Amy Rees Anderson's Blog

Friends by Design

Jul

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us [...]

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Tagged accident, apart, ashley, aware, beauty, C.S. Lewis, children, Christ, coincidence, cs lewis, curcumstance, Dalton, discriminating, divine, divine guidance, divine intervention, effort, family, friend, friends, friendship, God, good taste, impactful, instrument, others, path, peers, people, personally, professionally, reveal, Rollin, spouse, stranger, strangers, worth

Sometimes You Have to Choose

Jul

Sometimes in life you are faced with a choice between two things that both matter to you. Today I had that experience. I will give you some background that will help explain the situation: My entire life since I was old enough to have a workers permit (which I think was 14 years old) I [...]

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Tagged anxiety, ashley, career, children, choice, choices, choose, come what may, concede, concern, consequence, Dalton, difficult, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, family, family first, good, great, happiness, happy, head, heart, husband, job, joy, linger, love, opportunities, option, options, peace, pick, postpone, priorities, prioritize, priority, questions, regret, Rollin, stressful, tested, time, time off, vacation, what if, work, worry

Improving Our Self-Esteem

Jul

Self-esteem is a topic we read self-help books about and go to workshops to try and improve. Everyone struggles to some extent with questions of their own self-worth. It is a constant struggle for many people. I believe that the key to self-esteem is to stop worrying what other people think about you and start [...]

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Tagged act, attention, attitude, auctioneer, blessings, completely, do your best, focus, God, gratitude, improve, improvement, inspiration, lesson, life, motivation, myra brooks welch, opinion, self worth, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-improvement, service, strength, struggle, touch of the master's hand, trust, valuable, value, violin, weakness, worry

“We don`t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”

Jul

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -George Bernard Shaw There has to be truth to that. I really believe that if we can find a way to stay young at heart that it will affect our physical age. I can’t prove its true, but I do [...]

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Tagged adult, adults, anxiety, be younge, believe, belive, checkbook, children, credit card, excited, games, george bernard shaw, good, grow old, hamburger, happiness, happy, happy meal, honest, laugh, m&m, McDonalds, money, play, playing, popsicle, resign, responsibility, sprinklers, stressa, summer, sunshine, tag, tag you're it, toy, toys, worried, worry, young, young at heart, youth

Breaking Bad Habits

Jul

Today I am going to share a very impactful analogy that a counselor once shared with me. It was an analogy that literally changed my life and I hope that it can help some of you that might be facing challenges in breaking bad habits that are holding you back from finding real happiness, so [...]

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Tagged 2007, analogy, bad habits, breaking bad habits, change, counselor, dating, decisions, divorce, encourage, engaged, firt, friends, friendships, grateful, habit, happiness, heartache, husband, inspirational, kind, ladies man, lake powell, life, love, marriage, married, motivational, path, patient, player, pothole, relationships, single, soul, struggle, teach, tears, trap, trapped, walk down a different street, wrong guys

“Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary…”

Jul

“Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people.” -Elizabeth Green How true that quote is! Today was another rough day for me…sick again…arghhhh….not fun. I woke up thinking if I jumped in the shower that it would somehow magically make me feel all better today…nice try, [...]

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Tagged ashley, bed, blessed, circumstance, communication, couch, Dalton, daughter, elizabeth green, experience, extraordinary, family, friends, frustrating, good life, great, greatest, hilarious, humor, loved ones, magically, ordinary, quality time, Rollin, shower, sick day, son, spend the most time with, spend time, spouse, talk

Sick Days…

Jul

I do NOT like being sick! I make the worst sick person EVER! I am not good at holding still and I am not good at staying in bed….I can’t stand having a day go by when I cannot be productive! For me, feeling unproductive hurts almost worse than the aches and pains of being [...]

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Tagged cartoons, chicken soup, child, cold, cough, cough medicine, headache, kid, kleenex, nyquil, play, productive, run down, runny nose, school, shel silverstein, sick, sick day, sinus infection, sleep, take care, temperature, tired, tissue, unproductive

You Can Accomplish Just About Anything…

Jul

The last two weeks have been crazy for me and my family! Let me backup and explain. My family’s favorite place on the planet is Lake Powell. Lake Powell is our heaven on earth. We started going there when my kids were just little at the invitation of some good friends. They invited me down [...]

