Following the Beam to Your Dreams

“She kept getting letters from other universities, like Georgia, and she just ignored them!” -Deena Lofgren

Following the Beam to Your Dreams

I sat on the floor, in an arena packed with more than fifteen thousand fans as they were going wild with excitement. At the peak of the elation I took a moment to sit and take it all in so I could treasure it up.  I knew this would be one of just a few truly special moments to savor in my lifetime.

You might think I was appreciating the moment because of something I had done.  But it had nothing to do with me.  I was just there for the journey.

As I looked at the slight blonde woman performing in front of me, I could see other images in my mind.  You see I had watched this athlete from the beginning.  She trained and competed with one of my own daughters as a little girl.  So, I know of some of the challenges she faced along her path and I’ve watched her up close for about sixteen years.  This meet was the climax of all her training and dreaming.  It was a night to remember.

I had the opportunity to talk with Mary Beth Lofgren’s mother, Deena, after the meet about her daughter’s journey and she said, “She kept getting letters from other universities, like Georgia, and she just ignored them.  She wanted to come and compete for the University of Utah and Greg & Megan Marsden.  I worried that she might be disappointed since she had such high anticipations, but she said her experience at Utah exceeded her expectations!”  

It was wonderful to see the warmth and glow in Deena’s eyes as she spoke.  It was the prefect reflection from the sparkle and exuberance I had seen shining from Mary Beth’s face a few minutes earlier as she dismounted the Balance Beam at the end of her great routine.  So I reflected a little myself and here’s what I’ve learned from Mary Beth Lofgren over the past few years:

Define your dreams in exact detail.  Mary Beth knew exactly where she wanted to compete.  All of her energy was directed at doing what it took to get there.

Work your heart out.  Most people have only seen Mary Beth compete in public.  I’ve seen her train long hours in the gym.  I’ve seen her there when she was tired, sick, lonely, and injured.  She worked hard through all of it and never gave up.

Some times you need to take a step back.  There were times when Mary Beth was injured and couldn’t train or compete.  I know of at least one injury that made it so she had to take a significant amount of time out to heal.  When that happens to some people they’re finished.  Mary Beth used the time to gather her strength so she could come back healed and give it her all.

Your biggest dreams will take time to achieve.  A person doesn’t become a world-class athlete over night.  Mary Beth worked many years to reach her goals.  She took things one-step at a time.  She would master one skill and them move to acquire another.  If you want to reach your dream don’t be fooled into thinking you can skip a step or two to get there.  Become a master of all the skills a master must have.

Ignore things that distract you from your path.  Mary Beth knew she wanted to compete for the University of Utah and be coached by the Marsdens.  When other universities tried to recruit them she didn’t waste her time looking at their offers.  Her focus was exact.

Create a system to help you keep your focus when you really need it.  Competing on the beam in gymnastics takes precision and extreme focus.  I’ve noticed that athletes who lose their focus and surrender to their fear get hurt badly on the beam.  Gymnasts have a saying.  “When you bail you fail!”  Mary Beth recites “Utah Man” to block everything out when she’s on the beam.  It works for her even with thousands of fans screaming all around her.

Just like Mary Beth, you and I have lots of distractions in our lives so it’s easy to lose sight of our dreams.  I’ve known some people who have even lost the ability to dream at all.  It’s a sad thing when that happens.  But, it doesn’t have to happen to you and me.

We will succeed if we think of reaching our dreams as a walk down a gymnastics beam.  The path to reaching the end is narrow and requires concentration.  It takes effort, time, courage and focus to get to our dreams.  There will be times when we will need to take a little breather from difficult moments.  But, in the end our hard work and focus will allow us to finish in a flurry as we vault to a standing finish.

Seeing Your Life as Extraordinary

“He bought 3 sweet potatoes from the grocery store and he harvested 139 pounds of potatoes as a result.” – Kilee Johnson

Seeing Your Life as Extraordinary

I got a call from someone I’ve done business with in the past on Saturday.

“Hi Lynn.  What’s up with you?” He asked.

“Nothing really.” I replied.  I’m just doing what I do every day; ordinary things.”

There it was again.  I was saying that I was only doing ordinary things, as if doing the ordinary would never be very exciting or make a difference at all. “Why do I do that?” I said to myself as I began to think of another conversation I recently had with Kilee Johnson.

