GS: Part 2 of Part II

Source: Lara Casey

Yay!  We survived the field trip with only one carsick (or is it bus sick?) kid! 

Okay, so before I start on telling you a little more about step three.  I would like to share some more about what I wrote for steps 1 and 2.

Step One: What were my wins in 2012?

1.  Well the first thing I wrote down was starting this blog. I remember the day I got this big ah-ha about it.  I had started another blog that I called enCOURAGEment, but I wanted it to be something more than it was.  One day in the springtime I was out hiking with Britt.  We have this special trail we like to hike (mostly because it's not well known and so you hardly see anyone on it). We're hiking along having our normal deep conversation while we're out enjoying nature and getting a workout all at the same time.  I start telling her about this blog I started and how I wanted it to be more.  She was giving me more ideas about it and all of the sudden we decided to have this adventure together!  We spent the next few days brainstorming and getting a lot of ideas for what we wanted to do with it. It has been our hope in the months since to touch the lives of other women and inspire them to live up to their greatness. It has been a very good learning experience!

2.  I ran three different half marathons!  One of them was even a trail half marathon!  Besides this being a pretty big accomplishment.  The even better win for me was letting go of what I think running races looks like.  I have run races for a few years now, and I was always getting stuck on what a "real runner" looks like and acts like.  I didn't fit into my looks like and acts like lists and always felt that I wasn't a "real runner".  Now I say to myself, "Hello!  You ARE a real runner!  You went and ran that race and FINISHED!"

3.  The last thing I'd like to share is that I allowed myself to be more adventurous.  I got on a horse and rode it all by myself!  I went snowboarding out in the cold wet snow!  I went rock climbing even though I am terrified of heights!  I did all those things  I let go of all of that fear and allowed myself to live!  Wow!  That's a great reminder!  Let go of fear and let faith take over! That is truly living!

Now for Step Two:  What didn't work for me in 2012?

This one was hard for me at first because I've been struggling with not beating myself up about things, so in an effort to stick to the facts this is pretty short. 

1. I started to avoid exercising by using the excuse that I was too tired and needed more sleep.  

2.  I stopped making lists at school and started living just one day at a time. I'm still a good teacher, but it has made me more stressed out during the week because I have to think more about what I'm teaching the next day.  Hasn't really worked with me desiring less stress in my life. 

3. I worried too much about things that weren't important.

Step 3: What three things did I learn from my wins, and what three things did I learn from my losses?

Wins:

1.  The biggest thing I learned through all my learning opportunities was that I can't do everything by myself. I particularly learned this at work as I have a few "special students" as I said in my last post.  I get to ask others for assistance, ESPECIALLY my Heavenly Father! Thanks to the enabling power of the Atonement, my Savior can take my Best (even though it isn't always that great) and make it into something stronger and more amazing than I ever imagined!

2.  I learned that loving someone unconditionally doesn't mean accepting and giving into something less than you really want in your life. Sometimes you get to love them without condition, but not let them be in your life...I got to stick to my standards!

3. I also learned that I get to give myself more credit.  I have come SO far!  Sometimes looking ahead at how far I feel I need to go that I forget how far I have come in the 18 months!  I am seriously AMAZING!  I've already succeeded and I can do it again!\

What didn't work:

1.  First I learned that worrying is pointless.  I get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing at all.  I live from day to day and I'm not progressing as I live that way.

2.  I've learned how important studying the Gospel is in my life.  It lifts and inspires, teaches and heals.  I haven't dedicated enough time to it, and I know that as I shift that and be more consistent, LIFE WILL BECOME EVEN MORE THAN I EVER IMAGINED!

3.  I also learned that I spend entirely too much time on social media and such.  I spend time on it to avoid problems and therefore never get much solved.

THE BIGGEST LESSON THAT I LEARNED IN 2012 IS THAT EXPERIENCES COME INTO OUR LIFE TO HELP US GROW INTO THE PEOPLE THAT HEAVENLY FATHER DESIRES US TO BE!

Please take a moment to comment and share about the things that you have learn in the last year! I've decided to have a drawing for prizes for the people that comment on these goal setting posts.  So stop lurking and get busy! :0)

Luvz,
Meg:0)

Goal Setting Part II

Hello SB friends! In an effort to capitalize on my time, I'm writing this post on a school bus. :0) We're on our way to a last minute field trip. I'm the only adult with my class of 23. Two of those students I call my special students. They struggle with behavior challenges, which has been a challenge for me this school year. I mention this because of the next step in my beginning of the year goal setting journey. So without further adieu, I give you

STEP THE THIRD: WRITE DOWN THREE THINGS YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR WINS AND THREE THINGS YOU LEARNED FROM WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR YOU.

This step for me can be a struggle to write . Both because sometimes I don't know the answers right off and because it can get pretty emotional for me.

