Blog
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 […]
Tagged acquaintance, action, am I proud of the trail I am leaving, ask yourself, associate, attitude, Belief, bitterness, boss, business, CEO, children, choice, choices, cynicism, desire, expectation, eyes on us, faith, family, follow, footsteps, generations to come, gloom, gratitude, harmony, hate, hope, important, joy, knowledge, leader, leadership, legacy, love, observe, Optimism, parent, pessimism, position, role, steps, the trail we leave, title, Trail, trail we are leaving behind, watching our example, watching us, william arthur ward
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 […]
Tagged angry, anxiety, anxious, attempt, attention, attitude, be happy now, believe, Brigham Young University, BYU, control, depression, effort, fail, faith, finite, fix it, focus on what you can control, God, grateful, gratitude, hope, hours in a day, impact for the better, improve, improvement, limited time, love, mba, overwhelmed, perfection, sad, smile, stressed, successful, time and energy, trust, try, upset, wasted energy, wasteful, women in business, worry, worrying
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 […]
Tagged Amy Rees Anderson, attitude, Belief, believe, change, changes, complain, constructive criticism, could have, criticism, decision, don’t complain, fix the problem, forbes, future, goals, gossip, gripe, grumble, implement change, improve, improvement, look ahead, Maya Angelou, message relayed, move forward, negative, negativity, Optimism, optimistic, past, phrase, positive, positivity, problems, should have, solutions, spread negativity, suggest, suggestions, toxic, wording, would have
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 […]
Tagged accountable, activities, alice in wonderland, ambition, ambitious, ashley, atonement, be better, chane, change, cheshire caat, choose, Christ, circumstance, determine our future, do differently, do it, fast, future, goal setting, goals, goals are so important, happy, having a vision, high expectations, high goals, how, improve, just do it, lds mission, letter, list it out, love, low expectations, missionary, nothing will happen, outlook, picture, plan it out, pray, purpose, specific goals, the vision, vision, vision for the future, we, wherever, which way you go, write it down
The Service You’ve Given Mankind
Supposing today were your last day on earth, The last mile of the journey you’ve trod; After all of your struggles, how much are you worth, How much can you take home to God? Don’t count as possessions your silver and gold, Tomorrow you leave these behind, And all that is yours to have and […]
Tagged accomplish, act of kindness, appreciation, attitude, blessings, charitable, charity, contemtmet, contentment, drive up window, freeway, friend, give, giving, good morning, happiness, happy, having or getting, hello, hug, joy, kindness, listen, love note, mankind, og mandino, pay for person in line, peace, poem, positive message, random act of kindness, self-improvement, serve, service, share, small act of service, smile, stranger, struggling, talk, the service you've given mankind, thinking about you, time sucker, to do list, toll, waste no time and effort
“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”
Within any given week we are going to have good days, and bad ones. Rarely is an entire week perfect…at least I’ve never had a week like that myself. There are up days, and down days…there are stressful days and fun days…there are monotonous tasks that have to get done and there are new and […]
Tagged adversity, advice, annoyances, anxiety, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, bad das, balance, blessed, blessings, days, encouragement, every day may not be good, friendship, frustration, future, gift, gifts, good days, grateful, gratitude, kindness, love, perfect, perspective, self-improvement, service, seven days, stressful, success, sunshine, there is something good in every day, time, view, walk, week, wisdom
You Never Know the Impact You Can Have On Someone
I have to start tonight’s blog off by saying I am the luckiest mom in the world and here’s why – Today I was asked to give two keynote presentations for two different groups down at Brigham Young University. The groups I spoke to were both awesome and amazing and I loved every minute of […]
Tagged act of service, appreciation, ashley, attitude, beaming, best friend, blessed, blessed lucky, blog, Brigham Young University, brighten someone's day, bring joy, busy, BYU, campus, child, Dalton, effort, enjoy, family, food, goal poster, goals, goof around, gratitude, great things come to pass, happiness, help, laugh, lauh, lesson, listen, love, lunch, make time, mom, one hour, random, sacrifice, serve others, service, small and simle, smile, speaking, speech, stressful, success, talk, time, university, uplift, wedding, you never know the impact you can have on someone
If you achieved it, it would blow your mind
“Set a goal so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your mind.” I have spent a lot of time lately working on setting more future goals. Anyone who knows me knows that I live my life by a series of Goal Posters. Everything I have ever placed on my Goal Posters has […]
Tagged accomplish, accomplishment, attempt, attitude, beautiful, bhag, big, bigger, blessings, blow your mind, change your life, confidence, courage, create, culture, decide, decision, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, experience, future goals, goal, goal poster, goal setting, if you achieved it it would blow your mind, inspiration, inspire, leadership, mission, motivate, picture, picture it, positive thinking, poster, power, set a goal so big, try, vision, vision board, visualize
Does being excited for Fall TV mean we have a pathetically unexciting life?
