Do you celebrate the things you have?

SaraHHouse365 | Feed the Right Wolf
SaraHHouse365 | One Thousand Gifts, Intro
SaraHHouse365 | We Give because we're Thankful

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

Caribou Coffee: What If | Why Not?

Had this on my coffee in April 2013. I liked this phrase. Made me stop and think. - SH

Will you have said more than you've done?

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

7 Critical Truths We Forget All Too Soon

7 Critical Truths We Forget All Too Soon


So much happens in our lives every day that we often forget what we have learned. In effect, the only thing faster than the speed of our thoughts is the speed of our forgetfulness.
Here are seven important reminders to jog your memory…

1. Attitude makes all the difference.

Two people can be affected by the same circumstance and respond in completely different ways; it just depends on their perspective. One might see themselves as a victim, while the other discovers and makes the most of an opportunity the circumstance provides.
When you expect life to be unkind, it will always live up to your expectations. On the other hand, when you consider yourself to be in a fortunate situation, you will find yourself in many more.
It’s important to remember that there is value in every situation and circumstance. Positive possibilities are generated by every possible turn of fate. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, life is what you choose to make it. You just have to choose to make it great.

2. Some sadness is necessary.

You cannot completely shield yourself from sadness without also shielding yourself from happiness. Sadness is part of the journey. Life is a series of highs and lows – an adventure that requires you to take chances and actions that have the possibility of both success (happiness) and failure (sadness).
When you find your path, you must not be afraid to step forward. You need to have sufficient courage to take chances and fail sometimes. Disappointment and sadness are the tools life uses to show us the way.
In the end, we learn even more from our failures than we do from our successes. Every step is a step in the right direction. Read Learned Optimism.

3. You can’t fight fire with fire.

Don’t spew hostile words at those who spew them at you. Tone it down and replace the stink of confrontation with the fragrance of resolution. The louder the opposition wants to yell, the calmer and more confidently you need to speak. Keep your composure; don’t let them get to you.
Be an example of a pure existence having a pure understanding of reality. Communicate and express yourself from a place of peace, from a place of love, with the best intentions. Practice good judgment in what you say and how you say it, in the thoughts you carry, and in the emotions you reveal. And most of all, use your voice for good – to inspire, to encourage, to educate, to spread the notions of love and understanding.

4. Everyone struggles in some way.

When you deal with your own issues, use your head; when you help others deal with their issues, use your heart.
The questions you should be asking yourself: How much could I possibly know about the troubles in another’s heart? How much can I hope to understand this person who has suffered from a specific circumstance of pain or disappointment than I have known?
And even greater than your ability to inspire them with hope for a brighter future is your capacity to motivate them to directly confront the worst in themselves and deal with it upfront, so they can rediscover and reclaim the best in themselves over time. Read The 5 Love Languages.

5. Fear always exists.

Every new experience triggers a least some fear; and that’s okay. Fear can help you to assess risk and prepare for all kinds of important, challenging situations. But first you have to understand that the purpose of fear is not to stop you.
Fear helps you evaluate the path forward. Certainly it is important to pause and look carefully before you move into unknown territory. However, it is just as important that, after sufficient due diligence and preparation, you do indeed move forward.
Let the fear sharpen your awareness, and then let it inspire you to act. Your success cannot be built by seeking refuge in what is already familiar and comfortable. You must journey out into the unknown, prepared for the challenges and determined to do whatever is necessary. The way to get beyond your fear is to go through it. Do the thing you fear and the fear loses its control over you.

6. Small steps get you to big places.

The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing simply because you can only do a little. In fact, it is far more productive to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a giant leap only to stumble and fall and never get up again.
Bottom line: The path to every goal requires a hundred small steps – one after the other. Figure out where you want to go, take a step, and keep on stepping. Diligence and persistence will get you there. Read The Power of Habit.