Kilee is really in to gardening.  When we talked last she was telling me how an acquaintance of hers had purchased 3 sweet potatoes from his local grocery store last year.  Rather than eat them he decided to prepare them to plant and put them in his garden.  By the end of the harvest cycle those 3 sweet potatoes had grown 139 pounds for him to eat; an impressive return, that I thought of as being extraordinary!  But for him, the result was viewed as ordinary, something that he does on a regular basis, nothing special.  So, Extraordinary and ordinary are different for every person. 

Many years ago I was on a plane from New York to London.  I was talking with a man seated next to me and he asked why I was traveling.  I responded with, “I’m just going to Saudi Arabia to finish up a transaction.  It’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

“You mean it’s nothing out of the ordinary for you!”  He said.  “That isn’t anywhere near normal for most people.”

So, when one talks about what’s ordinary, it’s always from a personal perspective.  It is not necessarily the way someone else views it. Extraordinary is in the eye of the beholder! 

Remember that when a friend calls and asks what you’ve been up to.  What you’re doing right now may seem normal, perhaps even as drudgery.  But, it has the potential to yield something amazing in the not too different future.  The most successful people I know focus on doing small, mundane things on a daily basis.  It’s what sets them a part.  It’s what makes their results extraordinary.

See your life as extraordinary.  Others who don’t do what you do everyday see your unique talents as something special.

Living a Contented Life

“People who make decisions out of fear or perceived need, more likely than not, make poor decisions.” – Phil Grimm

Living a Contented Life

I’ve always thought of contentment as a sort of destination; a time and place where I would some how, some way be completely satisfied with life.  That is until this week, when for the first time I began to think that perhaps contentment could be used as a tool as well.

Thinking of contentment as a tool is something, that just one week ago, I would have never imagined.  You see, I’ve always viewed being satisfied as an enemy to growth and productivity in all areas of life.  I thought, “why would I work to become better or more wealthy if I was completely happy and relaxed?”

But, as I was working with some colleagues on a proposal this week I began to see that to achieve real growth, a company or person must be able to have time and creative space that can only come as a direct result of being content with their current situation.  In other words, in order to concentrate on purposeful growth a person must be comfortable with their current life or situation.

I think the best example I can come up with is the seemingly simple task of saving money for the future.  I go into many homes that are fill, past capacity, with stuff.  When in such homes I can only assume that even with all the stuff there, the owners are still not contented or they’d stop adding to their hoard; they keep spending money.  They mistakenly come to a conclusion, “I just can’t save!”  If they felt as if they had enough, they would stop spending and have money to set aside because they didn’t spend it on “needful” things.

I spent time talking with my friend Phil about this concept just a couple of days ago.  “People who make decisions out of fear or perceived need, more likely than not, make poor decisions.  Some people tell me that I’m too conservative and miss opportunities because I take the time to do a full evaluation before I move forward.  But, I know I won’t get the best result possible if do it any other way.”

People, like Phil, who live in contentment, use it as a tool to allow them to plan for their best future possible.  It allows them to pick their future and create it rather than frantically chase it.  So, Phil has taught me a new way to look at true satisfaction.  It isn’t just a destination.  It’s a tool that will let you create the life you’ve always dreamed about.  Contentment can lead to more contentment.  Use it as a tool and change your life today.

A Living Miracle

“He must have managed to work miracles from Heaven in taking care of his family through inspired hands.” – Jonathan Garrard

A Living Miracle

“We were very surprised to get a phone call a couple of weeks before Christmas.  The caller asked if we were home and if we had room in our freezer, for a Christmas gift, and if he could bring it by to us that evening.” Jonathan said.

Jonathan and Rhondalyn have five small children at home.  It seems as if I see them almost everywhere I go now.  One of the first times I saw them was while attending a County Commission Meeting so I could learn more about a proposed tax increase.  The room was packed with concerned citizens when I arrived and I took one of the last two seats on the very back row.  I was a little disappointed at having to sit so far in the back at first, but that soon changed as I realized my seat gave me an amazing opportunity to watch the entire public interaction.

It was that vantage point that allowed me to see Jonathan, a tall lanky man, with a baby held tightly in his arms.  I was also able to see four other children and their mother all bunched together around this towering man.  The kids were tired.  It was late.  I could read the tired signals they were showing, but they perked up when their father went to the microphone to make a statement.

