Kiss the love of my life good morning!

Source: piccsy.com via Virginia on Pinterest

Successful vs. Unsuccessful People

Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine.

SaraHHouse365 | Nature 

SaraHHouse365 | Thank God

10 Signs it’s Time to Let Go

10 Signs it’s Time to Let Go

Holding on is being brave, but letting go and moving on is often what makes us stronger and happier.
Here are ten signs it’s time to let go:

1. Someone expects you to be someone you’re not. – Don’t change who you are for anyone else. It’s wiser to lose someone over being who you are, than to keep them by being someone you’re not. Because it’s easier to mend a broken heart, than it is to piece together a shattered identity. It’s easier to fill an empty space in your life where someone else used to be, than it is to fill the empty space inside yourself where YOU used to be.
2. A person’s actions don’t match their words. – Everybody deserves somebody who helps them look forward to tomorrow. If someone has the opposite effect on you, because they are consistently inconsistent and their actions don’t match up with their words, it’s time to let them go. It’s always better to be alone than to be in bad company. True friendship is a promise made in the heart – silent, unwritten, unbreakable by distance, and unchangeable by time. Don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do. Your true friends will slowly reveal themselves over time.
3. You catch yourself forcing someone to love you. – Let us keep in mind that we can’t force anyone to love us. We shouldn’t beg someone to stay when they want to leave. That’s what love is all about – freedom. However, the end of love is not the end of life. It should be the beginning of an understanding that love sometimes leaves for a reason, but never leaves without a lesson. If someone truly loves you, they will never give you a reason to doubt it. Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you, but it takes someone really special to stay in your life and prove how much they love you. Sometimes it takes awhile to find the right person, but the right person is always worth the wait. Read The Road Less Traveled.
4. An intimate relationship is based strictly on physical attraction. – Being beautiful is more than how many people you can get to look at you, or how others perceive you at a single glance. It’s about what you live for. It’s about what defines you. It’s about the depth of your heart, and what makes you unique. It’s about being who you are and living out your life honestly. It’s about those little quirks that make you, you. People who are only attracted to you because of your pretty face or nice body won’t stay by your side forever. But the people who can see how beautiful your heart is will never leave you.
5. Someone continuously breaks your trust. – Love means giving someone the chance to hurt you, but trusting them not to. When you completely trust a person, without any doubt, you’ll automatically get one of two results - a FRIEND for life or a LESSON for life. Either way there’s a positive outcome. Either you confirm the fact that this person cares about you, or you get the opportunity to weed them out of your life and make room for those who do. In the end you’ll discover who’s fake, who’s true, and who would risk it all for you. And trust me, some people will totally surprise you.
6. Someone continuously overlooks your worth. – Know your worth! When you give yourself to someone who doesn’t respect you, you surrender pieces of your soul that you’ll never get back. There comes a point when you have to let go and stop chasing some people. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll find a way to put you there. Sometimes you just need to let go and accept the fact that they don’t care for you the way you care for them. Let them leave your life quietly. Letting go is oftentimes easier than holding on. We think it’s too hard to let go, until we actually do. Then we ask ourselves, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
7. You are never given a chance to speak your mind. – Sometimes an argument saves a relationship, whereas silence breaks it. Speak up for your heart so that you won’t have regrets. Life is not about making others happy. Life is about being honest and sharing your happiness with others.
8. You are frequently forced to sacrifice your happiness. – If you allow people to make more withdrawals than deposits in your life, you will be out of balance and in the negative before you know it. Know when to close the account. It’s always better to be alone with dignity than in a relationship that constantly requires you to sacrifice your happiness and self-respect. Read Stumbling on Happiness.
9. You truly dislike your current situation, routine, job, etc. – It’s better to be a failure at something you love than to succeed at doing something you hate. Don’t let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of going after yours. The best thing you can do in life is follow your heart. Take risks. Don’t just make the safe and easy choices because you’re afraid of what might happen. If you do, nothing will ever happen. Chances must be taken, mistakes must be made, and lessons must be learned. It might be an uphill climb, but when you reach that mountaintop it will be worth every ounce of blood, sweat and tears you put into it.
10. You catch yourself obsessing over, and living in, the past. – Eventually you will overcome the heartache, and forget the reasons you cried, and who caused the pain. Eventually you will realize that the secret to happiness and freedom is not about control or revenge, but in letting things unfold naturally, and learning from your experiences over the course of time. After all, what matters most is not the first, but the final chapter of your life, which unveils the details of how well you wrote your story. So let go of the past, set yourself free, and open your mind to the possibility of new relationships and priceless experiences. Read The Power of Now.

