Success isn’t always found in the boardroom or on the mountaintop. Sometimes, it’s found with sand between your toes, a shell in your hand, and the realization that peace is not a luxury—it’s a choice.
Below is a omitted, unedited, original chapter from a early draft of The Success Guidebook - How to Visualize, Actualize, and Amplify You, I share a very personal journey of how one ice-covered Maine winter sparked an intentional decision to change our environment, reclaim our energy, and redefine success through simplicity, clarity, and gratitude. What began as a one month break from the snow became a transformational life experience. This chapter is a love letter to presence, peace, and the beauty of learning as you go.
In the heart of the Maine winter of 2021, ice storm after ice storm pounded the state before the snow started to accumulate, which was then topped off with more ice. As you can imagine, traveling even short distances was treacherous. Despite putting ice-gripping contraptions on our boots to walk our puppies and trying to be as safe as possible, we each, on separate occasions, took a nasty spill on the ice.
I landed on my left side, which completed my body-slamming ice adventures, as the previous year, I fell on my right side. My husband, ever the good Samaritan, was picking up the neighbor’s garbage that was spread beautifully in the street and yard, when he took a nasty tumble and landed on his shoulder, which took months to heal.
For the first time in twenty years of weathering whatever Maine threw our way, we looked at each other and agreed. We were not doing this again next year.
And so, I went to Google to research and hatch our plan! We both knew just the place. We’d been there for baseball in March year after year now.. For the first time in our lives, we were going to do winter where the birds that people come to stalk during Maine summers are relaxing on golf courses and ponds in the winter down south: South Carolina.
Google didn’t let me down. I soon found the perfect place within our budget. “How does this sound?” I said to my husband, then read aloud the description, “Stunning golf-course views in your two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo.”
“Perfect!” He answered.
And I responded, “We’re doing this. We are leaving Maine this coming winter from January 15 to March 15.”
In unison, we said, “Let’s book it!”
And so, we did. While people back home were braving the cold and snow, wrote most of this book from our condo on the golf course.
This didn’t happen by accident, of course. It took planning. Once we decided to “book it” on January 15, we both focused on making the trip a reality. It was definitely a huge change and somewhat of a logistical stretch for us. Several things needed to line up right to make it work. Would we drive or fly? Would both dogs go with us? Would one of our sons and his dog go with us? At one point, we were worried we were going to be gone too long. One of our three cats is elderly, and we were worried about her, too.
We were grateful for our son Quinn, who was finishing up his master’s degree in applied meteorology online from Mississippi State, for holding the fort down while we tried this life experiment. He watched the cats and his dog, Harley, and we did videocalls with him to open the mail and pay the bills. Our oldest son, Connor, visited on the weekends to hang out, when he was not working at his job.
When you take a dream and make it a reality, shifting your intention into action, you bring success with you. My husband and were proud of ourselves for doing this. Our sons were glad we took the time out for ourselves. We did what we set out to do! It’s so nice to be able to go all gratitude on the success and make the experience even better. When we first got to the condo here, we had about two days of what I would call set up. Just purely getting acclimated to our surroundings, finding the grocery store we liked, and getting some semblance of a routine down.
We both still have to work and we don’t want to spend our days doing that since we came to enjoy the weather. So we made a list together of some of the things we wanted to do and then also scheduled, non-negotiable work days. These are days when one of us has a conference call or board meeting or something that can’t be missed. On those days, we rent an office and that’s that. There’s also the Georgetown University College Baseball Schedule in the mix, as they play in North and South Carolina on several weekends.
We had a schedule of sorts or what we prefer to call a framework. This plan allowed us wiggle room to change our minds or pivot when circumstances change. For instance, while the South Carolina winter feels like Maine’s perfect summer, there is still inclement weather that might mean we can’t do an outdoor activity we had planned.
We are adjusting our plan as we find things we love to do together. One thing I love to do anywhere there is a beach is seashell hunt. It does bring out the competitive edge in me though. I’d elbow my way and trample over people like a Black Friday early morning to find a sand dollar, whelk, or conch shell.