Jonathan stood proud and tall in front of the commissioners and said, “Please don’t raise our taxes!  I work full time and do everything I can to feed my children.  And, I do!  I don’t ask for public assistance!  If you raise our taxes I don’t know if I can do it any more!  As it is, my kids sometimes get tired of eating beans spread over a tortilla.  But, at least I can give them food right now!”

I was touched to my very core!  I spent the rest of the meeting no longer even contemplating the tax increase.  My eyes were fixed on a small family coming together to plead for continued self-reliance. 

By the end of the night Jonathan carried two sleeping kids to their car.  Rhondalyn held a third.  Their two oldest children shuffled their weary feet and sank into the cold car for the drive home.

Since that night I’ve gotten to know this young family on a much more personal basis.  We’ve worked together to become more involved in our local government.  So, the meeting we attended together just before Christmas was no longer in the forefront of my mind.  But, that all changed when I was meeting with Jonathan this week.

We were discussing potential candidates to run for our County Commission.  We talked about a couple of men who could potentially serve our community well and then near the end of our time together the conversation took a different direction.

“Last year at this time, we were all busy taking care of my father, during the last few months of his life.  It looks like this year, he must have managed to work miracles from Heaven in taking care of his family through inspired hands.”  He said in subdued tones.

Then he went on to tell me of how not long after the December County Commission meeting, we attended together, he got a phone call from an acquaintance, who was in that same meeting asking if they had room in their freezer for a Christmas gift.  “The answers to all his questions were yes.   We were delightfully surprised and humbled as we saw what was given. They had boxes filled with roasts, steaks, hamburgers and more from pasture fed beef!”

Jonathan’s conclusion to my county tax increase meeting experience confirmed my belief that miracles still happen all around us and that you and I can be part of creating miracles in each other’s lives if we will get to know our neighbors, watch & listen for unmet needs and then offer a helping hand of goodness. 

Become a living miracle worker where you live.  It’s what makes a city or a town home.

Depend on Your Trust Fund

“Don’t get so caught up in . . .worries that you miss out on living”

-       Kevin D. Freeman

Depend on Your Trust Fund

Most people think of a trust fund as a store of money set aside for their use.  I like to think of it a little differently.  For me it is a store of laws and friendships that allow me to draw on additional strength and knowledge.  Kevin Freeman likes to talk about these in terms of seven basis truths that he learned from John Templeton his greatest mentor.  They will help you in good times and bad.  Here are his seven secrets:

1.  Order Your Priorities.  Much of personal vulnerability is the direct result of misplaced priorities.  Many of the most successful people I know have their priorities in proper order.  For myself, I’ve found that when I focus only on business, life loses meaning.   So take the time to determine what makes you happy in life and then organize your being in order of what is most important to you.

2.  Know Where Your Treasure Is.  “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Most people get this backward: they let their treasure follow their heart.  My experience is that confusing this order causes unhappiness.  You can actually direct your heart by moving your treasure.  Make sure your treasurer is based on permanence.

3.  Count Your Blessings.  John Templeton said, “Counting your blessings can transform melancholy into cheerfulness; laughter and joy are expressions of peace and thanksgiving for life’s glories.  Thanksgiving is a creative force that, if lived on continuous basis and not just for one day each year, will create more good in your life and more to be thankful for.  Perhaps we could call this the life of thanksgiving.”  What I like most about John’s premise is that “thanksgiving leads to having more to give thanks for.”  He became a billionaire and attributed his success to a whole- hearted daily practice of this belief.

4.  Giving Is Living.  Life’s greatest investment is in life itself.  My favorite author says, “Why do you adorn yourself with things that don’t have life yet suffer the hungry and needy to pass you unnoticed?”  I know people who always give, even when they feel strapped financially, because they know it is an integral part of the law of cause and effect.  Remember that this philosophy extends beyond giving money.  The happiest moments of my life are when I’m spending time helping others.  If you’re feeling sad, give of yourself and your heart will be buoyed up immediately.

5.  Depend on Your Trust Fund.  I talked about this earlier.  Once you have set your priorities make sure you surround yourself with trusted advisors, friends that know you well and always support you in becoming your best self.  I honestly believe that the people in my trust fund are smarter and more successful than I am.  I’m truly grateful to have them as my friends.