7. You can only change yourself.

Don’t wait for someone who hurt you to make it up to you; this kind of thinking only keeps your old wounds from healing. Waiting for them to change is not the answer. You have no control over them, and they may never change.
Inner peace is found by changing your thinking, not the people who hurt you. And you change your thinking for yourself, for your joy, your peace of mind, your own understanding, and your bright future that has nothing to do with this person or what they did to you.
So forgive those who have hurt you in the past, and even more importantly, forgive yourself for allowing them to hurt you. Then smile like you’ve never cried, re-open your heart and mind like you’ve never been hurt, and live the rest of your life like you’re running out of time. Read 1,000 Little Things.

SaraHHouse365 | Surrender Day by Day

SaraHHouse365 | You.Matter.


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

When was the last time you tried something new?

 

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

If you could do it all over again...

 

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

When you're her age, what will matter to you the most?

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

Who do you love? What are you doing about it?

Time or Money?

 

 

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

If you don’t know what you want from life, what do you think you will get?

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If you don’t know what you want from life, what do you think you will get? The great majority of people in the world drift through life, never realizing that their future will be the one they create for themselves. The minority who achieve great success are people who know what they want and have a plan for realizing their objectives. They know what they want and how they are going to get it. Your goals should be specific, they should be measurable, they should have a deadline for their achievement, and they should be divided into manageable pieces. Know exactly what you plan to achieve, when you plan to achieve it, and how. Review your progress regularly, correct your course when necessary, and never, ever give up. Permanent link to this post: If you don’t know what you want from life, what do you think you will get?

Are you currently subscribing to our weekly newsletter / e-zine? Receive "Napoleon Hill Yesterday and Today!" every Friday morning to read an excerpt from Napoleon Hill's works (many long out of print) along with contemporary commentary by Judy Williamson, Director of the Napoleon Hill World Learning Center. Each issue also includes an article by a guest author reflecting on one or more principles of the Philosophy of Success. Click here to sign up! This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. We encourage you to forward this to friends and family. They can sign up for this free service at our web site: http://www.naphill.org. To stop receiving Napoleon Hill's Thought for the Day, select this link to unsubscribe.

Questions to Discuss Before You Get Married

Questions for Engaged Couples
-- Questions to Discuss Before You Get Married
General
Family of Origin
Self Image
Time and Chores
Money
Parenting
Spirituality and Religion
Sex
Conflict

General

Will you change the
 toilet paper roll?

Why are we getting married? Pregnancy, financial security, loneliness or wanting to get out of the family home are not valid reasons to get married.

What do we as a couple want out of life?

What do you think we'll be doing in thirty or forty years?

How often do you drink?

Have you ever hit someone?

Do you think it is important to be faithful to one another?

Do you have a criminal record?

Family of Origin
What was your childhood like?

Was your family an affectionate one?

Do you think we will have problems with your family during the holidays?

What values do you want to bring from your family into our marriage?

What do you like and dislike about your family?

what do you like and dislike about my family?

What do you like and dislike about your parents' marriage?

What do you like and dislike about my parents' marriage?

Self Image

How would you describe yourself?

How do you think I see you?

Am I a jealous person?

Do I have trust issues or feel insecure?

How important is affirmation to me?

Do I handle compliments well?

What is your love language?

Do you think we listen to one another well?

Do you think it is important to know one another's physical and mental health histories?

How important do you think self care is?

21 SECRETS FOR YOUR 20s

Another great article I came across. - sh

21 secrets for your 20's

Posted on March 5th, 2013

Welcome to All Groan Up by Paul Angone — a place for twenty-somethings asking “what now?” If you like the list below, pick up a free copy of the 21 Secrets for your 20′s ebook. (free for a limited time).

1. Never looking at your budget and never making a budget is the exact same thing.
2. The possibility for greatness and embarrassment both exist in the same space. If you’re not willing to be embarrassed, you’re probably not willing to be great.

3. Feel no shame in seeking help from a counselor or therapist. We all have crap we try to wrap and hide under the Christmas tree. Get rid of it before it smells up your entire holiday.

4. All job listings on Craigslist lead you to a warehouse in downtown LA “wearing something nice with shoes you can walk in”.

