more believing

Have you ever believed in something pretty ridiculous, and looked back on it later in utter disappointment of yourself?

Well, when I was little (VERY little), I genuinely believed that I could go down the drain of the bathtub with the water. If my parents pulled the plug before I was out of the bathtub, I would jump out of the water in a flash. I recognize that there is little to no logic in this thought process, but my brother had convinced me that it was true. In my brain, I thought that the bathtub drain would surely be my demise. I suppose I didn’t know any better, and that’s why I believed him.

Now, as a nineteen year old, I know that going down the drain with the water is not physically possible. I know it seems silly that I ever thought it could be true, but I was caught believing out of fear of the unknown.

While the things we believe in aren’t usually as outlandish as my fear of the bathtub drain, I think a lot of us can get caught up in believing things out of fear. We believe we shouldn’t try something new, because we are afraid of failure. We believe that we just aren’t good enough to do something, because we are fearful of putting ourselves out there to be judged by others. We believe in all the negative thoughts that our brain produces, and it puts us under the control of fear.

In the world we live in, it’s easy to start believing things out of fear. We might even believe that there is way more bad than good. Thinking this way doesn’t do us any favors, though. Thinking this way puts us under the spell of doing everything out of fear. When we believe out of fear, our every action is controlled by worry. Our every thought is shaped by negativity. Every day of our lives is structured around the worst case scenario. We no longer think for ourselves, because believing out of fear already decided it all for us.

We have never been promised to have every day be great, but we are promised the ability to control our mindset about every day. It’s never been a guarantee that things will get better, but we can handle the worst that life can throw at us in a better way. We have the choice every day to start believing more in the good things, and doing that can make each of us better.

We need to start believing more in our abilities to make the most of each moment we are given, and start believing less in fear. Speaking from experience, believing out of fear only leads you to believing that you can go down the drain of a bathtub. Don’t let yourself believe in what fear tells you to. Choose to believe in the things that will allow you to be happy, take bold risks, and live a life that is structured around and strives for the best case scenario.

Let what you believe turn you away from whatever fear you’re feeling today about your life right now, or what is to come in your future.

Believe in the good, and let that belief guide you through the bad.

There’s more to believing.

There’s more to it all.

more “why not”

When my family gets together for holidays, I love getting to hang out with my younger cousins. They never fail to amuse me with their goofiness and free spiritedness. We play games, chase each other around the house, and get to rock the “kid’s” table together at dinner. (Side note: at what age do we get promoted from this table? Asking for a friend…)

One of my cousins went through a phase where she questioned every aspect of life. I’m fairly certain all of us do this at some point in an attempt to understand the world around us more. Whether it was eating dinner, watching a movie, going for a walk, or washing the dishes, my cousin always asked,”Why?” She was constantly wanting to know the reason behind everything. At first, our family patiently answered her endless “why” questions, but it got to the point where every little detail was questioned by my cousin. So, I turned the question back on her. One day, when she again asked me “why”, I asked her,”why not?”

I think a lot of us are feeling like my younger cousin right now, me included. We are questioning the purpose behind all of what is happening. It’s easy to question why our lives have been flipped upside down. It’s also easy to let ourselves be consumed in finding a “why”, when there really isn’t a meaning to be found behind all of this. Even if that “why” did exist, I don’t think it would console any of us, or justify the sacrifices we have all made. Spending our days focused on the “why” will only lead us to frustration, so let’s instead ask ourselves,”Why not?”

Why not read a new book? Why not go for a walk with your dog? Why not call a family member that is struggling with being alone? Why not set an audacious goal, and work towards it? Why not do the things we’ve pushed to the bottom of our “to-do” lists for weeks, months, or maybe even years? We all have a thing or two that we can dare to ask the “why not” question about. Instead of pouring our energy into being confused over why, we can dedicate our time to completing all of our “why not” ideas.

