Be grateful for your failures

“Failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’ – Winston Churchill

Jeff Bezos is the creator of Amazon and one of the richest men in the world. His company is a powerhouse these days, but it wasn’t always that way. Back in 1999, Amazon launched zShops, an online shopping platform that failed.

Bezos has said of the venture that only his parents ever visited a zShop. Yet this failure turned out to be a blessing. The principles and lessons learned from zShop now influence the Amazon marketplace. Bezos and his team took a failure and used that knowledge to help create a success.

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Accomplish your annoying tasks with these Five Tips

We all have to do stuff we hate from time to time. Cleaning the bathroom and the litter box, answering emails…the list goes on and on. When you work from home, you can’t pass off those tasks to someone else. You might put them off as long as possible, but eventually you have to get them done. How can you make those tasks easier to handle? These five tips will help you!

1. Do a task each day. We all know procrastination is bad. It can lead to depression, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem and irrational beliefs. Scientists have found that procrastination is a sign of poor self-regulation. How can you beat it? By starting small. Break up your most-dreaded tasks into smaller ones. Each day, do one until you can do it without stress. Then, add another each day, so that each day you are making an attempt to get things done.
2. Bribe yourself. We love rewards. When you finish something difficult, it’s a natural feeling to celebrate. Evoke this feeling to complete annoying tasks. Set up a simple reward system for each task checked off your list, and you’ll be more motivated to get things done.
3. Take a timeout, instead of venting. It can feel very natural to vent and rage when you have to do something irritating. It feels good to complain because it’s an emotional release. Scientists have learned that complaining and venting will actually make you feel more angry. Instead, give yourself a time out to work through your negative feelings in a positive manner.
4. Find a mantra. Remember the moment in Finding Nemo when Dory begins to sing “just keep swimming, just keep swimming?” This mantra actually is a great technique. A song or repeated phrase can help you to work through difficult tasks. It will help you focus on what you want to accomplish, instead of what you are doing at the moment.
5. Just do it. Nike’s motto is correct. Some tasks are inherently unpleasant. Sometimes you’ve got to bite your tongue and get it done. So, grit your teeth and just do it!

We all have stuff that we hate to do. That’s the reality of life. However, with a little strategy you can get those tasks done on time. Try one of these tips today!

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What good thing happened today?

A post recently making the rounds on Facebook lists questions you can ask your children to encourage conversation and get them to open up about their day. One of the questions is: What is one good thing that happened today?

It’s a great question. But maybe we should be asking it of ourselves every single day.

Sometimes it can be really hard to find the positives, especially when we are bombarded with so much negativity and bad news. But the truth is that there is always something positive – we just have to look a little harder.

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You can’t put a price on love. But on Valentine’s Day, it often seems as if that is exactly what some people try to do… as if an expensive gift is the best way to show love. Here’s a secret! The truth is that the thought really is what counts when it comes to a gift. You want a gift that will celebrate the small things that make your love great. Here are some tips for finding that heartfelt gift this Valentine’s Day:

Memories. It is the day of love, so make your gift about the love and memories you share. Even if sentimentality isn’t your thing, today is the proper day to be a bit mushy. Choose a gift that celebrates the little things you and your partner share – the inside jokes, your song or the first meal you shared.

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