#UndercoverSanta Stories & Miracles (1999-2014)

December 25th, 1999 was my favorite Christmas, that was until 2014 Christmas happened. 1999 was the Christmas that inspired me, and will continue to inspire me until the day I die…. 2014 though? It was the Christmas season that lit my freaking heart on fire.

In 1999 I was an almost 13-year-old kid who loved sports, video games, and Cheetos. In 2014, I was an almost 28-year-old who still loved sports, video games, and Cheetos. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

In 1999 my parents took my me, my 4 siblings, & our cell phones to the homeless shelter in Ogden, Utah. We spent the majority of that memorable Christmas day helping many of those humble people call their families, who lived all over the world, to wish them a Merry Christmas using our cell phones. I still remember getting teary eyed, which isn’t normal for a 12-year-old I now realize, when one older man was able to wish his daughter & grandkids in Panama a very Feliz Navidad. I later found out that he hadn’t spoken to his daughter for 8 years prior to that call. How COOL IS THAT!?! Both my parents & siblings had similar experiences with the people they helped call home using their personal cell phones.

Almost every Christmas season since then my parents haven given each one of us kids $100 to do something meaningful for someone else with, undercover of course.

These #UndercoverSanta missions have been the highlight of my Christmas each and every year.

I’ll never forget how much fun my wife Jan & I had in 2011. We thought we were such smart #UndercoverSantas after we created a secret email address (kriskringle@gmail.com). We created that so that we would be untraceable when we sent $100 worth of e-gift cards to some of our favorite people and their kids, who were in a little bit of a financial bind that Christmas. #NotUndercoverSanta became a thing when I guess I put my name in the “from section” of one of the gift cards, instead of Santa. #Doh

I’ll never forget the faces of the two young boys, who were playing outside in the snow when I drove up and pretty much threw a Giant Santa Sack full of presents at them and said Merry Christmas as I sped off, with my wife and her brother hiding in the back because the family knew them, but didn’t know me or my car from Adam.

I’ll never forget what we did in 2013. We were able to gift 35,000 airline miles to a friend’s dad, who didn’t have the means to be with his kids & grandkids for Christmas. #AllHeWantedForChristmasWasARoundTripTicket #UnderCoverSanta2013Delievered

AND I’ll NEVER EVER EVER forget what many of you reading this helped make happen for 3 different families in 2014. I remember having the feeling that there were three families out there that needed help that December. My little family didn’t have much at the time, but I remember feeling so strong that our traditional $100 my parents gave wasn’t going to cut it that Christmas. You may remember the beginning of this story, because well many of you donated to the GoFundMe I set up 2 years ago. Y’all helped blow my $300 goal out of the freaking water. We were able to raise around $1750 that Christmas in a matter of days. I remember crying as I saw friends of mine who donated $50 to the GoFunde me. These were friends who I knew didn’t have much money to spare themselves, but who’s hearts were and still are amazing.  I also remember getting a $60 donation from a guy who’s name I didn’t recognize. He wrote the following message with his donation: “May you continue to help people’s most unlikely dreams come true.” I did a little digging and realized it was my friend’s dad… the same friend’s dad who we gifted the 35,000 airline miles to the year before so he could be with his kids & grandkids for Christmas. #HeartMelted #CryingEvenThinkingAboutIt

To those that donated in 2014, this story of what your money helped make happen is for you:

I’ll never forget what you all helped make happen for a family who needed to feel God’s love & also the spirit of Christmas more than most in December. This was the young family with 4 kids (Ages 10, 7, 4, & 2) who spent the majority of that Christmas season at the hospital, to be around their young father who was dying of liver cancer. I’ll never forget going to Target with my wife and a few close friends after y’all blew my $300 goal out of the water. I’ll never forget how much us #UnderCoverSantaShoppers cared about picking out the perfect gifts for each one of the four kids. I’ll never forget wrapping those gifts with Christmas music playing in the background… ok my wife did most *cough* all the wrapping of those gifts. I’ll never forget the co-workers who helped me stuff those gifts into our traditional Giant #UndercoverSanta sack. I’ll never forget the excitement and anxiety I felt as I was driving from work to the Grandma’s house, where I had been told the kids would be. I’ll never forget pulling up to the house and seeing the steepest driveway I’ve ever seen in my life (By the time I got to do the door, I was sweating thanks to the 50 freaking pound Santa sack of presents ya’ll helped make happen). I’ll never forget how tight the Santa hat was on my massive head, that was full of sweat, as I rang the door bell. I’ll never forget the seeing the 7-year-old girl run to answer the door. I remember having to hold back my tears, which I’m definitely not doing as I’m writing this for the first time since it happened. I remember I was given her name by the friend who sent me a message about their story after my Instagram post. I told the little 10-year-old that I was one of Santa’s elves on a mission for Santa to deliver gifts to her and her sisters and brother. I remember the aunties and uncles of these sweet kids gathering around as I had them each open one gift that #TeamUndercoverSantaShoppers had picked out the night before. I remember having to hold back tears. Because of how much money y’all donated on that Gofundme, we were able to get each of the kids 4 gifts, and we were able to get the mom a NICE gift card as well. I remember how excited these kids were about these small $10 gifts. I remember the looks in the extended families faces. I remember giving each of them a high five as I left and then breaking down in tears as soon as the door shut behind me. I remember getting in my car to drive home and thinking to myself, I want help do something like this every year for the rest of my life. And lastly, I remember getting a message from my friend the next day saying that those sweet beautiful children lost their dad a few hours after I left.

So why am I doing this? Because in 2015, I went full grinch.com/selfish/smallheart mode. After multiple years of seeing, and being a part of miracle after miracle with #OperationsUndercoverSanta, I don’t know why I didn’t do a dang thing in 2015.

But the past is the past, and this is 2016, and I have this feeling that 2016 is going to be my favorite Christmas yet! #WatchOut1999&2014 #OperationUnderCoverSantaIsBack

To read more about #UndercoverSanta2016, click here to be taken to the Gofundme page I set up.

$6000 is the goal. I’ll be so freaking pumped and grateful with whatever we end with.

Gosh I love this time of the year. #MerryChristmas

You can also venmo me at @Jasonaclark005 if that’s easier than donating via the gofundme page I set up. #GodBlessYall #SeriouslyThough

Part 2 of 3: Funk to Freedom- My personal transformation to a lifetime of happiness.

In my opinion happiness comes when you totally forget yourself. Super profound I know, but I really believe that’s the moral of this story I’m about to tell.

For those that read part one of this three part series, you probably remember a part where I talked about going into a major funk. In this post/journal entry, I want to revisit that time in my life, and then talk about the events that lead to my new outlook on life. If this happens to help anyone that may be feeling like they are in a funk, bonus. I really just want to write this down so I can have it to read for the next time I may go into another funk.

Bottom Line: I feel so much joy right now. I feel happier than I have in my entire life. I have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude more than I’ve ever had before…
It wasn’t and hasn’t always been that way though.. Let me explain:

So you read in the part one about Jan and I moving on from LimeLight. I don’t quite want to get into a ton of details on that story quite yet, but just know, there have been a lot of things that have happened since that time in the middle of August. From an outsiders perspective, if you knew all that has transpired since we left, it would be easy to say that Jan and I were dealt some pretty crazy cards. I’ll stop at that for now, but know that someday down the road, I’ll go into details. Just know that I can now honestly say that I have no hard feelings towards anyone, and I legitimately believe that all of this is “for our good”.