Does it mean we have a pathetically unexciting life if we are super excited for the fall TV season premiers?? Because if it does then I am in trouble! Cause I, for one, am super excited!!! Not only are our old favorite shows coming back like: The Voice (who doesn’t love listening to Blake Shelton’s […]
Tagged appreciation, attitude, beyond the tank, blake shelton, blindspot, blood & oil, blood and oil, blue bloods, castle, chace crawford, country, don johnson, education, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, excitement, fall lineup, fall tv, favorite, home improvement, ipop.org, james spader, Last man standing, magnum pi, movie, movies, mr. wonderful, mystery, popcorn, premier, quantico, rob lowe, romance, Shark Tank, television, television premiers, the blacklist, the grinder, the player, the voice, tim allen, tivo, tom sellek, trailer, wesley snipes
Decide how you want your life to be
“What you have to decide… is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you’d want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So don’t be afraid. Be alive.” – Sarah Dessen Nothing is guaranteed in […]
Tagged ability, accomplish, accomplishment, active, afraid, agency, alive, be alive, busy, busy work, decide, decide how you want your life to be, decisions, distractions, ending, ending tomorrow, evaluate, exercise, fear, fears, focus, forever, goal, goals, guarantee, how should you spend your time, inspire, life, listen, meditate, motivation, overwhelmed, path, pray, prayer, redirect, self-evaluation, spend your life, stressed, truth, try
Trading the Terrible Two’s for the Terrifying Twenties…
How could I have been so naïve? Here I have been thinking that the older our children get, the easier it is to parent them… FALSE! Sure when they were babies they kept you up all night and barfed on every nice outfit you owned, and then as toddlers they threw themselves on the ground […]
Tagged adult, adults, appreciate, appreciation, babies, bad bahavior, bandaid, challenge, challenging, consequence, consequences, difficult, discipline, disney, disney channel, doubt, easier, easy, fear, forgive, grateful, gratitude, hard, harder, insecurity, life altering, mistakes, naive, nickelodeon, punishment, question yourself, raising children, repent, saturday morning cartoons, scarier, serious, stress, terrible twos, terrifying, terrifying twenties, thankful, time out, toddlers, worry, young adult, young adults
Curiosity, Courage, and Courtesy
Today I was fortunate enough to be invited by President Holland to attend a lunch and sit at the table with Sir Christopher John Greenwood, a Judge for the International Court of Justice and his lovely wife Susan at UVU’s Constitutional Conference for Constitutional Studies. Both of them went up from our table to speak at the lunch event […]
Tagged afraid, blessed, cnstitutional, companions, constitution, courage, court, courtesy, curiosity, curiosity courage courtesy, curious, example, expore, fail, fear, friendly, grateful, gratitude, humble, husband, inspire, international court of justice, judge, justice, kind, kindness, learn, listen, loving, lunch, message, motivate, overcome fear, patient, president holland, president matthew holland, respect, scary, sir christopher john greenwood, speech, studie, susan greenwood, teach, travel, travel companion, try, Utah Valley University, UVU, wife
Ordinary Miracles
Life is full of ordinary miracles. Sometimes we recognize them and sometimes we don’t even realize they have happened until much later. Back in July of 2011 my family was headed down to Lake Powell when we experienced some pretty cool ordinary miracles happened to us. I shared the experience in a blog I wrote […]
Tagged adversity, angel, answer to prayer, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, attitude, be aware, begger, begging, blessed, broke down, car, change tire, children, family, family vacation, flat tire, gift, goals, God, grateful, gratitude, happiness, happy, helping hand, inspiration, integrity, joy, lake powell, look for ways to serve, love, miracle, need help, opportunities, ordinary miracles, out of gas, pray, prayer, pregnant woman, road trip, serve, service, small town, subway, sunday drive, trip, vacation, watch over
One Year Older, But Hopefully Wiser Too!