Google again helped me discover some of the best beaches for shells in and around Myrtle Beach. The information was spot-on. As we headed to Pawley’s Island’s Beach, I was thinking I’d have to get my game on to find shells. We arrived to find thousands of shells. I mean thousands of them. The beach is covered in spots with the most gorgeous shells and starfish.
You can’t take things that are alive, so we gently placed some creatures back in the ocean to help them out, but what a haul and we had a blast. So much so that we’ve decided this is a beach adventure trip. Each day, we’ve taken a beach trip to a different beach and revisited some. Yesterday we walked on North Myrtle Beach where we stayed in previous years for baseball. We wound up randomly driving about fifteen or so miles to Sunset Beach, North Carolina, which is absolutely breathtaking.
We’re learning as we go. We discovered Sunset Beach is listed as one of the top beaches in the world, which we can see why! I love this website for the North Carolina Coastal Federation: https://www.nccoast.org.
We were able to look at this website and plan better for what to see and do at this beach. In clicking around on the website, we discovered Bird’s Island. We learned this is a critical nesting area for Loggerhead Turtles and that Bird’s Island is the only remaining undeveloped barrier island system in Brunswick County and is one of the few protected natural island areas in the mid-Atlantic region.
Back to the turtles. We’re here too early to see them, but my turtle-obsessed self was thrilled to learn that loggerhead sea turtles, which are threatened nest here. Each nesting season, between May and August, female loggerheads come onto the beach to lay 50-200 eggs.
The eggs hatch from their sand nest after 50-80 days, usually from July through October. The hatchlings then make their way to the ocean where they ride ocean currents and feed in the safety of sargassum seaweed beds.
Now, I’ve always been fascinated by sea turtles, and while they we didn’t see any this time around, we know now. By the way, globally, there are seven species of sea turtles. Sunset beach also has Kemp’s ridley.
With turtles come sharks and apparently this area has it’s fill of sharks as well, for those of you who love sharks. Enough so that they town has a two-paged pamphlet. My husband said he would still go swimming (in the summer) and I’m a firm no-way at this beach. Pretty place, but I’m not getting in the water.
So, I’ll let my husband be the snack and I’ll keep shell collecting, watch shark shows on TV, and keep learning about all of the wildlife in this area. I’d love to plan a trip to come back when the turtles are here.
With focus and intention at work and learning all we can about each beach, we also discovered this amazing peace about Sunset Beach. It was hard to describe and then we found it: The Kindred Spirit Mailbox. You could feel yourself being pulled in its direction as you were walking. We didn’t know about it until we found it and learned in reverse. We kept walking. We were probably over a mile down the beach past the pier when we saw it: a mailbox and a bench in the sand dunes.
We waited on the dune in a small line, while people were taking turns. Some were crying, laughing, quiet… all recording the moment and everyone peacefully allowing each other enough time in this moment.
My learning in reverse and more google at my fingertips has taught us that The Kindred Spirit Mailbox has grown to holds the wishes, thoughts, prayers and dreams of those who walk there, essentially to share a secret to their soul or a wish, maybe even a dream.
We wanted to know more. Who started this, who maintains it and all the secrets of this spot. We learned that the keeper of the mailbox was Claudia Sailor, a woman originating from Hope Mills, NC. She had a dream about a mailbox in the sand as a spiritual refuge for those who might need it. She maintained the mailbox in secret along with Frank Nesmith (the mailbox co-founder) since its inception. Local author Jacqueline DeGroot because of her local ties to the area and the mailbox (it is featured in her novel The Secret of the Kindred Spirit).
Sailor passed away in 2013, but she wanted the legacy of the mailbox to live on. . DeGroot recruited a team of volunteers to help watch over the landmark. The thirty years of notebooks now are at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Archive Library with more added each summer.
We both felt like this beach and the experience was a full on reconnect to mindfulness and spirit. Breath giving is what I renamed my breathtaking to after being here. These connected experiences further root us in gratitude. My goal is for you to practice gratitude so much it becomes part of you as a person, like gratitude on autopilot.