So Jan and I moved into my parents basement around the 20th of August. Like I said in the last post, we knew were supposed to be done with LimeLight but didn’t quite know what we were supposed to do. I’ll be honest when I say that after running about 100mph, working 100 hour weeks minimum for 3-4 years to try to get Parqo, Raymax, and LimeLight off the ground, I burnt out and hit a wall. My first two weeks of being home was spent watching Season 1-8 of Parks and Rec. I was “job hunting” but my heart wasn’t really into it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and was still feeling bad for myself that the hotel thing didn’t work out. During those first two weeks, If I remember right I think I ate crap, crap, and more crap. I slept in, didn’t help as much with Ellie as I probably should have. I Watched a lot of sports, talked a lot of sports aka I put way too much effort into my fantasy football league that I love. I stayed up late watching Parks and Rec. PS- Don’t get me wrong. I loved Parks and Rec more than you’d know, but it became my life. It was weird.
Jan went to Idaho for the second week and I literally don’t think I did one productive thing for that entire time she was gone. I did however feel bad for myself a ton. I dwelled on feelings of being taken advantage of, I dwelled on feelings of feeling misunderstood, I thought about “what ifs” for way too many hours of the day. Did I mention I ate like crap and sat on my butt? On thing that I did that was half productive was pay for a free resume website. I literally spent 10 minutes making my resume and started to send it off to tons of company’s. I don’t even think I spell checked it. For me though, I could tell myself that I was “applying for jobs” even if my heart wasn’t in it. As I just wrote this I ask myself how many things I’ve done in my life where I was just doing it as a “checklist item” even if my heart wasn’t in it. Although ‘ better than not doing anything at all, it just makes the things we do so meaningless and takes away so much joy and growth opportunities. You feel me? Maybe that’s just me.

So week three was a great week on my journey from being in a funk to feeling so free. I definitely didn’t get out of the funk instantly but I did some things that made a big difference in my life. First things first, I finally committed to working out. During the first two weeks I may have gone to the gym here and there but I ate such garbage, and gave about 50% effort, that it really didn’t do me much good. Week three however, thanks to a great friend who was also unemployed at the time named Brady Robertson, something clicked on the “operation commit to be healthy”. Had Brady not been there, I did not care about myself enough to go to the gym on my own. In my opinion if you are not working out, and decide to work out, your journey will be 1000000 easier if you have a friend to hold you accountable. There were days that I did not want to go to the gym, but I didn’t want to let my workout partner down, so I went. As many of you have heard, doing something 21 days in a row becomes a habit. I wouldn’t go that far, but I will say that it’s around 21-42 days when you catch the bug. The first 21 days though? You can forget about it! It’s the suckiest thing in your life each and every day. Your body hurts, you don’t see results, you relapse on garbage food when you know that by doing so your next day working out will be 39 times harder, etc, etc, etc. In my opinion, because my mind was clear, from eating a little better and doing my best at working out, I was able to zone in and track down the people I needed to get ahold of for the Jazz job.

Week 4- This now puts us on the week of September 8th. At this point i was still kinda in a funk because of the way I thought about life, *cough very selfishly cough*, but I was starting to see things a little more clear now. The previous Friday, I had a good interview with the Jazz and felt confident about that but just still didn’t feel happy like I usually did. I remember going to church and just going through the motions. I showed up, took the sacrament, didn’t comment in class, used Ellie as an excuse to walk around the halls, and then I was the first human being out of there. I then would go home, turn on football, and sleep until family dinner. Back when we had things ROLLING at LimeLIght, my sunday’s were the reason I saw so much success during the week. I would go to church and be as active as possible, come home, still turn on football or golf, but do productive things such as cook a fantastic meal or go visit someone. I also used my Sunday nights as a time to really prepare for the week. I would turn on some good music, and just start prepping for the week. I would set goals and make sure Jan and I were on the same page. On week 4 of my funk, lets just say I was not doing things to get my life ROLLING the way that it use to be.

Week 5- At this point, my workouts were a staple to my day, my scripture study was better but it still took the backseat to all my social media outlets. I hadn’t heard from the Jazz on when the second interview would be and because of that, I applied for lots of other jobs throughout the world. I really lost vision in what I wanted and mentally told myself that I would accept any job offer that came my way even if I felt like I was settling and if I didn’t have a passion for it. I think in life, we go through times where our confidence goes down and we start to settle. I think that’s the crappiest thing we could do to ourselves. I know personal confidence is a hard thing to talk about because everyone’s life are so different, but I’m telling you, if you want to be successful, make a goal to increase your confidence. I think how you do that can be different for each person, but at the same time, I believe that there are some set things every single person can do to increase their confidence. I’ll get into those set things as the weeks progress but to name one. Find a friend/workout partner and commit together to eat healthy and exercise at least 5 days a week. Whether you’re fat or skinny, in shape or out of shape, eating healthy and exercising makes a huge huge difference.

A quick story about my weight through my years: Growing up through Elementary and Junior High and even my sophomore and Junior year of high school, I was a chunky freaking monkey. In Jr High, my friend Matt and I would buy a costco bar every day, ok we’d buy two costco bars everyday, and walk around by ourselves getting fat. We’d then go to our friends house and drink pop, eat licorice, and eat cookies that our friends mom would make every time we were there. sophomore year, that trend continued and working at Arby’s didn’t help. Lets just say that I had my fair share of Roast Beef and Curly Fries. Jr year, I started to realize that If I ever wanted a girl to like me back, I needed to quit eating like it was my birthday everyday. I got a job at Lagoon A Beach as a lifeguard and hoped that from being outside all day, I would shed some LBS. Sure enough, thanks to the sun and only drinking water and powerade, my mom no longer had to call me big boned. From that point on, I did my best to stay active and look somewhat good. On the mission in Germany, I walked up so many dang flight of stairs to knock doors all day, that I was able to not gain to many pounds even though we had breaded Meat and carbs in the form of potatoes for many meals. When I got back from my mission, I did a lot of intramural sports in college and did my best to stay somewhat fit. I never was in six pack shape but I felt good and had confidence because of it. Then I got married. And for some reason my motivation to look good went away. I know that is so backwards, but it did. Jan and I’s first 18 months of marriage was extremely challenging. I will go into more details about that on another post down the road, but because of how hard it was for me, I resorted to eating like a man that just fasted for 7 days and showed up to my Uncle Duff’s house in Alaska for Thanksgiving. Jan and I lived in Alaska for 6 months at the beginning of our marriage and the Ice Cream company and radio shack that I worked for allowed us to have free fountain drinks and discounted Dryers Ice cream whenever we wanted. Oh we also got discounts on I can’t believe its not delivery its digornio pizzas and my cash register was constantly facing a nacho machine and a row of candy. I went from being about 195-200 pounds when we got married to 230 pounds by the time we left Alaska. It got so bad that Jan was a saint and did “The Master Cleanse” with me for 10 days as a great wife and true friend would. In those 10 days I dropped like 23 pounds and well, I gained it all back within 6 weeks. From there, I just didn’t really care about what I looked like. I still felt confidence, or what I thought was confidence, and just put being healthy in the bottom half of my priorities. Of course there would be weeks where I would snap out of my crappy eating and try to workout and eat good…but many gym passes later that were never used after 2 weeks of being purchased, and I was always back to where I started. That was honestly the story of my life for the next 3 years of my marriage which leads us to today an takes us back to week 5 of our my story of funk to freedom.

So as many of you read in the last post, I went to my second interview with the Jazz and got the verbal offer on September 17th or the end of week 5. We went to Grover and I stuffed my face with my Grandma’s world class cooking. I’m drooling now even thinking about it. (She makes the best hotcakes aka pancakes as well as the best homemade chicken noodle soup you will ever eat)

Week 6 comes along and I was consistently working out but I still didn’t feel like I was on the right path of where I needed to be. I’ve had some incredible times in my life where I knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and during those times I feel that God’s plan and my plan were aligned. Once again, at the beginning of week 6, this was not one of those times. So that Monday I decided that I was going to do something about it. I was going to start praying more. I was also going to start praying with more real intent. If I were to give myself a grade on how I was praying from week 1 of my funk to week 6- I would honestly give myself a D+ at best. I would sometimes say my morning prayers and my nighttime prayers usually consisted of me laying in my bed curled up in my blanket and saying something super short and then going straight to sleep. How the heck was I supposed to get answers if I wasn’t even trying to listen or feel after my prayers? Its hard to say this but, my relationship with my heavenly father was not where it had been in the past. I had a “what can you do for me” type of attitude with the way I communicated with him. I honestly don’t think I said one prayer of gratitude for anything during that time. I asked “Why me” probably more than I should have. Eccccckkkkk. Just the thought of that time makes me feel sad. I was so freaking selfish. In every part of my life. The way I looked at life was all about looking after myself and my family. SOOO.. That Monday I decided to start doing my best to be more grateful in my prayers. It was hard but after a few days, I started to see things to be grateful for and my prayers were lasting longer. I also started to pray for others more. That made a huge difference. I remember praying on Thursday night for me to find joy with the job I was about to start with. At the time, I thought it was the Jazz. Little did I know , the miracle of Qzzr was only hours away and would definitely be an answer to that above plea. Friday rolls around and Nate invited me to Lunch with Mikey G. When I was in my funk, I didn’t really desire to go do stuff that took effort. At the time, the thought of driving to SLC from Kaysville just for a lunch seemed like a lot more work that I wanted to do. You know what though? I’m so glad I went. And that is was a huge lesson to me and something I’m holding onto as I strive to be happy all the time. Go do stuff Jason. Seriously. Get off your butt and go do stuff with other human beings who you love and who you can learn so many great things from. From yesterday’s part one you can remember that Nate sent me the email Friday morning about the job opening with Qzzr. I was very intrigued. It felt so much better than the Jazz. The little qzzr seed was planted in my heart and grew pretty fast when I showed up to lunch and learned that it was Mikey who was mission comps with the guy Nate recommended me to. I had no clue. Seriously. Mikey talked up Owen as one of the best people he knew and because of those great words, the qzzr seed grew for me. I applied that night and just felt super good about it.

