Tag: Grow

What happens in Vegas…

…sometimes just can’t stay in Vegas!

I have returned from my forth Forever LIVE – our annual convention where we as Forever Ambassadors along with Club Members, customers and home office staff gather each year for a time of connection, training and celebration along with a lot of fun and laughter too.

I look forward to this trip each year and especially look forward to reconnecting with the friends that I have made through Forever.

I am also very thankful my sister has joined me each year and is the best travel buddy I could ask for, she has become friends with so many of these special people too and has her own friends she reconnects with each each year too.  She is my constant cheerleader and ready to let me bound ideas off of her anytime.

With so many fun things shared and done while we were in Las Vegas, I thought it might be fun to include my top 10 list with you of things that I was excited to hear or do at Forever LIVE.

 

Elizabeth’s Top 10 List from Forever LIVE

10.  Glen Meakem’s New Book – The Gift of Forever was shared as a pre-release for those attending LIVE.  Glen is our CEO and founder and he along with his son have written the story of how he started Forever.  They signed copied during the weekend as well.  I have just started reading it and am excited to finish and share it with others.  The full release will be coming later this fall.

 

9.   Updates with Design & Print: Oh how I was so excited for a New Name – we now have a clearer name for our online Print application where you Design and Print, books, Wall Decor, Calendars, and more.  There will also be a few other new products coming this fall.  Watch for new the size for Wall Decor on Design and Print of 8×8 like we can already do with Artisan, there will be a new premium thicker paper for cards that is non-coated and an option to add gold foil inserts into your envelopes.

 

8.   Audio is HERE – We now have all 4 options, Photos, Documents, Video and Audio capabilities in our Storage accounts. I am excited to have this full memory keeping option for so many friends, family and customers who have those special audio tapes of weddings, sermons, solos, even voice mails.  The sound of someone’s voice can be so very special to us and is such a special part of our memory keeping solutions.

 

7.  Our Referral Program has gotten better with a 60 day coupon for referral coupons.  The greatest compliment you can give me is to refer a friend. I love that Forever’s Home Office helps me reward my customers, friends and family who help me share Forever with their friends and family.  Now we have the opportunity to use those referral coupons a bit longer.

 

6.  Beautiful Bellagio Fountain – Oh it was so very HOT the day we went downtown to see the strip but what a fun experience to see the fountain at the Bellagio hotel.  We arrived just a few minutes before the next song was to begin so we found our spot and it was worth the wait.  Here is a short video of our view of the fountain. This has been saved in my Forever account with my other trip photos and videos.

 

5.  The company is Thriving & Growing – It is good to hear the update from Glen how we are on target with his goal to grow this year by 30% is sales over last year and we are on target to have over 42 Million photos uploaded this year in safe and secure storage accounts.  We are meeting a need and reach new people each and every day.

 

4.  Photo PRINTS are HERE – My excitement is climbing as we continue down this list.  I have been waiting – not so patiently to have the ability to print from our Forever accounts again and now we can do it and it is even better than ever.  We have the high archival quality we know with all of our products and we no longer have to download and export and re-upload to another vendor to order.  I can print my photos for traditional scrapbooking or frames right from my Forever Account.

 

3.  Stepping out of my Comfort Zone as a Mainstage Speaker – What an honor to be one of the ambassadors chosen to help lead this year as a speaker.  Although I speak in front of groups fairly often with work this was a bit different and an opportunity to embrace my word of the year “GROW”.  I worked with an amazing fellow ambassador and through preparation and practice what was a bit nerve wracking at first became a experience that built confidence for us both as we stood before a room full of friends who were eager to hear what we had to share.

 

2. p2p 10th Anniversary Birthday Bash Party in Texas – Travel is always fun and when you can pair that with work with your photos it is extra fun for me.  I am excited to be joining a lot of great friends in Texas in the Spring for a weekend of digital scrapbooking fun.  I am looking forward to working on my own projects and learning new tips and ideas too.

And to top off the whole list, my #1 item is

  1. Forever LIVE 2020 next year will be in Orlando, FL – I had a hunch that we were headed to Disney and have to say I am a bit excited.  I have always been a Disney fan and even though I didn’t get to Disney World until my mid 30s I am excited to be headed back for this convention there on the property.  I am hoping I can twist my family’s arms and have them join me for some fun on one end or the other too for some family time at the parks.  I know that I will have a blast at Forever LIVE like we always do but I am also excited about the location and the bonus time we get to have there too.  If you are interested in joining us for Forever LIVE in Orlando you can join as a customer, Club member or Ambassador.