Whenever I asked my younger cousin “why not”, she rarely had anything to respond. Most our “why not” questions don’t have many responses either. If there is a response, it’s usually one that involves an excuse about not having enough time. Well, I think each of us has more than enough time on our hands at home.

When we think about it, there’s not much in our way if we really want to get something accomplished right now.

We all have something in our minds that has no place belonging in the "undone” category of our lives. What if we actually did the crazy and extravagant things we are thinking about doing right now? What if we stopped questioning ”why”, and starting doing the things we’ve always wanted to do. After all, why not?

It’s time we stop questioning the matters that won’t give us answers, and start pushing ourselves to do all of the things that make us say,“why not.”

There’s more to ask “why not” about.

There’s more to it all.

more motivation

Ever since my very first basketball practice as a fourth grader, I have lived for game days. I loved traveling hours to play an opponent, or walking down the hallway after school for a home game. I loved getting to wear my uniform, and not having to worry about doing running at practice for the night. Most of all, I loved getting to look into the crowd to see my family. In particular, I loved getting to see and hear my grandma cheer on our team. She was a super fan for every single sport in our high school, and she never missed the chance to be at a game to provide motivation to everyone on the court.

None of us are the energizer bunny with all of the motivation and energy in the world. However, my grandma has taught me that sometimes the greatest motivation is to just being present. Every single day, we can practice more motivation by being present. We owe it to ourselves and others not to pull the “I’ll do it tomorrow” card over, and over again. Why should we continue choosing to just get through the day, when we could be choosing to have a breakthrough for the day?

I’ve caught myself lacking motivation more than a few times these past few weeks. I’ve had thoughts that I didn’t need to settle in to this “new normal”, because it would end soon. I’ve told myself that it was okay to not change I interact with people to virtual, because I’d be able to give hugs and talk in person soon. I’ve even been guilty of thinking that this was just a time of rest before going out to do the “real” stuff.

The reality of it is that it’s all “real” stuff. We can choose to watch Netflix for hours on end, or we can choose to volunteer in our communities in unique ways. Both are uses of time, and both are very real things we can find ourselves doing. The difference in the two, in my opinion, is motivation. Every day we are given time to either make the most of it, or make the least of it. If we get stuck thinking that what we do now is not really going to make a difference or be impactful, I’d dare to ask the question: When is it impactful then? If what we do is dependent on where we are, or who we are surrounded with, how rooted are we in our purpose? If we truly believe that we are leaders that can impact others, it shouldn’t matter if the event was cancelled, or that we can no longer be in person. If we are people with motivation in our purpose, a change in the method will never change the mission.

A day in quarantine is equally as valuable as a day out of it. Let’s choose to be present, have more motivation, and give today the value it deserves.

There’s more to motivation.

There’s more to it all.

more connection

In high school, I played volleyball. Not very well, however. I’m a pretty uncoordinated person in general, so adding a volleyball into the mix never worked out great. In particular, serving the volleyball was very difficult for me to figure out. When I started playing in seventh grade, I couldn’t get that ball over the net to save my life. It seemed I couldn’t find the right connection between my palm and the volleyball. It didn’t take long for my coach to figure out that I was only connecting on small portions of my hand, and that’s why the ball never had the power to soar over the net. She told me I needed to relax my hand, and focus on creating more connection between my palm and the volleyball. Eventually, I figured out how to serve the volleyball (somewhat) effectively. I figured out a way to create more connection.