When we realize we aren't entitled to time, we keep being reminded that every single moment of our life matters. When we realize that every single moment of our life matters, we realize that there's not much time for negative anything and instead frame things with gratitude. This means that even in those darkest, desperate times, there is always something to be grateful for and to never lose sight of that light.
Are you grateful?
What's your gratitude practice like?
I think you can turn planning on and off. You can restfully plan as well. More often than not, we need to rest in order to focus. To us in these South Carolina moments, our restful planning is with being in the Myrtle Beach area and doing things we absolutely enjoy. We are creating peaceful memories and our energy is the most focused it has been in quite some time.
My husband, Peter, and I decided we would spend most of our time and energy on parks, hikes, walks, and beaches and see what we could see. We also decided we would plan more healthier choices while we were here and take advantage of the ability to cook for two. We were able to cook healthier options and eat less and exercise more. This created some calmer, more peaceful energy. That served us well. We’ve had no disturbances in the “force” and overall, it’s been a great success! Oh, and by the way, people keep calling us “snowbirds” and I love it! I feel like I earned that title this trip!
You might laugh at this: I have become a world class shell collector while we’ve been here in Myrtle Beach. Honestly, I’m laughing as I don’t even know what that means. I do know that from the moment we stepped onto our favorite beaches here, which are Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach, I’ve read, asked and learned so much about shells that I almost feel like I could teach it. I loved the Pawleys Island Shell Group on Facebook.
What mattered most to me wasn’t collecting shells, but the peaceful feeling it created for us. Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beaches have something the others don’t have – The famous Pawleys Island shells. The first day I was on the beach I found one and I said to myself, “What is this?” I only found one and so I went to Google again and discovered that these shells are famous to these beaches and only on the very North end of Pawleys and the southern end of Litchfield where the beaches can’t quite meet due to an inlet.
The Pawleys Island Shell was made famous by local resident John Whitmire of Whitmire Fine Jewelry. He created a detailed process of turning Pawley’s Island shells into beautiful silver and gold jewelry. This jewelry has become treasured mementos for tourists as a reminder of their stay at Pawleys Island. The whole creation is done right there in the shop.
Pawleys Island Shell and the Imperial Venus Clam are one and the same. If you find one of these shells, it is said that the island has blessed your presence, which is why the Pawley’s Island is known as The Blessed Isle.
If you love shells, you will feel even more blessed as you can find huge Whelk Shells, Coral, Starfish, Sea Urchins, Scallops and so much more here. My husband and I are search for the Lettered Olive Shells here, which is the South Carolina state shell. In a prior visit for baseball, I picked these up on another beach. They stared at me in a bowl next to my desk at home all year chattering at me to find them some friends. I found many this time.
Since the winter here feels like a Maine summer, we’re out on the beach and there is hardly anyone on it. Some days have more than others and when you do see people, everyone is doing the same exact thing: Looking for shark’s teeth or looking for shells or just relaxing. Everyone talks to one another with eagerness in their voices to see what each has found or where they are from.
Here’s the catch, neither of these places to find these Pawleys Island shells on each side of the inlet is a breeze to get to. I actually have blisters on my heels from walking to the southern tip of Litchfield Beach hunting for Pawleys Island Shells. Each blister was worth it as we found some and we felt blessed. It was loads of fun to be on the beach and see the Pelicans and other birds, but it required some focus.
The success is in the finds while treasure hunting on the beach for the rare shells or the biggest shells. There is also great success in just taking a few or leaving them as is for others to find.
The real success here is in the moments and the focused, restful energy. We are thinking of our time in the sand, wind in our hair, the glittering ocean and gentle sound of the waves, and eyes on the sparkly beach prizes as the true measure of success. The restful energy flows within our souls.
Looking back on this experience, we found clarity by removing and limited distractions had a blast! Both of us wanted that level of peace and quiet in our everyday lives, while working back in Maine. But how?… that was the real question. Was it the weather, the beach, the lack of winter? I think it was in all that, but more. The answers were in how we behaved and planned during our time in South Carolina. When we removed ourselves from our everyday environment, we found clarity. We’re going out and having fun. Seeing us unwind from work and winter, take off our shoes being careful to avoid the jellyfish on the beaches or in the water this time of year and just warm up. The challenge has been to maintain this clarity when we return to our everyday lives and to incorporate the peace we found.