Well that may not have been the Las Vegas lists you were expecting but those were the Top 10 things that excited me about our trip last week.  Have you been traveling this summer?  Where have you been?  What have you enjoyed seeing and doing?

What is Inspiring You?

Books, Podcast, Blogs – I never really thought I would be a writer and I guess that my go hand in hand with the fact that I have never been a big reader either.  Those that knew me in high school or growing up know the struggle I had to get through any required reading or writing assignment.  In college, I was thankful that my Engineering curriculum had minimal English Literature classes and so the amount of novels and heavy reading started to reduce.  That is not to say there wasn’t plenty of reading needed, but at least it was a little different.

It took years before I finally would pick up a book and read for fun.  I still didn’t do it often but I at least would grab a book when I would head on vacation or maybe a little bit in the evenings before bed.  I know some of you can’t imagine this but for me it was never enjoyable and honestly I am not a very fast reader so that probably is why I avoided it.  I would rather wait until the movie came out and typically it would before I would finish the book anyway.

In the last few years, I have started to embrace reading a bit more and finding books that I enjoy.  It is still typically only when I am on vacation or have enough down time where I can get lost in reading to get started with a book.  Once I am started I can pick it up and read it a little at at time to finish it.  It can still take months or even a year or more to finish a book by the time I have picked it up and put down so many times.  A few years ago I discovered a love for audio books and since then I am loving current books in a whole new way and finishing them before they are old news.  Last year I “read” 12 books through listening to them.  I also finished another two that I read in print version too!

In addition to audio books, I have also fallen in love with podcasts and discovering new ones that I can enjoy.  I have always known I was an auditory learner but this has been fun to embrace the technology and trends we have available to us and enjoy books and inspiration in new ways.  I will share some of my recent favorites but I would love to hear what books, podcast and even blogs you enjoy and find inspiring too.

A few recent favorites….

Several of these books led to podcasts I am following too so we will group them together.

Bob Goff has two books that I have really enjoyed in the last year (or last couple of years if I am honest).  I received the first Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World as a gift from my friend Lisa a couple of years ago.  I was thankful for the book at the time but as I shared above I am not a quick reader so it has taken a while to finish it.  I am so glad that I finally finished reading it earlier this year so I could fully appreciate the value of this gift.  All of the proceeds from sales from Bob’s book Love Does are donated to work he has in Uganda at the Restore International Leadership Academy. This book is a gift of inspirational short stories that will lift you up and encourage you to push forward to Love in more real ways everyday as well as to find the out of your mind ways to LOVE BIG too plus this book also continues giving through it’s sales to further one of those very stories as it invests in big ways in the lives of young people in Uganda.  In the mean time while I was slowly making my way through the print version of this book, I knew I was liking Bob’s spirit and grabbed Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People as an audio book as soon as it was available.  I was not disappointed with this one either.  Both of these books have challenged me to see people around me differently and look for ways to show love in my own unique way.  The fun thing about finding an author you start to enjoy is when you discover they have a podcast and you can continue following along that way.  Just this month I have finally checked out the Dream Big podcast and started listening to some of the recent episodes.  It is fun to hear stories referenced from the books and even people from our own area here in North Carolina.

In the last year, I have become intrigued with the Enneagram system.  It is an ancient personality type system that has a way of outlining just how many of us are wired and how we are motivated and react to those situations and circumstances around us.  I heard that the book The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile was a good place to start to learn a bit more about this so I added it to my list of audio books and enjoyed learning more.  As my sister and I have shared some books and podcast we are listening to, she shared about a podcast that she was enjoying that had a summer special on Enneagram and suggested I might enjoy it too.  I did and have since really enjoyed other episodes from Annie F Downs and her That Sounds Fun podcast.  Her EnneaSummer series was so fun to listen to in June.  She had friends of hers who were in each of the different categories join her over 9 episodes.  She would ask them to share answers to questions to prompt what their motivation or drivers were to responding in different ways.  As the listener you could hear how same response from different types might be for different reasons because of what motivates each of them.  We are all wired uniquely and understanding some of those motivators can help us relate to one another more effectively.

I have shared before about my love for Lara Casey’s book Cultivate What Matters.  Through following her and her recent blog and social media posts, I recently discovered a dear friend of her’s Nancy Ray.  She has a new podcast Work and Play with Nancy Ray.  What a fun title and what sweet nuggets she has been sharing each week about how to live fully awake and with purpose through transitions.  I am finding myself anxiously awaiting the post each Tuesday when a new one is added.

 

This list goes on but we will keep it to these couple for now.  I hope you will enjoy exploring a few new inspiring books or podcasts.  I would love to hear what is inspiring you too in the comments here or through e-mail or messages.

