Links to Love: Inspiring Gratitude
Scientific studies have shown that negative experiences have a greater affect on our well-being than positive experiences. These studies reflect the importance of nurturing and promoting positive experiences in life to enjoy a life of good health, happiness and success.
No one has a perfect life and true happiness is not the result of your external experience being positive, but instead a positive internal experience. To be healthy, happy and achieve your dreams you’ve got to feel good about your imperfect life, and the way I do this is by practicing an attitude of gratitude.
Gratitude is essential to a great life, and there’s always something to be grateful for. A regular practice of gratitude does not mean I don’t have any struggles or challenges because, trust me, I do! It does mean I actively seek out what is going well, what’s working, and I focus my energy on the good stuff.
This practice of focusing on the good helps me keep my life in balance. Without an abundance of gratitude, life will inevitably get me down and that’s not the way I choose to experience my life.
Gratitude is so important to me, I look to be inspired in gratitude whenever I can. I hope you enjoy these awesome links on gratitude as much as I do.
Seattle Pi: The key to wellness? It’s gratitude, one doctor says. A look at the link between gratitude and health.
Tiny Buddha: 60 Things to be grateful for in life. Use this handy little list to get you started.
Kind Over Matter: Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life A sweet and simple sentiment to inspire gratitude.
Janet Callaway: 13 quotes on gratitude I loved these beautiful quotes on gratitude!
Motherhood Your Way: Printable gratitude journal to count your blessings Enjoy this fun and creative way to express and share your gratitude.
Live Love Work: Get gratitude: 3 simple steps for living I hope you enjoy my take on a practice of gratitude.
Pringle Hill Studio: Gratitude journal pages Check out more of the lovely gratitude in art by Pringle Hill Studio! Gorgeous!
I love your comments! Share your regular practice of gratitude, or simply share 5 things you’re grateful for today.
Join the ConversationMarket Yourself!
In today’s digital world, business cards may seem passé, but networking cards are a great tool for building your professional brand, networking, and generating business opportunities.
Chances are you’ll be looking for a new job, new clients, or to increase your audience at some point in the near future. Don’t wait until you need your network to build your network! Being prepared with quality networking cards lets your contacts know who you are and how to contact you.
Why you need a business card:
You may meet professional contacts in person and a business networking card is a quick and easy way to exchange information. Your website url, name or email address may be difficult to remember when relayed in casual conversation.
As a job seeker, career professional, blogger, or business owner, a diverse and engaged network can help you achieve your goals! A business card is an accepted and professional way to exchange information.
Here are some situations where having a business networking card is useful:
- Networking events, such as professional association meetings, professional training and seminars, and conferences.
- Striking up a discussion with a potential contact on the commuter train or at the airport during a business trip.
- After answering the dreaded “what do you do?” question at parties.
- A business partner, co-worker or friend refers you to one of their contacts.
- Requesting a business card from your interviewer, and providing your business card at the close of your job interview.
As a note, ask for your contact’s business card and immediately send them a follow up email and connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. You don’t want to wait to connect until you no longer remember who they are or where you met; connect right away, offer value, and your network will give back to you when you need it.
Why you need a personal business card:
If you are employed by an organization you may already have a business card for your organization, however it’s a good idea to have your own business networking card for the following reasons:
- Don’t exchange your organization’s business card if you are not expressly acting as a direct representative of the organization.
- Organizations are constantly changing and you want your contacts to have stable contact information, such as an email address and cell phone that you maintain as your career grows.
- You can provide the url to your blog, LinkedIn, and other social networking profiles.
- A personalized business networking card can highlight your skills and experience, values and goals. Consider including a bulleted list of your expertise.
Designing your personalized business card:
You can create inexpensive personalized business cards using business card templates on popular printing sites such as Vista Print, Zazzle or MOO.
Here’s some important information to consider including on your networking card:
- Your name
- A professional email address such as firstname.lastname@gmail.com
- Your cell phone number (with a professional voice mail greeting!)
- Your website url
- Your LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and other professional social network profile
- A tagline describing your values or goals. My networking card used to read, “Mindfulness and accountability in business”
- Bulleted list of your areas of expertise
- A professional photo of yourself
- QR (Quick Response) code so your contact information can be read by smartphones! You can create your own QR code at Kaywa, Qurify, or many other sites.
Market yourself!
Modern business cards come in bold colors and graphics, as well as printing on the back and front of the card so don’t feel limited by traditional business card designs. Create a card that tells a story about your career. Your networking card should give your contacts an idea who you are and how to get in touch with you.
