Optimisms
Cheering each other on
Your Happiness And Success Is All About Perspective
Are you convinced yet about the power of our point of view? This TED talk by Ogilvy ad man Rory Sutherland takes the entire concept behind my happiness book Bright Side Up and relates it to marketing and business. As it turns out, Rorry and I both agree: It’s not your circumstances that affect your happiness but how you see them that matters. Yep. Our happiness is all about perspective.
So, check out the video, “Perspective is Everything.” And if you want to know how to shift your point of view in real, useful ways in your own life, find out more about Bright Side Up or get your own copy online.
Either way, remember that what happens today doesn’t matter as much as how you see what happens in your life today. Change your perspective, be happy!
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Big love,
Which Is Better: One Big Luxury or Lots of Little Ones?
You know I love sharing things that can make us feel happier in our every day lives. And this month, I’m teaming up with Bloomspot so you can get happy in a dose of double goodness: through my happiness tips and their treats!
Do you know about Bloomspot? It’s a gorgeous site that offers locals deals for high-end restaurants, spa treatments, drinks, getaways, tasting menu specials and more. It’s in about a dozen major U.S. cities so far, but it’s spreading it’s blooms and hopefully reaches a spot near you soon. And this month, we’re teaming up to spread the happy!
Yesterday, the site introduced their new makeover and…me. Because for the month, I’ll be sharing some of my happiness tips about living the good life. Check out this post for the yummy giveaways and news about the special days (uh, hello, Treat Yourself Thursdays?).
And today, you can check out my first post on the site! In it, I talk about a very surprising new study that answers this question:
Is it better to engage in a lot of little luxuries or throw your eggs into one big one?
You can find the answer here, in my first happiness tip.
So check out the post, Like it and Share It on Facebook, Tweet it, or pin it to your Pinterest board. Because among all the giveaways and goodies Bloomspot will be offering all month, if you don’t yet have your copy of Bright Side Up, a little birdie just might be carrying some books in her basket…
Don’t miss out. Come join me in the fun!
xo
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Big love,
Try This! Do the Life Cha-Cha
I decided to clean out my closet recently. So I grabbed everything inside and threw it on my bed. Four hours later, my room still looked like a tyhpoon had hit and I was so over it. I’m sure you know the feeling. But that’s when I realized my closet cleaning project was just like life: Sometimes things get worse before they can get better. And, really, a messy closet is the least of it all.
Life can be a party if you see it that way. Your mis-steps are part of the dance. (Image by Amy Spencer, Playa Ocotal, Costa Rica, 2011)
• In work, maybe you struggle with a job before realizing you’d be better off doing it differently—or going down a different career path altogether.
• In money, maybe you have to eat some costs to get yourself to the place you want to be.
• In relationships, maybe you get in argument that’s so big, you wonder if you’ll ever preserve the relationship, but maybe the backward breakdown was necessarily to build your relationship back up on a better foundation.
Whatever your struggle is, sometimes touching our toes on the dark bottom is the wake-up call we need to push ourselves with all our might back up to the top.
Going backward blows, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s not a total disaster. It’s also an opportunity. It’s a chance to see what’s not working, how we want to feel and what can be changed for the better. We don’t learn what we’re capable of from the steady move forward. We learn it from the mis-steps backward—and I’m sure the current contestants on Dancing with the Stars would agree. It takes some sweat, pulled muscles, mistakes and tears to learn the dance. That’s life.
Try this: Look at the difficult moment you’re experiencing for the cha-cha that it is. Know that at the end of this tough stuff is a performance you’ll be proud of. So if you’re in the sweat-filled, swear-filled, mis-step stage right now, remember: this is part of the dance. We don’t move forward without a few steps backward. That’s how the cha-cha goes.
What’s your most recent step backward that you can learn from? How is it an opportunity for you to learn from it, grow from it and come back stronger with your next step?
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Big love,
10 Ways to Look on the Bright Side of Dogstruction
My friend Beth recently launched a hilarious website called Dogstruction.com that documents the over-the-top messes our dogs make of our lives.