For those that know my sister, you will not be surprised to know that she and I think a lot a like and will be into similar things.  The funny thing to me was that I had drafted this post about my favorite books and podcasts for you all and check my social media to fine her blog post below shared.  You may find a few similarities here – we often share a few of our favorites with each other so it is no surprise that our lists have some authors in common.  

What I’ve Been Reading (Listening to) Lately…

 

Filling my Cup

When the days get hectic, my posts become a bit farther apart but I thank you for sticking with me this summer as I have dusted off this blog and given this a try and posting more regularly.  As I shared at the beginning of the summer and you will find as we continue, this will not be a daily blog update but typically I will share one or more times a week.  I have had several posts outlined out but not quite finished so hopefully I can get a few extra ones scheduled for next week.

Yesterday, was a day of recharging for me, a vacation day I wanted to take a couple of weeks ago but with several commitments at work recently this was the best day to put it on the calendar and make it happen.  I know of myself that sometimes I just have to put a day like this on the calendar to allow myself time to recharge.  Often in our family we remind each other that we are only able to be the best we need to be when we take care of ourselves first – we like to remind each other of this with the image that we are to “put on own own oxygen mask first” just like they tell you on an airplane with the safety instructions.  So whether I am “Filling my Cup”, “Putting on my Oxygen Mask” or another cute way to remember to make “self care” a priority, I know that this is important for me.  It is necessary for me to be the best version of me for those around me.

How do you like to recharge?

  1. Time alone: For me, it typically requires some time of being by myself with an unscheduled, block of time and having that time at home.  For those of you who have studied the Enneagram, I am finding that I am very much a #2 and I want to be a helper to everyone around me – which sometimes can be distracting from the things I need to do for myself and can be exhausting when I am trying to sort through the needs of others and can’t even figure out what is on my own lists.  To recharge, I have to have some time to think about what I need and then I can be more focused when other needs are weighing on me.  (If you are new to the Enneagram, I recommend the book The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile or the summer series EnneaSummer on the Podcast: That Sounds Fun by Annie F Downs)
  2. Time with my people: Connecting with my closest friends and family is an important part of recharging to me.  Time to hear how they are doing and to talk through the challenges and celebrations I am facing.
  3. Time to make progress: Typically a part of recharging for me also includes making progress on my to do lists.  It may be running errands, projects around the house, work with my own photo projects or other projects I have had on my lists whether it be a mental lists or one of the many post-its or notepads floating around.  Sometimes even the act of regrouping my lists can be helpful too.  I know my fellow lists makers can understand this one.

It sometimes takes work to make happen but I have been blessed with a few things sprinkled over these last few weeks that have helped fill my cup in both big and small ways.

  • Lunch and dinner catch up dates with dear friends that I haven’t seen in months – oh how it sometimes takes us way too long to make those happen but they are so sweet when we finally connect.
  • Hugs from kiddos I love and time hearing what is important & exciting in their lives.
  • Checking items off my list of to dos and errands – this list is finally starting to look a bit shorter. It might need to get below 90 degrees on a weekend I am home for me to tackle that mulch project I didn’t get done this spring.
  • I received flowers (shown in the photo above) from someone at work as a simple thank you for the work I do.
  • A wonderful unscheduled day off from work to have the space and the room to think and dream a bit.

I would love to know how you find your rhythm with recharging.  What fills your cup?  We are all different and motivated by different things.  Do you need time to yourself or do you need to be with others?  Do you seek out a day every few months or do you have a routine that let’s you recharge more often?  Do you crave a few hours or a day to recharge?  What activities help you feel more grounded and ready to tackle what life throws your way?

This doesn’t always fit in a neat box or in my timing but I know that it is work fighting for and making sure I get it scheduled and make happen on a regular basis.  I hope you find your own way to take care of yourself and fill your cup so you can be the best YOU for those around you too!

The Story of the Sunflower

I have a great hope of a day when I have a yard with flowers and plants that can be enjoyed regularly and maybe even mulch that is put down at the correct time of the year but until then I will celebrate when I have a few living flowers in pots or keep the grass alive another summer or the clay dirt is not too exposed in the flowerbeds. 

This past spring my mom was helping me re-pot some flowers that we had hoped might survive another season and shared with excitement that she had picked up some sunflower seeds and that “WE” should plant them at my house.  This “WE” in our family normally means one of us has a great idea and all of us are going to “get the opportunity to” participate in some form.  So off we go, right that moment to the back yard and size up a good spot for our seeds to be planted.   The encouraging part to me was as my sister read the package that these seeds needed bright sun but that actually thrive in bad dirt.  Good thing because I believe that any beneficial top soil was scraped off my lot long before my house was complete and I have some mighty fine packed clay to work with in this little yard.

