Tag Archives: happiness

“The Happiness of Your Life Depends on the Quality of Your Thoughts”

I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess.  I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings.  I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts.  Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts. If you depend on […]

Walk Toward The Landmark In The Distance

Do you ever feel like you have been busy all day, but accomplished very little?  Do you ever feel like you have been working hard to complete your day to day tasks, only to wake up tomorrow and feel like you are trapped in the movie “Groundhog Day” where each day seems to just repeat […]

Oh, My Hotness!

It is officially TOO HOT OUTSIDE!  I am usually a fan of the warm weather, but my goodness it is hot!  I walk out of my house and I am instantly covered in sweat, and I don’t ever sweat!  In fact, it is so hot that my sweat is now sweating!  It is hot as […]

When The Cats Away, The Mice Go To The Mall Shopping!

A little retail therapy is sometimes exactly what is needed when the husband goes hiking with the boy scouts and the wife and daughter are left alone for a day.  Today Ashley and I had a fabulous girls day together.  Now don’t get me wrong, we love spending time with my husband too, but every […]

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe…

Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could make all our decisions with a little game of “Eeny, meeny,miny, moe”.  Seriously!  How cool would that be?  And how much less stress would we have throughout our day when decisions have to be made?! Yeah, well it’s too bad life doesn’t work that way if […]

He Is Building A Palace

Life is full of unexpected events, changes, and uncertainty.  Sometimes those changes are exciting and wonderful, and sometimes they are devastating, painful and hard. C.S. Lewis is my favorite author.  I have learned many important life lessons by reading his books.  One of his quotes that has helped me tremendously as I have dealt with […]

Get Up And Dance!

Nothing can lift the spirits of a crowd faster than putting on some great music and having an impromptu dance party!  The last few days I have been attending a Girls Camp for the Young Women in our church group ages 13-17 and after a long, hot, uphill hike, the girls were worn out and […]

The Happiest Place On Earth

And no, I am not talking about Disneyland.  I am talking about Lake Powell…that is the happiest place on earth in my opinion!  I was blessed to be able to spend the entire week there last week with my family and several of our dear friends.  We spent the week wakeboarding and surfing (oh, and […]

Wisdom Taught By Example Of A Tree

One of my very favorite poets is Shel Silverstein, and one of my very favorite books, which he wrote, is called “The Giving Tree”.    It’s an amazing story of a tree that loves a young boy.  The tree cares for the boy, protects the boy, feeds the boy, and over the years ultimately gives every […]

Impossible Is Nothing

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible […]

People Do Business With People They Like (Forbes Article)

People ultimately choose to do business with people they like, and everyone likes someone who appreciates them. I once read a quote by the ever so brilliant writer known as Anonymous. It states, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”  […]

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” -oscar wilde

Today I was reminded of the importance of the smallest kind act:  a simple smile, holding the door open for someone, saying hello, giving a compliment, lending a hand, being a friend.  So many times we think to ourselves that we want to be a good person and do something kind for someone, yet when we […]

Be a Bridge Builder

The Bridge Builder   (by Will Allen Dromgoole) An old man, going a lone highway, Came at the evening cold and gray To a chasm vast and deep and wide Through which was flowing a swollen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The rapids held no fears for him. But he turned when […]

“Hi Ho Silver, Away!”

This past weekend I was able to go with my husband and our daughter to Disney in Los Angeles to see the World Premier of the movie The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger.  For those who are not aware, a good majority of the film was […]

Finding Your Zen

By the time I finish a long day of work my mind is pretty shot and my A.D.D. meds have started to wear off for the day – inevitably there always comes a point each evening where that combination leads to no chance of my being able to sit still and focus.  Tonight I had […]

“Today Was Good. Today Was Fun. Tomorrow is Another One”

In the brilliant words of Dr. Seuss:  “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” As we head into a fabulous summer weekend I wanted to remind everyone to not let a single moment get away from you.  Life is short and there is so much to do and enjoy!  Make this weekend […]

Have a Breathtaking Day!

Breathtaking – what a great word!  It’s the best word I can think of when I drive up the road toward my home, set into the side of a beautiful mountain in Utah.  The weather is amazing, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming and all I can think is…breathtaking! We don’t take enough […]

The People Who Encourage and Inspire Us

There are people in all of our lives that lift us up when we are down or help us through when times are tough. There are people in our lives who make us laugh and smile and make us feel better about ourselves. There are people in our lives that tell us we can do […]

Have Something To Look Forward To!

“People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to“, to work for and hope for.” (Maxwell Malz).  I don’t know […]

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 […]

Choose What Kind of Day You Will Have

“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha Washington I very much believe that statement to be true.  Our attitude about things is such a major determination of our happiness level in life.  And we control our attitude by controlling […]

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 […]

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 […]

“A good definition of family”

As I mentioned yesterday we were able to Skype with our son Dalton and it was the happiest day ever. Today Dalton sent an email to our family and his friends and in that letter he shared something that was worth sharing – in fact he even mentions in his email that someone should quote […]

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 […]

Make Every Day a Special Occasion

Isn`t it funny how in life we have that room in the house we keep everyone out of in order to save it for that “special occasion”, or the china plates that we only eat from on a “special occasion”, or the towels in the bathroom that can only be used on a “special occasion”. […]

The Wisdom of Years

A man, whom I have tremendous respect for, shared a poem he wrote himself over the course of many years of his life, starting when he was 68 years old and finishing it at the age of 88.  It tells a fantastic message of why we should embrace the process of growing older, as growing […]