Tag Archives: gratitude

What 50 Years Have Taught Me

Tomorrow I’m turning 50 years old and knowing that has caused me to be introspective about a few of the things those 50 years have taught me: *They’ve taught me that happiness comes when we put God first, family second, and everything else third. *They’ve taught me that excelling in the things of righteousness is […]

Kindred Spirits You’re Destined To Meet

“When you encounter someone you were destined to meet the conversation will take flight as if it were on the wings of angels, complete strangers confiding in each other as if you were lifelong friends.” – Kevin Hall Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone for the first time, but having that feeling […]

Use Them To Bless The Life Of Another

Over the past seven days I’ve given keynote speeches twice at Brigham Young University, once at Utah Valley University, I’ve spoken at a Women in Business Conference, I spoke at Southern Utah University, did a mentoring session, and I judged a High School business competition. As I was making the four hour drive back home […]

The Miracle Of Hope

It’s only a three minute video clip, but it’s three minutes spoken by a man who is incredibly special to me (I’ll explain why below) that reminds us that what we need right now is RELENTLESS HOPE…it reminds us that WE CAN HOPE…that WE SHOULD HOPE…that WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO HOPE:

Celebrating Daughters and Sons

To be honest I’d never even heard of a National Daughters Day until I saw a post on Facebook over the weekend from my Mother wishing her five daughters a happy National Daughters Day. I of course immediately googled it to find out what she was referring to.  Come to find out Friday September 25th […]

The One Who Can Smile

“Tis easy enough to be pleasant When life goes by with a song, But the man worthwhile Is the man who can smile When everything goes dead wrong.” When I read that poem today I immediately thought of two people I know who exemplify the person spoken of in that poem – my sister-in-law Katie […]

Come What May And Love It

Joseph B. Worthlin shared the following story that has had a huge impact on my life: “When I was young I loved playing sports, and I have many fond memories of those days. But not all of them are pleasant. I remember one day after my football team lost a tough game, I came home […]

Only In The Darkness Can You See The Stars

Our family has been going to Lake Powell in the summers every year from the time my children were little. It’s literally one of our very favorite places on earth.  The water is amazing, the red rock cliffs are incredible, and there is nothing in the world quite as beautiful as a Lake Powell sunset. […]

Dare To Be!

When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully. When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light. When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it. When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway. When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back. When […]

Those Who Gave All To Defend God, Religion, Freedom, Peace, and Family

It’s difficult to put into words the profound gratitude and respect I have for all those who gave their lives defending God, religion, freedom, peace, and family. May we never forget the tremendous sacrifice they made: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Ordinary Miracles Are Happening Around You Each Day – Watch For Them!

With things slowly starting to re-open here in Utah again our family is anxiously awaiting the reopening of our beloved Lake Powell. We can’t wait for the marina to get back up and operational again as we are all longing to be able to take a trip on our houseboat again. Our Lake Powell vacations […]

Life Goes On!

Life is too short, Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can, Apologize when you should, And let go of what you can’t change. Love deeply and forgive quickly. Take chances.  Give everything And have no regrets. Life is too short to be unhappy. You have to take the good with the […]

Resolve To Be Happy Regardless Of Our Circumstances

With all that’s going on currently with COVID-19 the words of this talk which shares some universal regrets that dying patients have gives us much to consider about how we ought to look at things. It’s a talk given by one of my favorite speakers, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, titled “Of Regrets and Resolutions” and here […]

While You Are Growing Up, They Are Growing Old

Today I was really bummed out because it was my Mother’s 78th birthday and we couldn’t be with her even though she lives only fifteen minutes away.  With the quarantine we could only stand on her front porch singing Happy Birthday to her through the glass and then leave a cake an balloons on her […]

A Great Way To Boost Your Emotional Well-Being and Happiness Level

Today as I was going through cabinets and organizing things I pulled out my box I keep of handwritten notes and cards people have written to me over the years and I began reading a few of them.  What an awesome way to boost your emotional well-being! Let’s face it – if someone asked you […]

Focus On What You Can Control

“One of the happiest moments ever, is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” 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 Me?

I started reading through things I’d written in past years Aprils to try and remind myself of what my Aprils used to be like before this pandemic. Ironically, the first thing I flipped to was an article I’d written back in April of 2013 that was published in Forbes, and when you read what I’d […]

An Opportunity To Mute The Noise Around Us And #HearHim

With all the craziness of the news updates, the rush on the grocery stores, the closures going on, and the updates on the Coronavirus spreading it felt almost impossible to feel a sense of peace…and then Sunday came… Our church had put out a notification last week that our regular Sunday services were not being […]

A Trip to Cabo, an 80s Prom Murder Party, and a Board Meeting

My week last week was completely insane. I started the week off down in Cabo San Lucas at the invite of some dear friends who’d asked my husband and I to join them for a few days at the beautiful Montage Resort in Cabo. You are probably thinking “oh , boo hoo…really rough life going […]

It’s So Helpful To Know You Are Not Alone

I was just finishing up a business meeting when my husband called yesterday to tell me he needed to get to the emergency room. Now anyone who knows my husband Rollin can understand why hearing those words over the phone shook me – My husband grew up on a dairy farm and he is stubborn […]

How To Combat The Blues

Without a doubt one of the most dreaded things about January is coming back to work after the long holiday break to face all the emails, voice messages, and letters that have piled up during your absence.  Seeing all that work that’s accumulated and realizing how long it is going to take you just to […]

The Importance Of Saying Thank You

My two year old grandson came barreling in the door of the house calling out “Grandma…Grandma” as he ran over to me to give me a hug.  I’m telling ya….that is seriously just about THE GREATEST thing in the entire world! As I sat with him playing it made me long for the days when […]

Changing The World For The Better

Today was a really big day – it was the groundbreaking for the new Scott C. Keller Business School Building at Utah Valley University.  This is a project our Woodbury School of Business National Advisory Board I’m Chairing has been working on for years so it was fantastic to see it actually happening. And I’m […]

Never Take Anything For Granted

As I was leaving work on a Wednesday night back in October of 2011, I received a phone call that my mother had slipped and fallen down in the rain and she was being taken by ambulance to the hospital.  She had broken her femur and her hip and was going to be taken into […]

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I’ve spent my day sick and unable to get anything done, which is a real bummer considering I just got back from being gone ten days and then immediately went up to Logan to speak at the University so today was supposed to be my first day of catch up, but that’s clearly going to […]

From Bad To Worse To SERIOUSLY?!

It had been a rough day…you know that kind of day where everything seems to go wrong?  I’d been up til 4am working on a really important project in order to solve a problem. Finally I got so tired I couldn’t even finish my own sentences and decided to call it for the night…surely tomorrow […]

Some Words Of Advice Are Timeless

Some words of advice are timeless…the words in this poem qualify as such… Wear Sunscreen  -by Mary Schmich Wear sunscreen.  If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than […]

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing…

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Victor Frankel Sitting in a hospital all day today while my father-in-law was getting surgery I watched as families would bring a […]

Why Is It That When It Rains It Pours?

Seriously, why is it that when it rains it pours…why can’t it ever just be a light drizzle?! If it was someone else asking me that question I’d probably respond with something motivational like – the harder it rains the bigger the rainbow – but after the week I’ve had I’m thinking I might just […]

It’s Not The Places We Go, It’s The People We Are With

My husband and I spent most of last week in New York City with the Hale Center Theater Founders Board. The Hale Center Theater is an incredible community theater in Utah that has plays of the caliber of any Broadway show I’ve seen. Each year this board takes a trip together to go and see […]