Tag Archives: happiness

Bring on the BBQs, the pool parties, and bust out those flip flops!

I LOVE JULY! The month of July is literally one of my very favorite times of the year.  The weather is amazing, the BBQs are fired up, the swimming pool is open, summer vacation is in full force, there are fireworks galore, we watch fun parades, our families get together, there’s rodeos and picnics and […]

Be strong enough to let go

“Be strong enough to let go, and wise enough to wait for what you deserve.” – unknown Letting go of something you have cared about, but recognize is hurting you, is never easy.  Whether it’s a toxic relationship (or just a relationship that is keeping you from moving forward), or a bad habit (especially an […]

If we all took the summer off none of us would get behind on work

I love summertime. I love the sun and the water and everything about summertime. The only thing that is hard about summer is that for every week you take off and every trip you go on you have to carry the stress of coming back home and facing all the work that has piled up […]

Choose to be better because better equals HAPPY

“Happiness is the ability to move forward, knowing the future will be better than the past. Today I choose to be happy!” I think our ability to feel happy is substantially stronger when one has the ability to evaluate oneself in an honest way so as to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses, doing so […]

The Time Bank

The Time Bank: Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!!!! Each of us […]

The words you needed to hear in the moment you needed to hear them

Some days someone sends you the perfect quote at just the right time in your life when you needed it most, or you come across a poem that applies perfectly to a situation you are going through, or you hear just the right song on the radio at just the right moment for you to […]

The Head Doesn’t Hear Until The Heart Has Listened

“I have learned that the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened, and that what the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.” – Jones Stephens Communication. It sounds like such a simple word but the reality is that communication is one of the most complicated things we do in life. […]

An easy experiment that will make you HAPPIER!

Many years ago I wrote about something called “The Open Your Heart Experiment”. This experiment stemmed from a challenge suggested by an author named Virginia Hinckley Pearce, who wrote the book, “A Heart Like His: Making Space for God`s Love in Your Life”. Here is what I shared about The Open Your Heart Experiment: “The […]

The Great Lengths I Went To Attend the Wonder Woman Movie Premiere in Hollywood

I am a 45 year old woman, a mother of two children, a soon to be Grandmother, a successful business person, an author, and a totally obsessed Wonder Woman fanatic! So you can imagine my delight when I received an invitation from Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment (thanks to the help of some incredible people!) […]

Everything You Can Imagine Is Real

“Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso Did you know that your subconscious brain can’t tell the difference between something real and something imagined? There are no filters in our subconscious to distinguish the difference between the two. That is why visualization is so powerful!  Let me share some examples: A study was […]

Can’t Never Could

In reviewing some important information tonight I came across the words “Can’t Never Could” and I couldn’t help but wish I had woken up to those words this morning. One of my first thoughts this morning as I woke up and thought about everything I needed to get done I had the thought, “I can’t […]

Spring Cleaning For The Soul

Sunshine, warm weather, birds chirping…I LOVE Springtime and for the first time all year we have finally gotten warm, spring weather here and that just makes me HAPPY!  However, with the warm weather finally beginning I am reminded that it is also time to do our Spring Cleaning! And the truth is that I don’t […]

Set A Goal So Big It Scares You!

When is the last time that you set a goal so big that it scared you? I’m talking about having a vision that is so big that when you think about making it your goal that little fear voice in your head says, “…eeee….I don’t know if I’m ready to take that on…”  The kind […]

Good Riddance April Showers…Bring On The May Flowers…And All The Other May Celebrations

I don’t know about you but I am more than ready to say goodbye to those April Showers and hello to those May Flowers!  I am SO READY for warm spring weather and sunshine! Plus May is full of fun reasons for all of us to celebrate – for example:  Not only is May National […]

Making Our Life Into The Masterpiece It Is Meant To Be

As I shared in yesterday’s blog, my son Dalton’s Commencement of graduation ceremonies from Brigham Young University was today and tomorrow is his actual Graduation Ceremony where he will walk across the stage and receive his Bachelor’s degree. This is a huge milestone in the life of a child and the life of a parent […]

