Last Saturday night, we attended the Uplift Families Event, and it was awesome!
We started out by having an excellent meal. It was outdoors and the weather was perfect (maybe just a bit windy)! I loved the cute and easy centerpieces that were on the tables!
The speakers were varied and entertaining. There were 6 wonderful speakers in all, including Utah's First Lady Jeanette Herbert. My personal favorite speaker was Brad Barton, who motivated me with his encouragement to do something amazing, despite difficulties, which he emulates perfectly, being the current Master's Track and Field Record Holder! Basically his premise was, "The problem is not having problems!"
The entertainment was excellent! I love Joshua Creek's sound!
I came away with an evening to remember and something valuable to refer back to---an amazing, on-going resource site to turn the job of parenting into the joy of parenting! UpliftFamilies.org is full of T.I.P.S. (Teaching Important Parenting Skills). On the site you can hear speakers from previous Uplift Families Conference's, plus the current ones will soon be there as well.
Again, I so much enjoyed this year's event. It was so well-done and despite being sold out, had the feel of a small, friendly, get-together! The speakers were excellent, the food delicious, entertainment wonderful! Thanks again to all those involved to make it the great event it was!
If you are experiencing a current low with some aspect of parenting, being a parent, or maintaining your sanity while being a parent, I would encourage you to check out the above site and I promise you'll find something to uplift you!
John James Audubon is the world famous advocate and promoter of bird life. He is credited with discovering several new species of American birds. His drawing books are in rare museum collections around the U.S. His depictions of avian life are the standard for all other bird images. I saw one of his books at an exhibit and was blown away by the detail and life-like look of his drawings.
But it wasn't always such great success for him. In fact, most of his life was fraught with financial troubles, and disasters. After years of work, he enlisted the help of a good friend to keep some 200 of his best drawings--those that he planned on putting into a larger, comprehensive collection. When he returned for his drawings, he was horrified to discover that a rat had chewed into the chest where they were stored and had eaten through all of the drawings. It was a huge loss and he contemplated giving up. But he took some time to re-group, recover, and think about why he did what he did, and what he might do to maybe make even better drawings. Thankfully, he decided to start over and because of that, he was rewarded with recognition and fame all over the world. And we are gifted with some of the most beautiful drawings of birds we may never see ourselves in real life, but have the next best thing, drawings by John James Audubon.
This past weekend I attended the Uplift Families Conference, all about what it is that we, as parents, can do to give our kids the best tools to make them incredibly successful and happy human beings. My favorite speaker was Brad Barton, a motivational speaker who practices what he preaches. He does these cool magic tricks to illustrate some of his key points! He spoke about his struggles at trying to do something extraordinary, since he talks about how it's within all of our reach to do so. He had just missed making the 1992 Olympic Team in the steeplechase because of a fall, and even though he had been retired for 16 years and was considered "old" (that stereotype makes me mad), he trained and pushed forward with a new goal. Breaking his ankle in the process of his training, but finally in 2014 he ran the fastest sub 4:20 mile that anyone his age or older has ever done--4:17:54! Not to mention that he would have beat 90% of athletes 27 years his junior. He says, "I preach the doctrine of getting better. Let's do something hard--get on the learning curve. The happiest times of our lives are our most challenging times. Then we settle into an easier, comfortable life, but we need those challenges."
These examples make me want to kick it up a notch and find more pinnacles to climb, more personal bests to attain. It's hard, because fall is coming and that hot chocolate and Jimmy Fallon in the evenings are calling quite loudly! We'll see how it goes!
Today
is Motivating Monday! We all need a little motivation! I, for one,
love to
explore other sites for motivating, mostly non-sponsored posts, tips,
pictures and videos! If
I happen to find a great one, I'll link it up and share it with you
here and on Twitter via the #MotivatingMonday hashtag! It's like
being featured! I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to! So, in addition,
if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too! I'll visit your
site, comment, promote and publicize! Don't be shy--I'm really very
supportive! Remember, any link to your posts helps your blog numbers
increase!
Posts