We've just arrived at our destination, So check back later and I'll share more of my answers to steps one through three. Have a great day!

Luvz,
Meg:0)

Goal Setting - Part I

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/85638830385549788/

(adapted from President Uchtdorf's Talk here)

Hope you had a happy New Year!

With this new beginning many of us sit down and make new goals and resolutions for the next year.

I've been spending a lot of time this last week looking back at 2012 and working on my goals for 2013.

It's got me all excited for the new year ahead!

I'm about to share my process of goal setting, so take out your journals and get ready for some fun!

I'm also desiring some action and comments here on the blog, so if you are one of the many people (We just passed 1,100 hits this week) who are reading this and have been a lurker (a person who looks, but does not participate:0)), lurk no more! Share your stories and successes so others can be inspired by you!

Step the First:

What were your wins in 2012?

 What worked for you?  What were your successes?  What are you most grateful for?  Some people might think that this has nothing really to do with making New Year's resolutions, but we truly need to CELEBRATE all of the good things that happened in our journeys this past year.  When we do we are attracting more positive things into our lives!  Plus, it's a good reminder of how blessed you truly are! As I've been working on this I made a goal of writing down at least 30 wins I've had in the last year.  At first it was hard and was big things like starting Soulful Brilliance and running three half marathons.  I got about five big things written down and then I was stumped!  I then took a look at my 2012 journals and started remembering more of the little things I could write down as wins.  Finding my cat Binx, spending fun time with my nieces, riding a horse all by myself, snowboarding for the first time, rock climbing for the first time....and so much more!  2012 was a good learning process for me, and I've been grateful for the chance to go back and take a look at how far I've truly come!  

Step the First challenge for you:  Write down at least 30 wins or things you are grateful for from 2012.  Share them in the comments below so we can CELEBRATE with you! :0)

Step the Second:

What didn't work for you in 2012? 

Be honest, but don't beat yourself up about it. Just stick to the facts!  In the words of a friend of mine, "The past is just that...the past." You have a soulful brilliance, a greatness, inside that makes you...you.  We need to acknowledge what didn't work for us last year so we can create and even more amazing year in 2013.  For me some of these things were avoiding exercising and making lists at work and then not using them to use my time wisely. Doing this gave me some good ideas for new goals.

Step the Second challenge:  Write down what didn't work for you in 2012, sticking to the facts.

So let's get busy and don't forget to share!  

Check back tomorrow for steps three and four!

Luvz,

Meg:0)

*I've pulled my steps of goal writing from many different mentors and sources.  Check out their websites: Making Things Happen, Tiffany Peterson, Ann Webb and  Marci Lock.  Big thanks to them and their assistance in my growth process!

Growth in Adversity

So this past week I have been going through my journals from this past year

and making lists of things I have learned and so much more!

I'll share that with you later. :0)

While I was reading through them, I found some different notes

for SB posts that I never actually took the time to write.

I decided to get them on here finally! :0)

I go on a few trips every year and one of my favorite places to go is Yellowstone National Park.

This last August I was there with my church group.

Beth and I snuck out one morning and went hiking to a bunch of places.

The above picture was taken at Grizzly Lake.

While we were hiking around and enjoying all the nature,

I was contemplating the lodge pole pine trees around the park.

The cones stay on the trees for years waiting for just the right conditions.

They are seal shut by a resin and require temperatures between 113 and 140 degrees

to open and release their seeds.

It only finds these temperatures during a forest fire.

Back in 1988 there was a huge forest fire raging in Yellowstone.

It burned a huge percentage of the park, but the lodge poles' cones opened and released the next generation of forest.

Now, 24 years later new forest is growing for people and animals to enjoy the beauty of nature.

As I was contemplating this I was reminded that many times in life we come up against adversity.

Sometimes we feel like we're drowning in it all--or perhaps burning up.

BUT our lives are just like these forests.  

We need the adversity in our lives to burn away all the choking undergrowth and old trees 

to make way for the new growth we need to become better.

To make way for the new adventures that are coming our way.

To make way for new opportunities that will make use more happy than we ever dreamed possible!

It's pretty cool to think about! :0)

The last few months I have definitely felt the heat of some adversity,
but I really look forward to using everything I've learned to better my life and
to hopefully assist others in their journeys!

So if you are in the heat of adversity in your life,

Hang on!

Ask yourself what you can learn from it.

Ask yourself how you can help others.

 And get ready for the new opportunities that are about to come your way!

