happy Archives — SMART Living 365

SMART Living Takes Smart Buildings and Smart Cities To the Highest Level

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized, Sustainable, What is SMART Living?

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

In case you didn’t know, Thom and I have been real estate brokers for over 25 years. Never a good “salesperson,” I soon began writing about real estate rather than selling it. On the other hand, Thom specializes in investment and commercial properties with a big emphasis on properties that are “green” and sustainable. A recent aspect to the energy-efficient real estate industry is “smart technology” for buildings and now even cities. But even though there may be an advantage to such technology and focus—it leaves out a critical ingredient. In order for anything to be truly SMART—people and their motivations must be included in the equation. [Read more…]

SMART Living 365 Recommends You Stay Grateful By Visiting Gratefulness.org

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

One of the core elements of living SMART 365 is practicing a thankful awareness on a daily basis. That’s why this week we are recommending Gratefulness.org. This website offers several touching and free ways to practice gratitude as well as education and support for anyone who wants to use gratitude as a regular spiritual practice. Just one of the goals of the website and organization is “to promote public awareness of gratefulness as a power for change in areas such as ecology, religious tolerance and intergenerational respect.” Surely, such a focus on gratitude can benefit each and every one of us every single day. [Read more…]

Using Earworms To Create A Happier Life!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

Earworms? Ewwwww! Just the thought of something creepy crawling around in your ear might send shivers down your spine. But whether you know it or not, there is a good chance that you have a bad case of earworms right now. And the earworms in your head are either creating a living heaven or a living hell on a regular basis. Isn’t it time you learned what they were and how they can help you live SMART 365?

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SMART Website for 10/24/11–Be Selfish, Be Generous–See Charity Focus.org

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable, Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

This week SMART Living 365 recommends two websites connected to each other. The first is CharityFocus.org—which encourages us to be “selfish” by being generous and kind to one another. The second sister-site is KarmaTube.org, which is a collection of inspiring videos accompanied by simple actions that everyone can take. These two sites run fully by volunteers, each attempt to put the statement made by Gandhi into practice when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

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Riding A Bike Turns A Chore Into An Adventure!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable

Do you remember your first bike? That question was a big part of the presentation made by Dan Austin, author and founder of “88 Bikes” at the Palm Springs 4^th Annual Sustainability Celebration. The event, which featured an exhibit area of local green and sustainable businesses, groups and organizations focused on promoting another year of growing and learning about ways to improve our desert community. An exciting new piece of that puzzle would be an all valley bikeway from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea–a stretch of nearly 50 miles.

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Monday’s Website of The Week 10/3/11—Thanks to Gary for Thx,thx,thx!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

A great big “thank you” to our friend and SMART Living 365 reader Gary for his recommendation of the thxthxthx.com website. I’d read about it before but until Gary sent me the link, I never took the time actually check it out. In case you don’t recall, each week we want to reach out across the web and share good and inspiring websites with one another and thanks to Gary this is a short, but very sweet website that helps keep things in perspective. That’s right—thxthxthx is all about gratitude—and remembering how everything works together for good.

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Website of the Week—TED.com

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

I’m taking a chance here that there are some of you who read SMART Living 365 who don’t already know about TED.com. But if you don’t, then it is definitely time you did. TED.com is mostly a website that posts videos of people who speak at TED conferences held annually around the world. The very best of those talks—called Ted Talks—are condensed versions. What is TED? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. But a better way to think of TED is explained on their website where it says they are, “Ideas worth spreading. Or Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” How SMART is that?
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Enjoying the Good Things In Life—For Free!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

The best things in life are free!

Yesterday evening Carlsbad, California began its Annual Music Festival with a free Village Music Walk. Similar to free art walks held regularly in cities around the county, the music walk was an introduction to the music to be performed at different venues over the weekend—and just like most art walks—it was absolutely free. Now, most of us know deep down that the best things in life aren’t “things.” But until we stop, think about it and then start enjoying the many free experiences that bring us joy, we might be missing out on the good right in front of us.

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Why We Need Changes To Facebook; Or The Value of Mixing Things Up

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

We are all creatures of habit. Don’t believe me? This morning Facebook came out with yet another change to its layout and the comments are: “If I was Facebook’s mom I would ground it for a month.” Or: “HATE: the new Facebook Newsfeed,” or “How do you like the new Facebook layout? So far I can’t stand it! Boooo Hiss Facebook, Boooo Hiss!” Unfortunately, while habits can make our lives easier in many cases, it is also a recipe for a life of boredom, routine and a diminished creativity and brain capacity. When you know the facts, you might consider that Facebook is doing us all a favor.

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