It’s based on the formula that while you love your pet (or, child or partner or roommate), your pet happens to love your couch, toilet paper, your remote control and your most expensive shoes.
But you know what? There’s a bright side to the dogstruction our doggies make in our lives, too. To prove it, I created a top ten list for Beth to share with her readers—and now I want to share it with you, too!
And whether you have a dog or not, maybe you can see the bright side of your children’s or partner’s mess, too! And so I bring you…
10 Ways to Look on the Bright Side of Dogstruction
1. Remember, the amount of your doggie’s damage is in proportion to how much your dog loves you and wants to be out of that room and hanging with you. So that’s a lot of love.
2. Flip-flop it: That ruined door will make great firewood, after all, and the hole in the drywall? Well, you were looking for the perfect opportunity to put in an outlet in that corner….
3. If doggie didn’t mess stuff up, your house would always look just as you left it. Yawn. How boring is that?
4. The truth is, those blinds/cushions/walls weren’t worthy of you—they being an hour or more old already. Really, you deserve to get (yet another) brand new version of it.
5. Okay, you’re looking at all that your dog destroyed. But then, look at what he or she didn’t destroy. Chances are there’s something else in that room you can be grateful survived your dog’s wrath! This time, anyway.
6. Well, the worse the damage, the better the story to share at your next party. Hey, if you’re really lucky, maybe your dog will destroy your bedroom and laundry room next time!
7. True art is one of a kind, right? Well, enjoy your new art. No one has a bench or window or crate or toy that looks exactly like that, with the stamp of your “artist’s” teeth and paws all over it.
8. Technically, it is just stuff. Stuff you loved, but still, it’s just stuff. At least your true heart and soul—that dog of yours—is safe and okay.
9. Be honest: Did you have something better to photograph and put online to make your friends laugh this week?
10. Sigh. Look at that guilty face. Look at that adorable guilty face. You know you love it. Because despite the maddening dogstruction in your home, your life is so much better with your doggie—or kid or partner—in it.
Check out the hilarious dogstruction.com—or Google photos of the messes other people have had to clean up. Because, really, nothing puts your mess in perspective faster than knowing someone else has had it worse.
Big love,
TODAY’S HAPPINESS HOW-TO: Mold Your Life Like Clay
Paint your doors and plant your trees. Your world is how you decide to mold it. (Image by Amy Spencer; French Quarter, New Orleans, 2011)
“This is your world. Shape it or someone else will.”
I know one thing about clay: If you don’t pick it up and mold it into something, it sits like a lump on the table until someone picks it up or throws it away. Well, our lives are a lot like that clay. If we don’t pick it up and proactively shape what we want for ourselves, who knows what it will become?
Sometimes, I know, it feels like life is happening to us and that we’re mere pawns in the game: The boss gives us an assignment we hate having to do. Some drama goes down with a good friend. Our rent goes up. Our back goes out. A date doesn’t write us back online like we hoped they would.“Why is this happening to me?” we ask our life. “Why are you making it so hard?”
Yes, things happen to us. But we also have an extremely powerful tool to bring to the art table of life: We have the ability to shape our lives by the choices we make and the attitude we present. How?
Try this: Mold each day this week like a piece of clay. Approach that dreaded job assignment with the goal of learning something new. Tell your friend how you feel from the bottom of your heart. Turn your hobby into an inventive way to make cash to cover the rent increase. Use the time you’re laid out in bed with back problems catching up on the good books you keep meaning to read. And if your date isn’t writing you back online, delete them from your love plan and start looking again for someone who willlove you back in a big, big way. Make your life what you want it to be or life will do it for you.
Start today: Shape your own clay. Be the kind, positive, even-keeled, productive, loving person you know you can be, and mold your life, hour by hour and day by day into the one you dream of having. Because if you don’t shape your world the way you want it, someone else will.
What do you want to mold going forward today? What area of your life do you want to take control of once and for all?
Big love,
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