Tag Archives: courage

The Magic Of A Smile

My day started out on a great note.  I was getting things done this morning and feeling a good sense of accomplishment.  But by the time 10:00pm rolled around and I was just pulling into my garage from a very long and frustrating day, I was feeling grumpy and stressed out.  As I came in […]

The Strength of Our Young People

Last Friday our charity, The IPOP Foundation (In Pursuit of Perfection) www.ipop.org held a business competition with the students of Alta High School.  Students were challenged to submit an idea for a new mobile app.  We had hundreds of students participate in the competition.  They had the option to submit an idea alone or in […]

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER!

Ah yes, the famous words of Hannibal on the A-Team. There is little in life that is better than when a plan comes together, especially when the plan itself turns out to be far larger and expansive then any plan you had pictured in your own mind 🙂 Throughout the years of my life I […]

Love Advice From the True Experts!

Tonight I took a group of teenage girls on a service project to go to an assisted living center to visit with a group of adorable, lovely Grandmas.  We sat the group of our 16 and 17 year old girls in a circle with group of Grandmas, all of which were widows.  We asked the […]

Successful Business Communication: It Starts at the Beginning (Forbes Article)

A while back I was able to attend a seminar by Dr. John Lund on communication where he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, yet powerful. The best quote of the entire event was this: “Don`t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate […]

In Memory of Those Who Have Given All

This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in the U.S.  It’s the day we remember those men and women who died serving in the military.   It’s also become a day to honor all of those who were near and dear to our hearts that have passed on.   People place flowers on graves and flags on graves […]

Take Opportunities to Put Yourself Out There!

For those of you have followed my blogs the last few years you know that every now and then, when we are really lucky, my teenage daughter Ashley will write a guest blog for us, which tend to be everyone’s favorite blogs (especially mine).   Today I had to give the keynote speech at an early morning […]

It’s Not What Others Think, It’s What God Knows

I learned long ago that if we try to judge ourselves by what others think, we will inevitably find ourselves constantly disappointed and sad, because it is literally impossible to please everyone.  Not only that, but you have to realize that other people will never have all the facts of every detail of your life […]

Love It While You Live It

So it is not very often that I would write about a quote from a sitcom as being a great life lesson, but this particular quote was so good that I haven’t been able to get it off my mind, so I figured I had better write about it today.  It was a quote from […]

“You Are More Than What You Have Become”

Yesterday I wrote my Forbes article on moving past your mistakes in life and I used a quote from the movie the Lion King.  There is another quote from that movie that I can’t help but share today because I think it is so powerful. There is a part of the movie where we hear […]

People CAN Change Their Past – Put Mistakes Behind You. (Forbes Article)

People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our […]

The Importance of Paying Attention to our “Todays”

Living in the moment is not always easy to do. It seems that we all have a tendency to focus our thoughts on our past mistakes and feel discouraged about them, or we focus our thoughts on a future that we wait to someday have. It seems that we rarely focus on our todays, our […]

There is No Such Thing as a Dumb Idea (Forbes Article)

I often come across people who have a deep desire to be an entrepreneur and start their own business, but who haven’t done so yet because they “can’t come up with a good idea.”  Too often I hear: “All of my ideas are dumb.” And in those moments, I cannot help but say: “Define a […]

Passion Comes From Having a Purpose

Today I want to talk to you about passion. I am not talking about passion in the romantic sense; I am talking about passion in the “I am so excited to get up this morning and conquer the world today” kind of passion. There are very few things more powerful than a person who is […]

The “Gratitude Effect”

I woke up this morning to the most amazing surprise.  An email from a total stranger sharing a heartfelt, sincere, yet simple thank you for the positive impact my blog was having on his life.  I was blown away at the impact this man’s simple, kind words had on me.  I was genuinely choked up […]

Dare to Take Command

  Our agency is an amazing gift, and a scary gift all at the same time.  Having the ability to make your own choices in life is so empowering and exciting.  At the same time, it opens you up to make dumb choices, bad decisions, and even gives you the ability to hurt others by […]

