Tag Archives: understanding

Successful Communication

“Don’t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate so as not to be misunderstood.” —John Lund, EdD Years ago, I attended a seminar on communication by John Lund, EdD, in which he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, and yet very powerful. Here […]

Permit Misperceptions To Be Clarified and True Intent To Be Understood

In an incredibly powerful talk titled “And Nothing Shall Offend Them”, David A Bednar shares the following: “When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow […]

A Day In One Another’s Shoes

Last night my I went and saw the musical Freaky Friday with my daughter. I would guess all of you are familiar with the storyline from the Disney movie Freaky Friday already, but just in case your not, it’s about a mother and her teenage daughter who have been struggling to get along (as many […]

The Big Difference A Little Kindness Can Make

To say it has been a rough week this week wouldn’t quite do it justice. We’ve spent the week in hospitals with a very sick little grandbaby. We are all going on almost no sleep this week and we’ve been sick with worry, but through all of it there has been something truly amazing that […]

Trials Are Empowering

“Have you ever gone through something difficult and that experience allowed you to empathize with friends or even strangers who were facing a similar challenge? Or have you seen others experience sorrow from difficult circumstances and turn their pain into a moving, empowering cause? The trials we face allow us to develop compassion for others […]

Turning Weakness Into Strength

We were all born with our own unique challenges. Some physical, some mental, some circumstantial. Some all of the above.  But those challenges we were born with were never meant to hold us back, in fact, they were meant to help us become strong in the areas we would most need to be in order […]

You’ll never get the same moment twice

“Life becomes more meaningful when you realize the simple fact that you’ll never get the same moment twice.” When my daughter-in-law came to drop off my adorable grandbaby this morning so I could babysit him for her while she went to work and I saw her lugging in the car seat and diaper back and […]

There isn’t a person you wouldn’t love if you could read their whole story

“There isn’t a person you wouldn’t love if you could read their whole story.”  – Marjorie Hinckley I love that quote. When someone reminded me of this quote the other day I couldn’t help but stop and think how true it is. We see people through a certain lens…we make snap judgments…we make assumptions about […]

It’s not distance that keeps people apart; it’s a lack of communication

Communicating in relationships (whether at work, at home, or with friends) isn’t easy…in fact it takes a lot more effort to communicate with the other person then it does to avoid communicating, because communicating takes WO-ORK!  Yet what may have appeared easier (avoiding communicating) in the moment, will prove to have made your life far […]

He Said, She Said. The Gender Communication Gap

I gave a keynote speech at a conference today and for part of my speech I went over some of the gender differences in the way we interpret communication in the workplace.  It’s such an interesting topic and there is so much that I discovered over the years as a CEO managing nearly 2,000 men […]

The Power of Empathy and the Comfort of Knowing Someone Understands

Tonight I had the opportunity to speak to a group of students and their parents involved in the YEA! Program which stands for Young Entrepreneurs Academy (www.yeausa.org ) , a non-profit program for students in middle school and high school that teaches kids to generate business ideas, do market research on their ideas, write business […]

How to Ensure That Great Things Are Coming

I love that feeling of knowing that great things are coming! And the awesome thing is that all you have to do to have that feeling is to think it!! You can control having great things in your future and it all begins with controlling your own thoughts. In his book As A Man Thinketh, […]

There Are No Mistakes – Only Discoveries

Those of you who read yesterday’s blog post learned that my 20 year old daughter Ashley’s birthday present to me this week was to write a few blog posts that I could use in order to give me a few nights off on my birthday week to enjoy myself. This post she wrote below is […]

Don’t be so quick to forget

My daughter Ashley who is still out serving her mission shared a story from a talk she attended on her mission that has such a simple, yet powerful message, that I had to share it with all of you. She was attending a meeting where a leader was speaking and in the letter Ashley is […]

The Largest Event of Its Kind In The World – The Global Family History Event RootsTech Has Begun!

Today RootsTech, the largest family history and genealogy conference in the world, kicked off with over 23,000 registered attendees gathering from all over the world to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Attendees are from all 50 states in the United States and over 40 other countries. All of these people have come together to hear keynote […]

You’re Never Alone

“Right now, there are people all over the world who are just like you. They’re lonely. They’re missing somebody. They’re in love with someone they probably shouldn’t be in love with. They have secrets you wouldn’t believe. They wish, dream, hope, and they look out the window whenever they’re in the car or on a […]

True Friends

“Good friends care for each other…close friends understand each other, but TRUE FRIENDS stay forever…beyond words, beyond distance, beyond time…!” Many of us have friends in our lives over the years. Some friends we make as children and then lose contact as we grow older. Other friends we make as adults and stay in touch […]

Have Courage and Be Kind

That phrase, “Have Courage and Be Kind” is repeated multiple times throughout the new movie Cinderella (the real life remake of the cartoon classic).  It was advice given to Cinderella as a small child by her real mother before her real mother passed away.  Today in a meeting someone reminded me again of the phrase […]

My Little Epiphany of Genius!

Today during a discussion I had a sudden epiphany of understanding that shed absolute clarity to one of life’s greatest mysteries – understanding the difference between men and women and their insecurities!  I am talking a serious flash of genius that was so obvious I couldn’t believe I hadn’t recognized it a long time ago.  […]

The Most Beautiful People

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not […]

“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 […]

The Most Beautiful People I Know…

“The most beautiful people I know are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.  These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion and a deep loving concern.”   -author unknown People who have been […]

Why?

This past week my cousin returned from a 20 month stint working in Afghanistan to come home to his beautiful family that lives on the east coast.  His wife and their nine children had been anticipating his return with such excitement.  I noticed his wife posted a darling message on her Facebook page last week […]

Happy or Sad, Good or Bad, Love It or Hate It, It’s All in How You View It (Forbes Article)

As a business leader, one of the many lessons I learned was that employees often viewed the world around them in ways that were completely different from what was actually going on. I observed time and time again employees who interpreted something one way when the reality was actually totally different. I learned that when […]

Nothing Is More Expensive Than A Cheap Lawyer (Forbes Article)

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on as an entrepreneur was hiring cheap lawyers or not using an expensive lawyer nearly enough, thinking I was saving money for my business. But over the years, the school of hard knocks taught me just how expensive cheap legal help can be. I don’t recall ever […]