We have been thinking about motivation and we wonder what motivates you? There’s a song about the “lazy, hazy days of summer” and maybe it’s a time when you “kick back”, slow down and enjoy life. But when there’s something you have to do, what motivates you? Is it inspiration, desperation or something else?

What is your passion? What’s something you love to do? Maybe your passion has been there for a long time, even since childhood, or maybe you have recently discovered it. Why is having passion important? Gretchen Rubin, who did the Happiness Project said, “One of the greatest supports to a person’s happiness is passion.”

What does trust mean to you? Because trust is an important cornerstone of relationships, we wanted to share some of the factors that help to develop trust.

Actually, our toaster got us thinking about trust. What, you say, the toaster? Yes, we had a relationship with our toaster for thirty years and it made perfect toast every day. We trusted that toaster!

We wonder, what does the Fourth of July mean to you? As you know, we celebrate because the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776. This document declared independence from Great Britain.

We wonder, are you doing volunteering or caregiving? Do those activities help you and bring you joy or do they hurt you by leaving you feeling drained and burned out? We got to thinking about this because our last column and video talked about how volunteering and caregiving can be wonderful ways to help people feel happy. The problem comes if your caregiving gets overdone and life gets out of balance. Then your caregiving could be hurting you.

What makes you happy? Have you heard that Carver County ranked as “The Happiest Place in America” according to a recent study by SmartAsset, a personal finance company? Yes, Carver County ranked first among 980 counties in the United States that have a population over 50,000. Categories contributing to the final ranking included: unemployment rate, poverty rate, affordability ratio, marriage rate, divorce rate, bankruptcy rate, life expectancy and physical activity rate. Congratulations, well done, Carver County!

Are you celebrating any milestones this month? June is often a month where there are many milestones including graduations and weddings. We’ve had an anniversary, several birthdays and a graduation recently. This got us thinking more about milestones – what they are, why it’s important to celebrate them and how people choose to celebrate.