Week 7- This was the big week of the interview. As a recap I was in a funk because I was selfish, ate like crap, and didn’t put prayer as priority. Of course you all read from part one that the Jazz finally pulled their heads out and started to try to get ahold of me on Tuesday. I dodged their calls in hopes to delay my start date to when I knew I got the job at Qzzr or not. The morning of my interview, I woke up, said the best sincere prayer of the last 7 weeks of my life, ate a super healthy good breakfast, worked out, served my wife, and also scheduled a time to meet up with some people after my interview in Salt Lake. I was learning and I was starting to feel a lot happier. Honestly at that point, I told myself that I would be 100% ok with whatever the outcome of the interview was. 6 weeks ago Jason wouldn’t have had that type of mindset. I knew the Lord had played such a major role in making this happen which made me know that I didn’t need to fear and that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. The interview happened and like I wrote yesterday, I loved every second of it. I felt more at peace talking to Owen and Josh than I had with any conversation over the past 7 weeks. I honestly felt like I was at home just shooting the breeze with two great friends who I’ve known for years. After they said that they wanted me on the Qwizard team focusing on sales with Owen, we ended things, and I walked out the door. There are few moments in my life that I will remember as distinctly as I will that one, walking outside and getting into my car. I sat there for a minute and just prayed. So much thanks. I also decided that because Heavenly father had done so much for me, and really in the end never once had left me to fend for myself, I would be a better disciple. Jan was in Idaho, and after going to see some great friends, I went home and sat in the same spot that I had been watching a ton of parks and rec over the previous 7 weeks. This time it was different. I sat there with the TV off and pondered. I was able to reflect on the previous 19 months of my life that was filled with all things LimeLIght. Even though I thought I had moved on from LimeLIght after getting a strong prompting to walk completely away in August, I realized while I was reflecting that over the past 7 weeks, I still had a lot of feelings that were not good for my life. I made a decision that night that I would completely move on. LimeLight was to be an experience in my life that turned me who I was today. It was to be an experience in my life that taught me what hard work really was. It was an experience in my life that sharpened my selling saw and taught me about Leadership. It was an experience that will forever be in me but I decided that it will not be an experience that I will let affect my happiness, regardless if we get paid back or not. Moving on was moving on, and that night I can honestly say I MOVED ON. That day will be a day I never forget. I decided to “turn around”, which believe it or not in german is translated with the same word as repent. Repentance doesn’t have to just be in regards to awful sin. We can repent if we’re doing something good but could be doing something better or something that’s the best. In this case, I repented from being selfish, from not being grateful, and from not being all in with truly living the gospel and having Christ be the center point in my life. I woke up the next morning with a completely new outlook for life.

Week 8- The week leading up to Conference weekend. What an incredible time in my life. I was able to go to the temple and I walked out of there with I felt was a full heart massage. In the temple I really felt strongly about the word “miracles”. I was reminded as I was reading in the scriptures that Miracles use to happen all the time during Christ’s ministry. I then read that just like in those days, miracles have not ceased today. We just need to ask. Jan and I are in a few situations that feel like the only way we will get out will be a miracle from God. I left feeling so confident that everything would be OK. EVERYTHING. Conference then happened and it was amazing. Jan went to Idaho again as she does at the beginning of every month to help her dad get organized. This allowed for an impromptu Grover trip to get away and just get on our four wheelers and get in the mountain. Also, watching Conference in grover was one of my favorite childhood memories growing up and it just felt like the perfect thing to do. I grabbed my little brother and his friend and we took off. We listened to conference on the way down and it was amazing. SO many powerful talks that just hit home about happiness. One thing I continued to feel during conference was that I needed to live a life full of service. The scripture about when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are in the service of our god kept popping into my mind. I remember after Saturday’s Priesthood session, we were watching college football and just needed to get on a four wheeler and get in the mountains. It was dark but I didn’t care. I knew where I wanted to go and I felt very comfortable in getting there in the dark. I grabbed Christopher and his friend Kieran and we took off. We passed the spot where I proposed to Jan and I stopped for a minute to show the boys. Such a great memory! We then continued up the way. The moon was full and we were in the middle of God’s beautiful creation. We stopped and sat there in silence. I remember just soaking in life. I felt so much peace. I remember just feeling so much happiness. It was during that ride that I also decided that I was going to just let my light so shine. I don’t know if that was said during Saturday’s conference, but it was something I felt I just needed to do. Because I have been given so much, I too must give. For me, If I could give my happiness, my gratitude to others, my enthusiasm for life and my testimony of the gospel, that would be a great start. Sunday conference was just as good as Saturday’s if not better. Elder Scotts talk about the 4 things to make us happy was my favorite fav of the entire weekend. That guy nailed it!

Week 9- This was the last week before I began my journey of giving everything I had from 8-5 to work, and really everything I had to life. Jan and I and Ellie had a great week. I was able to help my main man Will Smith, who writes an incredible blog by the way, move from one house to another. My journey to just serve as much as possible began on week 9. Regardless of how tired I was, or what I may have wanted to do that was my choice, after that night in the Boulder Mountains, I decided that I was going to do my very best to never pass down a service opportunity. I figure God has done so much for me, its the least I could do to thank him. Throughout the week I kept telling Jan that we needed to do one final adventure before the new chapter in our life began. We went back and forth and it wasn’t until Friday that I finally decided we were going to go to Park City. Jan had mentioned that she had read about a family who set aside a weekend every year to introduce a theme for the year for their family. I loved that Idea and made sure that Park City would be the first place of the new tradition. I found the hotel (Marriott Mountainside Resort) that we had enough points for, which by the way is now in my top 6 favorite hotels of all time, and I was pumped. Jan and I packed up and got ready to leave around 4 pm. On our way out, my little sister Michelle, who just got home from her mission, was sitting on the couch just chilling. Her plans had fallen out and she didn’t have anything to do that weekend. My Dad was heading down to Grover and my Mom was out of town as well. Jan, Ellie and I took off and got about 5 miles down the road and both just felt that we needed to turn around and bring Michelle. I’m so glad we did. She played a key role in setting our theme for this year. Park City was more beautiful than it has ever been since I’ve lived in Utah. We walked in and the hotel had EXCELLENT VIBES. Everything was falling into place for a perfect theme setting weekend. We went and picked up our favorite pizza in Utah at Maxwells. YUMMMMMMM. We then picked up some treats, as well as some stuff for breakfast in the morning. We were set. We got into the room and turned on some shark tank, and just ate like kings. After Shark Tank is when the magic began. We got in our PJS and everyone pulled out there scriptures. We started going through scriptures and talking about them. One of us would find a good scripture candidate for the theme and the other would say “OH I LIKE THAT”. If everyone liked it, it made the final consideration list. There ended up being such a great feeling in that hotel room. We found one that we thought was the winner. Seriously, game.set.match. Thank goodness Michelle was there though. Right before we were wrapping up our discussion, Michelle came through in the clutch with Mosiah 7:33. WINNNNNNNEEEERRRR. The first annual Clark Family Refresh, Relax, Restart weekend turned out better than I could have ever expected.Talk about Rejuvenation. Talk about an amazing Retreat. So the scriptures in Mosiah that became our theme until Fall of 2015 says:

But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

That’s it! That’s how Jan and I will get through some tough cards there were dealt our way. We need to turn to the lord with full purpose of heart, which to me means two things. 1. Pray with full purpose of heart 2. Instead of adjusting ourselves to what we may think other people want us to be, we need to have the lord be who we turn to as an example. We can do this by applying what his prophets and apostles tell us to do, which is direct revelation from him. And we can continue to check and readjust ourselves at the temple.