Finding out how to create more connection with a volleyball is just one of many forms that connection can take. Connection can be a hug, a handshake, wifi, a coffee shop conversation, a text, a FaceTime, playing a board game, social media, writing, etc. I think some words from one of my favorite authors, Brené Brown, sum up all of these forms of connection and more, though. Brené Brown defines connection as,

“The energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

Every single one of us strives for more connection, whether it be with new or old relationships in our lives. These past few weeks, I’ve felt relationships in my life grow in unique ways. Typically, I’d text a friend to grab coffee, go to the movies, or go to dinner. With the lack of ability to do these things, I’ve felt how intentional we can be with our friends and family to create connection. In all honesty, this change of how we connect with others has been for the better in some ways. I have to be intentional with reaching out to others. Connection doesn’t happen at the movies, walking around town, or at a social event anymore. It happens by sharing stories, thoughts, heartache, frustrations, laughs, and motivation over the phone. Creating more connection is having real conversations about the stuff we care most about. It’s calling someone to talk with no distractions. It’s sitting down to write a detailed letter to a friend that lives far away. It’s directing all of our energy to help others feel valued.

Now, more than ever, is a time to create these strong and lasting connections. Thanks to the amazing connection of wifi, no distractions or excuses inhibit us from having genuine conversations with people. When we are able to have all of the activities back in our lives that are absent now, I hope that we continue to base all of our relationships on meaningful and purposeful conversations. These things build more connection than any fun activity ever could.

Make time for someone today to create more connection tomorrow.

There’s more to connection.

There’s more to it all.

more challenge

If you’re on Instagram, maybe you’ve seen or heard of the “until tomorrow” challenge. In short, the challenge is to post a few embarrassing pictures of yourself for 24 hours. To get nominated to do the challenge, you simply like someone else’s “until tomorrow” post, and that person messages you all of these details that I’ve just spoiled for you in this blog.

For those of us still confused about where this challenge came from, I am sorry to inform you that I have absolutely no idea where any of this originated.

The night I got nominated for the challenge, I was casually scrolling through Instagram. Eventually, I began to notice that almost every single post was captioned “until tomorrow”. Thoroughly confused (but amused) by the random photos my friends were posting, I was liking the posts left and right. I loved seeing the goofy throwbacks to middle school, the funny videos after getting wisdom teeth taken out, and more. I had no idea that with every like of a post, I was dooming myself to being nominated for this crazy challenge. I’d like to think I’m the only one that naively liked the posts without realizing the consequences.

Soon after liking the posts, I got messages from my friends saying that since I liked their photos, I had to post at least one embarrassing picture as well. Immediately, I thought this was ridiculous. No way was I going to post weird pictures of myself for every single person to see. I like to keep the embarrassing photos of myself in places where no one can see them. Ever. Needless to say, challenge NOT accepted.

A little after I was challenged to post those embarrassing pictures, I decided to rethink my decision. Looking through my Instagram at all of the funny pictures had truly brightened my day. I even found myself smiling and laughing at posts from people I didn’t know as well. It was so refreshing to not see the usual “perfect” Instagram posts. I began questioning my decision to not join in on the fun. Why should I take myself so seriously? We are all stuck at home looking through social media (a bit too much…), so why not accept the challenge? Maybe it will brighten someone’s day like my friends’ posts did for me. So, I posted this wonderful gem from when I was about 12:

Side note: this photo is your reminder for the day not to take yourself too seriously either.

We all have accepted more challenges recently, and not jut social media challenges. While being at home these past few weeks, I’ve realized that for probably the first time in history, the majority of people across our country are all doing the same thing: staying at home. We’ve all accepted the challenge of changing our usual lives, and we’ve taken serious actions to help save people. It’s so admirable to see everyone unite for the better in a time where things are definitely not the best.

Even when staying home becomes proposes more challenge each day, we continue to make sacrifices. Many of those sacrifices have been negative and disheartening, but what if we chose to accept more positive challenges? The word challenge can often make us think that the task at hand is difficult. In reality, however, when we accept more challenges, we grow and learn more. We make positive changes in our lives, and other’s lives. We just have to challenge ourselves to do more with our time.

Let’s bring more challenge into our days at home.

We have the opportunity to serve our communities in unique and special ways. Writing thank you cards to emergency personnel, sending letters to nursing home residents who can’t see family right now, mowing the lawn for a neighbor, and making daily calls to those who need extra encouragement are just a few ways that we can accept more challenges.

