SMART Living 365

Ideas to create a more happy, peaceful and rewarding life--365!

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The Power Of Your Words

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized

 “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” –Buddha

Do you realize how much power you possess every time you open your mouth?  Or what about when you post something on Facebook or send out that email?  Every communication we have with others carries with it the ability to bring a smile to someone’s face and potentially lift one’s spirit.  Or, we simultaneously have the power to create fear, doubt, or even worse.   While we usually can’t turn another person’s life around without their cooperation, we can, with the simple words we say or write, instantly shift the energy in a person or in a room.   Let’s start remembering that the words we share with others are like a wand bestowing blessings or curses.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgi0t2ap-us[/tube]

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Growth Mindset or Fixed Mindset—Which Do You Live By?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized

SMART Living 365.comWith the new school year fast approaching, I think it is useful to recognize that people generally have one of two different mindsets when it comes to learning.  Some people think you “just have what you were born with” as far as smarts or intelligence goes, while others live their lives with the belief that you can always learn more and become more with effort.  Which are you?  Sort of like a brain “operating system,” believing and behaving with either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset will go a long way towards determining your success and happiness in this lifetime.  The good news is, if you haven’t been getting the results you crave, you can always change your mindset and go from there.

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Resilience—Do you break, bruise or bounce when stuff happens?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Sustainable

 

            Drop a light bulb on the floor and it shatters.  Drop an apple and it bruises.  Drop a hard rubber ball and it bounces back—good as new.  What about you? Every single one of us experiences a variety of events every day.  Some experiences are smooth and pleasant, some merely okay, and others downright tough.   While most of us can sail easily through the good times—whether we shatter, bruise or bounce during the tough times are as individual as we are.   We all know a few people who are amazing at bounding right back.  Others—not so great.  The good news is that with the desire, every one of us can improve our bounce-ability quotient. [Read more…]

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Defining Happiness—Is it Bling, A Journey or Something Else?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Thankful

 

       An important part of SMART Living 365 is creating happiness.  But what do I mean by happiness?  Unfortunately, many people in America seem to be working to either buy happiness or make happiness happen, and that can actually lead to more stress and dissatisfaction than anything else.  So, before we go further, let’s explore what happiness is, and isn’t—how we can experience it—and why should we want it in the first place. [Read more…]

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Stuff Happens—A SMART Way To Approach Problems!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized, Sustainable

Let's keep our problems in perspective.

Let’s keep our problems in perspective.

Some of the posts here on SMART Living 365 might lead you to believe that SMART Living is merely keeping a positive attitude.   You might also think that once you embrace what I have been calling SMART Living that nothing unpleasant or bad ever happens in your life.  Actually, while it might be nice if that were true—it’s not.  SMART Living isn’t a place you arrive at like taking a trip to Hawaii and never coming home.  Instead, SMART Living is a journey of discovering that no matter what happens, you have the consciousness, understanding and tools to deal with whatever comes your way.

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A Simple Prescription For Happiness–Get a Dog!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Thankful

SMART LIving 365.com

Kathy, Kloe & Thom

Just over six months ago Thom and I added a new family member to our household—a puppy we named Kloe. To be sure, a puppy ads havoc, lots more work and a great deal of responsibility to anyone who cares for them.  However, the increased value and joy Kloe brings to our lives more than compensates for any inconvenience.  Not only does Kloe make us laugh on a daily basis, there is plenty of proof that she is also good for our health.

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Using CalmNsense for a Happier and More Peaceful Life

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

“It took some good calm thinking in order to get myself to calm down and stop throwing myself against the boulder.”  –Aron Ralston, mountain climber and author

Yesterday Thom came across an interesting article on Huffington Post about the lack of common sense in the world today.  The article by Dr. Jim Taylor said, “common sense is neither common, nor sense. There’s not a whole lot of sound judgment going on these days… so it’s not common.”  We both agreed with his suggestions on how to bring more open and rigorous thinking to our decisions, but there was something else missing.  Maybe that final ingredient to all common sense should be some “calmNsense.” [Read more…]

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A Journey of Right-Sizing, or How Big Is Big Enough?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized, Sustainable

 

Just over three years ago, Thom and I bought a new home in the “village area” of La Quinta, CA.  We called it an experiment because we weren’t sure if we could live in a house that was nearly a 1,000 sq. feet less than the one we had before.  Never mind that the new house had 1,400 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and was plenty large enough based on comparables around the world.   But with huge changes happening in the economy, and our personal growing awareness in the “green” movement, Thom and I felt it was time to discover if the American obsession with size was just a habit we’d adopted or a true necessity.   What we’ve come to know during the last two years is that smaller is plenty big enough, especially when it fits perfectly within your needs. [Read more…]

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How Open Minded Are you About Closed-Minded People?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

Several years ago Thom and I attended a workshop where the speaker asked us the question, “How open-minded are you about closed- minded people?”  It was asked in the context that here we all were, thinking we had the right and perfect solution to the world’s problems, and yet this simple question asked us, “so what makes you think you are so smart/spiritual/aware that you have the right/ true/correct answer to whatever is going on?”  Huh?

SMART living requires that we are to take full responsibility for our lives if we want to live happy, and rewarding lives.  But in order to be fully responsible for what’s going on, then we have to first be aware, and then second, realize that even when we think we know, there can always be a different or bigger perspective that we are clueless about.  Even when we try to be as opened-minded as possible, we always have a blind spot here and there.  And often, the more we fight something the more it “backfires.” [Read more…]

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The R in SMART Living Stands For Responsible

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized

Happy SMART Day Everyone!  Today is a great day to talk about the “R” in SMART Living—even if I am temporarily skipping a couple of letters to do it.  That’s because the R stands for “Responsible” and one way of being responsible is being “response-able.”  That’s right folks, although there are a couple of ways we believe that SMART Living asks us to be responsible…when it comes down to it, unless we are consistently able to respond in a way that creates peace and happiness we will always be susceptible to circumstances, events and other people.  Once we take full responsibility for our actions, and yeah it isn’t always easy, then we can decide how we will proceed.

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About

Kathy Gottberg is an author with seven published books and hundreds of articles covering dozens of topics in the last 35 years. Along with her books, her passion today is SMART Living 365 where she explores ideas and experiences that help to create a meaningful, sustainable, compassionate and rewarding life for herself and others. Beyond that, she lives with Thom, her best friend and soul mate in Tucson, AZ.

To contact Kathy: click here

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