Putting trust in him: This to me means that we trust that everything is for a reason and that he will never leave our side. I also think it means that we need fear god over man. I’ll get into that at the very end.

Serve him with all diligence of mind: You serve your fellow beings, you’re serving god. It’s that simple. Just serve.

Deliver you out of bondage: Every single person goes through times of being in bondage. Just do the first three things in this scripture, and he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out. Just gotta do the first three things. It’s not easy. Its possible though.

So Saturday we had our great friends the Diehls come up for breakfast. Talk about people who just get it, they serve serve serve and are so happy and blessed for it. That night we got home and I was able to apply the previous 2 weeks of spiritual awakening to an event that impacted our family in a big way. I was able to give my Dad a blessing. I won’t go into details but i will say that few times in my life have I felt so close to heaven. I think I got more out of it than my dear Dad.

Sunday was testimony meeting. I sat there and listened to so many incredible testimonies. As I sat there, my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my mouth on to the floor and run up to the pulpit itself. I had gained such a testimony is so many things, and had experienced the Joy and redeeming love that Alma takes about in Alma 5. I got up and just shared what was on my heart. I also learned that my tear ducts did indeed work. I felt so much peace. I think bearing our testimonies is one of the best things we can do for ourselves, which without us really knowing it, benefits so many others.

Week 10 – My first week of work. I will get into details about what I’ve been doing on the work side and why I loved it so much, but I want to end with one last thought. It may end up being a long thought, but if you’ve gotten to this point, and haven’t learned that I love to write everything on my mind, then I guess you’re just slow. Ok, you’re not slow. You’re just not a quick learner. 🙂

So here is my last thought. It’s about the perspective I’ve tried to have since day one of my job:

We live in a world that teaches us to be closed and somewhat non trusting. We live in a world where we hold back sharing how we feel. We live in a world where a compliment to a stranger feels super weird. We live in a world where we are not grateful enough. We live in a world where the majority of the people in it do not like to leave their comfort zone even if it will help them grow and be happier. We live in a world where improving is what you do when you’re a teenager or in college, but after that, we start getting stuck in our ways and stop trying new things out. We live in a world of first impressions and quick judgements. We live in a world where we don’t care to understand why people are how they are, and measure them against our perception of what we think is normal. Lastly, we live in a world where we fear man way more than we fear god. I love this world. I love the people in this world.

I asked myself the Sunday night before my first day at Qzzr, what type of person do I want to be. I didn’t want to be the guy that is in that world. I’ve been that guy who has been in that above world. It sucks. Its not fun. Its full of a lot of predictability and comfortableness. I don’t want to be comfortable. Ok I do, but I’ve seen some of the happiest people in the world, do things that are not comfortable. They serve when they probably are tired. They say hi to people at the grocery store that they don’t know. They trust people regardless if they’ve been burned before. They say thanks a ton. They share how they feel with people, even if it makes them seem or look weak. They do things that probably makes them feel super vulnerable. They try new things out that may be super hard just in hopes of self improving. They don’t care what people smell, look, or talk like. They look at people the same even if those people are nice or mean, introverts or extroverts. They ask innocent questions to seek to understand things they don’t know. They don’t compare people to some “average joe”. They care way more about what God thinks of them then what their fellow men think of them.

You know who those people are?

Children.

Mosiah 3:19: For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Thats the person I’ve been trying to be everyday at work and at home. Thats the person I will try to be for the rest of my life.

It has not been easy. HA

I have felt more vulnerable during this first month of work than I ever have in my life.

Writing this post and thinking about publishing it, is making me rage with vulnerability. FREAKING RAGE.

You know what though?

I’ve never been more happy in my life. I’ve never felt so free. Never

Three, Two, One. Publish

#bringitonvulnerabilityhangover

Part 1: The story of why I choose to work for Qzzr… and the many inspired moments/events leading up to it.

Steve Jobs once said “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

Three quick things about my new job at Qzzr.

1. I love what I do

2. I love what I do

3. I love what I do

I love my new job. I know many of you already probably know that from my 1029 page Instagram post a few weeks ago, but I really do. To defend myself about that post, my heart was so full of happiness and gratitude, that I seriously couldn’t contain myself. To be quite honest, I felt like I had to cut myself 10 pages worth of words short. And to be double quite honest, I didn’t really care to follow any “unwritten rules of instagram”.  I just felt like I had to share a happy moment with the people that I consider my friends and family, of whom I love dearly.  I hope that if you have happy moments in your life, you share them as well… regardless of the length, and regardless of what the “status quo” says you can or can’t do. Share because you care folks, and share knowing that I care. Cause I really do. Like seriously. Like I’m not joking. Like I really do love and care about my friends and family way more than they probably even know. #sharebecauseyoucare #andknowthaticare #imalsoscaredofbears #ihopeineverfalldownthestairs

So a little background into how this job came about, and then you’ll get to hear me ramble on why I love it so much. (Remember, my main goal of this blog is to have something in writing, (that my kids and grandkids can actually read due to my handwriting being called chicken scratch on more than 13 occasions) to get to know me better, and possibly learn my from mistakes and successes. I want to be as candid as possible, even if I feel super vulnerable afterwords. We are told to be authentic, and that is my goal with this blog. If those who read this end up talking mad crap or thinking worse of me, its ok, and I’ll do what Mother Teresa said and “love them anyway”.

Background:

It was about the middle of August and Jan and I were living in the Bay Area. We really enjoyed it there. Not as much as Austin… Not even close to as much as Austin, but nonetheless, we loved it. Some things happened, which I will go into more details about down the road, and Jan and I felt very inspired to move on from LimeLight Solar. It had nothing to do with money, it had nothing to do with not getting along with anyone, it had nothing to do with the any future success that LimeLight will or won’t have. It did have everything to do with a lot of inspiration/revelation as well what was best for our family. My mom had told me weeks leading up to this life change, that her and my dad “Never based a decision they were making on money, rather they based every big life decision on what was best for their family”. My Dad later told me with no regret in his voice, that had he and my mom based decisions strictly on money, he would be worth 10x what he is today. That advice was inspired and was exactly what we did. I didn’t know exactly why at the time Jan and I felt so prompted to move on, but the answer was real and it felt more right than just about any decision I had ever made leading up to that point.

So once the decision was made, their was no looking back. At 2:00pm that day, We packed up Ellie and a few pairs of clothes, and took off to Utah. Of course we had to stop at the greatest sandwich place in the history of sandwich places on the way out, aka Ike’s, but it was on to our new adventure. (We had a few thoughts on what we wanted to do, but really we had no idea what our future held.)

I told Jan as we were driving that I had some criteria that followed Steve’s Jobs Quote.

My Criteria for my next career.

1. If I was going to sell something, It had to be something I was extremely passionate about.

2. I would be totally happy to get involved with a start up, as long as they had a great team and/or great leadership.

3. I’m not going back to school.

So the Journey began and both Jan and I felt SO SO SO SO good about whatever was to come. On our way to Utah we played fun games such as “Jan’s and Jason’s Jepordy” and “expound please.” If you’re ever on a road trip and need some good entertainment, text me and I’ll explain the rules of both games.

As many of you know, Jan’s parents own two incredibly beautiful themed suite hotels in Idaho. As many of you know, I love hotel. Like I love them. Like seriously, few things make me happier than being in a nice hotel. (If I was forced to be a brand, I would be Marriott.) After talking to Jan’s Dad, who is a brilliant business man, he was open talking about a plan for Jan and I to buy the hotels from him. After we went to Idaho to go talk details, we were bummed to hear that both Jan’s parents weren’t quite ready to let go yet, and still had years in them to do amazing things with the hotels. I’ll be honest when I say, my hopes were probably a little to high on that idea than what they should of been, but I knew that the decision Jan’s Dad and Mom had made was probably for the best. Maybe someday, just not this day.

