Lifes Little Secrets

I have a little secret for you....wait come close "realize what you love, and spend your life doing it"

I have been writing a little bit lately. 2 years ago or so I wrote a small autobiography about my life up to that point. It turned out to be about 100 pages. It was a way to tell my story for journal purposes and to give some advice to anyone who ended up reading it similar to what I am writing below. A few weeks ago I wrote this and thought I would post it.

I think one of the many secrets of life’s happiness is to align your time spent in life with the talents, passions and desires of who you are. I always love to see when someone’s in a career which they have spent their life enjoying those activities. As in a girl who grew up dancing, danced through high school and maybe college and now owns a dance studio or teaches dance. Someone who loves the outdoors and now works for a touring company or outdoor sporting company. Maybe someone is very social and is good at talking with people and now is in business or sales promoting products.

My high school choir teacher is a great example of this. He is a guy that followed what he was passionate about. He had natural skills for the arts and made it who he is. Everywhere I seem to look when it comes to the fine arts in Utah he is involved in it. It could be some choir, a hale theater play, the Mormon Tabernacle choir, a high school choir that is preforming at my church and he is the conductor. He got his master’s degree in music at the university of Utah. He’s found a way to make his life’s living in what he loves to do.

I love to see where people are spending their time doing what they love and have found a way to make a living doing it. Spending their time being who they are at the core, and finding a way to utilize their natural talents that they don’t have to work too hard to naturally have. I know it’s not easy, and many of us are not in a career which they would associate as that. But hopefully aspects of our career(I say career, because you spend a majority of your life’s time in your career) have you doing things you naturally enjoy and are good at. If not you should find a career that does.

I watched a clip that one of my friends from my mission put together. It was about complacency. He and a group of guys went around and interview hundreds of people around the country and most felt they put there life’s ladder up against the wrong building. It didn’t seem like the amount of money they had, had any effect on whether they felt this way.

Its obviously easier to be satisfied in your complacency of life if you have money, but money can also dull you into complacency. If your economically well off or poor and you’re not involved in pursuing or doing your natural talents, desires or passions the same frustration and feeling of life dissatisfaction seems to occur.

I think its something you need to strive for. Find a way to utilize the abilities that just come easy to you. You’re god given “gifts”. Do the things you naturally love to do and get rid of the things you don’t really like to do if possible. The happiest people seem to have 5 or 6 things of who they are and they master them. They don’t waste their time on fringe things that don’t align really with who they are. Life and days are too short to waste it on things that are sort of drudgery for you.

The best quarterbacks in the NFL are those that do one thing really well…throw the ball. Tom Brady, Payton & Eli Manning, Drew Brees. They have 3 options…throw to a receiver, hand it off, or throw the ball away. Because they only have 3 options when they snap the ball the decision process is much easier and they avoid mistakes. Maybe that is why Mr. Tebow isn’t an elite NFL quarterback. He has to many options at his disposal when he snaps the ball he makes more mistakes.

We as people typically think the more activities we are involved in the better, we spread ourselves so thin. I beg to think master a few things and spend your time focused on less. Have a few really meaningful relationships rather than have 100 friends that you have shallow friendships with. It seems to me those that know who they are, and do those few things, have a better chance of really enjoying their life. Those who don’t really know who they are, and are all over the place don’t seem to be as grounded and happy.

I think its import to find out who you are and the person you want to be. And then accept that, and excel at it. It brings happiness and joy. We all have god given talents that come really easy to us and others have to work really hard to have the same ability. We are all drawn to certain things. Align your life with those things and you will find satisfaction and maximize the happiness of your life.

Wyoming

My Grandparents have a cabin in Alpine Wyoming that I grew up going to ever year. My family had a family vacation there this past weekend. Its a beautiful place. I always love going there.

The only bummer is it's 5 hours away. We stopped at this park on the way to break it up a bit.

We got there a day before the rest of my family. Megan and I decided to run the snake river together with a tour guide. It was awesome. We both love whitewater rafting.

There was lots of 4 wheeler riding.

Sav had here bday while we were there. She had a party earlier, but we had to have her blow out some candles on her day. We only had some cookies so that had to do. We love that girl!

My dad put together this couples obstacle competition which Megan and I won of coarse. Jenny trying to hit the target, she had a hard time.