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Tagged 2014, accomplish, accomplishment, antelope point, arizona, ashley, BeDazzled, boat, boating, bonding, children, courage, crazy, Dalton, determination, difficult times, epic, friends, goal, hard work, heaven, houseboat, husband, kentucky, lake powell, look forward, lp2k14, lpeezy, magic, malibu, miracle, mission, never give up, page, plan a, plan b, prayer, Rollin, sheer will, ski, teach, teamwork, time, together, unity, wakeboard, will, work, yacht

What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?

Jul

Life is hectic. We go go go and we are way too busy and we can’t seem to keep up with the ever growing to do lists we have. We spend most days just trying to make it through our day and hope to get one or two items done on our list. And this [...]

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Tagged accomplishment, action, avoid, before you die, bucket list, busy, coordination, date, death, decide, determine, event, excitement, fail, failed, family, friend, friends, funeral, goal, goals, honey, I wish I had, lazy, life, make it happen, marathon, moments, mountain climbing, outlook, over and over, partner, passion, pattern, plan, plan ahead, plan it, planning, precious, regret, regrets, repeat, rut, schedule, spouse, stress, stuck, succeed, success, take advantage, time, time management, to do list, trip, unpredictable, vacation, weekend getaway

Better Than Exercise, and Far More Fun!

Jul

I hate to exercise. I really do. I admit fully and openly. I realize it is good for us and I realize it is necessary, but I definitely don’t enjoy it. Not even a little bit. So when I find out that there is an alternative to exercise that has the same effect, only better, [...]

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Tagged act of kindness, chronic pain, depression, disease, disorder, emotional, exercise, fantastic, happiness, happy, harvard, harvard university, health, healthy, insomnia, inspiration, joyful, joyfulness, kindness, mother Theresa effect, motivation, Optimism, physical, Psychology Today, random, self worth, serotonin, smile, study, sweat, well being

A Good Life

Jul

“A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are.” – Anonymous Is it really that simple to have a good life? In many ways I actually believe it is. I really think that so much of our level of [...]

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Tagged appreciate, assume, attitude, believe, blessed, daily challenge, depends on us, depression, do more, dream, end, excel, goal, good, good life, happiness, inspiration, inspire, joy, laugh, let it go, level of happiness, life, motivation, need less, negativity, okay, Optimism, peace, question, realize, recognize, see the positive, self-improvement, smile, snap out of it, stressed, stressing out, struggle, try, wish

Before You Assume…

Jul

“Before you “assume”, try this crazy method called asking.” Wow….that is a powerful quote. When I first read it, it really hit me. It is so true! So often in life we just assume we know…we assume we know what someone thinks, we assume they did something just because someone else said they did, we [...]

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Tagged anger, ask, asking, assume, assumption, attitude, Before you assume, care, crazy, dating, disagreements, embarrassment, family, fear, fights, friend, friendship, happier, happy, hatred, hurt feelings, judge, judging, judgment, love, marriage, method, negative attitude, positive, powerful, pride, proud, quote, relationships, said, self-improvement, selfish, shame, spouse, stronger, stupid, thnks, truth

What We Reflect to Others

Jul

“We Judge Ourselves by our Intentions Others Judge us based on our Behavior.” How true is that? I think many of us tend to justify our actions by what our intensions were. Even if in our hearts we know that our behavior was wrong. It is a trap that is easy to fall into. But [...]

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Tagged actions, behavior, check yourself, Dalton, desire, duty, example, God, hearts, Heavenly Father, improve, improvement, inspiration, integrity, Jesus Christ, justify, latter day saint, lds church, litmus test, love, mission, missionary, motivation, nametag, pillar, reflect, reflection, representative, self worth, universe

It’ll Grow Back

Jul

When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs. His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but not in the front. For the first few years of his life I kept him in little baseball caps to disguise the fact that [...]

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Tagged attitude, bangs, baseball cap, believe, best, better, child, cope, Dalton, decide, despair, disappointment, discouragement, encourage, end, faith, forever, future, God, haircut, happiness, happy, hard times, hope, improve, innocent, jesus, learn, lesson, love, negative, okay, positive, sad times, sadness, scissors, smile, trust

I Try To Take One Day at a Time

Jul

“I try to take one day at a time, but lately several days have attacked me at once.” How often do we feel like that lady looks! Way too often!!! Taking one thing at a time feels impossible most days. Life doesn’t throw things at you one at a time with a nice little time [...]