So after a few days in Utah and a week in Idaho,  Jan and I got back in the car, and knew we needed to go get our stuff from California. We didn’t know where we were going to bring it, but felt it was probably best to just go back to Utah and move in with my parents until we figured out what I was going to do.

On the way back from Idaho to California, somewhere between Wendover and Elko, we all the sudden got super pumped for me to go back to school and get an MBA. We had heard from some friends that the Acton MBA of Entrepreneurship program was an amazing program and it totally fit my personality. Jan researched the crap of out it and kept getting more pumped and more pumped about the possibility of moving back to Austin. (Side note: I loved Austin, and will always love Austin. Jan LOOOOOOOVVVVVVESSS Austin and would live there for the rest of her life if given the opportunity).

So we get back to Cali and start the process of moving our stuff. During that process, I was able to talk to the great people at Acton and felt very good about going there. I was able to talk to one of my hero professors at BYU-Idaho who is also the Dean of the Business school and she just ranted and raved about Acton and said that If I went there, I would increase my chances of someday teaching at BYU-Idaho. (Side Note: One of my life goals is to teach Entrepreneurship at the University level. Someday it will happen.)

So that was the plan. I was going to go back to school and get my MBA. Only problem was, they didn’t start until February of 2015. It was August. hmmm..

Well, with the help of our great friends in California, we packed our stuff again, stopped at Ike’s on the way, and headed back to Utah.  (Jan claims that we’ve moved 8 times and lived in 5 states… It doesn’t feel like that many to me, but she’s usually right so I’ll trust her. 🙂 )

We got to Utah and moved the majority of our stuff in a storage unit until we knew where I would be working.

During those first few weeks back in the parents basement, I was in a major funk. I felt good about where we were and with the decision we had made to move on from LimeLight, but life just seemed super hard and i didn’t feel much direction on what to do. I started the long and slow process of trying to find a new job, and kept hitting road block after road block. As many of you know, I am a man that has a lot of energy and enthusiasm for life, and I was starting to go crazy with no where to put it. During that time, I was able to go to the gym with another friend who also was on the job hunt. If you were to ask me what those 6 weeks of my life consisted of I would say: Family, Fantasy football, and free weights. It was a weird weird time. One that I never want to go back to.

So after reaching out to loads of people, and hearing back from hardly anyone, I finally heard back from one that met one of my 3 criteria. The Utah Jazz! I went in for an interview and it went super well. The guy told me that I was a shoe in for a second interview. The position was in Group sales and I was confident that with how much I believed in that product aka how much I love the Jazz, I would be able to be a top salesmen there. They told me that their top 3 guys made over a 100k a year and thats all they needed to say. I had no doubt in my mind that with my skill set in sales, I’d make beyond that. Well.. The interview happened on Friday September 5th and I didn’t hear back from them on a second interview until Wednesday September 17th. They said to come in on the the 19th for a second interview in which I did. I met with the VP dude and they offered me the job. They said that I’d need to take a drug test aka pee in a cup and then they’d get back to me when the results came in which would probably only be 2 days after I took the test. I told them I would take it on Monday, and they said that was totally fine and that I should hear back from them on Wednesday. They told me I needed to go fill out some paperwork in HR and then I’d be on my way. I’ll never forget the feeling I had when they opened the door into the HR room. It wasn’t a good feeling. It was the feeling I would get when I walked into a class at BYU-Idaho that had over 100 students in it. CUBICLES for DAYS and DAYS and DAYS. It gave me the shivers. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. If I could have put on an invisibility cloak right there, I would have, and I would have dropped the new hire paperwork and run out the door into Jan and Ellie’s arms. For those of you who knew me in college, you knew I never succeeded in big classes. However when it came to a class size that was less than 30, and the teacher knew my name after the first couple days of class, I was ALL IN. I don’t know what it is about my personality to make it that way, but thats just me. I do so much better in more personal environments. I love connecting with people one on one and feeling letting people know that I truly do care about and for the most part, I feel they care about me as a human. I go through walls when I feel that.. Freakin brick walls! I signed the forms I was supposed to sign and took the pee test stuff with me and walked out of the arena feeling so freakin weird and empty. I had just been offered a dream job where I knew I could make great money and watch Jazz games while getting paid. Umm.. Yeah. IF that isn’t Jason J-Dirty Superman_0_5 Clark than I don’t know what is.

Jan and Ellie and I were heading down to Grover, UT that day to go help chop some wood for my Grandma, so they were waiting for me outside of the Arena. I got in the car and Jan will tell you that I was about as Happy as the grinch was before his heart grew. “So did you get it”- Jan asked. “Yup, sure”- I said in a Jason depressed voice. “THAT IS AWESOME!!!”- Said Jan.

At this point, I seriously tried my very best to be as grateful as possible and have a pioneers going up rocky ridge type attitude, but it didn’t take a physic to see that I just didn’t feel good about this whole ordeal. However, I knew that some work was better than no work, and I knew this would be a place where I could put some of my bottled up energy that I had been storing for a few weeks.

The following monday, I went to some shady drug test place of I-215 and pee’d in the cup and planned on starting for the Jazz that Friday.

Tuesday rolls around, nothing.

Wednesday rolls around, nothing

Thursday rolls around, nothing.

Friday rolls around, and you guessed it nothing. BUT and If I could make that BUT in 100 font, I would.

I got an email from my dear friend Nate Bendall. He had come across a job opening that one of his friends had posted for a company called Qzzr. The position they were hiring for was called “Tour Manager”.

The job description said the following:

All great bands need a great Tour Manager that gets them to the next gig, figures out logistics, double-checks on venues, manages the guest list, oversees load-in, runs sound check, makes sure the food is right, sets up merch tables, bounces stalkers, and collects the cash. Without the tour manager, the band can’t run a successful tour. 

At Qzzr, we haven’t written a hit record, but we have created a hit software platform and we’re on a tour of sorts to share it with the world. We need a Tour Manager who can help us manage this crazy growth and keep us on stage as much as possible.

Our ideal Tour Manager: 

• Was born to do this – literally. Since a very early age, they have enjoyed the innate ability to organize things, motivate people, and get things done.
• Always seems to be the glue that holds community projects or family reunions together.
• Has a close, personal relationship with the clock.
• Is personally offended when people are late or don’t come through.
• Uses spreadsheets to organize shopping lists.
• Creates elaborate itineraries on shared docs for family vacations.
• Probably has labels on things that don’t really need to be labeled…just because it feels good.
• Is normally the most competent person in the room.
• Could actually find a needle in a haystack.
• Writes in a way that expresses clear thinking and intent.
• Loves variety and working in a fast paced environment where things change often.
• Has experience in bookkeeping and finance management at small companies.
• Has most likely been a killer executive admin, teacher, controller, project manager, or an actual tour manager : )
• Would consider being called tech savvy an understatement.
• Embodies the Movement Values

A Typical Day:

• Come in early and get dashboard setup
• Check to make sure the cleaners got to everything last night.
• Confirm the on-site visitors for the day.
• Meet with Josh to prep him for the upcoming audit.
• Pull KPI stats from GA and Keen.io and update dashboard.
• Reconcile expenses in Quickbooks from prior day.
• Check on incoming bills and manage payables process.
• Send invoice to large customer X.
• Find out why Nate’s new computer hasn’t arrived yet.
• Follow up with new employees to make sure health insurance paperwork got signed.
• Find a backup service for our shared drive
• Figure out where the smell is coming from…then pester Jayden about it.
• Check on t-shirt orders delivery for upcoming conference.
• Line up interviews for the marketing role on Friday.
• Figure out who owns a valuable domain we need to purchase.
• Call the bank to setup a wire for site we purchased last week.
• Run closing docs up to attorney’s office.
• Hire a virtual assistant to enter all of the leads from the last two conferences.

Compensation: 

• Pay based on experience
• Stock package
• Generous benefits program
• Doing something important with fun people in a cool space.

