Several years ago my family and I were down visiting the small town of Bicknell, Utah with our dear friends. We went to a church meeting down in Bicknell back then and a very humble young man got up and gave a talk on perspective and gratitude that was awesome. In his talk he shared […]
So much to do, and not nearly enough hours in the day to do it. I get so frustrated when I work my guts out all day only to come to the end of the day feeling like I have barely scratched the surface of what I needed to get done. When that happens day […]
Today started out rough. I had to deal with a situation related to someone from the past that I once considered to be a friend, but who turned out to be an incredibly dishonest person who did a lot of horrible things that caused a lot of damage to a lot of people. Not exactly […]
Security is something we all long for. Security in our job. Security in our financial state. Security in our relationships. We look for security in certainty – in knowing what to expect each day, in knowing what our tomorrow will look like, in knowing what future we are securing for ourselves. But if you really […]
This past week my cousin returned from a 20 month stint working in Afghanistan to come home to his beautiful family that lives on the east coast. His wife and their nine children had been anticipating his return with such excitement. I noticed his wife posted a darling message on her Facebook page last week […]
“Pride is to relationships as cyanide is to health.” I came across an amazing article today about pride and there was a section that was so powerful I had to share it. “A pride contest has no winner because nobody likes the winner. Humans don’t respond well to being put down, and pride gives others that […]
Anyway People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and […]
Today I spoke to a large group of students at BYU. I love speaking to the students. They have so much energy and enthusiasm and joy for the future. They are so young and full of promise for their life ahead. In preparing to speak to them I really tried to consider the messages I […]
“It’s the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” – Mother Teresa This weekend I was invited to an event and at the event the speaker shared his story that was a sharp reminder to me that we should never forget that there are so […]
Hug O’ War I will not play at tug o’ war. I’d rather play at hug o’ war, Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles And rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, And everyone grins, And everyone cuddles, And everyone wins. – Shel Silverstein When someone tries to pick a fight with […]
“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the greatest ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.” -Gordon B. Hinckley I absolutely […]
It is a fact of life that we cannot control what other people do. We can’t make someone else act with integrity, or make someone else do the right thing, and we can’t make someone else be a good person. All we can really control in life is ourselves. When someone else does something bad […]
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit- Rest if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is […]
As a business leader, one of the many lessons I learned was that employees often viewed the world around them in ways that were completely different from what was actually going on. I observed time and time again employees who interpreted something one way when the reality was actually totally different. I learned that when […]
I was down sick again today, but I wanted to share a story with you that I came across a few years ago that touched my life in a major way. I shared the story years ago in a company blog, but I am reposting it again today for all of you to read as […]
I am in New York City this week to attend the Women Moving Millions Conference, a conference to bring together charities which focus on helping women succeed. The conference was assembled to allow these charities to discuss best practices and share ideas of what things are the most effective to help women. I am here […]
September 11th is always a tough day to write my blog because there is so much emotion when I think back to that day in 2001. I can remember exactly where I was standing when I saw the news station as it showed the tower that the first airplane had flown into, and I remember […]
So those of you up on the daily reading of my blog know I got hurt a few days ago when my face and a board met up at my new construction site. The sweetest person sent me a really cute email to cheer me up and the story she shared in the email had […]
“People ask me why it’s so hard to trust people, and I ask them why it is so hard to keep a promise.” Nothing is as frustrating as putting your trust in people who then let you down. Trusting people in the first place is always scary. But then after you take that leap and […]
At least that is what I am telling myself tonight. Today was…well….not the best day. I was over at our new home construction site meeting with plumbers, electricians, framers, etc doing a walk through when I turned right smack into a huge wood beam that was setup to temporarily hold up one of the walls. […]
“Make Just One Someone Happy. And You Will Be Happy To.” – Jimmy Durante. I love that song btw. If you haven’t listened to it in a while you totally should listen to it again. It’s fabulous. This last week I have been so grateful to all of my daughter’s dear friends who have come by […]
The human spirit is an amazing thing. It is capable of doing and becoming more than we ever recognize. The fact is that we never really know our limits in life until we are pushed into them or until we push ourselves beyond what we are currently doing. It is so easy to just do […]
Growing up at my house, the love of ice cream was an inherited trait. The entire Rees family, from my father to his father to his father’s father and so on, the love of ice cream was passed from one generation to the next. The fact was that if you didn’t love ice cream then […]
As I sit here at the hospital tonight, following my daughters second ACL surgery that took place earlier today, I am trying to reflect on what lessons I have learned in my life today so I can share those thoughts with all of you. It’s funny how just sitting around in a hospital waiting room […]
The most powerful personality traits to develop in one’s quest for success are incurable optimism and integrity. Optimism is defined as “the belief that good things will happen to you and that negative events are temporary setbacks to be overcome.” (-Mayo Clinic). Integrity, as I would define it, is “doing the right thing, at the […]
There is huge power in the examples set by the people we surround ourselves with. Tonight I want to share a story of one of the great examples in my life. My daughter Ashley is 17 years old. For those of you who have followed my blog for a time, you are aware that last […]
All of us have worries and concerns in life. Things we are scared of. Things we are dreading. Worries about what “might” happen or what “might not” happen. It seems that there is a truly endless supply of things to spend our time being worried about. Yet, at the end of the day does the […]
If it is possible to fry your brain by processing too much data, on too many items, in too short a time frame, well let`s just say that I think my brain has hit its “turning to mush” point already this week. The amount of data flowing through my mind as I am trying to multi-task […]
Today felt more like a hydrant day then a dog day! Building our dream home is quickly starting to feel like more of a nightmare lately. I won’t bore everyone with the details of all the problems that have happened over this last week other than to say that there comes a point that all […]
I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess. I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings. I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts. Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts. If you depend on […]
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