Beautiful Southern Life

Create the Life You Dream About

Here are Three of My Favorite Ted Talks

I sure hope you are having a wonderful start to your week. I know I have, I have read three books over the weekend, and listened to about 20 Ted Talks while my husband was driving on a day trip we took to Indiana. I planned out my goals for the next month and wrote them in my Journal so I wouldn’t forget a single one.

Here are Three of My Favorite Ted Talks

We all need something that will help up to realize we can have the life we dream about. It is ours! We just have to figure out the steps to get us from where we are right now to where we want to be. We have to draw the dream, create the goals board, and create the picture of our perfect life. If we don’t then how are we going to know where we are going?

You have to understand where you are in order to get together a plan for where you want to go. So many people I know just live, they go to work,  they come home, they eat dinner and then they sit in front of the TV until bedtime, then they go to bed. This my friend is not living it is existing. I don’t know about you but I want to do more than exist!

On there weekends off they  do a few chores around the house, just enough to say they did something and then they do nothing  the remainder of the weekend they don’t work on there favorite hobby they used to love, they don’t spend quality time with there family. Everyone needs to rest, there’s nothing wrong with resting. We just need to make sure it doesn’t come before family and the really important things we know we should do and the things we really want to do.

I hope you get as much out of these Ted Talks as I did.

They inspired me to:

To create a goals board, I’ll share with you later on in the week the goals board I made from an old picture frame.

To take a really good look at my goals and see where I needed to change somethings and add somethings that would stretch me a little more. They showed me where I could change the way I think about things I am able to change.

They showed me how I am in control of my future not my mind. I can ask my mind questions and it will work extremely hard to find the answers. I read that in this awesome book, “The Great Little Book of Afformations”, by Noah St. John

I was able to download the audio version from my local public library. It is a short read an teaches you how to ask your mind questions and then teaches you how to allow your mind to find the answers to the questions you ask it.

My Three Favorite Ted Talks

This one I have to say is my favorite of them all. I have learned so much from Tony Robbins. I am reading this book right now “Awaken The Giant Within” and I can’t hardly put it down. There is life changing stuff on every page! Here is a Ted Talk he gave in 2007 That has the ability to change your life if your allow it to.

Why We Do What We Do, by Tony Robbins

 

How to Change Your Limiting Beliefs for More Success, By Dr. Irum Tahir

This is a talk that really can help you look at your belief system. We all grow up with a belief system, I’m not talking about a religious belief system, but a system of rules we grew up with that limit our success. A system of beliefs that tell us we can’t do something. This sometimes has been passed down from our parents and grandparents unintentionally.

I read this book about 10 years ago and it really did change my life. “The Success Principles”  By Jack Canfield he goes into detail on how to change those limiting belief systems you have and make major break throughs in work and life. His book has a lot of homework but trust me, You do the work you will see major changes in your life.

How to Gain Control of Your Free Time , By Laura Vanderkam

I really enjoyed this talk. I am working on reigning in on my time. We only get 24 hours in a day.  16 hours of everyday day is already taken up with work and sleep giving us 8 hours to use for those things that are most important to us.

Laura Vanderkam has several books that I have added to my reading list this year. If you are like me and want to grab a copy here are the books I plan on getting.  “I Know How She Does It; How successful women make the most of their time” The other book I ordered was this one, “What Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast”  I also ordered this book too. I ordered both the e-book and the audible book.

” What Most Successful People Do On the Weekends” I ordered this one for my husband that always seems to be just as tired on Monday morning as he was on Friday. It’s as if his weekends never rejuvenate him.  They had the audio and the e-books for both the books so I ordered  them both.

I love to listen to books while I drive and when I walk or exercise.

When you order the books com back and let me know what your thoughts were and how have the books changed your day.

I’m excited! I can’t wait to dig into the books I ordered! I will be listening to my new book while I walk today and when I jump on my rebounder.

If you don’t have a rebounder they are a lot of fun and they do so much in helping your body detox. I’ll share all about the benefits of rebounding in a post later on so stay tuned.