We spent a lot of time at the lake that the cabin backs up against. Here is the crew on shore.

We had a little raft and all wished we had a ski boat.

My Mom, Mark and Kedric did a lot of fishing. Both on the river and the lake. They caught a few.

Our family stayed at a hotel for 2 of the nights. The hotel had this huge slide outside of it. Savannah loved it! Its awesome.

The men all golfed on Saturday morning in Star Valley. It's beautiful there. We had a great trip. It was a nice break.   Thanks to my parents for providing a great time and keeping us well feed and entertained!

4th of July Week

The last 2 weeks have been jam packed with visitors, parties and fun! Its been a lot of fun and I thought I would recap 2012 4th of July week.

Adrienne and Maddie came the week before the 4th. Megan and the girls had a great time with them. It was good to see them. They did a lot of fun things including going to the princess festival.

Sav and Caden had a sleep over with my mom at my parents house, while my dad was at camp with the young men. They are the best of buddies.

Megan and the girls went to Megan's Parents cabin for the whole week. Megan's parents and Brent and Lindsay's family were there all week as well. Brent and I came up on the 4th and stayed for the weekend. The girls went to the Oakley parade 4th of July morning and Brent and I golfed in Park City. The girls at the parade.

We swam and kayaked in Hidden Lakes. Joyce got a few leaches on her, which were cool to see. Brent was scared of them. Ashlynn reminded me of how my sister Racquel was when she was 10 years old. It was fun to tease her, just like I thought it was fun to tease my sister when we were little. We had a good time at the lake.

Sav at the pool in Kamas. She even went down the big water slide all by herself.

Savannah surprised us all and rode on a horse. It always helps when you have brave cousins to give a little peer pressure.

We went to the Oakley rodeo. It was great. We all had a fun time there. Sav watching the bulls.

Sav and Danny

Me and the girls.

It was a nice week. Thank you Dean and Joyce for making it a great staycation for us. They always provide us with a lots to do and keep us well fed. We enjoy their company.

Last week we dressed up with Liz and Andy Boyer like cows and went to chick fil a for a free sandwich. We've been busy!

In other news Charlotte decided to start crawling at 1 yrs old. She has been a whole new person. She even discovered the toilet paper roll.

Running!

Well I thought to post some Josh’isms. A few posts of me just writing about what’s on my mind….my two cents so to say. I enjoy writing. I realize I am not that good at it. Megan mocks my grammar on a weekly basis and is quick to point out my writing errors, but I won’t get better without working on it right? So its been one of my goals to write more, hence me taking over the journal.

Running!!

At some point during most races I’ve ever run, I hit a dark patch where I start to question my sanity. I even question my own strength. I question my resolve to finish and even fantasize about riding to the finish line in a comfy stretcher, waving to all the other runners stupid enough to finish on foot.

Interestingly, when I tell people I don’t love to run, many are surprised. It seems that a lot of people think that since I run so much, I must love every moment. Each stride is met with gorgeous vistas, beautiful women and fast cars.

Not really.

Running is hard. Running often hurts. Running makes me tired. But that’s what I love about it.

There’s a certain satisfaction I get from facing down a challenge and conquering it, pushing my body to its limits. I imagine this is the same motivation that spurs adventurists to climb Mount Everest or swim the English Channel. I am not a swimmer and Everest just looks cold and miserable, but I get the motivation

But running? I can do that.

Distance running, in a sense, is a microcosm of life. The start is easy…time fly’s by just as miles fly by at the start of a race. You may hit a couple rough patches as a teen ager as your feet might start to ache in a race a little bit into it. There are times you feel on top of the world and other times you want to curl up and cry. Sometimes you are motivated to work hard and push it and other times you are searching for motivation. There are memories along the way, people you remember, challenges overcome and different triumphs. Its always great to see family and have support and there is a lot of work that goes into both.

Exercising is a physical, daily reminder to me that I am strong enough to do hard things. This reminder gives me confidence to tackle other challenges in my life that may have previously scared me off. I know if I face those obstacles that are making my life uncomfortable, I will come out the other end stronger and more self-assured.

So, I will continue to seek out the hills that make my legs stronger. I will tackle the long runs that shore up my endurance. I will embrace the pain that comes with the weekly track sprint workouts that make me faster. And I will do all of this because it’s the hurt that makes me the runner and person that I am.