Author Archives: Amy Rees Anderson

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree Change is hard because it stretches us. It pulls us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to come out of the known and head into the unknown, and that is always a little unnerving. But the fact […]

Some of God’s Greatest Gifts are Unanswered Prayers

Last week my husband and I were invited to the Garth Brooks concert in Utah and we were given the special opportunity to meet Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood. I have to say that they were both so kind and so down to earth that it was really a pleasure meeting them. I […]

Witnessing A Tender Mercy

Tonight something amazing happened but I have to back up so it will all make sense. Yesterday a dear friend of mine came to me crying because she had found out that her Mother, who has a tumor growing on the side of her head, had taken a turn for the worse and the tumor […]

51 Days Til Christmas!

Holiday season has officially begun!!! Which also means tis the season for awesome online sales!!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about baby 🙂 I love, love, love the holiday season and I love the month of November because it’s the official kickoff to the season – it is time to bust out the apple cider, the […]

A Little Appreciation Goes A Long Way. Why Gratitude Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving. (Forbes Article)

Appreciation is one of life’s greatest motivators, so when we take the time to let people know that we value them, it inspires them to continue doing even more. That is precisely why gratitude is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. “A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.” […]

If we gained an extra hour of sleep why are we still so tired?!

Winston Churchill described Daylight Savings by saying: “An extra yawn one morning in the springtime, an extra snooze one night in the autumn… We borrow an hour one night in April; we pay it back with golden interest five months later.” Sounds easy enough, right? Apparently it’s not that easy…in fact, according to Dr. Yvonne […]

Weekend Forecast: Gain an Hour and a Few Pounds

Happy Halloween Weekend Ahead! Not only do we gain an entire hour of extra sleep Saturday night when the clocks fall back (yay, more sleep!….I am so happy about that!), but we get to look forward to gaining a few pounds from eating candy, candy, candy!!!  Dang that candy… We really love Halloween at our […]

Don’t Forget To Laugh!

“Laughter is one of the most amazing things in life. It is more contagious that any disease and it brings people together very quickly. Not only does it spread like wildfire, it is proven that laughter can have a positive effect on your body as well as your mind.“ It is really easy to get […]

Life has many ways of testing a person’s will…

Why is it that time seems to go slowly when you have nothing important to do, but then when you have an overwhelming number of things to do time speeds by at a ridiculous rate?! It’s incredible how fast time flies in a day when you are scrambling to get things done, and it is […]

BALL is Life!

I am not even going to give much of an intro to this blog other than to say that I received this in a letter from my daughter Ashley today: This week I realized how playing sports has prepared me incredibly well for life!!! There are so many different analogies and tie-ins… But here are […]

Invest in your relationships.

Ever since my daughter Ashley left on her mission I am constantly being told by people how my daughter Ashley sent them a birthday card in the mail, or how Ashley sent them a sweet letter about a special occasion in their life, or how Ashley sent them a random card just to say she […]

We Are Not Human Doings, We Are Human Beings

Today I was involved in the President’s Leadership Council board meeting down at Brigham Young University. As part of the program a great speaker named Brad Wilcox gave an inspiring talk. There were a few comments he shared that really stood out to me and I couldn’t wait to share them with you. First he […]

You Reap What You Sow

I am a big believer in the fact that we reap what we sow.  Not always do we get to sow our rewards as quickly as we would like, and by the same token other people who do bad things often don’t sow the punishments as quickly as we wish they would. But regardless of […]

Don’t Disappoint the Man (or Woman) in the Glass

If you had to choose just one virtue to uphold in your life – choose integrity. It will always be your most valuable asset. It is worth more than money or power or fame. You have complete control of this asset and no one else can ever take it away from you. It is yours […]

Not My Circus. Not My Monkeys.

