came up with the idea in the first place, but the history of movember is a bit cloudy, as wikipedia will show you,  but that doesn’t matter because I can award it to all those who took part (over 300,00 in the UK alone!) and all those who helped behind the scenes.

As it is my blog I would like to draw your attention to one team of mo bros (as they were a inspiration for this post) who between them raised over £1,500. You can visit their mo space here and admire the range of mustaches that were grown.

Mo bros and Mo Sistas, You’re Doing It Right!

I normally steer clear of these kind of stories as although I could probably blog a new one every hour, I believe quality is more important that quantity.

I am making an exception for the story below, as I believe the person who reported it is genuine.

On Friday 19/10/12 a series of hit-and-runs took place in Cardiff in which 13 people were injured and one person killed, there was a great deal of media coverage, however the news of human kindness was not reported. In his own words Ray Monsell gives details of what he saw:

Amidst all the carnage and the chaos that ripped through Cardiff Last Friday….one little story that restores your faith in human kindness. In the early evening, a group of students arrived at the Accident and Emergency department at the Heath Hospital…..they were weighed down with bags of food and drink. Having seen the events unfold on telly…….they had gone to the shops , and with their own money had bought enough food to feed a small army. They had figured that the people involved would be too busy to stop…..so they had brought something for them to eat. It was for the doctors, nurses, paramedics, family relatives, police, fire and rescue…….it was for everyone. A small act of spontaneous kindness by a group of students who “Just wanted to do something to help” . Having delivered the food , they hung around “In case you needed blood donations”. It was a bad day in Cardiff last Friday…….but little things like this are so very important……They provide hope in the middle of all the despair……There are a great many good people out there……but it seems we only get to hear about the bad……..which is why this simple story needs to be shared.

So there you have it, people Doing It Right, people doing their best to readdress the balance between good and bad.

Thank you Ray for sharing this, and thank you to those mentioned in the story above, You’re Doing It Right.

Mr Ydir