PadawanOfHappiness

 First of all DO NOT PANIC!  Nothing good ever comes from panicking. Second, take a deep breath and then say a prayer, then count your blessings.  People that lean into their faith are happier.  Here and here Third, focus on your small circle what is going on there and focus on that.  So the stock market is crashing you really can't do a how heck of a lot about that other than don't panic.  So focus on what you have been doing to care for yourself and your family, use this time to identify an area or two to be frugal.  Being wise with your money is always a good thing, and this is a way to make lemonade. Fourth, largely ignore the news especially that of overseas tragedies.  Humanity sucks, but it is also beautiful.  We were not designed to have all of this information especially horrific information coming at us 24/7/365.  There is absolutely nothing I can do about some far off place to make it better, if I focus on those areas I feel ...

  I was listening to KLove the other morning and they were talking about how more Americans are valuing the importance of an emergency fund. There was mention about how some of us had grandparents that grew up in the depression and they had (or have) a different view of money than many do, but that view maybe coming back in vogue. It is always a sticky topic and even when I google'd it was hard to tell what the 'right' amount money to keep in an emergency fund is, so it seems so overwhelming what number to you strive for? And even if you have a number in mind it can seem out of reach because it will take discipline and time. It is also tempting because you see the money sitting there but you can't use it. What do you do? And let's not forget that many people are living paycheck to paycheck, which will certainly mean it takes longer to build that account, and probably more likely that they will need to tap into it.   Are there different types of emergency funds? As ...

March is the week that we focus on Work in the Happiness Project. I need to expand my business to make money, not huge money mind you but enough to supplement the family income so that I feel financially secure. What I need to do is move out of my comfort zone which means growth. William Butler Yeats, "Happiness, is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing." I need to grow and personal and professional growth is combined really when you think about out, our lives are not siloed, they are not insular no matter how much we like to try to compartmentalize.  The whole idea of starting a business is crazy and there are so many ideas and things that need to be done but I am going follow the advice that an advisor to Gretchen gave her. "...keep it simple - you can add features later, as you figure out what you're doing." (pg 72 kindle location 1484) With that thought in mind, I am creating a lis...

Many people if not all people want to have financial security but I would venture to guess that not everyone knows what it is.  Additionally I don't think that "Financial Security" means the same thing to everyone. I have started to read a book  The Magic of Tiny Business: You Don't Have to Go Big to Make a Great Living and it started to give me some clarity and about what "Financial Security" is for me and is giving me a lot to think about both personally and professionally which makes sense since personal and professional lives are intertwined. Even though the book is not explicitly designed to craft a mission statement or business philosophy, she certainly talks a bit about it as she defines a Tiny Business which is in terms of "focus" not on revenue, sales, or profits.  And I started to have a bunch of ideas to make some changes to my business website and inspired some topics that I can create business blog posts on. So what does this h...