I don’t know about you, but I have always been what I would call a “fix it” kinda girl. I see a problem, so I fix it. In many ways it is what led me to become successful in my business life, but in my personal life it often led me to getting sucked in […]

To Succeed in Life, You Need Two Things: Ignorance and Confidence

“To succeed in life, you need two things:  Ignorance and Confidence.” – Mark Twain When I read this quote I couldn’t help but laugh because so much of my life I lived by those two things – ignorance in that I always underestimated just how hard I would have to work to pull off the […]

It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring!

“It is a curious thought, but it’s only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” – Agatha Christie Holy cow, how true is that statement?! Seriously when you stop and think about it there is just no denying that when someone let’s their guard down and is […]

Keep Calm And Live In The Moment

“You can’t turn back time, so remember to live and love in the moment, before the moment is gone.” – Cece Fortune One of the mistakes I regret most from my life, and unfortunately it’s a mistake I continue to make even today, is the mistake of not living in the moment enough. As I […]

“Do or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda

Star Wars is a pretty big deal at our house because our 22 year old son is OBSESSED with it! Like seriously obsessed. He has been collecting the entire Star Wars lego collection for years with one of his life goals being that he wants to reenact episode 1-6 with his Legos….way to dream big… […]

I’m Not Saying I’m Wonder Woman…Or Am I?

“I’m not saying I’m Wonder Woman, I’m just saying that I’m a princess with indestructible bracelets and an invisible plane.” Anyone who knows me knows that I have a serious love of all things Wonder Woman. My love for Wonder Woman started when I was a young entrepreneur just starting out in business. I was only […]

A Child Who Treats Their Parents With Respect Is An Employee Any Boss Would Be Thrilled To Hire (Forbes Article)

As a child I was taught the importance of respect – we were taught showing respect for other people, showing respect for other’s cultures, showing respect for people’s position of authority, showing respect for a venue, showing respect for an event, etc. This principle was emphasized greatly in my home and it is something I […]

Fall in love all over again

This afternoon I went with my son and his fiancé for them to have their bridal photos taken and he got to see her for the first time in her wedding dress. It was such an amazing moment as a mom to be there and see him turn around and see the girl he loves […]

DARE TO BE!

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 […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

When we look back at our lives, what do you think we will remember the most – the best of times or the worst of times?  I was looking through old blogs I had posted for my employees before the blog became public and I came across a posting that answered that question for me – in […]

Service Your Way? Say WHAT?!!!

Great Customer Service – we’ve all heard of it, but nowadays actually getting it is as rare as spotting a Yeti laying out on a beach getting a tan! #realtalk Today I was drowning in wedding planning and I had called ahead to some rental companies that rent wedding chairs and dance floors to see […]

WE CAN DO IT, WE WILL DO IT, WE ARE GOING TO DO IT!

What if we were to all wake up each morning with an: I CAN, I WILL, I DO attitude? Can you even begin to imagine the incredible things we could accomplish if we really embraced that “can, will, do” mentality going into each new day? I CAN is us keeping a positive attitude and a […]

What Kind Of Trails Do You Leave

We all walk through life leaving a trail in our wake that has been created by each choice we have made. Every person who follows in our footsteps is impacted by the trail we leave. Whether it’s our children, or a family member, or a business associate, or someone who is watching our example, we […]

Focus on what you can control

Focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. We only have so much energy to expend each day and every second we waste focusing on things we have absolutely no control over we are wasting that energy and our time. Instead we need to put our entire attention toward focusing on the things […]

Complaining About Yesterday Won’t Make Tomorrow Better (Forbes Article)

“Spending today complaining about yesterday won’t make tomorrow any better.” -unknown Nothing in life goes perfect for any of us, which means we can always find plenty of things to complain about. In fact, I’m fairly certain that most of us could fill our days complaining about things that have gone wrong in our lives […]

Having a Vision

One of my favorite quotes is the quote from the book Alice in Wonderland where Alice has come to a fork in the road and she asks the Cheshire Cat which way she should go. Says Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal […]