We can become good at things or knowledgeable about topics, if we put the time into learning them. I remember Hyrum Smith, inventor of Franklin daytimers saying…if you want to be successful, do what successful people do. It is that simple. The people that are experts on a topic have spent years learning that topic. I am convinced that you can learn and become quite good at things, if you study and practice them for 3 months straight.
I had never been on a blog until Feb. 2008. 3 months later I had 2 years worth of entries and taught a class on it. We don’t know what we are capable of doing until we try.
What if I chose gardening. What if I visited nursuries, checked out library books on gardening, started working my soil and visited expert gardeners. How good do you think I could become if I did this 3 hours each day for 3 months? I would practically be an expert.

The 3 months are going to pass by anyway.
What is something that interests you, that you could start learning about?

Carla

This is a newletter I received from Connie Sokol, a successful life coach that lives in Utah. I believe what she says.

Hi Ladies,

I happened to catch Malcom Gladwell, columnist for The New Yorker, on a KUED interview as he shared the concept of “deliberate practice”. In his research of successful people, he discovered that most of them–no matter their profession, hobby, or pursuit–had in common one main thing. They had each “practiced” about 10,000 hours, which equals to about 10 years.

In relation to society “greats” such as Michael Jordan or the Beatles, what made them successful is that they got an early start. But early or late, if you put in your 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, meaning focused efforts and fine-tuning weaknesses, you will be a success in what you choose. Does this mean after almost 16 years of mothering I should be a stellar mother?!

Consider what you love to do currently and WOULD love to do in the future. Start now, a bit here, a bit there, gathering your 10,000 hours of deliberate focus. And who knows what you can do to change the world!
All my best,
Connie

Jodi made this really cute sign. When the women got off the elevator this is the first thing they saw.

Then Jodi had little signs on the doors of the main rooms so it was easier to know where to go. One room was called the fun room. It was for line dancing, picnic, future self exercise and our dancing queen training. There was also the girl talk room. That was for our workshops and cooking class. And our fabulous yum yum room where we had wonderful meals, candlelight dinner, crafts and a little dancing on the table. It was all so fun! We’re already trying to figure out how soon our next one is going to be. I really appreciated my willing team. I asked a lot of them right before Christmas and they all really stepped it up. I enjoyed listening and participating in every class taught. Dodie (the life coach) and Shari (the wellness coach) enjoying one of the activities. This was the Top Card activity that Dodie facilitated. This was some of the women’s favorite activity. Here are women working on their dream boards. I got reports from the ladies that they have hung up their strengths craft and dream boards in their closets and bathrooms so they can see them everyday. This is the strength craft. They turned out beautiful!

I taught classes on daring to be yourself, goal setting, exercise and thoughts create how we feel.

I didn’t get a picture of Allison teaching her fashion class but she was fabulous! She gave us all some great information and motivation. I have heard reports of people buying shoes, altering clothes and buying new foundation garments. Whoo hoo!

Jodie teaching us line dancing. Yes, we eventually got dancing pretty well. We had to watch her for awhile first.

Shari teaching her wellness class.

Our candlelight dinner eating Shari’s gourmet healthy food.

The food was awesome. Here is the panini bar with had the last night. We also served roasted red pepper soup, tortilla soup and a yummy salad. I will put some of the recipes on the blog in the future.

Two of the teachers, Dodie and Michele, looking gorgeous! That night Michele gave us an inspirational talk of word and song. She writes music of hope for women. I love to hear her tell how and why she wrote the songs. Then of course the best part is hearing her sing them.
We were lucky enough to hear 4 of the songs that are going on her new album that will be out in a few months. I love these songs so much, I will let everyone know when they are finally available.

Fun girls

Mindi and her mom Ada

wonderful women who came to my first retreat and helped make my dreams come true. I have had this idea for a long time and with their support I was able to take the leap and try something that up until now was only a dream in my mind.

I was surprised how happy I was with the outcome. I thought it was a “10″ both days! I had been worried that my perfectionism would creep in and I would have regrets about doing this or that better, but I thought it was perfect. I have lots of ideas for more in the future. Let me know if you are interested I already have a waiting list. Yay!

Dodie (the life coach) and Shari (the wellness coach) enjoying one of the activities.

Colette being coached.

I taught classes on daring to be yourself, goal setting, exercise and thoughts create how we feel.

This was the Top Card activity that Dodie facilitated. This was some of the women’s favorite activity.

Here are women working on their dream boards. I got reports from the ladies that they have hung up their strengths craft and dream boards in their closets and bathrooms so they can see them everyday.

This is the strengths craft. They turned out beautiful!

I didn’t get a picture of Allison teaching her fashion class but she was fabulous! She gave us all some great information and motivation. I have heard reports of people buying shoes, altering clothes and buying new foundation garments. Whoo hoo!

Jodie teaching us line dancing. Yes, we eventually got dancing pretty well. We had to watch her for awhile first.

Shari teaching her wellness class.

Our candlelight dinner eating Shari’s gourmet healthy food.

The food was awesome. Here is the panini bar with had the last night. We also served roasted red pepper soup, tortilla soup and a yummy salad. I will put some of the recipes on the blog in the future.

Two of the teachers, Dodie and Michele, looking gorgeous! That night Michele gave us an inspirational talk of word and song. She writes music of hope for women. I love to hear her tell how and why she wrote the songs. Then of course the best part is hearing her sing them.
We were lucky enough to hear 4 of the songs that are going on her new album that will be out in a few months. I love these songs so much, I will let everyone know when they are finally available.

Fun girls

Mindi and her mom Ada

wonderful women who came to my first retreat and helped make my dreams come true. I have had this idea for a long time and with their support I was able to take the leap and try something that up until now was only a dream in my mind.

My son in law Josh gave me this beautiful drawing of Thomas S. Monson. His brother Jake drew it. I had know idea Jake was such a fabulous artist. He does faux painting for a living. I think he may be missing his calling. He is a fabulous artist. Thanks Jake and Josh! (Check out the wallpaper matting)

I was at a wallpaper store trying to find some great paper for my retreat craft project. The scrapbook paper I bought worked but had to be pieced because it was too small. I told the lady what I was doing and she said that they give away their discontinued books for free. I love free:) I took home 5 books. I ended up using quite a few to re-mat different pictures in my house.

Here is one of the books I got. It is huge and really pretty.

Here are some of the pages I tore out. I cut some in different sizes to use in place of scrapbook paper. The lady told me the paper is acid free. I haven’t used it to know if the glue backing is a problem. My kids usually use my paper for school projects and posters before I get to them so they are going to have a hard time choosing now. I got some really cool paper!

Here are two more pictures that I covered the mats on.