Good Haven House Beach Blog: happy

Showing posts with label happy. Show all posts

5.27.2014

A Beautiful Morning at Johnson's Beach

photo of Johnson's Beach, Perdido Key, FL by Peter Good (my wonderful husband)

5.15.2014

23 Inspirations

I woke up to a grey, rainy morning and needed to get some inspiration for my day. I came across this:

No matter what you do for a living, the key to success is motivating yourself, each and every day, according to Geoffrey James, author of Business Without the Bullsh*t.

"Most people don't realize that motivation mostly emerges from minor changes in your own behavior," says James.

Here are some tips on how to remain inspired, even when the going gets rough:

1. Realize that YOU are in control. You cannot control the outside world, but you can control your emotional reaction to it.
2. Accept where you are. Life is like those signs that read "You Are Here." You can get somewhere else only if you know where you are now.
3. Adopt a positive vocabulary. Use strong adjectives (e.g., "fantastic") to describe what's good and weak words (e.g., "annoying") to describe what's not.
4. Condition your mind. Train yourself to think positive thoughts while avoiding negative thoughts.
5. Condition your body. It takes physical energy to take action. Get your food and exercise budget in place and follow it like a business plan.
6. Avoid negative people. They drain your energy and waste your time, so hanging with them is like shooting yourself in the foot.
7. Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you, and you can imitate their success strategies.
8. Have goals—but remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete, lest it become more important than achieving the goal.
9. Act with a higher purpose. Any activity or action that doesn't serve your higher goal is wasted effort—and should be avoided.
10. Take responsibility. If you blame (or credit) luck, fate, or divine intervention, you'll always have an excuse.
11. Stretch past your limits. Walking the old, familiar paths is how you grow old. Stretching makes you grow and evolve.
12. Don't expect perfection. Perfectionists are the losers in the game of life. Strive for excellence rather than the unachievable.
13. Celebrate your failures. Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don't achieve. Take time to understand where you fell short.
14. Don't take success too seriously. Success can breed tomorrow's failure if you use it as an excuse to become complacent.
15. Avoid weak goals. Goals are the soul of achievement, so never begin them with "I'll try…" Always start with "I will" or "I must."
16. Treat inaction as the only real failure. If you don't take action, you fail by default and can't even learn from the experience.
17. Welcome obstacles. You can't grow stronger if you're not lifting something heavy, so savor your problems.
18. Get perspective. Take the time and effort to step back, reexamine your assumptions, and find truths that you missed before.
19. Appreciate being alive. Never neglect to marvel at the miracle of conscious existence, which is all too soon over.
20. Relax more often. Spend at least one hour every day doing something that's just because you enjoy doing it.
21. Experience wonder. Take pleasure in the unexpected and unusual because without them life would be tedious and boring.
22. Be playful. The joy of a child still lives inside you; let that child out at least once each day.
23. Give thanks. Experience deep gratitude for all the wonderful things in your life: family, friends, work, and play.

"Getting and keeping motivated puts you in control of your actions and your career, thereby lessening stress," says James. "Even implementing a handful of these changes can have a major effect on your health and your attitude."

Adapted from Business Without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know by Geoffrey James.

2.01.2014

Weather

Here's to stormy weather.

1.07.2014

Winter at the Beach

Photo, PihaLightOnSea by LeonieGirlinTheWorld

The days are short
The sun a spark
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

~John Updike, "January," A Child’s Calendar, 1965

12.30.2013

Happy 2014

If you're going to be in or around Pensacola this New Year's Eve, check out the Pelican Drop in downtown Pensacola. Quite the party! Times Square has nothin' on us!!

Happy 2014!

12.29.2013

Wild Geese

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

5.23.2013

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Moonrise over Pensacola Beach

"Hand in hand

on the edge of the sand,

they danced by the light of the moon."

-from The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear

1.11.2013

Happy (and peaceful) Friday

Arlo Guthrie during a 1969 show at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts

Photograph by Bettman/CORBIS

A new National Geographic book, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol by photographer

Ken Kolsbun and journalist Michael S. Sweeney, takes a look at the famous sign.

The peace symbol was the brainchild of a British designer, Gerald Holtom, seeking an emblem for an anti-nuclear-weapons march in London in 1958. It superimposes the semaphore signals for N (nuclear) and D (disarmament) and has become known the world over.

The book is interesting and the pictures, as always from National Geographic, are stunning and thought provoking. A timely reminder for our world right now.

See more pictures from the book and

buy it here

☮