I know this post is a little longer than what I usually write, but the things in this post have the potential to change your life if you watch the video’s, buy the books, and read or listen to them. Then do what the books say.

I have re-read the Success Principles in December every year when I am in the process of planning my goals for the next year.

I will leave you with this from Laura Vanderkam,

“Small moments have great power”

Have a wonderful and productive work week!

Sherry

June Monthly Goal: Drink More Water

 

It’s a little late in the month but I thought I’d share one of my goals for the month of June. It’s drinking more water. we all need water to be healthy. Most of us don’t like drinking water, we want something that is sweet and that tastes good. I would like to share with you a few things I’m doing to make sure I drink more water everyday.

How I Add More Water Into My Routine

  • First thing in the morning when I get up I drink 20 ounces of water with a quarter of lemon in it. I feel so much better the rest of the day when I drink my lemon water. I have tested myself. I drank my lemon water one day and the next I drank a glass of sweet tea. I felt so much better the day I drank my water first thing.
  • I drink water between meals. I love sweet tea, I grew up in Atlanta Georgia. We drank sweet tea all day long there was always a gallon of ice cold tea on the counter. As my kids were growing up I did the same thing. We didn’t drink sodas we drank sweet tea. This has been a hard habit to change. I am so used to just getting up and making a gallon of tea.
  •  Now I make a gallon of fruit water the night before and put it in the fridge over night to get cold and marinate. I also make a gallon of lemon water to drink during the day. As we drink the water I refill the gallon container. These are the gallon jars that I use. If you want a really nice gallon jar with a spigot here is a really nice one.
  • I just started using this mason jar infuser and it’s a great way to keep my fruit in the jar and out of my glass.
  • The one thing I do to still get my sweet tea is I drink tea with my meals. I have cut the sugar in half. I am working on cutting it all the way out.
  • I will make a jar of Celestial Seasonings tea. I have always made our tea with half gallon mason jars . We have always used honey, Now I use half the amount of honey in those too.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Here are Three of my Favorite Fruit Water Recipes

Lemon Lime Water

1 lime

1 lemon

Slice your lemons and limes and add to your container and add water

Strawberry Blueberry Pineapple Water

1 cup strawberries sliced

1 cup  fresh pineapple sliced

1 cup Blueberries, bruised

 

Slice your strawberries and pineapple and then take your blueberries and lightly bruise them with the back of a fork or spoon. Mashing them just a little so they release there juice. Put in your jar and add water.

Watermelon Mint Water

I use 1 cup watermelon

1 cup bruised mint leaves

I cut up the watermelon and I take a fork and just bruise the mint leaves so they release there mint flavor and add to my jar.

Finding things to infuse in your water is almost endless! Any combination you can think of you can use. Sometimes I will put a Celestial Seasonings tea bag or two into a picture of water and let it steep with my fruit.

Here is one of my goals I am working on this summer. It seems ever so small but I feel so much better than what I did a few months back before I started drinking more water. My skin looks so much better too.

I have accomplished my goal this month of adding more water and drinking less sweetened tea. I am so proud of myself. I set this goal and I completed it.

If you have a goal you are working on this month. I would love for you to post it in the comments below.

Have a wonderful day,

Sherry

How to Setup a Family Calendar System that Works

Here is a great way to keep up with a busy family.

I created a system a few years back for my family to keep everything we needed at our fingertips. I set up our Family Email System.Then, when they were older I created them an email and I set up the calendar for all the things they wanted to do and for there school projects, and all the fun programs at our local library and things that were important to them so they could get used to using a digital system for keeping up with there projects and there school functions.

We are a Google House

we use Google’s email, calendar, and  Google Keep (an awesome to do list manager) and also Google Photo’s and Docs for school projects. Everything is so easy to use and has been around for a long time. The best thing is all this is under one password!

 Setting Up The Calendar for Your Email

The house email becomes the default email that everything goes to for calendar events that anyone in the family has an appointment for. I set up each family member an email of there own, then when they were older I set up there calendars and showed them how to use the calendar.I linked all the calendars to the house main calendar that way everything they had on their calendar I had, and everything I had they had. I just didn’t give them access to change any of my calendar appointments.

