Tag Archives: talents

It Might Sound Like A Curse But It’s Been A Blessing

August 13th of this year marked the ten year anniversary of me writing a daily blog and hitting that ten year mark was the goal I had set for myself.  For ten long years I have literally written a blog five days a week, every single week, without missing a single day (other than National […]

Talents In You Just Waiting To Be Discovered

There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.” – Orison Swett Marden Deep within each of us lies talents, abilities, and powers that go so far beyond anything we could begin to imagine. Too often in life we […]

Don’t Think Of All You Can’t Do On Lockdown, Think Of All You Can!

When I first heard that everything was getting cancelled and we would all be asked to stay in our homes for several weeks my first thought was about how our entire lives were going to be put on hold. I started stressing about all the things I couldn’t do until the lockdown ended. Then it […]

Stand And Be Celebrated

As I sat Friday night in the BYU Marriott Center (with its seating capacity of around 19,000 people), and they flashed my photo onto the jumbotron screens and had me stand and be recognized by the audience for receiving BYU’s Honorary Alumni Award it was completely surreal. That’s how they started the BYU Spectacular event […]

Choose Your Perspective

My Mother is a woman of many talents. She writes poetry, she’s written song lyrics, she’s published a book, she draws, she does beautiful sculptures, and the list of her talents goes on and on, but at the top of that list has to be raising ten children. Having raised two children myself I can […]

Connecting The Dots

“One of the great innovators of our time, Steve Jobs of Apple, had this insight: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward,” he said. “You can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” What did he mean by that? Perhaps an illustration will […]

The Torch Bearer

Each of us have been born with special talents that God gave us so we might use them to benefit the lives of others. As we do, our own lives will be blessed as well. I love the following poem because its a great reminder to stay humble and recognize that our gifts are just […]

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it“

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”  – H.E. Lucckock The last few days my husband and I have been meeting with people who have all dedicated their time, talents and resources to helping to lift the lives of others.  Seeing the power that comes from having a group […]

“One you have experienced excellence, you will never again be content with mediocrity”

Dr. Charles H. Malik, former Secretary General of the United Nations, once shared: “I respect all men, and it is from disrespect for none that I say there are no great leaders in the world today. In fact, greatness itself is laughed to scorn. You should not be great today—you should sink yourself into the […]

It’s Called a Commencement Because It Signifies The Beginning

Thursday April 27th I will have the privilege of attending Commencement at Brigham Young University where we will begin the celebration of my son Dalton’s graduation from college. What an incredible achievement graduation is for our children! And what an incredible blessing as a parent to be able to go and watch your child fulfill […]

You Were Born To Stand Out

“Stop trying to fit in when you were born to stand out.” – unknown I believe that every person born on this earth is born with special God-given talents and that it is our job to then discover those talents by trying all kinds of different things and as we discover our gifts we should […]

Be Confident

“Be Confident. Too many days are wasted comparing ourselves to others and wishing to be something we aren’t. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, and it is only when you accept everything you are – and aren’t – that you will truly succeed.” The number one killer of confidence is when you start comparing […]

There Is Something Better…Be Patient…Live Life…

Disappointments are just God’s way of saying “I’ve got something better”  Be patient…live life… I love that quote because all of us have had those moments of disappointment…those moments when we had things all planned out in our heads so perfectly as to how they should go and then something unexpected happens and our perfect […]

There are opportunities everywhere to make a difference

The world is full of all kinds of problems that we can’t solve in a day, but what we can do is find a way to give a little bit of service here and there…whether it’s just a few hours a week or only once a month, every small effort up over time. And when […]

Never follow someone else’s path…well, unless you’re lost

“Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that.”- Ellen Degeneres First off all Ellen Degeneres cracks me up. Her humor can’t help but make you smile. And I love that […]

There are two ways to live your life

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  -Albert Einstein There is so much truth to that. When we look for miracles in life we can find them everywhere. Some miracles manifest as a mere “coincidence” when […]

Focus on the unique contribution you can offer the world

“The only unique contribution you can offer the world is to be who you actually are and no one else.” – Ashly Lorenzana Every person is born with individual strengths and talents. Every person brings something unique into this world and each person is able to add something different to this world. And it is […]

You’re Alive For A Reason, Don’t Forget That. It’s Called Your Purpose.

Purpose. Every single one of us has a purpose to fulfill in this life. Something unique that we, and only we, can accomplish. Something that if we use our talents and God-given gifts to fulfill it, will make this world a better place. It is our mark to leave upon this earth and our legacy […]

Live, Love, Leave a Legacy

I hope all of you had a fabulous Memorial Holiday Weekend! There is something special about seeing all the flowers laid on the graves of everyone’s loved ones on Memorial Day. It serves as a great reminder of the love and the legacy that great people leave behind when they pass.  In my own family […]

Not to spoil the ending for you…

“Not to spoil the ending for you, but everything is going to be OK!” My gosh if we could just remember that quote every day of our lives we would be able to live life so much happier!!!  And the reality is that deep down, I know that that statement is absolutely true. I know […]

Life is short, Live it well

Today we got word that a friend of ours, who we love and admire greatly, has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer which has spread throughout her body. It came as such a shock to hear the news about her because we ran into her and her husband just a few weeks ago and […]

WE Determine Our Future

I have been writing daily blogs five days a week for over 4 ½ years without missing a single day.  There have been times when I was really sick but I still wrote my blogs because I had promised I wouldn’t miss a single day. Back in 2011, my daughter Ashley, who was 15 at […]

Be Fearlessly Authentic!

I LOVE authentic people. People who are genuine and real and ‘what you see is what you get’. People who are open about their fears and insecurities are endearing because they are people you can relate to. Whereas people that act like they have never made mistakes or that they know everything make the rest […]

Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.

What impact do you want to have? How do you want to influence your world? In each of our lives, at some point we will find ourselves in a position of influence. It may be influence that comes as a result of a talent in filmmaking, or acting, or music, or writing, or speaking, or […]

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 […]

Discovering All That is Inside of You

Deep within each of us lies talents, abilities, and powers that go so far beyond anything we could begin to imagine. Too often in life we sell ourselves short thinking “I can’t” or “I am not capable of…” or “I am afraid to try in case I fail”.  We hide our true potential behind a […]

You Hate Your Job But You’re Scared To Quit  (Forbes Article)

You wake every morning miserable because you can’t stand the thought of going to the office to do a job you hate.  You moan and groan so much about the job you hate that not only are you miserable, but everyone around you is as well.  You get through each day of misery only to […]

Feeling like you’re failing?

Today I received an email from a dear friend who expressed her struggles to keep up with everything in her life while also attempting to be a good mother, which she usually feels she is failing at miserably.  As I read her email I couldn’t help but think of how so many of us struggle […]

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 […]

Mirror, Mirror on the wall…You’re GORGEOUS!

On the wall of my friends office hung a princess mirror.  It wasn’t just any princess mirror, it was a Disney princess mirror that talked to you when you looked into the mirror, stating things like “that color looks lovely on you” and “you are so pretty”. It had to be my FAVORITE mirror ever! […]