“Attitude is the difference between and Ordeal and an Adventure”

I am a person who likes to have a plan so I know what needs to get done and when I need to do it. Having a plan in place is great and it definitely allows me to get much more accomplished. But when something happens to make a plan go sideways, well that is […]

One Guaranteed Way To Feel Happier

Did you know that being nostalgic can make you a happier person? Well studies show it can! Recalling happy memories from the past can literally make you happier. At the end of an incredibly busy day when I was feeling a bit stressed out and slightly grumpy, I sat down to finish one last to-do […]

Principles of Peace – An Easter Message

Peace…We can’t turn on the TV news or listen to the radio without hearing daily reports of worldwide tragedies, of acts of hatred and terror, of wars and rumors of wars. There is not much peace to be found in those reports. And on top of that we are all going through our own personal […]

They may be myths but they are still a lot of fun

Myths, old wives tales, superstitions, legends…they are all kinds of fun to read about even if they turn out not to be true. We are 20 weeks in to the 40 weeks it will take to have our very first grandchild come into this world. Since the moment we found out our daughter-in-law was pregnant […]

Think BIG!

From the time I was young I have had an inability to think small. I don’t really know why I am like that, I just always have been. In college when friends wanted me to sell $10.00 lipsticks I immediately thought, “Why sell just $10 of something when for the same effort I could sell […]

Everything Can Change In A Single Second

Saturday morning I awoke to a phone call alerting me that my son Dalton and his pregnant wife Alexis had been in a car accident on the freeway. Getting that phone call was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I rushed to the Hospital Emergency Room where I spent the rest of […]

Tale As Old As Time

Last night I went with my husband and my kids to go and see Disney’s new movie, Beauty and the Beast. If you haven’t yet gone to see this movie GO SEE IT! I don’t just say that because I happen to be obsessed with all things Disney, which I totally admit to being…I say […]

Avoid coming down with the “I’ll Be Happy When…” Syndrome

I call it the “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. It starts subtly but it spreads quickly. It goes something like this:  I’ll be happy when I finish this project, or, I’ll be happy when I can afford to buy _____, or, I’ll be happy when I can lose ten pounds, or, I’ll be happy when […]

In a Funk?

Do you ever have days where you feel out of balance, unmotivated, and just plain blah? And you find yourself stuck in a funk even though you have no idea why? And no matter what you do you can’t seem to figure out how to snap out of it?  Yeah…we’ve all been there… It’s a […]

He Said, She Said. The Gender Communication Gap

I gave a keynote speech at a conference today and for part of my speech I went over some of the gender differences in the way we interpret communication in the workplace.  It’s such an interesting topic and there is so much that I discovered over the years as a CEO managing nearly 2,000 men […]

A Lifetime In A Day

“A funeral is not a day in a lifetime, it’s a lifetime in a day.” One thing in life is certain, and that is that each of us will eventually pass on from this life. When that day comes for each of us, the best we can hope for is to have words spoken about […]

Don’t wait for “someday” to make time for family

Tonight I attended the pre-funeral viewing for my Uncle Buzz who passed away last week (his funeral is tomorrow). Walking in the doors of the room where the viewing was taking place and seeing so many of my aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings and my parents all gathered together inside the room was […]

Simpler Times. Maybe we should having them a little more often.

My mother sent me a copy of a posting put on Facebook by a gal named Christy Dickson that my sister and I were friends with back in the elementary and junior high years growing up in Washington. Here is her post: “I grew up in a little town…On Sundays you didn’t ask if you […]

Happiness is finding out you have a three day weekend ahead!

Since mid-December I have been traveling non-stop. First to Idaho, then to Hawaii, then to Washington DC, then to California, and then to Cabo San Lucas…each trip coming back to Utah for a few days in between and then heading right back out again on the next trip. I feel like I have literally lived […]

The Biggest Secret I’ve Ever Had To Keep

Keeping exciting news a secret is not something I enjoy. When I buy someone a gift it’s all I can do not to tell them the moment I buy it. It makes keeping Christmas presents a surprise incredibly difficult. But today I am proud of myself because for the last two months I have been […]