About Qzzr 

Qzzr is a rapidly growing software company that allows people to easily create quizzes and share them with their friends and fans. Since we launched in early 2014, Qzzr has just exploded with growth with millions of visitors taking quizzes created by companies such as Yahoo!, ESPN, College Humor, CBS, Reddit, etc. We just closed a $2 MM round of funding to help us fuel our growth and we’re building the dream team to ride off into the sunset together.

We believe strongly in the power of stunning colleagues. Everyone at Qzzr is at the top of their game in their respective area. We find it extremely gratifying to work amongst a team of ridiculously talented people every day. Because of our discipline in only hiring the best, we’re able to do things most other companies can’t with our very small team. It’s an amazing place to work.

Check out this article that just got published on TechCrunch .

So many of you that know me, know I love sales and have always done very well at it. What you may not know is that I found the most joy in the company’s we’ve started in planning the retreats, getting hotels, putting together agendas, putting together dashboards, etc. Pretty much all things that are listed in the description of this position, I love to do!

When Nate sent this over, I thought.. Quizzes? Huh? Get out of here. No one is getting funding for being a company that makes quizzes. OH. YE. OF. LITTLE. KNOWLEDGE. AND. FAITH.

Nonetheless, after doing some research on this company and reading over the above job description over and over, I started to gain this fire that just kept freaking burning bigger and bigger.

By Friday evening, I had read the Qzzr about page probably 20 times and it just seemed like my type of company. Great leadership and a beyond great team. It was Friday evening when I had decided that I officially wanted to jump on board with this company, far more than working for the Jazz. It also helped that when I showed up to Lunch with a great friend that day aka Mikey Glauser, he happened to be mission companions with one of the Chiefs at the company aka Chief Qwizard Owen Fuller. Nate had been introduced to Owen by Mikey and I had no clue. I did however start to see that the man upstairs aka Heavenly Father did know and was starting to work his magic and answer my hundreds of prayers I had said leading up to that Friday.

The Job of Tour Manager was a position that the CEO Josh Little was in charge of hiring for. Owen had told both Nate and Mikey that I needed to apply online and that he would put in a good word because of their good words.

I did as asked and applied for the position that night. (Friday)

Monday rolls around and I now was hoping the Jazz would continue to drop the ball and not contact me. I also started to wonder if I had somehow failed my drug test even though I have never done drugs in my life. (Except for some Tylenol, Ibprofen and some pain pills after I had double knee surgery and my wisdom teeth out). I had heard that a poppy seed would make a drug test go off but I hadn’t eaten one of those in years. I did start to wonder that if the “Hemp Seed” That my mom had bought for my dads heart, that I had been putting in my green smoothies, had triggered a failed drug test. Monday rolls around and nothing. OH WAIT. I left out the best part. That evening I got an email from the great Josh Little asking me if “I fancy’d an interview”. Just from that subject, my desire to work for this company grew. I responded back and set my time for Wednesday afternoon. He made sure to emphasize that I do not dress up and that all he wanted to do was talk for 30 minutes and do his best to get to know me. Just when I thought that I couldn’t want to work with this company anymore than I already did, i was wrong.

Tuesday afternoon- The freakin Jazz start calling. Aww crap. Then they start emailing me. I made a plan that I would avoid responding or answering until Wednesday morning. That way, they couldn’t ask me to come in that day. I was not about to miss my interview with Qzzr, in which I didn’t have to dress up for. #mytypeofcompany

Wednesday- The Jazz emailed again  and said the drug tests and background check came back clean and asked when I wanted to start. hmmm. I didn’t know what to do. With the help of my wife, we decided I would just say that I could start the following Monday. He wrote back “Sounds good, its our first preseason game, so plan on a long day. Don’t forget to dress up.” #notmytypeofcompany. I knew going into the interview that If it was meant to be, it would happen, but if not, I would go serve my time, dressed up making good money for the jazz, which I wasn’t stoked about. I justified that I could work for the Jazz for 1 year and then I’d go to MBA school.

Well. I walk into the Qzzr headquarters in Lehi, UT and instantly felt so many good vibes. It was the dream set up. No cubicles. not one. Just a big open space, good music playing, and talented people everywhere.

Josh happened to be wearing a T-Shirt that had a Tuxedo on it. He gave me crap for not “dressing up” like he did. #mytypeofleader. I met Mikey G’s and Nate’s friend Owen for the first time and just liked everything I felt. Then something cool happened.

I go into the ping pong room, yes, the conference room table is a ping pong table. #MYTYPEOFCOMPANY and Josh sits down, but…. so does Owen. hmmm I thought. Why is the Marketing/Sales Chief in here. hmmm.

Well the conversation started and Josh had told me that he was very interested in hearing why I wanted to be tour manager when everything on my resume says sales ninja. He said that him and Owen had gone back and forth and questioned why I hadn’t applied for the job as a qwizard, which Owen was kinda in the process of hiring for. I told them I had no idea that a sales/marketing position was open, but that I was open to do what they feel would be best for their company.

The conversation went great. Like beyond great. I wasn’t one bit nervous and felt like I was able to connect with both Josh and Owen. A few minutes into it, and I felt like I had just gained two great friends. Such great people. Such freakin great people. Midway into the interview Josh stopped and said “This is the best interview I have ever been apart of”. That made me feel very good and I was beyond grateful for his kind words.

By the end of the interview, Josh had said he thought I would be great as a tour manager, but I really needed to go join the qwizard team and focus on the pro and enterprise sales. After hearing more about the vision they had for me, It honestly was my dream job. I felt like all the experience I had gained from the thousands and thousands of starting 3 company’s in 5 years, was finally about to pay off, and in a HUGE way. They told me they would talk about some final details amongst themselves but that I should plan on hearing from them about an offer soon.

I asked if there was anyway they could get me the offer by Sunday Night and they both said they could do that. I walked out of those doors, said the longest prayer of thanks to my heavenly father and then took off to SLC. Jan was in Idaho at the time so I called her and I think If my memory serves me right, I kept yelling the “awwwwsimbambwa” from lion king for like 10 minutes. I’ll have to have Jan comment in the bottom what I really did. I was so high in the clouds, I don’t even remember. Not fake drug Hemp Seed in my green smoothie high, but like happy high. 🙂

The team was headed to Hawaii that weekend for a week of Hacking and team bonding so I really didn’t think I would start till the following Monday but I wasn’t going to tell the Jazz I was out until I got an actual offer.

Thursday- I send a word of thanks to both Josh and Owen. No reply, No Offer.

Friday- Owen replies and says, you’ll hear back from us soon. A positive, but still no offer.

Saturday. No word, no offer.

Sunday- Still no offer and I was starting to wonder what I should do. So I tracked down Owen’s phone number and texted him. Didn’t hear back for a while, and then BOOM… The guy sends me a text and says that he will call me tonight to talk about the details of an offer. PHEW.. Kinda.. It still wasn’t 100% in my eyes but we were close. He asked how late he could call me. I told him I was a night owl, which I used to be, and that I’d be up till 1 AM. 12:30 AM rolls around. Nothing. 1:00 Am rolls around. Nothing. Then 1:10 AM Utah Time, Probably like 10 PM Hawaii time, Owen calls. An offer is extended. I had an email typed to the Jazz that I was not planning on sending until I was 100% sure that Qzzr was a go.  At 1:17 the Jazz got my email saying I was out. I was supposed to show up for work 6 hours later. 🙂 #atthebuzzer #johnstocktonsendstheutahjazztotheNBAfinals

Tuesday- A formal offer was sent Tuesday and it was very generous.

The following Monday- I showed up to Qzzr for my first day of work with so much happiness, gratitude, joyfulness, triumphantness.. pretty much every happy christmas song you know, that’s the mood I was in when I walked into work my first day.

And since that first day about a month ago, I’ve loved every day, every hour, every minute. And why that is the case…thats a story for another day.

To Be Continued.

PS- MBA school has been officially put on hold until Qzzr gets bought. I still however plan on teaching someday thought and hope that we end back up in Austin to go to school to qualify to do so.

Game on Diet

Game on Diet Rules:

The Honor System:
• Keep your own score with absolute integrity
• If you’re not sure about a rule, ask
• If you think you lost points you probably did. If you aren’t sure, run it by an opposing team member.

