Tag Archives: experience

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 […]

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

“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, […]

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

“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 […]

Go To It!

In the two years since I sold my company I have taken on several things I have never done before…things I wasn’t sure I was capable of doing. But because of my many years as an entrepreneur I had learned that I should never assume I am not capable of something until I first give […]

“Every New Beginning Comes From Some Others Beginnings End.”

When a happy time of life comes to an end it is hard, plain and simple.  Tomorrow I will be attending my daughter Ashley’s High School Graduation. It is a major life event for a young person.  Ashley had an amazing High School experience. She was surrounded by good friends and she chose to be […]

“Even if you are on the right track you will get ran over if you just sit there”

When we wake up every day, the person we should be competing against is the person we were yesterday. Every day we should be trying to beat out that person we were the day before. Looking back we can easily see how far we have come over the years. We can see just how much […]

Making a House a Home

We did it!  We actually spent our very first night in our new house.  We are still surrounded by boxes and papers to unpack and put away, and there is still a punch list of “to be finished or fixed items”, but we have officially begun living in our new house. So I have to […]

“How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?”

That quote comes from a talk given by one of my favorite speakers, Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Here are a few excerpts from the talk: “Over the years, I have had the sacred opportunity to meet with many people whose sorrows seem to reach the very depths of their soul…Often their grief is caused by what […]

Filling Up Your Inspiration Tank

When my children were young I used to teach them the principle of filling up their gas tanks – our bodies and minds are like a car that is always running.  In order to run we need gas in our tank.  Even when the car is in idle and not driving forward it needs gas […]

You were given this life, so LIVE IT WELL!

“You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.”  That quote has helped me many times in my life.  Especially during difficult or stressful times when I feel overwhelmed or incapable of handing a situation I am given.  We have all heard the phrase that “God doesn’t give us more than […]

“What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.”

I finished my day off today after going a million miles an hour non-stop from the moment I jumped out of bed (okay “jumped” might be a bit of an exaggeration, it was more of a begrudging stagger if I am totally truthful).  I was trying to respond to a hundred emails, answer a constant […]

Getting There is Half the Fun

Every summer when I was a kid, my family would make the long drive from Washington State where we lived at the time out to Utah to visit our grandparents who lived here.  That drive was a brutal 14 hour drive if you didn’t add on all the time for every potty stop we had […]

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles”

Growing up in a family of ten kids led to some awesome memories.  One memory in particular that I thought about today was the following story: We were sitting around our massive dinner table (it took a huge table to hold all 12 of us!).  We were preparing to sing Happy Birthday to one of the […]

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

“Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”  -Ronald Daw I believe in magic…I believe we actually make our own magic by the way we think, the dreams we dream, […]

“To my children, their children, their children, and theirs’…”

That is the inscription on the back cover of my Grandmother’s life history book.   My grandmother passed away back in November of 2007.  She was one of my dearest friends.  And I am forever grateful that she left behind her written life history for me and for my children, and their children, and so on.  […]

If You Could Do Anything…

If you could do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do?  Have you ever asked yourself that question?  Just for a minute take away all restrictions or limitations that typically exist and the barriers that scare you or deter you.  Take away all worries of being able to fulfill your financial obligations […]

“Doubt Kills Dreams More Than Failure Ever Will”

Today I was humbled and honored to receive the UVEF Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  At the awards lunch they asked me to share a few words about the things that I would like to pass on to other Entrepreneurs from the lessons I have learned from my own journey.  I struggled deciding what lessons […]

More Inspiring Stories from the TED Women Conference

Today was another great day in San Francisco at the TED Women’s Conference.  Here are a few inspirational stories to share from today: Diana Nyad:  In 2013, at the age of 64and as her fifth attempt to do so, Diana swam all the way from Cuba to Florida.  A total distance of 110 miles in […]

Some Days I Forget

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 […]

The Ones Who Do

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.   The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.   You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. […]

Before You Do

“Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.”                                       -Ernest Hemingway I love the message of that quote.  It’s such a […]

Operation Underground Railroad

“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 […]

Face Your Fear; the Result Might Be Amazing (Forbes Article)

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.” -Victor Hugo Do you remember back to when you were a kid? When you blew out the birthday candles to make a wish with the belief that it would actually come true? Or when you pinned a towel to your shoulders and played […]

People Who Add To Your Fun Jar

Today was an exciting, whirlwind of a day.  First I attended my board meeting for the Governor’s Economic Development Board that I serve on for the State of Utah, and then I ran over to attend the Women’s Tech Awards where I was humbled to receive their Impact Award at a large luncheon.  Next I […]

Just Take It One Day At A Time

Do you ever feel like you are suffocating at the very thought of trying to get everything done that you need to?  Yeah, I pretty much feel like that every day of my life I have decided.  And yeah, yeah, I know, try to delegate more and say yes to less and cut out the […]

Being The Best Isn’t About Knowing The Most (Forbes Article)

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking When an individual believes they know all the answers, they shut themselves down from the possibility that there is more they might learn on a subject. They limit themselves from experiencing personal growth and gaining intelligence. They are […]

Why It’s So Hard To Trust

“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 […]

Get Your Sparkle On!

I have a great story to share with you today – it is a story that was shared with me tonight and it totally inspired me to want to GET MY SPARKLE ON!  Hopefully sharing it with you will inspire you to GET YOUR SPARKLE ON too! Going into this school year my daughter set a goal for herself […]

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

That is a fantastic Chinese Proverb I came across tonight that I had to share with all of you tonight because it is a perfect fit for what is on my mind. I have spent the last several weeks working on a landscaping design for our new home with our landscaper extraordinaire, Chip Galloway of […]

Remember All The Good

No matter what ups and downs we have experienced in our lives, there have always been a million blessings.  Sometimes we forget to acknowledge or even recognize those blessings because there are so many other things to easily get distracted by.  And when you have always had certain blessings in your life, it’s easy to take […]