Happy Birthday to me! Okay, let’s get real…at my age birthdays are no longer quite the same feeling of happy that they were when you were a kid trying to grow up too fast. The older we get the more they tend to turn into a reminder that your sexy is a little less sexier […]
Tagged accountability, accountable, advice, age, aging, apologize, be kind, be loving, believe, birthday, do theright thing, drop it, faith, fix it, fix your mistakes, grow up, happiness is a choice, Happy Birthday, happy birthday to me, inappropriate, legacy, lessons, life lessons, live with integrity, love, mistake, money, my birthday, never do anything to be ashamed of, old, older, older on the inside, older on the outside, one year older but hopefully wiser too, own it, position, power, repent, respect, sagging, sexy, treat others with respect, trust, wisdom, wise, wrinkles
Put a little love in your heart!
So last week I had a crazy week full of meetings where I had to get up super early each day and then I was up late each night. Thursday afternoon as I was battling to get through the traffic on the ridiculously crowded freeway with all the construction going on, I was definitely feeling the […]
Tagged appreciation, attitude, balance, beautiful, better place, blessings, children, choice, culture, decide, family, feeling down, fellow man, friends, future, gift, God, grateful, gratitude, happiness, happy, hatred, help, helping hand, hug, inspiration, it's up to you, joy, kindness, leadership, love, love in your heart, make the world a better place, motivation, put a little love in your heart, sad, sadness, self-improvement, serve, service, smile, success, world
Divine Intervention
Today I was at a meeting where I ran into a very dear friend and mentor of mine who is someone I admire and care about very much. A few months ago he had a major heart attack and went through serious heart surgery. It came as a shock to all of us when he […]
Tagged 9/11, agoniing pain, agonizing pain, angels, back on his feet, Belief, beliefs, believe, coincidence, death, die, divine, divine intervention, earth, emergency, faith, family, freeway, friend, fulfill their purpose, fulfill your purpose, God, grateful, gratitude, greater purpose, healthy, heart attack, heart surgery, heaven, Heavenly Father, hope, hospital, lds, life, live, love, loving, mentor, miracle, miraculous, mission, Mormon, near death, next life, prayer, purpose, religion, rush hour, saved, savior, sick, spirit world, testimony, thank heaven, thankful, this life, time
Put Yourself In The Running. Even If You Don’t Get Chosen, You Will Get Noticed (Forbes Article)
If there is something you want badly enough my advice is: Put yourself in the running. Even if you don’t get chosen, you will get noticed. As the CEO of a fast growing company I was constantly looking for great people to fill management positions within the company. Even though growth is a huge blessing […]
Tagged accomplish, Amy Rees Anderson, apply, attempt, attitude, building teams, business, career, CEO, consider, dreams, Employees, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, experience, fired, forbes, goals, growth, hire, hired, hiring, hold back, job search, lead, leaders, leadership, manage, management, management job, managing growth, notice, noticed, promotion, raise, Recruit, recruiting, recruitment, succeed, try, trying
Look at it from a different perspective
Over the weekend I thought quite a bit about gratitude and our ability to completely change our thinking and perspective of situations that would be easy to be upset about or frustrated about to instead see a situation where there is something to feel truly grateful for. I realize that as easy as it sounds for me to say […]
Tagged adversity, anger, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, beautiful, blessed, blessings, challenges, clothes, consider, dishes, eat, fear, friends, frustration, gratitude, happiness, joy, love, mess, motivation, perspective, rain, self-improvement, success, sunshine, taxes, work
Labor Day, the day we celebrate work by not working
Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday away from work today…you gotta love that we celebrate work by not working today – PERFECT! Today I was able to spend time with good friends and their families and it was a very welcome break from all the madness the last few […]
Tagged adventure, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, beautiful, beauty, befriend, blessings, care, Celebrate, challenge, change, courage, dare, essence, family, friends, give, good food, good friends, gratitude, grow, happiness, happy, holiday, inspiration, inspire, labor day, learn, motivate, motivation, opportunity, overcome, perfect, purpose, quote, secret, self-improvement, serve, spice, thoughts, william arthur ward
A Little Stink Spreads A Long Way
Late last night I was sitting on the couch trying to finish up some work when my little dog Roxy came running into the house and jumped right up on my beautiful couch in my great room. Suddenly the room began to fill with the most pungent, disgusting, putrid smell I have ever smelled – it was […]