And the one thing you should never let go of is hope. Remember what you deserve and keep pushing forward. Someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good things will transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself, “How did I get through all of that?”



Credits: Marc & Angel's 10 Signs it's time to let go article

SaraHHouse365 | Love makes requests...

Husband over Happiness

A note from Dad, Nov 2012

What makes you smile?

 

 

Credits: Mark & Angel's 25 Beautifully Illustrated Thought-Provoking Questions Article

30 Challenges | Day 8

30 Challenges for 30 Days of Growth

April 8, 2013

8. Concentrate on being positive at all times.

 – The real winners in life cultivate optimism.  They have the ability to manufacture their own happiness and drive.  No matter what the situation, the successful diva is the chick who will always find a way to put an optimistic spin on it.  She knows failure only as an opportunity to grow and learn a new lesson from life.  People who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times.  Try to spend the next 30 days looking at the bright side of things.

Credits: Mark & Angel's 30 Challenges for 30 Days of Growth Article

30 Challenges | Day 6

30 Challenges for 30 Days of Growth

April 6, 2013

6. Dedicate an hour a day to something you’re passionate about.

– Take part in something you passionately believe in.  This could be anything.  Some people take an active role in their city council, some find refuge in religious faith, some join social clubs supporting causes they believe in and others find passion in their hobbies.  In each case the psychological outcome is the same.  They engage themselves in something they strongly believe in.  This engagement brings happiness and meaning into their lives.
 Read Stumbling on Happiness.

Credits: Mark & Angel's 30 Challenges for 30 Days of Growth Article

Celebrate yourself - encouragement

happens for a reason

 

Sometimes you don't why something happens to you.
This is the perfect reminder to just "Keep Calm and Carry On".

It doesn't happen TO you, it happens FOR you.

FEED THE RIGHT WOLF

Feedtherightwolf.org

What Do You Want from Life? A Very Important Exercise

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 at 2:13 am  

Today, I am going to ask you to complete a simple but very important exercise. If I could ask you to complete only one exercise before you leave this course, this would have to be it.
I waited so long to introduce it because I wanted to help you to release some of the initial pressure of addiction first and only then ask you to look at the bigger picture.

Your past is the result of choices you have made. Your future will be the result of the choices that you will make.

There are millions of roads that you can take, and each one of them will take you to a different place. The question is, where do you want to go? We are going to try to answer this question now.

Image via Wikipedia

I want you to imagine yourself being an old person, lying on your deathbed. You only have few breaths left in you.
You look back at your life, and you realize that while it wasn’t perfect, you lived it well. You feel proud of yourself, and the choices that you have made. You feel that it is OK to go now.

What choices do you need to make now?

The question is, what choices do you need to make now, in what direction do you need to take your life in order to become this old person in the future?
When I did this exercise, I realized that I wanted to have a family. I realized that I wanted to do work that was meaningful. That I wanted to be a good, honest, present, and sober man.
Nothing extraordinary really, but it does not need to be extraordinary, it is simply right for me.

I Was lost and Confused

Before I did this exercise, I wasn’t sure what I wanted in life. I was lost and confused. Sometimes I wanted one thing, and other times I wanted another.

Image via Wikipedia

But I know now, from the bottom of my heart, that what I truly want is to be this happy old person, looking back at my life, feeling proud of the life that I lived.
Now I have a vision of where I want to go. It is like the Pole Star that I use to guide my journey. Anytime when I get lost in life, I can step back and ask myself, will this road take me to where I really want to go?
Please take the next 3 days and think about what route in life would help you to become this happy and satisfied person. There are many different roads available. I want you to find the one that is right for you!
Take your time and be gentle. And please don’t forget to do your ERP practice and the other positive things.
See you in 3 days!

___________________________________________________
SaraHHouse365 | Recognizing and Appreciating what we do have....
SaraHHouse365 | You can think your way...

Credits feedtherightwolf.org article.

The Paradox of our Time in History - George Carlin

My cousin Peter had this on his Facebook. How could I not share this?

Wow, this becomes more true each day!

 

Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.

A Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but ...shorter tempers, wider Freeways ,but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't share this with anyone....Who cares?
George Carlin

 

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Recognizing & Appreciating what we do have

"It's what makes a person rich" - Mary B.

Nov 28, 2012

Man, I love this.