The Weigh In:
• Weigh yourself on the morning you start the game, within 10 minutes of waking.
• Normally, you are supposed to lose 1 percent of your body weight per week. We are doing a weigh loss goal for the whole game. However, this must be at least the 1 percent per week amount. So, if you weigh 150 you would normally have to lose 1.5 lbs per week. So for this game you’d have to lose at least 6 lbs. But, you can set a higher goal if you’d like.
• If you weigh yourself more than once a day, you lose one point for every extra time you get on the scale.

Food:
• Eat three to five meals a day. Use your palm, fist, and thumb to determine portion size. (palm=lean protein, fist=carb, thumb=healthy fat). If you do 5 meals per day, do the palm, fist, carb portions. If you do three or four make the portion sizes bigger.
• Eat a lean protein, a healthy carb (whole grains, no white flour and no refined sugar), and a healthy fat with each meal. Do not skip any part of the meal.
• A fruit is a carb
• Eat F.Y.T. foods. Don’t eat F.L.A.B.B. foods.
• You may eat as many leafy green vegetables with each meal as you desire. This is in addition to your carb/fruit portion (not in place of it.)
• You must have two fist sized portions of vegtables to at least two meals a day.
• Read ingredients lists carefully.
• Eat “whole” foods – whole grains, fruits, vegetables – as much as possible
• Between meals, you may snack on celery and cucumbers without penalty. Eating anything else between meals incurs a snacking penalty. (loss of 20 points)
• If you find that you are frequently hungry, add more vegetables to your meals.
• You may fast with no penalty. When you are done fasting you must have normal game meals.
• You may not eat dried fruit or drink fruit juice.
• NO SODA. Only during your meal off or on your day off. Even diet soda.
• You get 100 extra calories of whatever you want every day. You can have them whenever you want (they don’t have to be with a meal).

Exercise:
• Putting your body in motion for 20 minutes a day is worth 20 points.
• It is all or nothing. If you exercise 19 minutes you get 0 points. You don’t get bonus points for exercising longer.
• Do whatever fits into your life. Just do something that makes your breath/heart rate speed up.
• Take a day off

Water:
• Drink a minimum of 3 liters of water per day to earn 10 points a day
• You get one day off from the water rule.
• Feel free to drink extra water, but you don’t get extra points.
• If you miss any you can’t make it up the next day.
• Drinking it early helps a TON. Plus it helps you not get up 54323 times a night to pee.
• Tea, soda water, etc. don’t count as your water.
• No crystal light or any other flavorings. You can add lemons, limes, or other whole foods to flavor your water.

Sleep:
• Seven hours of sleep equals 15 points.
• You don’t have to be ASLEEP. You just have to be in bed trying. You cannot be on your phone, reading, playing games, etc. You must be laying there with your eyes closed TRYING to sleep.
• Getting up to pee or whatever doesn’t make you lose points. But just get back in bed asap.

Habits:
• Eliminating an unhealthy habit is worth 10 points per day.
• Integrating a new healthy habit is worth 10 points per day.
• If you change your habit mid-game, you lose 50 points.
• Pick a habit that you want to transform, not something that others think you should change.
• It has to be measurable. (ie, read scriptures for 10 minutes per day as opposed to reading scriptures)

Diet Soda/Artificial sweeteners
• No soda or diet soda is allowed during the game except on days off and meals off.
Day Off/Meal Off/Extra 100 Calories:
• You get one day off a week from all aspects of the game
• Your food day off can be different from your water day off, which can be different from your exercise day off, etc.
• You get one long meal off a week as well
• You may consume 100 calories of whatever you want – except alcohol, soda, or diet soda – each day.

Communication:
• You must communicate with a team member and an opposing team member every day.
• This can be over Facebook, email, text, in person, phone, etc.

FOOD LIST

CARBS: (eat a fist sized portion from the carbs or fruits list with every meal)
• Amaranth
• Barley
• Beans
o Adzuki
o Black
o Black-eyed
o Broad
o Butter
o Fava
o Garbanzo (chick peas)
o Kidney
o Lentils
o Lima
o Mung
o Navy
o Pinto
o Soy
o White
• Bran (whole grain)
• Bread (whole grain)
• Buckwheat (whole grain)
• Bulgar (whole grain)
• Corn
• Crackers (whole grain)
• Leek
• Milk
• Milk – soy
• Millet (whole grain)
• Oatmeal (whole grain)
• Palm hearts
• Parsnips
• Pasta (whole grain)
• Peas
• Potato (baked)
• Potato (sweet)
• Pumpkin
• Quinoa (whole grain)
• Rice (brown)
• Rice (wild)
• Rye (whole grain)
• Taro
• Tortilla (whole grain)
• Yams
• Yoghurt (fat-free)

FATS (eat a thumb-sized portion with every meal)
• Avocado
• Egg yolk (one)
• Olives
• Nutt butters
o Almond
o Cashew
o Peanut
o Sesame
o Sunflower
• Nuts (dried/raw)
o Acorns
o Almonds
o Beechnuts
o Brazilnuts
o Butternuts
o Cashews
o Hazelnuts
o Hickorynuts
o Macadamias
o Peanuts
o Pecans
o Pine nuts
o Pistachios
o Walnuts
• Seeds (dried)
o Flax
o Pumpkin/squash
o Safflower
o Sesame
o Sunflower
• Oils:
o Fish oil
o Flaxseed oil
o Nut oils
o Oil spray (pam)
o Olive oil
o Udo’s oil
o Vegetable oils

PROTEINS: (eat a palm sized portion with every meal)
Dairy (low fat or fat free)
• Cheese
o American
o Cheddar
o Cottage
o Cream cheese
o Feta
o Mozzarella
o Quark
o Ricotta
o Swiss
• Egg whites
• Greek yogurt
o Flavored kinds count as protein and carb
Fish
• Anchovie
• Catfish
• Cod
• Flounder
• Hake
• Halibut
• Mackerel
• Mahi mahi
• Perch
• Salmon
• Sardine
• Snapper
• Sole
• Swordfish
• Tilapia
• Trout
• Tuna
Meat (lean only)
• Beef, ground
• Buffalo
• Chicken breast
• Duck
• Kangaroo
• Lamb
• Pork tenderloin
• Steak – eye of round
• Steak – flank
• Steak – top round
• Steak – top sirloin
• Turkey bacon
• Turkey breast
• Turkey, ground
• Venison
• Wild game meat
Seafood
• Crab
• Lobster
• Mussels
• Octopus
• Oysters
• Scallops
• Shrimp
• Squid
Vegetarian (low fat)
• Seitan
• Soy foods
• Tempeh
• Tofu
• Veggie burgers

SWEETENERS use sweeteners very sparingly!)
• Agave nectar
• Honey
• Pure maple syrup
 
VEGGIES (add at least two fist-sized portions to at least two meals each day. You may eat unlimited greens (asterisked) with all of your meals)
• Alfalfa*
• Artichoke
• Asparagus*
• Bamboo shoots
• Beans (green)*
• Beetroot
• Broccoli*
• Brussel sprouts*
• Cabbage*
• Carrot
• Cauliflower
• Celery*
• Chard (swiss)*
• Chinese cabbage
• Collards*
• Cress
• Cucumber*
• Eggplant
• Endive*
• Fennel*
• Gourd
• Kale*
• Lettuce*
• Mushroom
• Okra*
• Onion
• Peas (snow)
• Peppers
• Pumpkin
• Radish
• Seaweed (kelp)*
• Spinach*
• Squash (summer)
• Squash (winter)
• Tomatillo
• Turnip
• Watercress*
• Zucchini

FRUITS (eat a fist sized portion from the carbs or fruits list with every meal)
• Apple
• Apricot
• Banana
• Blackberry
• Blueberry
• Boysenberry
• Cherimoya
• Cherry
• Clementine
• Cranberry
• Currant
• Date
• Durian
• Fig
• Gooseberry
• Grape
• Grapefruit
• Guava
• Huckleberry
• Jack fruit
• Kiwi
• Kumquat
• Lemon
• Lime
• Loquat
• Lychee
• Mandarin
• Mango
• Melon
• Mulberry
• Nectarine
• Orange
• Papaya
• Passion fruit
• Peach
• Pear
• Persimmon
• Pineapple
• Plantain
• Plum
• Pomegranate
• Quince
• Rambutan