Bloom where you are planted is one of my favorite sayings. It is one of the ways I operate my life. Happy and grateful where I am. It also allows you to make the most of all situations that come your way. I’m very grateful to Barnes and Noble in Myrtle Beach at Market Common for helping me live this saying. Not only did they say yes to having me in for a book signing, but they were incredibly supportive, and we had an amazing crowd and response. It was so much fun!
I planned for one thing and got so much more from this event. I found a treasure in human form: Julie Beth Buckman. She appeared at my book signing and took such an interest in me and my book that I felt an instant connection to her. We were speaking the same language. It is my honor to stay connected with Julie and I look forward to seeing her this coming winter, as we’ve stayed connected, exchanged emails, talked here she is shares here story of how planning and several other success factors have changed her life.
Please continue reading the edited version of this chapter and Julie's story in The Success Guidebook - How to Visualize, Actualize, and Amplify You, which is available in eBook, audiobook, paperback and more.
An inspirational guide for visualizing and actualizing success on a personal and professional level.
By Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino
Literary Titan Book Award Winner: Nonfiction2024 Finalist
International Book Awards – Inspirational Nonfiction
Gold/1st Place, 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards – Self-Help
In a world that constantly measures success by numbers, titles, and status, The Success Guidebook offers something revolutionary—a call to redefine success on your own terms.
Written by bestselling author, master life coach, and founder of The Best Ever You Network, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino, this inspirational guide invites you to visualize and actualize what success truly means to you—not as the world sees it, but as your authentic self lives it.
In her signature heartfelt and practical style, Elizabeth shares her Ten Factors of Success, drawn from decades of coaching, personal experience, and interviews with extraordinary individuals who live with world-class purpose, clarity, and impact. You’ll meet 20 everyday leaders who embody these principles in powerful and life-affirming ways.
But this guidebook isn’t just theory—it’s alive with real, relatable transformation. In one poignant chapter, Elizabeth recounts a deeply personal journey—how, after two decades of weathering harsh Maine winters, a dangerous fall on the ice inspired a life-altering decision. Trading snowbanks for seashells, Elizabeth and her husband packed up and relocated to South Carolina for the winter. That simple act of intention turned into a season of renewal, clarity, and soulful success.
That chapter—like every part of this book—reminds us that true success isn’t just about doing more. It’s about being more. It’s the smile on your face when you’re aligned with purpose. It’s the peace in your heart when you choose presence over pressure. It’s the courage to pivot, the gratitude in uncertainty, and the clarity to create a framework that fits your life—not someone else’s expectations.
In another chapter, we meet Cam Guarino, Elizabeth’s son, whose baseball journey is a powerful example of believing in yourself no matter the obstacles. From his early days at the University of New Haven to his transfer to Georgetown University, and eventually his professional baseball experience in Germany, Cam’s story is one of grit, heart, and relentless self-belief. Alongside the wisdom of Coach Edwin Thompson, this chapter is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever doubted their potential. It reminds us that success comes not just from talent—but from trust in ourselves and the courage to keep going.
Here’s the secret: You don’t need to be on a national or international platform to be world-class. You can live it right at home, at work, and everywhere in between. This book will help you learn how to tap into world-class behaviors and finally get the results—and the joy—you desire.
Whether you’re building a career, nurturing a family, exploring a passion, or starting fresh, The Success Guidebook is your companion to build a life of bold, brave, and infinite possibilities.
About the Author
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is the founder of the Best Ever You Network and the bestselling, award-winning author of The Change Guidebook, The Success Guidebook, Percolate, and more. A master life coach and leading voice in personal development, Elizabeth inspires people worldwide to embrace change, redefine success, and live their best lives. She splits her time between Maine and South Carolina with her husband, Peter. They have four sons and a joyful crew of rescued pets. Learn more at BestEverYou.com and ElizabethGuarino.com.