5. Don’t ever, ever check Facebook when you’re:

A. Depressed

B. Drinking.

C. Depressed and Drinking.

D. Unemployed.

E. Anytime after 9:17 pm.

F. Struggling with being blessed with singleness while all your friends seem to be blessed with 2.4 kids and that blazing white-picket-fence shining with the glory of Jesus Christ himself.

6. All those amazing college friends you swore you’d never lose contact with after college yeah, well, you might lose contact. Moving all over the country, getting married, having kids, all make that forty-five minute conversation with your sophomore roommate a little more complicated than it used to be over a game of Mario Kart. Making and keeping friends in our twenties takes intentionality.

7. Your twenties will produce more failures than you’ll choose to remember. The key is when you fail, don’t begin calling yourself a failure.

8. Every break up has two break ups. I’m no physicist, but this is a law of physics, of this I am certain. Yes you’ll have the first tearful “It’s over” sitting in the front seat of your Honda or on a park swing. Then 1-2 months later after there’s “been talk”, you’ll have the “real breakup” because she forgets to call like she used to or he checks out the waitress like he’s a judge for Miss USA. And gird those loins because in the second break up there will be a lot more breaking.

9. The Freshman-Fifteen is nothing compared to the Cubicle-Cincuenta. Don’t sit at your computer perched like a Roman gargoyle. Don’t let office birthday cake be forced on you like a cigarette behind your middle school. Bust out before your butt does.

10. And yes, cubicles don’t make sense to anybody other than upper-management. I would be willing to bet that only 3% of all “Cubicle Americans” actually have a positive outlook on life. And half of that 3% is stealing from their company.

11. If at some point between 22 – 27 you feel like you’re six years old again, lost and alone at the San Diego Zoo (it’s a big-frickin-zoo), frantically searching for a familiar face – hold tight, you’re experiencing a bit of a Quarter-Life Crisis. Stay put. Pray a lot. And in no time someone will call your name across the loud speaker to tell you where you can be found.

12. Reckless drinking and reckless flirting have a direct correlation. Friends don’t let friends drive, or flirt, drunk.
13. If you grew up going to church, at some point in your 20′s you’ll probably stop going to church. If you grew up with faith as a central part of your life, at some point in your twenties faith might move to the outskirts of town next to the trailer park and three-legged squirrel refuge. Your twenties are a process of making faith your own apart from your parents and childhood. Sometimes that means staggering away so you know what you’re coming back to.

14. Don’t ever begin dating someone you first met whilst in swimsuits. Doubly-don’t if you’re both in swimsuits whilst holding an alcoholic beverage.

15. Obsessive Comparision Disorder is the smallpox of our generation. 9 out of 10 doctor’s agree this disorder is the leading cause to eating a whole sleeve of Oreo’s while watching Real Housewives of OC. Say no to obsessive comparison disorder before it starts. Remember everyone’s too busy putting a PR spin on their Facebook profile to care much about yours.

16. Life will never feel like it’s “supposed to”. Being twentysomething can feel like death by unmet expectations. However, let me be so brash to say that you are right now, at this moment, exactly where you need to be. But you’ll only be able to see that five years and thirty-eight days from today.

Do you ask enough questions?

SaraHHouse365 | The way you invest your life
SaraHHouse365 | 5 People you spend most time with
SaraHHouse365 | The Week of Reflection - Round 2

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

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Falling In Love Again

Dating Checklist: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Falling In Love Again

Insight Is 20/20

Exploring the pervasive, and unperceived, patterns that govern our lives

by Seth Meyers and Katie Gilbert

Men and women often focus on the wrong questions when choosing their partners.

Published on July 29, 2012 by Seth Meyers, Psy.D. in Insight Is 20/20

Good relationships start with good decisions, and evaluating your beliefs about relationships and love before you start a relationship is the most important thing you can do. You must be sure that your expectations are realistic in order to have a happy and functional long-term relationship, and I’m including a quick cheat-sheet below you can use to do a little self-exploration in the romance department. I pulled these questions from a checklist in my book, Overcome Relationship Repetition Syndrome, where I include three entire chapters to hands-on checklists and inventories about your love life. With each question, I also share my advice!