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Tagged anxiety, balls, beat up, bruises, bumps, delegate, distress, effective, eliminate, evaluate, failure, goals, happy, life, manage, management, match, outsource, possessed, pressure, priorities, prioritize, priority, reevaluate, serve, simplify, stress, successful, swing, tennis, time, time management, try, unnecessary tasks

Thanks for Waiting Up

Jul

Growing up I wasn’t always the easiest teenager. I was stubborn, fiercely independent and ridiculously tenacious. I thought I knew everything. I thought I didn’t need anyone to watch out for me. And even though my parents were aware I didn’t want anyone watching out for me, every night I went out I would come [...]

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Tagged adulthood, book, care, caring, child, childhood, children, curfew, expression, family, friends, growing up, leslie rees, love, memory, mom, mother, motherhood, my mom, nurture, parenthood, poem, popcorn, pretend, reading, sacrifice, safe, safety, secure, security, self worth, spent, teenager, time, trial, value, waiting up

Sometimes you just have to…

Jul

“Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, count to ten, take a deep breath, remind yourself that you wouldn’t look good in prison stripes and just smile and walk away.” – Unknown Unfortunately we have all been in situations where someone misled us or let us down, and frankly it sucks. It is hard [...]

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Tagged advice, angry, avoid, bad news, best laid plans, calm, commitment, communicate, control, count to ten, delay, deliver, deliver bad news, derailed, disappointed, distrustful, drop the ball, fail, failure, happiness, happy, hesitate, honest, integrity, let down, let us down, open, out of your control, prison, promise, rectify, reminder, reputation, self-improvement, share, smile, Sometimes you just have to, trust, walk away

It’s a Daily Effort

Jul

Becoming the person you want to become is a daily effort and one that extends a lifetime. It’s not as though one day you wake up and go “I’ve arrived! I am now the perfect person. My work here is done.” And if you do wake up thinking that you have a whole other set [...]

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Tagged achievement, attention, attitude, beat your best, beating ourselves up, best self, consistent, critical, daily, daily effort, desire, fear, focus, future, God, gossip, greed, happiness, happy, Heavenly Father, impatience, improve, inspiration, judge, judgement, kinder, knowledge, laugh, laughter, lifetime, motivation, never-ending, past, perfect, perfection, perspective, present, priority, procrastination, progress, progressing, pursuit, right our wrongs, road to perfection, self-improvement, selfish, serve, service, sidetracked, smile, temper, trivial, try, wisdom

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Jul

Since it is a holiday I don’t normally post my blog but I wanted to take just a few minutes to wish everyone a fabulous Fourth of July holiday with their loved ones and friends, and I wanted to personally express my thanks to all of those men and women who serve our country today [...]

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Tagged america, celebration, choose, David O. MacKay, defend, fireworks, founding fathers, fourth of july, freedom, freedom of choice, God-given, growth, holiday, inalienable right, inherent, loved ones, military, peace, possession, prayer, protect, right, sacrifice, service, soul, spirit of man, thank god, thank you, thankful, treasure, U.S.A., veterans

“It’s kind of fun to do the Impossible”

Jul

“Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.” - G. M. Trevelyan So many things in life can either feel impossible or appear impossible. Our immediate reaction to something difficult is often to tell ourselves “that’s [...]

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Tagged accomplish, challenge, change, dare, declaration, do it, fact, fear, figure it out, francis assissi, fulfilling, g.m. trevelyan, God, hard, ignorant, impossible, it can't be done, just do it, muhammad ali, necessary, nelson mandela, nothing, opinion, possible, potential, quote, reaction, save face, scary, scray, top of the world, walt disney

Radio Interview Broadcast on Erin Stewart Show

Jul

I was recently interviewed for the Erin Stewart Radio Show. We did the interview over the phone so I was curious as to how it would go but she asked me some really great questions during the interview and I appreciated what a good job she did as the host of the show. The interview [...]

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Tagged adventure, answers, beauty, befriend, care, challenge, change, dare, download, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Erin Stewart, Erin Stewart Show, essence, give, grow, host, interview, itunes, leadership, learn, nature, opportunity, overcome, purpose, questions, Radio, secret, serve, spice, success, talk show, values, william arthur ward

Mental issues: we all have them, so now go fix them!

Jun

Mental Illness is something everyone deals with in one form or another – whether they deal with it personally, whether they are living with someone who has a genuine mental illness, or whether they have a friend who is suffering from it. It touches all our lives in one form or fashion. And I personally [...]

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Tagged A.D.D., anxiety, applaud, attention deficit, attitude, body, brave, broken, challenge, change, compulsion, concern, control, counselor, courage, courageb, couragous, depression, disorder, eating disorder, fear, friend, help, improve, medication, mental disorder, mental health, mental issues, mood, o.c.d., over-achiever, overcome, pyschiatrist, self-improvement, stigma, strength, therapist, weak, weakness, weaknesses, what other's think, what people think

“Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.”