"As for life...what an I say?" Sometimes it comes at you full speed ahead and it can knock you down...hard. But you get back up. So it knocks you down again. And you get back up. And somtimes it feels like all life ever does is try to knock you on your ass! But every time you get back up you're a little stronger and a little wiser. And pretty soon you don't sweat the small stuff...and life is good :) Some days are painful. Some days you're overwhelmed with happiness and contentment. They're all feelings. They're all experiences. It's what makes a person rich."

Mary, these words probably anxiously came out the tip fo your fingers tonight yet I thought they were written like someone must've taken 12 years to write them.
 Little did you know the effect and people they would reach. I just had to share...
thank you!

Staying positive is work! But well worth it!

Staying positive is not easy, it's tough. It's work. It's similar to relationships, keeping in shape, school. You have to work at it daily in order to stay on track.
People sometimes ask me why I'm happy all the time. Well, um, I choose to be...? I shouldn't say that with any resistance. That's the honest answer! I'm happy because I choose to be! And I work at it!
I was thinking about this the other day and realized how many ways I work at being happy. There are a number of different ways I go out of my way to stay positive.

Positively Positive is a great way to train your attitude!

About every 3 months, I go to Postively Positive's Facebook Page or website and copy and paste their inspirational statuses all over my work calendar. At 3:10 pm on a Tuesday afternoon, my phone beeps. It might be for a conference call coming up, other times it beeps with a great quote. Every Monday morning at 10:35 am, I have a weekly pop-up that says "New Week + Positive Attitude = Great Opportunity". We get so caught up in everyday calls, bills, meetings, etc. that we need reminders of why we go through all of this. I take the time every couple months to sprinkle my calendar with these fun pop-ups to help remind me.

My Life Jar
My daily fortune cookie :)

I love quotes and I love surprises so naturally, I love fortune cookies! I decided to make my own little version of a fortune cookie with "The Life Jar". After using a glass gallon jug (you know the kind the old orchard apple cider comes in) for change/coins, I decided some of these quotes might be more valuable than the money in the jar. So I went online and collected many quotes, all different topics. Friendship. Laughter. Wisdom. Sex. Goals. Education. Children. Purpose. Fame. Prayer. Business. Rest. God. Money. Health. And the list goes on....I cut all these up into the size of the paper found in a fortune cookie. I filled the jar with quotes and put it on a shelf in my office.
There's 2 rules of the Life Jar:
#1: You only get one quote a day.
#2: You have to share it with someone. Drop it in someone's purse. Text It. Tweet it. Mail it. Leave it as a tip. Just pass it on.

It's fun to see friends/family that stop over frequently go straight to the jar to get their daily quote. Someone said it's a great idea to market. Eh, for now, I'm just enjoying the little inspiration it brings when I need it.

Sarah Young's "Jesus Calling",
a 365 Daily Devotional

Probably the biggest part of the happiness in my life is God. Having God's love in my life is what makes me glow and gives me purpose. In the morning, I take a couple extra minutes to read my devotional (that I've talked about before: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young). I take the time to read and digest the text daily because I see the positive effect it has on me. The words in the daily devotional remind me of God's love for me, how I can help others, how to avoid negativity and drama, etc. It helps me decide where I want my mindset for the day. I can't express enough how much I treasure this book.

In addition to my daily devotional, I enjoy many uplifting books like many others do. Some of my recent favorites are "The Happiness Project", "Everyday A Friday", "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and "Think Big".

Everytime I spin my "I am grateful..." ring, I'm reminded
how blessed I am! At this moment, I was grateful for
my good friend Gary Goldstein aka Uncle G and what a great
role model he is to me. Also, how can you not be thankful for
a killer view like his? Gary's Santa Monica condo overlooking
 the ocean!

In November 2011, I received the coolest gift from my good friend Gary Goldstein. I was helping Gary for an afternoon and I came by this cool postcard that said "I am thankful for...YOU!" Gary gave me a ring that reads "I am grateful for..." The postcard goes with a ring designed by a woman named Jenny Craig (cool name, eh?). The ring actually spins. So ladies, you know how we catch ourselves playing with our jewerly? Well, everytime you play this with this ring, it spins. And when it spins, you have to think of something you're grateful for. After Gary saw how excited I was about these rings, he gave me a handful to give out as gifts. These rings are such a unique reminder to be thankful for all we have in our lives! You can order or find out more about them at Live Your Power's online store.

Lesson: Staying positive and finding happiness is not always something that just comes easily. You have to work at it. 90% of it is learned by how you tune your attitude.

How do you stay positive?

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SaraHHouse365 | Thankful
SaraHHouse365 | Forgiveness
SaraHHouse365 | Zig Ziglar