I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. Not anymore. I have seen too many…and made too many myself…that hit the New Year running, only to find them limping along by February, and completely petered out by the Spring thaw.
 
I have learned that the best moment to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now. NOW. Not “after the holidays”, or “after the kids are out of school”. Not “once the kids are back in school”, or “Monday”. NOW.
 
Occasionally a potential client will call me in the Fall, anxious to begin their new goals to overcome a challenge or build their business, only to determine that they’ll “start after the holidays”. I just smile and tell them to let me know when they are ready. Unfortunately it isn’t uncommon to talk to them 6 months later and realize they never started at all.
 
Well, whether you believe in New Year’s Resolutions or not, tomorrow IS the start of another new year! If you have dreams and goals, which I hope you do, how will you pursue them in a way that won’t peter out by spring? How will you keep your “why” fresh in your mind each day? Who will you make a part of your team? Will you get a coach? A mentor? A friend?
 
You see, growth is for every day. Not just January 1st. It is what makes us happy, fills us with purpose, and fulfillment. It improves our relationships, helps us increase our talents, and therefore the service we can give to more people. Progress is the reason we are here in the first place.
 
If I can help you in your quest to thrive, please don’t ever hesitate to contact me…whether it’s January 1st or not. 

How great can one person become? Does it depend on how much you've been loved? Does it depend on how much education, money, or free time you have? Does it depend on your weight? Height? Skin color? I am here to attest, it absolutely does NOT.
 
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Everyone can be great, because anyone can serve." Serving makes us great. Serving fills us with love. Serving makes us happy, and anyone can do it.
 
You can serve at ANYTIME. Even now, as I write this alone in a motel room, I can think kind things of others, send uplifting texts, go for a walk and smile at the people I meet. I can express gratitude to the teenager handing me my lunch order, or the waiter filling my glass of water.
 
Too often we think that "serving" has to entail a lot of time, which we are already short on. I believe that some of the best service you can give someone is your focus. SEE them. HEAR them. Recently I attended a beautiful reception in my husband’s honor. I’m so proud of him and the contributions he makes to our society. I am also used to attending these functions where I know practically no one, and I am perfectly happy to blend into the background. At one point, as I stood outside a circle that was gathered around my husband to congratulate him, a lovely woman glanced back and saw that I was there. She immediately took a couple of steps back and made me a part of the circle. I thought to myself, “What a kind thing to do!” and I doubt she has any idea how that simple action served me…how it said without words, “You belong here.”
 
Recently the movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood has taken the nation by storm. There is no swearing. No violence. No inappropriate scenes. But those are the things usually throws into movies to make them sell. So why is this movie about a man who made children’s television shows so popular? I suggest it is because
Mr. Rogers knew how to love people. He saw them. He heard them. He cared about the person in front of him at every given moment.  
 
I think we all would like to “be great” in some way. We all want to leave a positive mark on the world. My husband has a saying that he tells our kids often, "Be good. Be great." I love that saying because it is not about setting unachievable expectations. That's simply teaching our children to serve. It’s a reminder that greatness isn’t achieved by money or fame. Greatness is having a heart to love others. And everyone can be great because anyone can serve.

​“I have faith in God. I have faith in myself. I have faith in other people.” This has become my all-time favorite affirmation. It goes at the top of my daily planner. It finds its way into my prayers. And more and more often, I find myself actually living it.
 
I grew up as a very fearful person. I’m not sure how much of it can be ascribed to “nature” or “nurture”, but fear seemed to be my lot. For decades there was a low buzz of anxiety that plagued my every moment. I never thought I’d see the days that I now live in…where anxiety, if not rare, is absent enough that its appearance is noticeable. And when I notice it, I am able to recognize that some limiting belief has appeared, challenge that belief, and dissolve the anxiety into nothingness. For most of my life, I didn’t think this day would ever come.
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Fear is the opposite of faith. In the Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith once said, “Where doubt and uncertainty are there faith is not, nor can it be. For doubt and faith do not exist in the same person at the same time; that persons whose minds are under doubts and fears cannot have unshaken confidence; and where unshaken confidence is not the faith is weak.” Said another way, fear is simply prayer to the wrong god.
 
I love my affirmation. You see, when I have faith in God there is no need to worry about all that is happening in my world. When I believe that God is in control I can depend on Him for my peace, my distraction, my problem-solving ideas. I don’t have to run to food, or any other negative emotion or behavior. When I trust myself, I stop the old thought that I am somehow incapable of receiving God’s help. I recognize that He has given me the gifts and talents that I need to succeed in life. It reminds me that I am His little girl. When I have faith in others, I am able to let go of my desires to control their thoughts, words or actions. I let them own their own mistakes and victories. I stop treating them like children who must be told what to do and how to do it. I am more empathetic and far less anxious. I am able to focus on the one and only person I can control…namely, myself.
 
What started as a hope and a prayer has turned into a belief. I do trust God. I do trust myself. I do trust others.  OK…usually. But I’m learning to do so more and more every day. And that is what I help my clients do. And through that beautiful process we find ourselves living a life we never thought possible…a life of peace…a life of joy…a life of faith.