Tina Su
Mar 28, 2011
Hello everyone, my name is Tina Su, and I will be spending some quality time here with you for the next six months. Think of me as your personal cheerleader. If you could do that, that would make me happy.
First, a little introduction… I am a work-at-home mom, with a year-old son named Ryan. I turn 31 this year, and I am married to a very creative man. We live in the coffee capital – Seattle, WA where every other person you meet works for a tech company. And yes, it rains here a lot. The rain actually just drizzles, it rarely pours. I also live with a blonde Pomeranian named Tommy.
I used to work as a software engineer and later as a designer, for a larger tech company. In a quest to find more meaning, in 2007, I started a blog called Think Simple Now where I could document my own personal growth.
Finally tired of the "golden handcuffs", limited vacations, and a desire to do something with a more positive impact, I took a huge pay-cut and left my corporate career in the middle of 2008. I was determined to follow my heart, doing meaningful and interesting work, and to live a location independent life. At the time, I was fascinated with travel, so that is what I did. I lived and traveled in India for 3-month chunks, twice. I backpacked to the remote western provinces of China--bordering Afghanistan--and photographed some of the most fascinating tribes of people and their unique ways of life.
The last time I came back from India was about the time I realized that happiness is not something that we seek outside of ourselves, but something contained within us, regardless of what we are doing externally. I learned that I could be happy, cultivating the simple beauties of every day experiences, right here at home.
The travel bug has sort of tamed itself since. It was around this time that we found out I was pregnant with Ryan.
Ryan was later born 8 weeks premature. It was a very troubling time for me, being in and out of hospitals for 2 consecutive months. But we all survived, and have since bounced back to our happy selves. Ryan is now a very tall toddler, has 8 teeth, and is extremely curious.
So for this past year I have been on the wonderful and mysterious journey of parenting. Riding the highs and lows, and learning from my mistakes – of which there were many.
What is amazing about being a mom (and likely a dad) is that I am more motivated now, than ever, to be a better person. I want to create the most amazing, nurturing, diverse, and conscious environment possible for my son to grow up in, and thus I have embarked on this theme of personal happiness – which is my focus for this year, and for all the years following this, until it becomes a habit: that I shall always seek to find the good, no matter what happens.
I know I have it in me. It is just a matter of decision and focus.
The Good Mood Gig 2 contest came at the most opportune time for me. In that, it caught me, just as I was undergoing a drastic personal shift towards this new focus: To live happily and consciously.
One of the biggest gifts as the result of being the Good Mood Blogger is that I now have the benefit of an external factor, an external reason for me to focus on happiness everyday.
You know, it is like wanting to go on a diet. You are more likely to follow through with your action plan if you tell some body about it. The external force will hold you accountable, and that will motivate you to take action and more likely to succeed with your goals.
And so, you guys are that external force holding me accountable. I am so grateful for that. Thank You!
How about this? Let's create something, just between us, called the Good Mood Project. Where we hold each other accountable, in our own good mood goals? Perhaps it is just me, but I think that deep down, we all want to be happy. Sometimes, we just need a little support system to help us get there.
If you are open to the idea, I would love to see you come back here everyday, and give us your own good mood report: something that made you happy, something you appreciated, an inspiration that made you smile. Or anything else you want to share.
What do you think? Are you in?
And if you are a regular reader of mine from my blog, you are used to my monster posts of 1500+ words. Well, the content here will be slightly different; it will be shorter, much, much shorter (hopefully, shorter than this. *smiles*). It will be casual and light. I may include a few photo blog posts. And possibly even share some healthy and simple organic recipes. Nothing is set in stone, I want to keep the possibilities open, and see what the flow of life has in store for us.
And as with everything I have done in the past, I will be adding a dash of motivation or inspirational message or positive energy to every post. That is a promise.
To learn more about me, you can most definitely find me on Facebook here.