Luvz,

Meg :0)

Celebrating Gratitude

With Thanksgiving now gone I want to share what I did not share with my family yesterday. I figured Why not just share it with my blog family....
I am grateful for a country that has set aside a day for me to be able to celebrate my gratitude. That's the thing that I found myself most grateful for on Thanksgiving. I know it seems like a little thing, but it's an opportunity to celebrate all that we're grateful for. Family, Friends, bountiful resources of food and shelter, health, service and so much more. As I reflected here are some of the things on my list of celebration

• 5am wake up call- celebrating the beginning of a new day.
• 6am turkey burner competition at the gym- celebrating my healthy body and good friends that support me.
• texting with family and friends- celebrating the love and support of others
• food prep for the plentiful feast- celebrating my talent of cooking 
• turkey bowl- celebrating my spontaneity, good friends, and my healthy athletic body.
• feasting with my family- celebrating quality time with family that I don't get to see very often.and sharing my talents with others.
• conversation- celebrating quality time with my mom and having a much needed conversation for both of us.
• bedtime- celebrating a warm home, reflection on the day and preparation for a new day.

I felt so much gratitude yesterday that I literally wanted to shout it from the roof tops. So here I am on my proverbial roof top  shouting at the top of my lungs. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! My Heavenly Father has given me so much who would I be not to be grateful to him for all he has provided me with. What a great day to re-align my thoughts and focus on gratitude.

What are some things that you are Grateful for every day?
Challenge: Find something simple in your day and reflect on how it assists you in celebrating gratitude.

Luvs,
B

What are you carrying?

Source

Have you ever had a day when you just felt like you couldn't take any more?

You work so hard to accomplish everything, but nothing seems to work out the way you wanted it to?

You're overwhelmed by everything going on in your life?

 

I've been having a lot of these days the last couple of months.

The past couple of week's I've been off of work and I've really been taking time to think about life and how I can take better care of myself.

I'm so thankful for the inspiration my Heavenly Father has blessed me with and I want to share with you some thoughts that I've had.

You're gonna want your journal and maybe even a box of tissues (yes I'm a cry baby and I need them! :0) )

 

At the end of September I was sitting in a General Relief Society Meeting (click here to learn more about Relief Society) listening to our presidency speak to women across the globe.  Two of our leaders spoke of the faith of the handcart pioneers and the sacrifices they made in their journey to come here to Utah (click here and here to read the talks).  I remembered how touched I was to think of it and how it applied to my life today.  I wrote down questions that I was going to ask myself later and write about in my journal.  I was excited about it.  However, I didn't take that opportunity after the meeting and I forgot all about it...

 

A month later I was sitting in a faculty meeting and

our principal began talking about the very same thing

and applied it to our teaching. 

I was once again awakened to how it applies to my life.

Now you're probably sitting on the edge of your chair waiting for me to get on with it. :0) 

 

In July of 1847 Brigham Young and other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley.  They settled here and began working to build a life free from the persecution they had in other areas they settled in.  Between 1847 and 1869 about 70,000 members of the LDS church traveled to Utah to gather with the Saints there.  Most of them traveled in wagon companies, but about 4,000 of them came by handcart.  The handcarts could only hold so much and many families and individuals had to make hard choices about what to leave behind.  There are many stories of family heirlooms being left behind, dishes, jewlery boxes, grandfather clocks... Only the most important things made the cut.  Most of these things included extra clothes and blankets and other things that were necesary to their survival as they crossed the vast plains, even with these essentials some still died along the way. 

Why did they do this? 
Here is an excerpt from one of the
talks from the Relief Society Meeting:

 

A few years ago, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared his feelings about the deep-rooted faith of pioneers who pushed toward the Salt Lake Valley even after the deaths of their children. He said, "They didn’t do that for a program, they didn’t do it for a social activity, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones.

 

He expressed, with tender emotion:

 

“That’s the only way those mothers could bury [their babies] in a breadbox and move on, saying, ‘The promised land is out there somewhere. We’re going to make it to the valley.’

 

“They could say that because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit.”

 

He concluded with these thought-provoking words: “If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other less-needed things sort of fall out of the wagon. I’m told those handcarts could only hold so much. Just as our ancestors had to choose what they took, maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, ‘What can we put on this handcart?’ It’s the substance of our soul; it’s the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones.”⁴ Or, to put it another way, it is what is written in our hearts!

~Sister Linda K. Burton

 

I have had the blessing of being able to participate in three different pioneer treks.  As a youth and as a young single adult.  They were hard for me to do, and I was a healthy well fed person only doing a small 18ish miles.  I cannot even imagine how difficult it was for those first pioneers. Each of these experiences helped me to learn and grow.  I was able to come closer to my Father in Heaven, just as those early pioneers did as they crossed the plains.

 

We are not asked today to leave everything behind and travel across a country on foot over rough terrain to show our faith and devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We instead travel the rough terrain of the last days.  We get to work on overcoming temptations, selfishness, stress and much, much more.  We battle it out every day in our thoughts, words and deeds.

