Tag Archives: happiness

A Pen and Paper Can Actually Be More Valuable Than Money

What I am about to say will seem completely foreign or even downright crazy to many people, but just hear me out before you throw up on this suggestion: The next time you sit down to send an email to thank someone, consider getting a pen and paper and writing a handwritten note instead. “Handwrite […]

Billions More Chances To Be Happy

“If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness. If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!”  – Dalai Lama Being unhappy because of someone else’s success is a miserable and ugly way to feel. When a person is feeling envious of another […]

 Til Your Dream Comes True

Climb ‘Til Your Dream Comes True     by: Helen Steiner Rice Often your tasks will be many, And more than you think you can do. Often the road will be rugged And the hills insurmountable, too. But always remember, The hills ahead Are never as steep as they seem, And with Faith in your heart […]

Best Friends

“You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are having more fun than it makes sense for them to be having.” I love that quote and it is so true. I have been able to take some time this week to hang out with my husband and my son now that […]

The Trick Is To Enjoy Life

“The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.”  – Marjorie Hinckley Enjoy life – what great instruction! And one that most of need to be reminded to do. Worrying about things we cannot change and waiting for things that may never happen….stupid right!?! I have decided that […]

All The Things You’re Not

You are not your age, Nor the size of clothes you wear, You are not a weight, Or the colour of your hair. You are not your name, Or the dimples in your cheeks, You are all the books you read, And all the words you speak. You are your croaky morning voice, And the […]

Choose Your Own Adventure

Remember back when you were a kid and they had those Choose Your Own Adventure books?  I used to love those! You would start off reading the story and get to the bottom of the page and it would say, “To choose to do <this> go to page x or to choose to do <that> […]

Your Get Rid of List

I read an amazing blog the other day written by someone I know who lives in Arkansas where my daughter Ashley is serving a mission. She and Ashley have become dear friends and this gal shared with Ashley some of the bad habits she is trying to get rid of in her life. Together she […]

Does Life Ever Get Easier?

I remember as a kid thinking how I couldn’t wait to become and adult because life seemed so much easier for adults. Being a kid felt hard….I mean after all, Adults got to go out whenever they wanted to, they had money to buy whatever they wanted (at least that’s what you thought as a […]

The Refiner’s Fire

A young lady was taking a religion class in college and during the class they discussed life’s trials we are faced with and they talked about overcoming life’s trials. The teacher would often refer to the fact that when we are faced with trials it is akin to a refiner’s fire.  The young lady wanted […]

Success Requires Optimism And Bouncebackability, But If Necessary, You Can Fake It Till You Make It (Forbes Article)

“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” —Albert Schweitzer All one has to do is Google the word Optimist to locate study after study showing that Optimists do better in most avenues of life than Pessimists. Studies show that Optimists accomplish more, make more […]

Choose to be Mentally Strong!

“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”   – Rikki Rogers As we go through life we have to decide what kind of person we are going to be. Will we be mentally strong, or will we be mentally weak? The choice is ours. […]

 “Forget the Forecast, Live Like’s It’s Spring.”

80 degrees last week, snow today…?!  What the heck?!  Since when does it snow on spring break?  Yikes! I love springtime and I have been so looking forward to sunshine, flowers, blossoms…did I say sunshine? All I know it that sunshine makes me so happy! I agree with Robin Williams quote: “Spring is nature’s way […]

Set Boundaries: You can’t respect yourself if you don’t know or stand for what is good for you

Setting boundaries is an important skill to learn in life. Boundaries are all about respect. The best way to think about boundaries is to use the example of having a fence that goes around your yard. There is a gate to the fence and you decide who gets to enter your gate to come into […]

It’s Funny How Sometimes The People You’d Take A Bullet For Are The Ones Behind The Trigger (Forbes Article)

Actually it’s not really that funny at all…it’s really sad when it happens to be true. It’s unbelievably hard when someone you love and respect and consider a friend does something to hurt you deeply. It’s downright brutal. I’m sure many of us have been through times where this has happened. We are betrayed by […]

Someday We’ll All Have Perfect Wings

I would guess most of us have either heard of or seen the bumper stickers which read, “Mean People Suck”. I happen to agree with that sentiment. When someone treats another person mean I really struggle with it. When I hear stories of bullying in our young people, or see people taking pot shots, or […]

Life is short, Live it well

Today we got word that a friend of ours, who we love and admire greatly, has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer which has spread throughout her body. It came as such a shock to hear the news about her because we ran into her and her husband just a few weeks ago and […]

Positive, Optimistic, and Determined

“I am too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful, and too determined to be defeated.” I love that quote because it provides a stark comparison to two ways we can choose to live our lives.  We can either be doubtful, fearful, and defeated….or we can be positive, optimistic, and determined….which sounds better […]

A Laugh A Day Keeps the Doctor Away

We’ve all heard the saying that Laughter is the Best Medicine, so when I came home from work tonight feeling a cold starting to come on I decided I needed to do two things: 1. Drink some Nyquil, and 2. find some funny quotes to make me laugh. I don’t think anyone who has ever […]

The Four C’s:  Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy

“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you […]

Find something you’re passionate about

“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.” We can all find something we are passionate about in life. And hopefully we have many things we are passionate about. The key is to figure out what they are. Some we come to […]

Go To Bed and Get A Good Night’s Sleep, Tomorrow Will Be Better

Today was a long, busy, stressful day, and it was a Monday which always feels a little more stressful than the rest of the days of the week for some reason…perhaps that’s because we put everything out of our minds in order to enjoy our weekends and then Monday morning we are forced to deal […]

People Who Do Bad Things

There are people in this world who do bad things. Many, if not all of us, have been on the receiving end or dealt with people who have done bad things that have hurt us. The hope is that over time, as we get older and wiser, that we are far more careful in our […]

Shaking Things Up

Boredom…there is little worse…That is why every now and again you just need to shake things up a little in life. It’s so easy to get in the same old rut day after day, doing the same old things. Life becomes mundane and you start to lose that excitement and drive. You find yourself having […]

Stop Waiting For Friday

“Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life. Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you are in now.” What an awesome reminder, right!?!  I admit that I have often found myself waiting for Friday to be excited […]

Live Life To The Fullest

We all have a limited time here on this earth, and none of us really know exactly when that time will come to an end. We all hope to live to an old age and then pass peacefully in our sleep, hopefully with our spouse right next to us going at the same time just […]

Love Isn’t Love Til You Give It Away

Do you remember how fun Valentine’s Day was when you were a kid? You would spend hours making your cute little cardboard mailbox out of the empty Quaker Oats container or an old shoe box. You would cover it with colored construction paper and then put cute heart stickers on it, and don’t forget the […]

Why Did This Have To Happen?!?!

I was working hard on preparing a Powerpoint presentation for a talk I will be giving at a University tomorrow evening when my computer crashed, and of course it crashed before I had saved my work. After hours of hard work I yelled out “Why did this have to happen?!?!”  Arggghhhh!!! So frustrating, right!?! At […]

Love Is In The Air!

Only five more day’s until Valentine’s Day! Have you figured out what to give your significant other yet? Well today’s blog is my little reminder to all of you to figure that out now rather than becoming that sorry person at the grocery store Friday night trying to find any Hallmark Card left on the […]

Some People, Good People, And Extraordinary People

“Some people see the glass half empty. Good people see the glass half full. But extraordinary people are just grateful for the glass!”  That quote came today in the weekly email letter I get from my daughter Ashley on her mission and I loved it so much I had to share it with everyone. What […]