Admitting You Were Wrong Doesn’t Make You Weak – It Makes You Awesome! (Forbes Article)

It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry”.  I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition of fortitude, but let’s be honest, why go to that trouble when Bill Gates blessed us with Microsoft Word’s single click to see its synonyms, which are: strength, courage, […]

Employees Who Stand Out Stay Standing – The Secret to Job Security (Forbes Article)

Employees who stand out in a company are the employees who stay standing through downturns, layoffs, and corporate restructurings. Standing out is the secret to gaining peace of mind that your job is secure. Whether you stay employed with the same company you are with today, or whether another company picks you up, your future […]

A “Not-So-Coincidence” Day

As those of you who follow my blog know, I try to write each day about the lessons I am learning in my life.  Those who know me well know that I also don’t believe in coincidences in life. Rather, I firmly believe that things happen for a reason. So the events of today led […]

Good Employees Make Mistakes. Great Leaders Allow Them To. (Forbes Article)

As a business leader I found that one of the scariest things to do was to give your people the freedom to make mistakes which will allow them to learn and grow, for the obvious reason that mistakes in any company can be costly.  Scared as I was, I knew that truly great leaders found […]

Kindred Spirits

Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone for the first time, but having that feeling that you already know them?  There is an instant connection and an immediate comfort as if you have known them all your life.  You feel totally at ease sharing things with them because there is that sense of […]

Channel Your Inner SuperHero – Expand Your Self-Concept

Our self-concept is made up of two things.  The picture of ourselves performing today, and the picture of our ideal self – the person we want to become.   The beautiful thing about our self-concept is that we can choose to replace the current picture of ourselves with the picture of who we want to be […]

Be A Kid Again

Why is it that when we are young we just wish we could be a grown-up – then we become grown-ups and we can’t help but wish we could be a kid again.  I can’t recall where I got this list about being a kid again, but it brings back the memories of just how […]

A Truly Inspiring Example!

As many of you know, my husband and I are building a new home.  Our architect is a man named Lyle Beecher of the firm Beecher Walker.  Lyle is a phenomenal architect and he and I had worked together in the past when he designed the office space for my former company, so I knew […]

I can’t believe it’s already been one year!

I can hardly believe that it was exactly one year ago, last Saturday, that we signed the closing documents to sell MediConnect (MCG).  Since that day it has been a sheer whirlwind of activity so when I realized that it was the one year anniversary over the weekend all I could think of is how it […]

Gratitude can turn any negative into a positive

Gratitude is an amazing thing.  Gratitude can turn any negative into a positive. The fastest way to FEEL happy is to BE thankful. Taking a moment to consider all the blessings that are in your life can help tremendously to put everything into proper perspective; and it is proper perspective that will help you through […]

Passive-Aggressive Behavior Will Destroy a Company’s Culture (Forbes Article)

Passive-aggressive behavior in any company is one of the most destructive cancers to a culture that ends up killing both a great company, and the self-esteem of the individuals working there.    For any wondering what passive-aggressive behavior looks like, I will try and give some examples that paint a picture.  A passive-aggressive person is someone […]

The Difference One Person Can Make

Last night my daughter came in to tell me about her day.  She was clearly in a really good mood despite the fact she wasn’t feeling well still.  As she started to tell me about her day she was really excited to share her experience with a substitute teacher that taught one of her classes.  […]

Weed Out the Bad to Make More Room for What’s Good!

In the book Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll writes: “If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.” Obviously none of us set out to intentionally drink poisons.  Yet, it is amazing how innocently they seem to show up in our lives, first in […]

“How Others See You Isn’t Important, How You See Yourself Means Everything”

You cannot control who will like you, who will vilify you, who will speak kindly of you, who will judge you, who will love you, who will treat you unfairly, who will support you, who will spread lies about you, or who will be your biggest fan. We literally cannot control how any other person […]