We proceeded to plant our little handful of sunflower seeds along a flower bed I had started to prep a few years ago.  Like I said we have some fine clay underneath that thin layer of mulch but needless to say we planted our seeds and hoped for the best.  I did my best to remember to water them and watch for how they were doing and sure enough after a few weeks, we had a few sprouts and then those sprouts began to grow.  It has been fun to watch this out my back window and see as I go and come each day from work.  When the weather has brought heavy rain and even hail a few weeks ago, I was quick to check and see how our sunflowers were handling it.  A few leaves and one of the stalks did show some damage but the main stem was still strong and growing.

This little plant has been a great reminder of all the lessons we can learn through a garden – even a garden of just a couple of sunflowers.  This plant didn’t require good soil – it makes the most of where it is planted.  It weathers the storms that come it’s way.  It needs nurturing, water, sun and a bit of tending but no matter what how much help it gets from those things, it still kept growing.

This weekend it was fun to wake up and see the first peak of yellow pop through.  I don’t know how many flowers we may get this summer but this one bud beginning to open has been a treat and blessing to watch.  I am reminded of how it started from a simple seed in the dirt.  If you haven’t had a chance to read the book Cultivate by Lara Casey, she makes a great parallel to our lives about how Good things grow in the dirt and It is OK to Grow Slow and my favorite – Little by Little progress will add up. So as I continue to watch the slow and steady progress of this beautiful flower, I will remember the other progress I am working on in goals related to health, projects around the house, work assignments, etc and remember that the little bits of growth and progress can turn into something very beautiful in just the right time.

 

Cultivating Joy & a New Routine

 

With a cup of coffee and a few moments of quiet, I have enjoyed many weekend mornings at my kitchen table with my Write the Word Journal and my thoughts.  It has been a little over a year and a half when I learned about these journals and got my first one from Cultivate what Matters. I have done Bible studies and other devotionals but there was something about this that was simple and the perfect fit for what I needed this time.  This has not been a daily journal or even a weekly journal but more of a simple way to center me with a passage of scripture that I would write out in my own handwriting and a place to journal: I am Grateful for… and what was On My Heart Today. It was only 2 simple pages so when I could carve away a few minutes on a day I didn’t have to hurry out the door, I would sit and complete one day’s entry.  This journal has been a place to record my thoughts, my heartaches, my celebrations, my struggles, my progress and even my dreams for what may come.  There is nothing magical about this little book but it has served as a very useful tool to carry me through a season of seeking and searching for the next step I would take with my career as well as the things that happen each and every day.

I have wrapped up my first journal, Cultivate Joy earlier this week.  I can’t wait to jump into the pages of my next one Cultivate Hope but before I place my Joy Journal on the shelf, I have flipped back through the pages one more time.  I am reminded that I had no idea what was ahead for me when I started this nor did I set a specific timeline or expectations for completing it but as the days and weeks have passed and my thoughts have been noted, it is interesting to see how God has taken this process and these 2 simple pages I have completed to help me nurture my faith and Cultivate a sense of Joy and Gratitude within the pages of this book.

As many of you are here visiting my blog regularly this summer with a photo focus, I offer this comparison to you.  What if you looked back on this summer from the other side – maybe it is early September, maybe it is at a gathering with family and friends over the holidays later in the year.  What if you could look back and see that the little steps you made in June, July and August with your photos have paid off.  What would that look like, would it be sharing the precious gift of a photo that you found and love and now can share it with the people you love?  Would it be a gift you share with a friend of a photo you took that has special meaning?  Would it be that you have cleared out that courner of the room or closet that has been cluttered with photos or project supplies and now you have room to enjoy this space again.

This too does not have to be a daily project, a weekly project or even a regular routine but I promise you when you take little steps forward, one and then the next, no matter how small you will be amazed when you look back at how far you have come when you add them together.  Each time I pulled out my Joy Journal, I spent only 15-20 minutes.  I can tell you the blessings that have come from that investment of time have been far greater than those minutes would suggest.

If you are following along with our Lighten the Load Photo Challenge, I hope you have picked your project, area, or focus.  If you have not yet, pop back over to the Welcome Post and be sure to share with me once you decide.  If you can’t decide where to start, please message me, comment below or reach out and I will be glad to help you with a starting point.

I will leave you with this additional thought from the Cultivate What Matter‘s team about Summer – are you ready to get in there and cultivate, prune and tend to what we need to so we can reap the rewards later?

Whether it is a photo goal or a personal goal, what can you spend 15-20 minutes on this week to make progress forward toward something you want to see done.