Let’s choose to challenge ourselves a little bit more than usual today.

There’s more to challenge.

There’s more to it all.

more positive

Growing up, my parents always had the same daily question for my brother and I when we got home—”How was school today?”

Most of the time, our first response was short. “Good” and “fine” were pretty common. I’m sure my brother and I are not the only elementary students that gave those responses to our parents after school, though.

My parents usually didn’t settle for one worded answers, however, and we had to explain in more depth how the day went. Around the time when I was in fourth grade, my “in depth” explanations usually only included the negatives experiences of the day. For some reason, fourth grade Mamie was convinced that only the bad things were worth sharing at the end of the day.

My mom got tired of the negative responses pretty quickly. She said that if I wanted to share one negative event of the day, I had to share at least two positives. At first, I remember it felt like pulling teeth to think of two positives to every negative. After a bit though, I found myself sharing far more positive experiences than negative experiences from the day. It became natural to have a more positive mindset.

While I’m not ten years old reflecting on my school day anymore, I find myself using this “two positive to every negative” practice often. It reminds me that there is so much more positive in my life when I take the time to appreciate what I have and what I have experienced.

We all have a lot more positive than we probably realize. At the end of each day, we should all be listing off far more positive than negative moments. The last few months of traveling and meeting new people have given me countless positive moments to cherish.

While traveling is on pause, the positive moments have not been put on pause.

The past few days, my friends and I have reached out to people from all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to share more positivity in our world. Words of encouragement, silly dance moves, inspirational quotes, and new hobbies were shared, and so much more. Over 52 reasons to be more positive were shared in a fifteen minute video.

If we all took the time to spend just five minutes to reflect on the more positive parts of the day, how many joyful things would come to mind? If we shift to a more positive mindset, how would it positively impact our actions, and the people around us? What if our being more positive leads to someone else recognizing they can be more positive as well? Our positive thoughts and words can make a world of a difference to someone who is in need of encouragement. We all are capable of being more positive, so why not start today?

Need some motivation for a more positive mindset right now? Look no further.

There’s more to be positive about.

There’s more to it all.

more value

Where do you place more value in your life?

There’s an activity that I do in workshops that helps us figure out what it is we value more. I have people write down on notecards whether they’d choose sports or school, a job they love or a job that pays well, friends or family, and so on. Once we have all of our values identified, we have to make some choices. To decide what we value most, we rip up a notecard we value least. One by one, we keep ripping notecards until there are only two notecards left.

Those last two notecards have items that are of high value to the person that wrote them. When those two notecards are all that’s left, I can usually sense that everyone is thinking along the same lines of, ”If this girl tells me to rip up one more card…” Which is a totally reasonable thought. We’ve just ripped up several things we value a lot, and now we are clinging on to the two that mean the most to us.

With those final two notecards, I don’t ask people to choose one more to rip up. Instead, we turn to someone nearby, and they rip up one of the notecards randomly for us.

It’s amazing watching everyone’s reaction during this activity. At first, it seems easy to rip up a few of the notecards. As we reach the final notecards, though, I usually see people struggling to choose which one they value least. When it comes down to those final two cards, the frustration and struggle escalate in the room. The frustration occurs because we are no longer given the choice of what we value more. We are left at the mercy of the hand that is choosing randomly for us.

It doesn’t seem fair that someone or something would get to choose what we value most, but that’s exactly what is happening to each of us this past week. Before our eyes, things we put more value into are being ripped away. School, celebrations, sporting events, travel, hugs… the list goes on. There are countless of things we value that are no longer an option for us. They are ripped up notecards.

It feels like all of our “notecards” of things we values in life are being torn apart, just like the activity. That does not, and will not ever, feel good. Integral parts of our lives, and who we are, are being tested, challenged, and changed. However, just like the activity, we still have a notecard left with something we value on it. In fact, if we look hard enough, we several.

For me, this trying time has let me lean into things I value most. Family, friends, music, reading, and writing. I have even began to revisit something I valued deeply in fourth grade: playing the piano. I have put more value into these things, and while I can’t appreciate and participate in many other parts of my life that I value, I know that it’s best to focus on what we do have, over what we don’t.

With so much being taken away, we are left with a lot of value and passion to relocate in our lives. Redirect your time and energy into those things you value deeply. Don’t let it be redirected into fear, anger, sadness, and dwelling on what could have been. When we feed into these things, we are doing an injustice to ourselves and others. We can’t always control our circumstances, but we can control how we react to it. React by leaning into what we have left to value.

Pour more value into what you have, not what you are missing.

What do you need to put more value into today?

There’s more to value.

There’s more to it all.

more listening

Remember that video that circled around the internet for awhile that had people fighting over whether it said “laurel” or “yanny”?

When I first heard the video, I only heard “laurel”. Then, a friend told me they heard “yanny”. I listened to the video again, and suddenly I heard both “laurel” and “yanny”. How could it be possible to hear more than one thing?

A second listen to that youtube video helped me hear something new, and that has me thinking about what else I need to do more listening with.

I was at my friend Claire’s house the other day, and we were making some food together. I reached into the fridge, and saw a jug of almond milk sitting on the shelf. I made a small joke about how I preferred whole milk, but that joke spurred a conversation where I got to listen more to Claire.

Almond milk has brought a controversial topic to the table of agriculture, and it’s always interesting to hear each person’s viewpoint on it. Claire’s perspective was that almond farmers are also farmers, and in buying almond milk, she was supporting agriculture just the same as she would with a jug of whole milk.

Let’s listen to that again—almond farmers are farmers too. Claire has listened to both sides of the almond milk and regular milk conversation, and she recognizes that she can support agriculture on both sides.

Agriculture is an industry where we encourage speaking as an advocate, but we often forget that a big piece of advocating is also listening. Listening to those who we are advocating to and being able to relate to them is, in my opinion, the most crucial piece.

When it comes to finding common ground with people, it won’t be found with hard facts and statistics. It will be found in listening to find similar values and mutual connection. Don’t get me wrong, being scientifically accurate is crucial. As advocates though, we need to lead with listening to understand where to start build a trusting and understanding conversation. We must be quick to listen, and slow to speak.

My friend Yomar has some wise words about this whole listening thing. He always says that we are born with two ears, and just one mouth for a specific reason. That reason is because we should listen more than speak.

Let’s listen to those words, and know that there is more listening to be done daily with every person we encounter.

There’s more to listen.

There’s more to it all.

more can

Whether it was a hard math problem, a basketball move I was struggling with, or a goal I thought was too lofty for me to achieve, my mom always said the same words to me.

”Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

These words have been a daily reminder to me that if I have a positive mindset about what I am doing, anything is doable. If I believe I can, I can do whatever I set my mind to.

This past week in Maryland, I had the honor of meeting a young woman who has a whole lot of can.

While Maryland’s agriculture may look a lot different from what I grew up around in Montana, it’s amazing to see that the heart of agriculture is universal. Ellie, an FFA member in Howard County, shared a little of her story with me while I was there to visit their chapter. She told me a little about her background, and how she had helped start their FFA chapter two years ago. I could tell that there was more to the story, however.

After asking some more questions, I found out that Ellie grew up around agriculture. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in the industry, but none of the schools in her county had agriculture programs. When she was in middle school, a bill was proposed that would require every county school system to have at least one agriculture program. Ellie, at such a young age, decided to go testify in support of the bill.

The bill was passed with some amendments, but unfortunately, her county did not act on it.

Ellie continued to work hard on getting an agriculture program started with her county’s school superintendent. Eventually, an advisory board was started, and a program opened up in her county’s Career and Tech Center.

Ellie believe she could, so she did.

Since playing that crucial role in starting the Howard County FFA chapter, Ellie has started doing an internship with the Maryland Farm Bureau, attended National FFA Convention, and has dedicated so much time to agriculture advocacy. Beyond her, though, the Howard County FFA Chapter has joined her in the "can” attitude. The chapter is involved in the community, and works hard for the success of the program. The chapter even placed at the National FFA Convention in the Livestock Judging Career Development Event.

Dozens of students have the opportunity to experience agriculture education and FFA because of Ellie’s choice to believe “can” over “can’t”.

We all have the same choice each day.

We can let the fear of failure stop us from trying. We also have the opportunity to believe that we can.

At the end of each day, we should be filled with encouragement for all that we can do. There’s a whole lot more in this world that we can do than we can’t do.

There’s no use focusing on the can’t. When we think we can’t, we are telling ourselves that fear of failure is the ultimate decider. When we let that fear of failure control what we do, it never leads us to make meaningful impact. It becomes a loss of ambition, and a negative spiral in our mindset. Why not choose to view our lives from the positive perspective?

A can mindset will constantly remind you that even when failure does occur, it is only a minor setback. Ellie did not stop when her county did not follow up on the passing of the bill she testified for. Instead, she decided to do more. She set her mind to a goal, and she worked hard to achieve it. Her choice to have more can led to an amazing outcome for her entire county.

Ellie is a reminder to us all to have more can.

We all have the ability to make an impact in big and small ways. We just have to choose that we can. So, let’s have more can.

There’s more can.

There’s more to it all.

more pause

What’s for dinner? When is the next vacation day? When will we find out our test scores? What am I doing for the weekend? What is the next item on the to-do list?

What’s next?

Have you ever found yourself focused so much on “what’s next”, that you forget about the “what’s now”?

The other day, I found myself with some downtime. With that downtime, I decided to go sit in a park to listen to some music. I thought that it would be a good pause from the many things I knew I needed to complete by the end of the day, week, month, etc. However, instead of a  pause for my brain, I ended up thinking more about all those responsibilities. I started making a to-do list in my head, and began stressing myself out even more than before I had sat down to “pause” at the park. I started to overwhelm myself with where to even begin with the things I needed to get done. Just as I was doing my usual overthinking, a stranger who was walking by suddenly stopped.

The stranger turned to me, and with a concerned expression said, ”Are you okay sweetie?” I snapped out of my mental to-do list making, and responded with the casual, ”Yeah, I’m good! Thank you so much for asking!”

I began to think about why he had asked me if I was okay. I imagine this stranger was just strolling happily through the park when he saw a girl staring blankly into the distance with a concerned and overwhelmed look on her face. Mystery solved on why he was worried about my wellbeing: I have no ability to stop what’s on my mind from showing in my facial expressions.

How often do we find ourselves thinking about the future when our past selves dreamed and planned for the moment we are living in the present?

I found myself in the park thinking about the future, and forgot to pause and cherish the present. Thankfully, the stranger walking past had some insight that I did not.

 He paused his life to remind me to pause mine.

Life is busy, goals are motivating, and planning is practical. However, we shouldn’t be constantly living in a mode of “what’s next”. It’s unfair to our past selves that desired for the present moment to arrive.  It’s great to have desires and motivations………..but it’s also great to pause.

I’m glad I had a gentle reminder to pause in the park the other day. Sure, I can’t really pause time, but taking a quick pause in my brain gave me peace and clarity that a “what’s next” thought process can’t provide.

I challenge you to pause your life, even if it’s just for a minute. Pause to appreciate the people around you. Pause to celebrate all of the things you’ve accomplished. Pause to soak in the moment. There’s more time to pause in our lives. We just have to intentionally seek it out. We aren’t promised the “what’s next”, so let’s pause for the “what’s now”.

 There’s more to pause.

There’s more to it all.

more perspective

What came first: the chicken, or the egg?

It’s an age old debate. This week, I’ve asked dozens of students to argue their side of this debate. I’ve heard stubborn conversations, valid reasonings, and heated arguments. It seems to be a question that quickly divides a group faster than you’d think.