6.  Never Give In.  I know you’ve faced many challenges in your life.  No doubt there will be many more challenges in the days to come.  What I’ve found is that studying history always gives me courage, strength and hope.  Some of the men I admire most lived through World War I, the Great Depression and World War II.  In the end, they lived full, successful lives that were filled with love.  They faced their time with courage and resolve.  After reading about them I’m always filled with their courage and believe I can do it because they did.  Take the time to research the lives of your own heroes and pay special attention to world events during their lifetime.  It will offer you new appreciation for the people you already admire and will give you hope.

7.  Only One Thing is Necessary.  Don’t worry so much about the things in this life that you miss out on the best things.  I know you have a great deal to worry about and a lot to do.  Don’t get so caught up in such worries that you miss out on living.  If you’re like me there are times when you just have to remind yourself that you’re alive today and may not be tomorrow.  Enjoy what is. 

The air was rather warm this morning and a gentile breeze filled my lungs.  All at once the sun pushed its way from behind a bank of clouds and I felt its warmth embrace my entire body and mind.  Only one thing mattered at that moment, the feeling of joy from the good that surrounded me.  It was all a matter of enjoying what is and trusting your ability to receive it.

We all depend on basic trust to live our lives.  Recognizing what and who makes up your trust fund will allow you to turn your life into one exceptionally lived.

Mental Gymnastics

“We teach our gymnasts to go through a thought routine before and during the time they are competing on an apparatus.  It allows them to focus on what they need to do to succeed while they block out their fears and competing thoughts.”

- Megan Marsden

Mental Gymnastics

I’ve been attending University of Utah Gymnastics for many years.  I watch not only because I’m amazed at the feats performed but also because Utah Gymnastics has unsurpassed success.  In fact, it is the most successful gymnastics program in NCAA history.  It’s a pleasure just to be associated with such an amazing group of people and I’ve learned a lot as a result of their hard work and exceptional performance.

Two meets ago, just before a meet, there was an instructional presentation called “Gymnastics 101” by Megan Marsden, Co-Head Coach.  During this presentation Megan said, “We teach our gymnasts to go through a thought routine before and during the time they are competing on an apparatus.  It allows them to focus on what they need to do to succeed while they block out their fears and competing thoughts.”

Over the weeks that have followed, I’ve thought about her coaching time and again.  And then, I made it a personal practice to make a special note of individual and team mental dynamics during competitions.  What I’ve seen has been truly instructive.

Women’s Gymnastics Teams compete on four different apparatus during a meet.  At home meets Utah’s “Red Rocks” begin each meet on the vault.  Then they progress to the bars, beam and finish on the floor.  It’s been interesting for me to watch the face of participants to see how their hopes rise and fall with each competitor.  The teams experience high and low points during each rotation and they react individually and as a team based on each performance.  I see it on during the entire meet, but at Utah it’s most pronounced on the final rotation.

As it happens, one of Utah’s best events is the floor exercise.  I’ve also noticed that most teams, including Utah, often struggle most with the beam.  So, when at the Huntsman Center, the home team is finishing on one of their best events and the visiting team is finishing on one of their most challenging events.  This dynamic has made the final rotation of home meets the most revealing when it comes to mental gymnastics.

At the beginning of this final rotation both teams gather together to rally their physical and mental strength to give this finale their best effort.  And, the Red Rocks go through a special routine to prepare.  They call it “The Utes Rock the House.”

The Gymnasts gather at the center of the floor, bend over, link arms and then chant an upbeat script to focus on creating a great performance.  The fans, always at least 13,000 in attendance, also join in and call out the words with their team.  It’s a momentum changing experience for everyone in the arena!

I know it’s a game changer because I’ve watched the faces on the other team.  They do their best to focus on their coming routine and have to start just after the crowd electrifies the entire stadium. 

The first competitor walks to the beam, takes a big gulp and begins.  She tries hard to focus, but in more heads than not, the roaring of the crowd’s cheering demands her attention and her performance often suffers as a result.

When the Utah competitor comes to the floor to begin, the crowd erupts once again and I watch as the electricity jolts the gymnast into concentrated focus and confidence.  With each pass cheers lift the tumbling to exceptional heights and emboldens the heart of the heroine.  All eyes are yearning for her success.  All minds are creating an iron will to win.  All eyes?  Well, all eyes except mine.