This is What I put On Our Family Calendar

  • School days off
  • Report card days
  • School field trips, and other special functions
  • Doctors Appointments
  • Dentist Appointments
  • Due dates for special school projects
  •  Parents special projects, work project due dates, etc
  • Parents date nights, special date nights, outings
  • Church functions
  • Any Club we are apart of functions
  • Dates of any Club meetings, city council meetings, etc
  • Birthdays of all family and extended family members,
  • plus one week before birthday time to buy card date
  • Vacation days from work
  • Family vacations

I link everyones calendar so we all know what each other is doing and I link it to the house email. So at any time I know what my husband is doing and he knows what I have going on and he knows where the kids are at.

This system has saved a lot of time for my family

It has kept us on schedule and helped us to remember all the things we have going on in a week. We all have the G-Mail app and the Google calendar app on our phones and I have every email address connected to my Gmail account. That way if there is a glitch I know about it and can fix it no matter where I’m at.

How To Set Up the Calendar Option on Google Calendar

  • Start with downloading the App for Google calendar.
  • Go to the three bars on the top left, that will open your settings.
  • Click settings
  • Manage accounts
  • Add account. This is where you will add all the emails to connect them to your calendar
  • follow prompts for linking your family members emails.
  • make sure you have it connected with your family house email. Set this calendar up put in family members birthdays and important events like anniversaries and important dates you want to remember.

 

 

If you try out our system please leave a comment and let me know how it is working for your family. I would love to hear from you.

Have a beautiful Day,

Sherry

 

Why You Should Set Up a Separate Email for Stores That Ask for Your Email?

email, email clutter
Here is a solution that can help with email clutter.

 

Have you noticed that every time you go shopping the store clerks now ask you for your email address. I stop for a moment and think,  Do I want to share my email address with them. Do I trust they aren’t planning on filling up my inbox with emails I have no interest in?

  • Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t
  • Well they have great sales, do I want to know about their sales?

 

In A moment of Hesitation… I’m Sucked In!

Oh, at the moment I don’t know. So in a moment of not being sure, I give them my email. That afternoon I check my email to my surprise I have several email from the store I just left. No big deal I’ll just delete them. Then the next day several more! You get the picture, within days I have lots of emails from just the one store! If I give out my email to 5 or 10 stores that could mean hundreds of emails over the course of a month I would have to sift through just to find the really important stuff I need to read!

This Became A Problem

I had this happen to me and boy was it a pain. Yes, I do like to know about sales going on at my favorite stores. I just don’t want to get lots of emails I will never read. This became a problem for me when I missed something that was important because I had to many emails that were unimportant so I deleted the page of emails and deleted the one thing I should not have deleted. I had to find a solution!

What I thought Might be a Solution

I set out to unsubscribe to about 18 different email lists I was on. Well a few days went by and I still received emails from a few of the places. Oh No, they haven’t updated their unsubscribe link in ages! Or I had to go to several different pages just to unsubscribe, did I really unsubscribe? I wasn’t sure. I know I’ll find out soon enough, like clock work the emails will come. That they did. So I tried again, this time I was successful I’m unsubscribed! Some stores make it difficult to unsubscribe in hope you will give in and keep receiving there emails.

How I categorized My Email

Now that I have cleaned up my sacred space, my inbox! What am I going to do to keep it that way?

  • I want my work email to be just that my work email.
  • I want my private email to be the place I get those emails I know without a doubt I will be reading everything I have sent there. All those blogs I follow that I love the information they send me every week.
  • I have a house email where things are sent that are very important that can’t be lost or that needs to be sent to Evernote for safe keeping.
  • I have an email just for all those stores that ask for an email.

By The Way…

If you love reading my blog over on the side you will see a subscribe button, I would love to send you an email once a week of my favorite things. I promise not to fill your inbox with junk you do not want to read.