I love your comments! Do you have a business card? What do you do with business cards given to you by someone else?
Links to Love: How to be happy
Deciding to be happy is about choosing an attitude and lifestyle that promotes joy and love in your life. Often negative thinking weighs us down and we forget, or never knew, we have a choice in our happiness.
Happiness is an inside job, after all. If you’re waiting to be happy for your life to be perfect, I’m afraid you’ll be waiting a long time.
There will be times when legitimate struggle overwhelms life and the idea of choosing happiness doesn’t mean you ignore other necessary and important feelings. All our feelings serve a useful purpose, or did at some point in time, but it’s easy to get stuck in negative feelings.
Sometimes it’s enough to know you have the choice to decide which feeling you focus on, choose to carry with you all day, and present to others. If you’re grieving, you may choose to sit with that loss until you’re ready to move on. Just know that when you’re ready, happiness is there waiting for you to choose it.
Think about the last time you got stuck in traffic on the way to work, spilled your coffee, or misplaced your keys. Do these types of setbacks ruin your day? At the end of the day do you still have your health, your home, your job? Is your life more-or-less the same tomorrow as it was this morning? You don’t have to let minor inconveniences get you down, choose happiness instead!
If you’re ready to opt for happiness, check out these awesome links for happy thoughts, happy ideas and happy inspiration!
The Happiness Project: How to be happier- in four easy lessons Gretchen Rubin offers four truths of happiness. Simple and inspiring!
Global One: 21 Habits of Happy People Twenty-one great habits that cultivate happiness.
Jaclyn Rae’s Blog: 50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine Fifty wonderful ideas to bring joy to life!
Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulf: My TEDx Talk Want arbejdsglæde? Watch Alexander’s talk at TEDx Coppenhagen to find out what arbejdsglæde is and how you can have it!
Live Love Work: Work Happy: How to be happier at work Check out my article on creating happiness at work (and beyond!)
I love your comments! How do you practice happiness?
image courtesy of Leo Reynolds
Join the ConversationLove Yourself: Links to Love
In my journey to live and love my work-life, I actively seek sources of inspiration and truth. This week I am sharing a collection of articles on loving yourself.
Self-love is an essential ingredient in confidence, health and passion. Without confidence, health and passion it can be overwhelmingly difficult to achieve goals and love your work-life. So read on, be inspired, and love yourself!
The Bold Life: 60 Ways To Become the Person You Love 60 beautifully simple ways to practice self-care and self-love. Try one or two today!
Mirror Wellness: Top 5 Ways to Love Yourself Now An instructive how-to for self-love.
Weightless: A Letter of Self-Love Write yourself a letter of self-love.
Already Pretty: Be Kind To Yourself An inspired look at how self-kindness and self-love go hand-in-hand.
Olivine’s Charm School: Sparkly Self Love Sway A fun and interactive way to love yourself through movement.
Live Love Work: Discover the Power of Self-Love Re-visit my article on what self-love is, why it is important, and a few ideas to start loving yourself today.
Photo Credit: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos
You are awesome! Never forget it, never regret it!
Join the ConversationAsking for recognition is a self-honoring action.
Knowing what kind of recognition motives you is a great first step towards loving your work-life. The next step is sharing your recognition motivators with management.
A recent Office Team survey suggests that administrative professional’s second-highest valued recognition is having a boss or other manager share an achievement with senior management.
Accepting praise can be uncomfortable for some, and asking for more can feel downright scary! The truth is only you know what you want and only you can ask for what you need from others. Asking for your needs to be met, and accepting whatever answer you receive, is a self-loving, honest and self-honoring action.
So how do you go about asking for the recognition you desire? I recently received a nice complement from an upper-level manager. I didn’t want to pass up this opportunity to ask for what I wanted. A quick search led me to Tory Johnson’s article, How to Ask for Recognition, and I followed Tory’s suggestion. I sent an email to the complimenting manager, thanking her for her comments and recognition of my efforts, and I asked if she would mind passing along her compliments on my work, as she felt appropriate, to my new boss. She responded to tell me she’d be pleased to share her praise.
Sending that email I felt nervous, and I also felt proud of myself for asking for help. Loving my work-life starts with loving myself, acknowledging my accomplishments and sharing my achievements. Be brave and love your work-life!
”The rewards go to the risk-takers, those who are willing to put their egos on the line and reach out to other people and to a richer, fuller life for themselves.” –Susan RoAne
Join the ConversationLet's Connect!
Chrysta Bairre