Tagged a little stink spreads a long way, adversity, appreciation, attitude, avoid, avoid negative people, behavior, bully, culture, damage, destructive, disgusting, dog, far reaching, gratitude, happy, home, impact, keep your distance, kind, leadership, mean, mean people, negative, nice, optimist, permeate, positive, putrid, ripple, self-improvement, skunk, skunk spray, smell, sprayed by a skunk, stink, stinker, vinegar
Learn To Be Satisfied (Forbes Article)
“Learn to be satisfied. It is just as easy as being dissatisfied – and much more pleasant.” -Jacob de Jager For over five years now I have been writing a daily blog. The topic of each blog typically stems from something I went through or experienced during that particular day that stuck in my mind […]
Tagged Amy Rees Anderson, angel investor, angry, appreciate, appreciation, big girl panties, budget, business, cost, daily blog, dissatisfied, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, expense, forbes, frugal, frustrated, frustration, grateful, gratitude, happiness, happy, have to have it, inspire, leadership, life, life lesson, money, motivate, personal, pleasant, purchases, purchasing, reception, ridiculous, sad, satisfied, spend money, spending, stress, stressed, unhappy, wedding, wisdom, wise
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” So often in life we get so sucked into thinking about every little thing we still want that we totally lose sight of just how blessed we […]
Tagged acknowledge, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, attitude, be grateful, blessed, choice, daily, dashboard, desire, desiring what you have not, do not spoil what you have, don’t always get what you want, entitled, focus, forget, get what you want, grateful, gratitude, happiness is a choice, inspirational quotes, inspiring, lose sight of, love, love what you have, motivate, motivation, negative, optimistic, pessimistic, positive, quotes, spoil, spoiled, thank you, thankful, ungrateful, wakeup call, what you have right now
One Season Ends, Another Begins
I cannot believe that summer is coming to an end and fall is beginning. Our summer vacations have come to an end, most everyone’s kids are back to school at this point, and we all have to get back into our normal routines again. In some ways it’s sad to have summer playtime behind us […]
Tagged adversity, anxiety, apple cider, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, attitude, back to school, balance, beginning, blessings, change, college, consistency, Dalton, end, fall, focus, football, gratitude, growth, happiness, happy, holidays, kids, lds mission, leaves, letting go, life, life changes, mission, moving on, normal, positive thinking, process, progress, routine, sad, sadness, schedule, season, self-improvement, the best is yet to come, thoughs, tv shows new season
Learn to Doubt Your Doubts
This last week was a stressful one. And in going through that stress I found myself beginning to really doubt many things that I had previously felt really good about. The more I thought about those doubts the more and more I began to really question things and wonder if I had been completely wrong […]
Tagged advice, agency, anxiety, Belief, believe, change, choices, circumstances, cognitive thinking, decisions, Do, don't do, doubt your doubts, doubt your doubts beore you doubt your faith, doubt your faith, elder holland, emotions, faith, feel good, feelings, hurt, hurtful things, husband, jeffrey r. holland, lds, meaning, negative, positive, question, questioning, quote, Rollin, sadness, say, stress, stressful, thoughts, trust, wonder
Don’t Shy Away From Hard Work
I was raised to believe in the value of hard work. I don’t know if hard work came naturally to me or if it was a learned trait by watching my parents work their tails off. All I know is that being a slacker was never even a temptation for me. I always took personal […]
Tagged a little bit harder, accomplish, anxiety, attitude, balance, dad, determination, do anything, do something, effort, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs addiction, entrepreneurship, everything you can do, focus, ghandi, hard work, imagine, jerry, job well done, laziness, lazy, leslie, make a start, mom, norm, obsession, parents, persevere, personal pride, Rewarding, slacker, success, take credit, those who take credit, those who work, time, try, two kinds of people, work ethic
Those Words A Parent Never Expected to Hear
As those of you who follow my blog know, my son Dalton recently got engaged to his sweetheart and we are now in full blown wedding preparation mode. Because they want a short engagement it is like wedding planning central at our house with invitation selections, picking colors for the reception, figuring out venues, booking […]
Tagged acknowledge, admit, advice, advise, alexis, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, balance, beautiful, blessings, blog, child, children, confidence, Dalton, engaged, express appreciation, family, frstborn, frustrated, gratitude, happiness, happy, independant, input, inspiration, joy, leadership, learning, lessons, no win situation, normal, parenthood, parents, raising, self-improvement, struggle, success, sweetheart, teenager, wedding, wedding preparation, young adult
Don’t Close the Book, Just Turn the Page.