Jun

In all of living, have much of fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. –Gordon B. Hinckley What an important reminder. You would think it would be a no-brainer that life is meant to be enjoyed, but I think the reality is that it is not. It is so easy to [...]

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Tagged anxiety, appreciate, attitude, better, business, circumstances, distorted, easier, endurance, endure, enjoyed, find joy in the journey, focus, forget, fun, gone, gordon b. hinckley, grateful, gratitude, holiday, joy, joyous, laughter, lessons, life, lift, living, no-brainer, opportunities, overly focused, perspective, positive, problem, purpose, reminder, selfish, selfless, spirit, stress, thanks, Thomas S. Monson

Swimming with Sharks

Jun

Yesterday I was invited by a good friend to come to the set of the TV Show Shark Tank. Shark Tank happens to be one of my favorite shows on television today because I absolutely love it from an educational standpoint on all the lessons it can teach entrepreneurs. Each week as I watch the [...]

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Tagged abc, american gnuity, american idol, angel, barbara corcoran, business, classroom, college, daymond john, deal, education, entrepreneur, entreprenuer, gnuity, high school, investor, kevin o'leary, lori greiner, mark cuban, market size, marketing, mr. wonderful, multimedia, negotiate, Photos, pitch, present, product management, robert herjavec, sales, school, set, Shark Tank, swim, swim with sharks, television, university, valuation

Do it Anyway

Jun

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do [...]

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Tagged accountability, adversity, agency, attitude, avoid, behavior, believe, cheat, choice, culture, do it anyway, encourage, feelings, generous, God, good, happiness, happy, honest, hurt, jealous, justification, justify, kind, lash out, love, loving, payback, proud, react, regret, self-improvement, steal, support, tough, unkind, use, wronged

Put Your Whole Soul Into It

Jun

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful. . . . Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson My [...]

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Tagged accomplishing, active, attitude, catch up, energetic, england, enthusiasm, enthusiastic, europe, faithful, family, florence, france, half-hearted, hard work, heart, italy, london, overwhelmed, paris, personality, ralph waldo emerson, soul, success, summer, sunshine, switzerland, task, time, vacation, work

Life Isn’t About Avoiding the Storms, It’s About Learning to Dance in the Rain

Jun

Life is full of storms and always will be. Some days are a heavy rain, other days a light drizzle, and other days are torrential floods. And the fact is that these stormy days will come and go throughout our entire life because no matter how much we wish it could be all sunshine and [...]

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Tagged anxious, avoid, cancer, certainty, comfortable, confidence, dance, dance in the rain, elegance, empower, empowered, example, fear, flood, friend, friendship, future, God, grace, hardships, melanoma, plan, rain, rainbow, sick, sickness, storm, storms, sunshine, trials, uncertainty, unknown

Make The Choice To Be An Optimist, Not a Pessimist

Jun

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” – Harry Truman Pessimism: Pessimism is defined as a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. It is always expecting the worst possible outcome. It is living with a lack of faith. [...]

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Tagged american psychological association, cancer, choice, confidence, coping, depression, english dictionary, faith, favorable, frogs, future, goal, goals, harry truman, health, hopeful, motivation, negative, opportunities, opportunity, Optimism, optimist, outcome, oxford, pessimism, pessimist, poem, positive, prophecies, self-fulfilling, success, tear down, tolerance

“I want all the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible”

Jun

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi I absolutely enjoy learning about other cultures. I love learning about different traditions people [...]

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Tagged avni pate, avni patel, Belief, bollywood, bride, broaden, challenge, children, culture, dance, diverse, diversity, education, expand, experience, family, foods, freinds, gandhi, generation, henna, horion, horizons, india, india wedding, indian wedding, interest, learn, learning, love, mendhi, mohandas k. gandhi, music, norm, parents, religions, teach, traditions, trapped in a box, view of the world, wedding

Teaser Clip of American Gnuity

Jun

As those of you who follow my blog know I was recently asked to be a judge on the new TV Series American Gnuity. We have wrapped episode one an attached you can watch a two minute teaser clip of the show with scenes from our first episode: There is nothing more exciting than supporting [...]

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Tagged american gnuity, angel investor, attention, blog, business, companys, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, drive, energy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, excitement, exciting, gnuity, investment, passion, startup, teaser, television, vision

Amy Rees Anderson

Amy Rees Anderson

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