6 Important Leadership Skills for an Emergency
Happy Wednesday, friend! I hope you are enjoying the nice spring weather. Recently, my youngest son wanted to learn about mines as part of his homeschool, so we picked up a few books from the library. One of the books was the rescue story of the 33 miners trapped in a mine in Chile. It was actually an interesting book and we learned a lot, but there was a paragraph at the end that made reading the whole book especially worthwhile. A little background first… The cave-in at San José Mine in Chile occurred on August 5, trapping 33 men 2,000 feet below ground. For 17 days the miners are…
The Power of Belief
It’s good to be back home. Even though we homeschool, my older kids follow the public school schedule because of some of the activities they do. Last week was spring break, so we took the opportunity to travel to Idaho to visit Jonathan’s sister and family. We had a great time. We saw some sights, visited a college, spent time with family, and created some memories. I love vacationing, but there’s no place like home. We are part of a homeschool family school that meets every Friday. The school’s mission is building heroes. We focus on several hero abilities throughout the year. This last month we talked about how a…
Why Should You Ask Empowering Questions?
The Bible teaches us that if we ask we will get what we request. We learn this principle in Matthew 7:7-8. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Our minds are problem solving machines. If posed with a challenge, they will do all they can to explain or resolve the issue. Author Keith Cameron Smith promises that “you will receive answers to any questions you ask, so you’d better ask empowering questions.” Empowering questions are thought provoking,…
Busyness vs Productivity
I was listening to a podcast the other day (when am I not listening to a podcast?!) and heard a wonderful quote by Corrie ten Boom: “If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.” Then I was reading in “Are you Fully Charged” by Tom Rath, and he had a whole section on busyness versus productivity. The next day I read about being busy in another book (“The 12 Week Year” by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington). Guess the universe is trying to tell me something. If a mouse runs on a wheel all day, it will have been “busy”, but it will have gone nowhere…
Who Do I Want to Be? (an exercise in visualization)
I was at my sister-in-law’s house over the weekend and happened to spy on her shelf a copy of The Start Your Day Journal created by Rachel Hollis. I was a little excited to see it. My sister-in-law hesitantly admitted that she hadn’t started using it yet. She confessed that she was a little intimidated by the first step–creating a vision of your future self. (If you want to learn more about Rachel Hollis’ Start Today Journals and her process of visualizing check out this VIDEO or this PODCAST.) I agreed with her. The idea can be a little abstract. In fact, after hearing the how-to process on a recent…
Self-Care Suggestions
I first heard the analogy of the vase from Rachel Hollis. She tells it often on her live videos and from stage. It is such powerful imagery. Imagine a tall, glass vase standing under a non-stop flow of water. The vase symbolizes you and the flowing water stands for the things you need (sleep, nutrients, self-care, love, etc.). Around you there are several empty cups (your kids, your spouse, friends, work, etc.) waiting to be filled. As you see the needs of those around you, you tip yourself and pour from your stores into the empty cups. You keep tipping and pouring and before long, you have tipped so far…
Overcoming Your Fear of Failure
If you follow us on Instagram, you probably saw my recent post about making mistakes. I confessed that even though I have worked on my mindset a lot in this area, I still have a little fear about making mistakes. People fear making mistakes for several reasons. They might think, “If I’ve failed once then I’ll probably fail again.” They could fear the repercussions and risks. They don’t want to disappoint others or are afraid of rejection. They’ve defined their self-worth by their success. Maybe avoiding failure has become a learned response—they expect someone to come to the rescue because someone always has and therefore have never learned how to…
Motivation–Guest Post
I’m super excited to introduce you to our guest–our son, Ephram. Jonathan and Ephram have a weekly commitment in which Ephram reads from a classic book for 30 minutes a day for 3 days, then writes his thoughts on what he read. He specifically looks for leadership traits in the characters. As a reward, Ephram gets 30 extra minutes of screen time. One of the books he has been reading recently is called Edge by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward. It is full of short articles and stories and pictures and quotes that are designed to teach young people the principles of self-improvement. This post is one of the papers…
7 Steps to Set You Up for SUCCESS
Last week I went to see Rachel Hollis’ Made for More documentary with some girlfriends. First, I love hanging out with my friends, and I realized I don’t do it enough. This year I want to make a better effort to get together with them. Second, it was an awesome learning experience! Rachel puts on a personal development conference every year and, because she gets that not everyone has the money or the ability to attend her 3 day conference, she provides some hi-lights in the form of a documentary. It’s for anyone who can get to the movie theater and buy a ticket. She wants everyone to have a…
Leaders Play Hurt
I remember vividly sitting around the TV with my family in 1993 watching the Phoenix Suns in the NBA finals against the Chicago Bulls. Two things stand out most about this memory. Firstly – my mom screams while rooting for athletics. She can be a rowdy fan! Secondly was the awe I felt while watching Charles Barkley rise through an injury to lead the team. This memory really stands out, because Charles Barkley was originally very excited to come to the Suns, hoping he wouldn’t have to be the team leader like he was for the 76ers. He was looking forward to being a strong support for Kevin Johnson and…
