Tag Archives: time

“Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time.”

I decided long ago that anything I was going to do in my life, I was going to give it 110%. I never wanted to put my name on something that I couldn`t feel proud of doing. And I felt that if I wasn’t willing to give something my all then why even do it?  I can […]

Words of Wisdom from the young and the old

Today was straight up exhausting.  We moved for 13 straight hours without taking even a five minute break.  It was nuts!  And the sad part is that we barely made a dent in all that needs to be moved still.  I have to remind myself every day that the mountains of stuff we still need […]

“Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair”

One of the most valuable assets we can have in life is to be trustworthy.  It is worth gold whether in business or friendships or family.  When you can trust a person it creates a bond of loyalty that runs deep.  And when someone can trust you it gives you that same bond of loyalty […]

“Accept what it is, let go of what it was, and faith in what will be.”

I have thought a lot about changes lately as I just spent the last several days with my daughter and her high school friends on a trip to Las Vegas for her Senior Spring Break trip I had promised to take her on.  The timing of the trip couldn’t have been worse as we are […]

“If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn`t call it genius.”

I love that quote by Michelangelo! It is so true that the great work of this world is not done by geniuses, but by ordinary men and women that are simply hard working and dedicated and who strive to achieve extraordinary things. We are in the final week of completing the construction of our new […]

Filling Up Your Inspiration Tank

When my children were young I used to teach them the principle of filling up their gas tanks – our bodies and minds are like a car that is always running.  In order to run we need gas in our tank.  Even when the car is in idle and not driving forward it needs gas […]

The Greatest Thing About Becoming Successful (Forbes Article)

One of the greatest things about becoming successful in business is the ability to take time to mentor young people who are just starting out. This week has been filled with one entrepreneurship extravaganza after another. It began with the IPOP Foundation (www.ipop.org) event at Alta High School with high school students pitching their entrepreneurial […]

“Family, where life begins and love never ends”

“Family is like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.” I grew up in a family of ten children.  Five boys and five girls.  How my mother did it I will never know!  Especially because we weren’t the most mellow of children to say the least.  […]

Some days you just want to throw a tantrum…but there might be a better answer

When I sat down tonight to contemplate what to write about my day my first thought was to write about wanting to throw a temper tantrum at the end of a really bad day.  I had just gotten off the phone with Comcast’s customer service line with a gentlemen offshore who, bless his heart (its […]

Isn’t it Amazing that We Made It

Tonight I came home after working an incredibly long day with the subcontractors at our home and collapsed into a chair.  My daughter came home and I told her that the rest of the night was all time just for her and I to spend together.  We sat together on the couch and started having a […]

“What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.”

I finished my day off today after going a million miles an hour non-stop from the moment I jumped out of bed (okay “jumped” might be a bit of an exaggeration, it was more of a begrudging stagger if I am totally truthful).  I was trying to respond to a hundred emails, answer a constant […]

Making Money While Making The World A Better Place (Forbes Article)

Making money while making the world a better place – what could possibly be better than that? That is exactly the goal of impact investors. James Lee Sorenson, successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, calls it the “double bottom line,” and achieving that double bottom line is something he is incredibly passionate about. Impact investing is “doing […]

Striving to follow the examples of great people

Tonight I attended a dinner following my board meeting for the University of Utah National Advisory Board.  A man I know and respect greatly, Mike Murray, gave the keynote address during our dinner.  Mike Murray has had an amazing career. He went to school at Stanford, then went to work directly reporting to Steve Jobs […]

Our Brazilian Adventure

Every year the BYU Founders Board gathers together from different parts of the country to meet in a location for a week-long adventure.  Last year we went to the Dominican Republic.  This year we went to Brazil to embark on a cruise that left from Sao Paulo, Brazil.   For the last week my husband and […]

To have a friend, be a friend.

How does one go about being a good friend?  We all have friends, and we all are a friend to someone else. But how often do we stop and take note of whether we ourselves are being a good friend to those we love?  I would admit that I don’t do it often enough.  And […]

A Simple Way to Change Someone’s Life For the Better

When we think of doing an act of service for someone we often think of it as having to be some major time consuming event that even the thought of doing stresses us out because we already feel that we have so much to handle on our plates that we can’t take on even one […]

Early To Rise…I hate to admit it!

So I will just come out and admit it – I do not enjoy waking up early.  I just don’t.  I don’t know exactly why…perhaps it’s because I typically end up staying up late into the night most nights so that when morning rolls around I am super tired and want to stay in bed… […]

Families are Like Fudge…

“Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with lots of nuts!” As we head into the home stretch before Christmas Eve’s traditional gathering together of families everywhere, we ought to pause a moment to prepare ourselves to deal with the chaos ahead. I come from a very large family of ten children. My husband comes from […]

Last Minute Gift Ideas

So for those of you out there who are like me, and who are still struggling to come up with a few more gifts before Christmas next week, I decided to put together a list of some last minute gift ideas that could help you if you are stuck trying to find a few more […]

“Doubt Kills Dreams More Than Failure Ever Will”

Today I was humbled and honored to receive the UVEF Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  At the awards lunch they asked me to share a few words about the things that I would like to pass on to other Entrepreneurs from the lessons I have learned from my own journey.  I struggled deciding what lessons […]

Be A Dreamer!

As we are nearing the start of a brand new year here in less than a month I just wanted to remind everyone that this is the perfect time to start thinking about what you want to put on your 2014 Goal Poster!  For those who don’t know what I am referring to here is […]

Shopping, Shopping…oh, and More Shopping

“How much shopping can one person do?!?”, my husband called out as my fingers clicked madly away on the keyboard jumping from one cyber-deal to another as quickly as I could. “It’s almost midnight!  Don’t distract me!  I am working against the clock here!  Just wait til you hear how much money I saved us”, […]

Twas the Night of Thanksgiving

T’was the night of Thanksgiving, But I just couldn’t sleep. I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep. The leftovers beckoned, The dark meat and white. But I fought the temptation, With all of my might. Tossing and turning, with anticipation. The thought of a snack became infatuation. So I raced to the kitchen, Flung […]

Work Hard–Play Harder

For new readers to my blog – every so often my 17 year old daughter Ashley will write a blog to share with my readers.  Over the years her blogs end up being everyone’s favorites and I am certain this one will be no different, so enjoy today’s blog written by Ashley.  ~Amy —————— Work […]

Never be afraid to fall apart

“Never be afraid to fall apart because it is an opportunity to rebuild yourself the way you wish you had been all along.” – Rae Smith Ya know every now and then you just have to have that momentary break down…that day when you break down and cry…when you fall apart just a little bit…it […]

“Ahhhh, now I get it”

Do you ever have those moments when life’s deepest lessons suddenly click and you say to yourself “Ahhhh, now I get it!”    The older I get the more I seem to have those “Ahhhh…” moments where things I have struggled for years to understand suddenly become completely clear and I think to myself “Dang I […]

Hyper-focus Mode

Do you ever have those days where you sit down to work on the computer and you literally find yourself so entrenched in what you are doing that you cannot move, you cannot look away, you can’t even get up to run to the restroom because you refuse to break your focus from what you […]

Heroes are Ordinary People Who Do Extraordinary Things

September 11th is always a tough day to write my blog because there is so much emotion when I think back to that day in 2001.  I can remember exactly where I was standing when I saw the news station as it showed the tower that the first airplane had flown into, and I remember […]

Just Take It One Day At A Time

Do you ever feel like you are suffocating at the very thought of trying to get everything done that you need to?  Yeah, I pretty much feel like that every day of my life I have decided.  And yeah, yeah, I know, try to delegate more and say yes to less and cut out the […]