When You Are Busy Doing Good Things

What a whirlwind of day today was!  My day began at a board meeting with the amazing Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne for her Amar Foundation www.amarfoundation.org which is an award winning charity that works in the Middle East helping improve the lives and livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people.  The Baroness also serves in the British House of Lords. She is an amazing woman who spends all of her time and energy helping the underserved and it is an honor for me to serve on the board with her and the other amazing board members she has assembled. Here’s a fun pic from that meeting:

Baroness Emma Nicholson and Amy Rees Anderson with Amar Board Members

Next I was off to give a keynote speech to the faculty and staff of BYU’s College of Nursing at their semester kick-off conference.  They are a truly amazing group of people who have an impact on the lives of so many with the work they do teaching nursing to students. Every nurse they train will go on to touch the lives of so many people through their work.  I shared with them how my heart is really tender toward those in the nursing profession this year as I have spent a tremendous amount of my time this year in hospitals starting with my grandbaby when he became terribly ill back in January and then back again in February when he became ill again and had to have a procedure done. Next we were in the hospital with my father-in-law when he injured his spine and had to have surgery. And then finally we were in the hospital when my second grandbaby was born. I shared how meaningful the nurses were who helped us through each of those hospital stays and how those nurses were such a strength to us – not just physically by caring for our loved ones, but emotionally as they offered kindness and empathy at a time we desperately needed emotional support.

Funny story about my talk – I needed someone to take photos of my speech today so I asked my husband if he wouldn’t mind coming with me to snap some pictures while I was giving my talk.  He said he’d be happy to do it so we headed up to the resort where the event was being held. After we left the event I asked to see the photos he’d taken.  He looked at me with a blank stare and said, “Oh darn! I totally forgot to take pictures.” His sole purpose in coming today was literally to take those pictures….All I could say was, “ONE JOB!!! YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!!… Yet why is it I am fairly certain every wife out there has felt my pain ….  #husbandwoes  

Following my talk I had to jump on a conference call to finalize an agenda for a University board meeting I am in charge of next week and I went right from that to Grandma babysitting duty so I fed my grandson dinner and then ran him to his Aunt’s house to have her help cover for me so I could run up to a reception for the AMAR Foundation tonight. I walked in the door of my home finally just moments ago and all I can think about is finishing this blog so I can climb into bed and let my head hit the pillow.

The lesson I took from today is this – When you are busy doing good things you don’t have time to worry or fret or feel anxious about anything…you only have time to do those good things you are doing….there is something incredibly awesome about that…

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )

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