One answer, though, didn’t oppose either side. Instead, this student stood in the middle. 

The grey area. The in between. 

At first, I thought he just didn’t want to pick a side because he was unsure. His reasoning for the middle was not one of indecisiveness, however. It was one of perspective. 

This student, whose name is Wesley, blew me away with his words. 

“It’s a circle,” he said,”We don’t know where it begins or ends, because it’s all based on perspective.” 

Perspective is a little weird. We think one thing, and then we are given an experience that changes what we think. We think we love strawberry ice cream the best, and then we try huckleberry for the first time, and suddenly strawberry takes the backseat. (Side note: If you haven’t had huckleberry ice cream, you need to.) 

I vividly remember the day when my perspective on chicken sandwiches changed. Growing up, the only chicken sandwiches I was exposed to were those fried chicken patties that we all dread for school lunch. Then, my mom took my friend Demi and I to a Chick-Fil-A. Needless to say, the number one sandwich was a game changer for my perspective on chicken sandwiches. 

In all seriousness, we each have had experiences that drastically changed our perspective on life. Moving to a new town, losing a friend, having a serious accident, getting married, having a child, heading off to college...the list goes on forever. 

Experiences change our perspective. Experiences shape our perspective.

All of us have had different experiences. Therefore, we all have slightly (or very) different perspectives. I think we often find ourselves seeking out those with similar perspectives. It’s natural, and it’s comfortable. We never learn from those that are similar to us, though. We learn from those that have different experiences. Those people have have different knowledge to share. It’s not because we don’t have lots of knowledge ourselves, but rather we just haven’t experienced something that they have.

Let’s learn from each other’s experiences.

It’s not always easy to seek out those people to learn from, but we all have something to learn from every person we encounter. Their knowledge sometimes can radically oppose what we know, but every once in awhile it’s time for a change in perspective. Perspective is not concrete, and it does not hold universal truth. Regardless of that, we should strive to see more into others’ worlds, and others’ perspectives.

Thank you, Wesley, for reminding me of the importance of perspective this week. 

There’s more to perspective. 

There’s more to it all.

more monday

If you are reading this right now, wherever you are, find a piece of paper. On that piece of paper, write down everything that is possibly causing you heartache, frustration, sadness, or struggle. 

Now, take that piece of paper, crumple it up, and throw it in the nearest trash can. (Because we do not litter here.)

Have you ever looked back on a moment and realized that it had a bigger meaning than you felt while you were living it? In 2016, I was attending a conference in Washington, D.C. when I had a moment that would impact me more than I could’ve imaged. 

At the time, I was lacking purpose and meaning in my life. I was struggling to see that there was more to my life than the challenges I was facing. I wrote those challenges down on a piece of paper (like you hopefully just did), crumpled it up, and threw it away. The words spoken by the conference facilitator that followed this activity are what have shaped my life for the past four years. 

“There is more to your life than what you wrote down on that piece of paper.”

These words clicked with me. I realized that there was more to it all. More to everything I did every single day. More to my life than the challenges I have faced, and will face. Since then, I have lived my life by the this motto, “more to it all”.  I have chosen to do more, see more, and be more every single day since I did that paper activity. It’s changed my perspective on so many different things, and it is a constant reminder that there is always more to the story.

There is more to your life, too. We just have to make the choice to see beyond the face value of what’s happening in our lives. We can choose to understand that every event has a purpose. We can choose to know that every person thinks the way that they do for a reason, and we just have to seek out that reason. We can choose that there is more in everything. So, will you make the choice to know that there is more to it all with me? 

Each Monday, I will be dedicating a story to More to it All Monday. Why Monday, you might ask? Here’s the (somewhat) weird answer: I really love alliterations. 

It’s my hope that these writings will help every person who reads them see that there is more to it all. More opportunities, more friends, more meaning, more everything. 

There’s more to it all.