Lean Forward to the Next Crazy Venture Beneath the Skies

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved and happy to be leaving 2016 behind me. Like so many other people, there were just hard things going down all year for me. However, I keep a small leather journal in my purse to write down my thoughts and impressions and things that people say, and as I reviewed everything I wrote this year, I realized that it has also been a year of incredible growth. So, here is my list of 17 things I’ve learned that I want to carry forward into 2017.

      1. Top Golf in Houston in July is too hot.

      2. Top Golf in Salt Lake City in December is too cold.

      3. Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.

      4. When in doubt, hope. Against hope, believe in hope.

      5. Love everyone. Choose God.

      6. Don’t be fearful of the divine experience. Don’t be afraid to suffer. To weep. To run the risk that some days will be painful and long. While you are in the struggle, remember the importance of the suffering. This gospel is a gospel of happy endings.

      7. The sun will rise. It always rises.

      8. “I tremble to think what we would have lost if we had taken counsel from our fears.”

      9. There is something divine in the process of working hard to master something.

      10. Who I have become is not an accident.

      11. Keep staring at the marshmallow – it is worth it! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment)

      12. Start with the desire to have the desire to do it.

      13. Being sincerely kind is more important than being authentic.

      14. The Atonement gives my faith validity.

      15. “This isn’t it. You can’t stay here.” The Lord will get me where I’m meant to be, even if I’m afraid to let go of my current circumstances because I might not have better.

      16. “Embrace the suck. Stick it out. There’s too much riding on it.”

      17. There is no situation where there is no solution for God. At the Red Sea, there appeared to be no solution.

“God, there’s a sea in front of me.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But God, there’s an army behind me.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Happy 2017, dear reader! Remember that “to reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done.” Can’t wait to see what the new year will hold.