This Is What I Did…

I have an email set up just for all the stores that ask for an email. I can check it if I want and read the emails I want to and then I can delete the whole page without deleting something that is important. It is emails that are from stores with shopper cards, or a store that asks for your email.This email is never used for important things.Make  sure to make it easy to remember the password too. I chose a password I could remember and wrote  it down in a place by my computer so I would have it when I wanted to log in.

I then have another email  Our House email for things for our bill pay, insurance documents, payments receipts, and really important emails that most of the emails get sent to Evernote to be saved in files for future reference when needed.

Then I have a personal email where I send things I want to read regularly. Like subscriptions to blogs just like this one.

It sounds complicated but its not. I set things up like this to stop having so many emails that I didn’t want to sort through just to get to what I need. Everything has it’s place and I know where to go when I need something. No more searching through hundreds of emails just to find one email!

I know you’re thinking, Wow! that’s a lot of emails! Yes it may be more than you have ever used, but when its set up properly and you set up your inbox so everything has it’s place to live it is so easy.

In a later post this month I will walk you through setting up your inbox so you can find everything.

Have a great day!

Sherry

 

How To Set Up Your Family Email System

I created a family email system a few years back for my family to keep everything we needed at our fingertips. I made it easy for the younger kids to remember and I used this email for the following things.

  • Emailed bank statements
  • Bill pay receipts
  • Store receipts
  • School correspondence
  • Report card information
  • Paperless billing statements
  • Doctors correspondence
  • Hotel reservations

Don’t Use this Email for All Those Shopper Cards!

Do This Instead for All those Shopper Cards.

I did not give out this email to any of the stores I shopped at for there shopper cards. This would fill up the inbox so fast. I created another email just for giving out to all the stores that now ask for your email.

I didn’t have to really read the emails unless I was looking for something, other wise I would go into the email and just delete everything once a week. Sometimes I would have 100 or more emails in a week just for store adds. That is why I set up this email.

We Use The Google Platform

There are other email systems you can use, I’m just not familiar with them. I like Google and have used it for many years now. They have more than G-mail, they have Google Drive, and with that one program you have Docs, Spread Sheets, Slides, Forms and Drawings. They are right there within your email platform you don’t have to go anywhere. The best part they are all under one email log in password! How cool is that! They have a whole bunch of Apps and they are all free to use. I use Google Hangouts for a lot of business meetings and team chats. I have that app tucked away within my Gmail.

Use an Email System That has a Calender

That will make things a lot easier to set up and link several calendars together. You don’t want to have to add everything from you children’s calendars to yours. It’s much easier when they Sinc together automatically. For me that was the best part. I had everything in one calendar and I didn’t have to put it there.

I hope this helps you keep your day a little more organized and helps you keep all those important emails together in one place.

If You Set Up a Google Account Here is How I Set Ours Up

  • First I made a house email.I made sure it was easy to remember. This is the email everyone will use for all the important stuff I listed above.
  • Some ideas for the email would be 123anystreet@ or abc.lastname@ Use your street number, phone number, last name, first initials try to make it short so your younger kids can remember it.
  •  I set up my husband and I an email. I set up our calendars when I set up our emails and I linked both our calendars to the house email calendar.  All other things can go to these emails. I still had everything important sent to the house email not to our personal email.
  • Our personal email was only set up to have the calendar feature and to receive all our unimportant emails, like blog post subscriptions and other items we know we will read on regular basis.
  • Then I set up the kids with their own email when they were old enough to need a calendar. I linked their calendar to the house calendar. Then it automatically linked everything to our calendars.
  • Be sure to set up notifications on your phone so you will be notified when you have appointments.

It was really easy to set up. Now I could put the kids functions on their calendar and I could see my husbands schedule and I had a way to make sure everyone knew what was happening within our family. As our kids got older they took responsibility for putting things in their calendar they wanted for us to remember. I did make sure to double-check what they put in to make sure it was correct.

That is it. Simple and effective!

Sherry

P.S… I’ll show you in my next post in this series how to set up the calendar to get the most from it.

 

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