 

Thinking on all of this brought me to a realization that I can do better!  The early pioneers received help from God and I can to!  So I began asking myself some questions about my life:

 

*Is the word of the Lord written on my heart?

*What am I carrying in my handcart?

*What essential things would Heavenly Father
and my Savior have me carry in my handcart?

*What things can I throw out of my cart to lighten my load?
*What can I do to write the laws and doctorine of God on my heart?

 

I discovered that I have a lot in my handcart

that isn't essential for me to get to eternal life.

I also found that all the basic things

that are essential were getting buried under all of it.

Here are three things that I'm doing to lighten my load:

 

1.   I'm letting go of the TV shows that I watch during the week and instead investing that time to studying the gospel or serving others.

2.  I am only on my social media (facebook, twitter, etc) once a day for no more than 10 minutes.

3.  I am letting go of my stringent schedule for Soulful Brilliance and instead handing the control over to my Heavenly Father to lead and guide this blog to where he would like it to be.

 

My challenge to you today is to also ask yourself the questions from above.  Write in your journal about them and then choose three things that you could throw out of your cart to lighten your load. Then comment below about what you are letting go of or email your list to me at meg@soulfulbrilliance.com.  Remember that when you share your story you are helping others to find the courage to change! :0) If you can't think of anything to let go of or if you are hesitant to let go of something, pray to your Father in Heaven and ask for assistance.  We can do all things through Christ! (Alma 26:11-13) This the enabling power of the Atonement! The Lord will send angels to attend you. 

 

I hope that when I finally reach my destination I can be as grateful for my experiences as the early pioneers were for their experiences.  I'm going to leave you today with a statement by a member of the Martin handcart company--Francis Webster.  The Martin and Willie handcart companies left late in the summer and met with great suffering along their way.  They had insifficient supplies and ended up being caught in a winter storm.  Many of their numbers died and those who survived were forever changed....

 

 

Decades after his experience Francis Webster was sitting quietly in a Sunday School class in Cedar City, Utah "as some people were criticizing Church leaders for the handcart tragedy.  When he could bear the critisims no longer, he stood and asked the people to stop.  Speaking calmly but with emotion, he acknowledged that it was a mistake to send the handcart companies so late.  He also acknowledged that he and other in these companies had suffered greatly.  Nevertheless, he bore testimony that he had found a pearl of great price in the experience:

 

"'We suffered beyond anything you can imagine, and many died of exposure and starvation...[But we] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities.

 

"'I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other.  I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.  I have gone to that sand, and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me.  I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one.  I knew then that the angels of God were there.

 

"'Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minutes of my life since.  The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart company.'" (Andrew D. Olsen, The Price We Paid: The Extra Ordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers, 3)

 

 

It is my hope that we can live our lives remembering the important things and writing the words and doctrines of Christ on our hearts that when we finally get through our journey that we too will be grateful for the privelege to become better acquainted with our Heavenly Father! 

 

Luvz!

Meg :0)

 

P.S.  Don't forget to share your story! :0) meg@soulfulbrilliance.com

Facing Fears

Meg is such an inspiration wouldn’t you say? I’m glad that I could be there to help her conquer a fear of hers. What a great blog post about acting, and not letting our fears paralyze us. It really got me to think about fears in my life, and if I am acting or being crippled by them. I came to the realization the past couple weeks that I am being crippled by a fear that I have had for many years.

            I have a fear of having authentic conversations with people, because I don’t want my words to hurt those who I am having a conversation with. After reading Megz blog post though, I had an opportunity come into my life to use the things she taught to act instead of being paralyzed. A friend of mine confronted me about some actions of mine, and what she thought that they meant. I was hurt and shocked by the accusations that were placed on me. At first, I just wanted to run from the situation because I was afraid that if I tried to talk about this with her I would just lose control of my emotions and say something that would hurt her like I was hurt. I had that post come to mind, and made the decision then to act. I told myself that it was important to set the record straight and talk about my actions and the intentions behind them. I was terrified, but as I chose to act we were able to talk about what was going on and get things resolved. Had I not made the decision to act, things would probably be a lot worse.

            My friend Mal pointed me to this message from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He says, “Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.” This really helped me with the worry that by being honest in this authentic conversation I might have hurt this friend. I felt right about the things that I said, and from this message was able to find hope that the best would happen. I am pleased to report that while things aren’t perfect, by my acting we were able to work things out. Things are on the mend, and we were able to change things before it got to the point where more hurt was going to happen.

            Trust in the greatness in you, and the ability you have to overcome your fears by acting. I love the line from We Bought a Zoo where the dad says, “You just need to have 20 seconds of insane courage.” Sometimes good things happen in small steps. So don’t be afraid to keep moving no matter how small the step. We all have to start somewhere.

Yours truly, Beth