What are the three most important characteristics to look for in a partner?
Men and women have the hardest time with this issue, as they’re usually too focused on sex appeal and personality ‘sparks,’ and focusing too little on the factors that actually matter the most. Simply put, the most important characteristics are kindness, reliability, and emotional stability. If you’re lucky enough to be spend much of your life with someone who has those qualities, you are going to have years of happiness and peace ahead of you.

What is the primary purpose of a romantic relationship?
It took many years of studying psychology and working with clients to get to the bottom of this one. When we’re young, we believe that the purpose of a romantic relationship is to provide you with an ultimate family: first a partner, then kids. But the purpose of a romantic relationship isn’t about procreation, necessarily. Actually, the purpose of a romantic union is to provide support and bring out the best in each other, so that each individual has the nourishment and strength to go out in the world and reach the life goals that each individual has. Meanwhile, in bad relationships, the relationships actually drain both partners and hold them back from what they could otherwise be doing to advance themselves and to keep evolving as individuals.

Hobbies | Me: Five Years from Now

SaraHHouse365 | Me: Five Years from Now

SaraHHouse365 | 25, A Fun Point to See Where Everybody Is At

Don't waste your Twenties - Part 1

Don’t Waste Your Twenties — Part 1: Taking Advantage of the Unique Powers of the Twentysomething Brain

by Brett & Kate McKay on February 4, 2013 · 92 comments

in A Man's Life

At age 20: Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft, and Sir Isaac Newton began developing a new branch of mathematics.
At age 21: Thomas Alva Edison created his first invention, an electric vote recorder, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Inc., and Alfred Tennyson published his first poetry.
At age 22: Inventor Samuel Colt patented the Colt six-shooter revolver, and Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the McCormick reaper, which allowed one man to do the work of five
At age 23: T. S. Eliot wrote “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” John Keats penned “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and Truman Capote published his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms.
At age 24: Johannes Kepler defended the Copernican theory and described the structure of the solar system.
At age 25: Orson Welles conscripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, New York farmhand Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, John Wesley began planting the seeds for Methodism at Oxford, and Alexander the Great became the King of Persia.
At age 26: Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics journal, fundamentally changing man’s view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb, Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, and Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.
An impressive list of accomplishments to be sure. And despite how many might interpret this kind of “precociousness,” I would argue that these men accomplished what they did not despite their age, but because of it.

A Disposable Decade?

Maybe you’ve heard it said, or even said it yourself: “Thirty is the new twenty.”
Things that were once markers of maturity in the past — finishing school, landing your first “real” job, getting hitched, having kids, buying a house – are getting pushed back later in life. Instead of hitting these milestones in one’s early or mid-twenties, as our parents and grandparents did, economic, sociological, and cultural factors have postponed these steps for many until the latter part of the decade, and into one’s thirties.
This has opened up an unprecedented period of time and development for young adults. The twenties have been relabeled “emerging adulthood” or “extended adolescence,” and because of its nascent nature, there aren’t a lot of guideposts on how a man should spend this new stage of life.
In the absence of such guidance, the twenties have come to be seen as a time to dabble, drift, and adventure, with the idea that you can get serious about stuff later — once you hit thirty. Thus, the twenties have been branded as disposable — an inconsequential holding period between two decades of schooling and becoming a “real” adult.
But the idea that one’s twenties are unimportant couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, “thirty is the new twenty” is one of the biggest lies of our age.
In this two-part series, we’ll explain why.

Life is better when you ______ ?

Credits: Mark & Angel's 25 Thought Questions Article

The link between man & GOD is FAITH

I've seen this before but just saw it again tonight and I know it will come up again when trying to explain God, faith, etc.

Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?

 

Student : Yes, sir.

 

Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?

Student : Absolutely, sir.

Professor : Is GOD good ?

Student : Sure.

Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?

Student : Yes.

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

 

(Student was silent.)

Someone has it WORSE than you do...

 

 

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

What's something you've NEVER had in your life?

Credits: thoughtquestions.com/