My eyes are on the visiting team, their faces and their body language.  As jubilant noise increases, their countenances fade and it continues routine after routine until about the third beam competitor.  It is almost always then that I see victory to be sure for the home team.  The visitors are no longer able to compete mentally.  Their smiles have vanished.  Their faces are darkened with gloom.  Their shoulders are hunched in submission.

So it is with you and me.  We all face tough challenges where we feel as if we’re competing on the visiting floor.  It happened to me this week when a friend walked toward me at a conference and said that one of my competitors had gotten his business.  He didn’t even give me an invitation to compete!

It was at that moment when the voice of Megan Marsden came clearly into my mind and said, “We teach our gymnasts to go through a thought routine before and during the time they are competing . . ..”  I had to take some time to get my mind right, to go through some mental gymnastics.  It was then that the noise of the crowd filled my mind and I felt the air rush into my lungs.  I began to go through my mental routine and tumbled on to personal victory!

You can “rock the house” too if you’ll let Megan’s words coach you to victory.  Give mental gymnastics a try.  You’ll be glad you did!

Become a Profiler

“Become more aware of what works, what does not work, and why you’ll gain greater confidence in your ability to venture.” – Dr. Ronald K. Mitchell

Become a Profiler

I’ve worked with my friend Brad Bertoch for more than twenty years now and I’ve just begun to appreciate newly discovered value of our time together.  What I mean is that we have a history that allows us to reach into the past and use comingled information that is unique and not understood by others.  And, the beautiful part of it is that it’s a relationship dynamic that exists in all types of relationships.

It could very well apply to you with your siblings, parents, spouse, exercise partner or even a pet.  So, don’t think that what we’re talking about here applies only to business because it doesn’t.  You can use this information for every area of your life. Begin to think of your long-term relationships as having “institutional memory.”

Brad and I were meeting to discuss how to more effectively move our nonprofit educational initiatives forward not long ago and used our institutional memory as a catalyst.  As we talked, we had an amazing synergy begin to unfold before our eyes.  It was as if we could see pieces of a puzzle and where they fit together.  It was exhilarating!

And at one moment, it dawned on me that only two people could have seen these pieces of puzzle.  We were the only ones that had this shared knowledge of the past and present.  So, we were the only ones that could see where the pieces could be used and applied to the future.  It was a process akin to profiling.

Profiling is the act or process of extrapolating information about a person or business based on known traits or tendencies.  I’m sure you’ve heard about it in relation to finding and stopping a criminal or in finding an appropriate person to date or marry.  In our case it was related to discovering traits or tendencies of entrepreneurship.

One of our friends and associates, Dr. Ronald K. Mitchell, one of the world’s foremost experts in entrepreneurship, worked with us over many years to develop an “entrepreneur assessment profile” program.  The program assesses how well an entrepreneur communicates in an interview with his/her resume with investors through evaluating an individual’s entrepreneurial skill set.  It’s a template to organize and test for entrepreneurial attributes and helps the entrepreneur improve their chances for venture success by charting a course for improvement.   But, it does one more thing that I really like.

It provides a list of a person’s specific attributes and gives examples of famous, successful people with similar characteristics.  It opens a window into possibilities, and it’s shown me that an individual can follow a personal profiling process to open a window into possibilities for their own positive future.  Here’s how you can start this as a formal, personal process.

Sit by yourself and write down a list of what you think your best skills and attributes are.  Don’t rush through this.  Make yourself sit and think through difficult situations of the past where you were challenged and then make note of what you did to create a successful outcome.  But, don’t stop here.

Find someone who has known you for a long time and ask him or her to tell you what he or she see as your most important attributes.  When I did this I was astounded to hear a close friend tell me what my most valuable attribute was in one simple sentence.  I never would have recognized this trait as “special” because it comes so naturally to me that I think everyone has it.  I guarantee you that you have the same kind of dynamic going on.

Next, take time to read biographies of people who are of interest to you.  As you read, make a list of attributes you have in common and how the person you’re reading about used them to her or his advantage.

Finally, use the information you’ve gathered about yourself to map a new course, future, that will allow you to use all of your special puzzle pieces to fit into a personally designed future.

Profiling yourself is really a designing process.  It will allow you to get to know yourself and your potential better than any way I have ever discovered.  So, use it as a way to discover your past, present and future.  Become a profiler.