Some days things happen that throw us for a total loop. When that happens it often causes you to feel totally out of sorts. You can find yourself questioning things that you used to feel certain about. You notice let fear and doubt creeping in. The picture in your head seems suddenly erased and you’re […]
Tagged adversity, anxiety, appreciate, appreciation, attitude, balance, blessings, book, change, chapter, clear your mind, curve balls, deep breath, erased, fear, focus, future, gratitude, happiness, insecurity, joy, move on, negative, optimisitc, out of sorts, page, past, perspective, positve, self-improvement, success, sudden change, throw you for a loop, unexpected, unexpected occurrences
Express and Live A Life of Gratitude
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward Tonight I have been thinking a lot about Gratitude. My life has been a huge whirlwind the last several months. Some things I have experienced have been amazing and some things I have experienced have been […]
Tagged accountants, alexis, amazing, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, attitude, attitude of gratitude, Belief, believe, blessed, board members, business affairs, challenges, children, clarity, confusing, confusion, coworkers, Dalton, daughter-in-law, Employees, end of a trial, express, express gratitude, express thanks, expression, faith, family, friends, friendships, give thanks, goal, goals, God, grateful, gratitude, Heavenly Father, john f. kennedy, laywers, lessons, live, love, mentors, neighbors, partners, personal affairs, Rollin, self-improvement, support, surrounded by greatness, thanks, trials, trust, vendors
“Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.”
“Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.” This last week was a truly momentous week in my life. My son Dalton proposed marriage to his girlfriend and she said YES! In the weeks leading up to the proposal my son and I spent a ton of time planning out […]
Tagged adonia, adonia yachts, adversity, alexis tebbs, animas river, attitude, beautiful, blessings, children, conflict, Dalton Anderson, disney tangled, drone, engaged, engagement, fall apart, family, fiance, fireworks, floating lanterns, friends, future, girlfriend, go wrong, go-pro, goals, grateful, gratitude, happiness, helipad, helium balloons, houseboat, lake powell, lanters, marriage, marriage proposal, memory, moment, moment perfect, negative, occassion, parents, perfect, perfect moment, plan, planning, positive, powell, practice, preparation, prepare, problem, proposal, propose, special, success, tangled, thwart, toxic mine, toxic mine spill, university, UVU
The Future Can Be Better Than You’ve Ever Imagined
“Just because the past didn’t turn out like you wanted it to, doesn’t mean your future can’t be better than you’ve ever imagined.” -unknown Everyone has a story of disappointments they have faced. Times when things didn’t go their way. Times when the thing they were praying for didn’t happen. Times when they tried their […]
Tagged amazing, character, develop, develop your character, didn’t go your way, disappointment, embrace, failed, failure, future, gift, God, grow, happiness, happy, hogwash, humble, imagination, imagine, improve, incredible, integrity, joy, leading us, learn, learn lessons, life lessons, negative, patient, perspective, plan, positive, positive thinking, prayer, praying, prepare, preparing, qualities, recognize, self-improvement, sensitive, success, teachable, tried, unanswered prayers, weekend, zig ziglar
