Today I gave a keynote speech at the 25th anniversary of the “What’s Up Down South” Economic Development Conference, Southern Utah’s largest business gathering each year. Normally the conference is held in beautiful St. George but because of COVID this year the conference was held online. You know it’s said that public speaking is the […]
We all tend to be our own worst critics in life. And for those of us who are women, we are our own worst critic times ten! I have always been a fan of motivation speaker Brian Tracy. In one of his talk series that is a personal favorite of mine called The Psychology of […]
I’m still struggling today to find words to express the sadness I feel about what’s happening around the world right now. I was reading back through things I’d written today and came across something I wrote on the 13th anniversary of September 11th 2001 about hatred. It reads: “Holding on to anger is like drinking […]
I have so many things to tell all of you about and yet each time I’ve tried to sit down to write a blog about them I get interrupted – From my husband being hospitalized unexpectedly last week, to me needing to fly to Washington DC this week for some really important meetings and to […]
“You were born with the ability to change someone’s life. Don’t ever waste it.” We often hear that we must help ourselves before we can help someone else, and to some extent I believe that to be true. But I also find it to be true that one of the best ways to help ourselves […]
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Einstein If you don’t like the way something is going in your life you can’t sit back and expect someone else to fix it for you. You’ve got to be willing to fix it yourself. For example: If you don’t like […]
I was in a meeting the other day at the Family History Library, which has the largest shared family tree database in the world, when someone giving a presentation surprised the person with me by playing an audio file for her that they’d located in the database. Watching the immediate reaction of her hands shooting […]
This last Sunday I attended a meeting in which BYU President Kevin Worthen spoke. He covered several topics but there was one suggestion in particular that he gave that really struck me and I knew I had to share it with all of you: He shared that when you hear a speaker talk that inspires […]
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again… So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above… One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is […]
“Fear is an idea crippling, experience-crushing, success-stalling inhibitor inflicted only by yourself.” – Stephanie Melish We are the ones who create our own fears. We decide what we are afraid of by the thoughts we allow into our minds. We think our fears into existence and then we allow them to exist and grow in […]
It’s called a comfort zone because it’s just that…it’s comfortable. And who doesn’t like feeling comfortable? It’s so nice and familiar and cozy… we know if we do “x” we will get “y”…it’s predictable…it feels safe…. But nothing exciting is ever going to happen in the comfort zone – because in the comfort zone the […]
Yesterday I blogged about a talk Steve Jobs gave in which he discussed keeping perspective on life and death in the context of making decisions and not letting fear hold you back. After I’d finished that blog I couldn’t help but think a bit more about that subject of life and death, but my thoughts […]
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” […]
As those who follow my blog know, I am deep in the thick of wedding planning for my daughter Ashley’s wedding this week. Today as we were working on getting the song list together for the DJ and listening to different songs when I was suddenly hit with this overwhelming feeling of sadness as I […]
“If you’re beat up, don’t give up. Rest up. Then get up.” -Tristan Bishop I’ve never been one to accept that there are limits on what we are capable of doing. I have always been one to attempt to do more, to go beyond, to push through, and to at the very least try to […]
Tonight I was reading through some of my Grandmother’s old papers and I came across a talk she had written long ago. In this talk she discusses how people (especially young people) commonly say “What I do with my life is my own business and concerns no one else.” She points out that those who […]
When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to the mirror and look at yourself And see what “the man” has to say. For it isn’t your father or mother or wife Whose judgment upon you must pass. The fellow whose […]
“Hope is a verb It is an action It is not a chair To sit on and wait for things to get better… it is something we DO… it is a brave choice that we make.” With everything happening in the world right now from hurricanes, to earthquakes, to wildfires, to terrorism, etc it is […]
I love watching, listening to, and reading motivational talks. I think they do so much to help us keep our head focused on good things and to help us continually move forward in our lives. Last Sunday morning I was watching KBYU TV and a talk came on by a man named Lynn Robbins called […]
An exercise I find really helpful in regards to self-improvement and learning from the past is to asking the question of myself: “If you could do it again what would you have done differently?” Don’t ask that question in the mindset of beating yourself up or to wallow in regret. Ask that question in order […]
“Don’t stop dreaming just because you had a nightmare.” Some days I come across a quote like that one and instantly know it’s what I need to write about in that day’s blog, and for whatever reason when I saw that one I knew it had to share it… We all go through our own […]
Today we saw an awe inspiring eclipse take place…last Friday I saw the miracle of my new little grandbaby being born into this world… Miracles are happening every day and they are happening all around the world…we just have to recognize them. “Miracles happen every day, change your perception of what a miracle is and […]
“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – C. S. Lewis There are so many ways to off-track in life, and so many of them happen through a series of poor smaller choices that end up leading to big mistakes, but […]
There are a lot of times in life we question why we have to go through really hard times. Years ago someone shared this story with me. I have probably shared this before with all of you but it just seemed like it was worth sharing it again today: Parable of the Butterfly A man […]
The other day my son Dalton, whose wife is expecting their first child in August, called me sounding a little stressed and said something to the effect of, “Mom I just realized that I am going to have a kid here soon that’s going to be with me forever and that I need to parent! […]
“Be strong enough to let go, and wise enough to wait for what you deserve.” – unknown Letting go of something you have cared about, but recognize is hurting you, is never easy. Whether it’s a toxic relationship (or just a relationship that is keeping you from moving forward), or a bad habit (especially an […]
“Happiness is the ability to move forward, knowing the future will be better than the past. Today I choose to be happy!” I think our ability to feel happy is substantially stronger when one has the ability to evaluate oneself in an honest way so as to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses, doing so […]
In yesterday’s blog I talked about the need to do some spring cleaning to help us de-clutter, organize, and clean-up. And I can honestly say that I have been living by my own words and working like crazy to get through the piles of clutter and bring order back to the chaos. As I went […]
Anyone that knows me is aware that I do NOT like to exercise. In fact I often jokingly tell people that sweating is against my religion in attempt to avoid it. You see, I am that girl that would rather diet than exercise any day of the week, which I fully admit is a terrible […]
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”. As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody As I try to force my desires on this person, […]
Get every new post delivered to your Inbox
Join other followers
