Tag Archives: character

There Is Only Black and White, Not Any Shades Of Grey

When I was young I used to get frustrated that my Father always saw everything as black and white – there was never any grey as far as he was concerned. As a little kid I would always try to explain to him why the grey sometimes existed and without fail I would end up […]

Justification is a slippery slope

Justification is a slippery slope that will drag you downhill fast if you allow yourself to engage in it. Just think about it, the entire purpose of justification is to try and make some that is just plain wrong appear to actually be right. It’s an attitude that the ends justifies the means – but […]

The Traits I Admire Most

Today I have been thinking a lot about the character traits that I admire most in people. I sat down to make a list of traits I see in a person I very much look up to in my life and here was the list that came to mind: Integrity – does the right thing, […]

Our Perception Is Our Choice

This statement is something all of us should really stop and think long and hard about…Our perception is our choice…There are many things in our life that ARE NOT our choice, for example – how the weather will be, or whether a person will fall in love with us or not, or whether we will […]

You Set The Tone

I was talking with someone the other day who was sharing how much fun they had at a Halloween party our family threw in our driveway. I was thanking them for coming to the party and I agreed with them that it was a really fun time. They then made a comment that really stuck with me […]

The Future Can Be Better Than You’ve Ever Imagined

“Just because the past didn’t turn out like you wanted it to, doesn’t mean your future can’t be better than you’ve ever imagined.” -unknown Everyone has a story of disappointments they have faced. Times when things didn’t go their way. Times when the thing they were praying for didn’t happen. Times when they tried their […]

Talk to each other rather than about each other

“A lot of problems in the world would disappear if we talk to each other instead of about each other.” Talking negatively about others is an easy trap to fall into. It typically starts innocent enough with a simple comment about something as trivial as the outfit someone has on that day, but then over […]

It’s Never Too Late to Change for the Better

As long as we are still alive it’s never too late to change our lives for the better.  And there is no better time to start working on it than right now, this very minute.  It’s always good to step back and to recommit ourselves to keeping focused on living life each day in such […]

Trust What Someone Has Shown Themselves To Be, Not What We Wish That They Were

There have been a few times in my life where I really believed in someone and trusted them and then came to discover that they weren’t the person that I thought they were at all. It hurts a lot when you discover that someone you thought was a good person just isn’t. And then you […]

Do What Is Right, Not What Is Easy

‘When you do the right things in the right way,     you have nothing to lose because you have nothing to fear.” – Zig Ziglar Today I was reminded how important it is to stand up for what is right, even when it isn’t easy. I was also reminded that it can take a lot […]

What Memories Will We Have Left Behind?

This weekend I attended the funeral of a neighbor and a friend. She left behind a husband, children, and grand-children and many friends who loved her dearly. She was an amazing person and she lived her life with love and service for others and I feel lucky to have known her. It was really hard […]

Living a Virtuous Life

When Benjamin Franklin was a young man of 20 years old he decided he wanted to better himself. He wrote down 13 virtues and determined to practice one virtue each week. He created a notebook to track his progress, writing one virtue at the top of on each page along with a short description of […]

It’s Funny How Sometimes The People You’d Take A Bullet For Are The Ones Behind The Trigger (Forbes Article)

Actually it’s not really that funny at all…it’s really sad when it happens to be true. It’s unbelievably hard when someone you love and respect and consider a friend does something to hurt you deeply. It’s downright brutal. I’m sure many of us have been through times where this has happened. We are betrayed by […]

Remember Who You Are And What You Stand For (Forbes Article)

“All through my growing up years as I would run out the door of our home, my mother would yell the phrase “Remember who you are and what you stand for”.  I would guess I have heard that phrase literally thousands of times as a child.  Most days she said it I would roll my […]

The Ultimate Goal Is To Be Better Today Than Yesterday With A Plan To Become Even Better Tomorrow (Forbes Article)

How do we stack up? It’s a question we seem to constantly ask ourselves. Our brains want to know how we are measuring up compared to everyone else. Do we matter more than other people matter? Is our position more valuable than another person’s position? People can spend their entire lives trying to determine where […]

If the world was blind how many people would you impress?

If the world was blind how many people would you impress? What a great question to consider. We live in a world that applauds beauty. After all, beauty attracts the eye. When there is a thing of beauty we stop and take notice. We are drawn to a person of beauty…at least momentarily. So we spend […]

Success Comes From Focusing On Things You Can Control

There are a million aspects to life that are out of our control. And focusing on things you can’t control is absolutely pointless…no matter how much you focus on them you can’t control them so why waste the energy? Success comes when we stop worrying about those factors and things that are out of our […]

Do You Think You Could You Do A Better Job Than Your Manager? (Forbes Article)

According to an international poll recently conducted by Monster.com, an overwhelming majority of people believe that they could do a better job than their manager. When asked the question, “In your current or most recent job, do you think you could do a better job than your manager?” over 4,800 responded, and 84% of them […]

The Friends We Choose

“If you find yourself racing through life, slow down long enough to take along some good friends.”  – L. Tom Perry This last week I was reminded of how blessed I am to have amazing friends in my life.  My husband and I were able to spend last week with a group of 15 friends […]

Next Time You Think of Beautiful Things, Don’t Forget To Count Yourself In

Tonight I am taking my daughter and her friends to a One Direction concert (Don’t judge me 🙂  ).  A year ago when their concert tour was announced, she literally begged me to take her and her friends to the concert.  She made the typical promises of “it’s the last gift you ever have to […]

The Nest Will Soon Be Empty

Today was an amazing day – we had planned to take our kids out to the Lake to go boating with their friends, everyone got their swimming suits on and we packed the boat with snacks and we drove 45 minutes to the lake and got the boat on the water only to have our […]

You have to start to be great

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar Starting can be intimidating and scary.  Starting means that you might end up failing and people might even see you fail.  Starting means admitting something matters to you.  Starting means admitting that you care.   Yep.  That’s […]

A few words of advice for kids leaving home to college for the first time

First off you need to know that your parents are freaking out right now that their babies are leaving home for the first time.  Know that this is a hard time for them so be patient and kind with your parents the next few weeks…they are not trying to hold you back…they just don’t want […]

Smile, Happy Looks Good on You

“WAKE UP EVERY MORNING WITH THE THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING WONDERFUL IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN?” What a great idea!  I think I am going to write on my mirror “something wonderful is about to happen” so when I wake up to get ready it’s the first thought I see.  What a great way to get your […]

When Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them

Throughout my career I have encountered many people in the business world:  Some are honest and good, and some are not.  The most important thing to recognize is this – when someone shows you who they are through their actions and their behavior – BELIEVE THEM!  If someone has shown a track record of honesty […]

Suggestions For Success

We each may have our own definition of what the word success means to us in our lives, but I believe that success is something that each of us strive for.  Figuring out how to achieve success has been the topic of countless books and articles throughout time. One particular article that I thought had great suggestions on achieving success was […]

“Why fit in when you were born to STAND OUT!” -Dr Seuss

Too much time and energy in life gets spent trying to fit in…trying to be seen as “normal”.  I personally think that normal is pretty boring.   After all, why be normal when you can be exceptional?!   When something simply “fits in” it is too easy to blend in, to go completely unnoticed.  But when something […]

The Key to a Good Marriage is Finding Someone With a Good Heart

Relationships are a tricky thing.  Men and women are so drastically different in so many ways that it is a serious miracle that we actually end up together in many ways.  We communicate differently, we show love differently, we have different expectations, we have different emotional responses…we are just plain different. And is if our […]

“Don’t Let Behavior of Others Destroy Your Inner Peace” – Dalai Lama

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 […]