Dear Ellie,

Dear Ellie Grace,

What a three weeks it has been. You my friend have changed my life. Happy three-week birthday by the way. To celebrate this great day, I am going to write you a letter. More than that, I am going to start a tradition of writing you a weekly letter up until your 18th birthday. For now, I will be posting these letters on my blog that hasn’t been updated in over a year. Maybe in the future, I will be able to just talk to a robot and he will type it out and print it off into a monthly book. ☺
There are three things I want to accomplish within these letters. I want to tell you what I loved about you, I want to tell you what I loved about your Mom, and last I want to let you in on what’s been going on in my life. My hope is that as you read these, you will be able to reference these letters to get to know yourself better. I also hope that you will get to know your Mom better. She will be an incredible example for you throughout your entire life. If you can become like your Mom, you will be one awesome Chica. Lastly, I hope that you can get to know a different side of your crazy Dad. Many people don’t know how I function or why I do things the way I do. I’m often misunderstood. I have a feeling though, If I can stay consistent with these letters, they will influence not only your life, but many throughout the world. Just know however, they are first and foremost for you. I love you, and here is why…
I loved the second I saw you for the first time. Your eyes were wide open and you had the most blonde hair that any of the nurses had ever seen on a newborn. That blonde hair has stolen the hearts of many. You almost feel like a celebrity. I loved holding you for the first time. You looked up at me and just stared at me for like 10 straight seconds. From the second I held you, I felt that there was something extremely special about you. You felt angelic. Many other people have also felt that same thing. I loved your little ink footprints. I loved how well you slept the first night. I loved how good you were for your grandma Liz. I love that you are an extremely easy baby to get calm. If your crying its either because you are hungry and want some groceries, you are cold, or want to be walked around with. I have loved loved loved when you smile. I know now because of you that angels smile. I loved going shopping with you for the first time 6 days after you were born. We went to Buy Buy Baby. Everyone in the store that walked past you literally stopped in their tracks to look at you and your famous blonde hair and perfect little face. I loved in that first week ,when you had your days and nights mixed up, when you and me would go down stairs and watch Jimmy Fallon and you would fall asleep on my chest. I loved that even though I left you 10 days after you were born, that when I would facetime, you still recognized my voice and would smile. I loved that you were so good for your Mom and Aunt Holly while I was gone. I loved that when I got home from my eternal business trip, you were still the sweet angelic girl when I left. I love your double chin. Lastly, I love that when you are being held, you loved to be walked around. You will soon learn that I love to pace around. It makes me feel like I’m the perfect dad for you. I just love you little Ellie Grace.
You know who else I love? Your Mom. She has been an absolute rockstar. If you can read this, you should stop reading this and go give your mom a hug and tell her thank you for giving birth to you. Your Mom worked so dang hard for you. I’ve never seen anyone in my life work so hard for something. She wanted to give up, but the angels in the room that day wouldn’t let her. She didn’t sleep for 2 straight days leading up to your birth. You took your sweet time, but that’s why I believe you are so beautiful. I’ve never seen such love in my life than I did when your Mom held you for the first time. Have I told you that there is something about you miss Ellie Grace? It’s a real thing. You are destined for some big things. Your Mom and I both feel it. Over these three weeks, your mom has fed you, fed you, and fed you again. She has woken up about every 2 hours for 3 straight weeks to feed you. She has let me sleep more than I probably should.. all for you. When I left to California for 9 days, your mom went from having a lot of help to no help all in one day. She handled it like a champ. She may think she didn’t, but I promise she became an even more talented rock star in those three days alone, before her sister came, than anyone I have ever seen. When your Aunt Holly came, your Mom continued to amaze me. She knew how much I had on my plate and found ways to make my life easier. When I came home after 9 long days, your Mom had you fed, calm, and happy for when you two picked me up. She was also totally cool with me sitting in the back of the car with you and hold your hand. That’s unselfishnessness in its finest form. I’ve been home two days now and your Mom has figured out so many better ways to take care of you than she did before I left. She has figured out how to hold you to help you stop crying. She has figured out how to keep you calm in the car when I need to get out and go on a drive and get a donut. Your Mom is one patient woman. When I go on these long business trips, I usually need a day to recover and your Mom has made my recovery time so nice even though she needs more of a recovery than I do. Life is crazy right now yet your Mom still supports me through whatever new State I’m about to take her too. Your mom is one of the best friends anyone could ask for. In our short time in Texas, she has made so many lifelong friends that will miss her so much. Its not easy to leave people and a place you love, but your Mom has my back more than she has her own and trusts me more than I probably deserve to be trusted. Not many Mom’s would be cool to pack up and leave 1 month after they had there baby. Most Mom’s aren’t rockstars though. ☺
On one of the first dates I ever had with your Mom, I told her that if we ever had baby’s together, I would not be in the delivery room. You see Ellie, I am a softie when it comes to needles, blood, birth, etc. I hold the record in one doctors office for passing out the longest for a little shot I needed before my mission. When we had the consultation at the place you were born, the lady talking to us could tell that I was going pale and beginning to sweat. Just talking about your birth was making me feel weak. Your Mom, and many others, including myself thought there was no chance that I’d be able to be a good support for your mom when she gave birth. For some reason though, when your Aunt Emily did your gender ultrasound, I had a feeling that I would do just fine and I’d perform the way Jan needed me to perform. Now to the 44 hours of Labor that your mom went through until you cried for that first time. When we showed up to the birthing center at midnight the 20 hours before you were born, the midwife, who your mom wasn’t very fond of, sent us home because Jan wasn’t quite where she needed to be. Your Mom was having minute long contractions less than four minutes apart. That whole night I stayed awake with her and timed her contractions. It probably helped that I made your mom stop on the way to the birthing center, the first time, to get me some caffeine. My addrelinane was totally kicked in. I was a man on a mission. Your mom and I went back in at 6 AM that morning and she had only progressed a little farther but the Midwife told her that we could stay. A couple hours later, your Mom’s favorite midwife showed up, and the rest was history. I figured out that my calling for your birth was to be the cold wash cloth guy. For about 12 straight hours I made sure that your mom didn’t over heat. I had a bucket full of ice water and an unlimited supply of wash cloths. The nurses later told me that we completely emptied all the ice in the whole building. ☺. At about 1 PM your mom and I were both so tired. Your mom wanted to give up. Your Grandpa Clark was in town and I knew your Mom needed a blessing. After the blessing, a peace filled the room and I knew everything would be ok. Your mom was able to take a muscle relaxer that allowed her to sleep for a good 2 hours. I too was able to take a quick 45 minute power nap. When I woke up, I had so much energy. I sat on a chair while your mom slept. For the first time in 2 years, I didn’t think once about work, for the first time in 2 years, I didn’t think once about sports. It was therapeutic. I began texting my core group of 5 friends while your Mom was sleeping. Apparently I wrote some poems, was extremely witty, and texted back faster than I ever have in my life. Your Mom woke up and had a new energy about her. It was game time. She began progressing a little faster than she had the previous 24 hours. By 5:30, her contractions were speeding up, yet she wasn’t in as much pain as she was during the first 24 hours. She was one strong lady. I stayed on wash cloth duty and made sure to pat her face and head with ice cold wash cloths. 7:30 hit and it was the 4th quarter. I was in a zone. Your mom was in a Zone. We were blessed with some incredible nurses and Midwives. It was an absolute dream team in that room. At 8:06, you were born. You were beautiful. Your Mom looked like she was floating. She was so happy. I was so happy. I will never in my life forget the first ten minutes of your life. It was magical. I will also never forget going out to the waiting room and seeing your Grandma Liz, my Mom, for the first time. I lifted my arms in the air like I had scored a soccer goal and said, we did it! I then found out my tear ducts were broken and gave your Grandma Liz the best hug I ever ever given since your Mom and I got married. A little while later, your Grandpa Clark showed up and we all waited in the waiting room for a little while. Then it was time to show you off. Between the nurses, your Clark grandparents, and your Mom and Dad, we all agreed that you were one of the most beautiful babies that has ever been born. Jan and I took you home about 6 hours later and the three of us slept like champions for a good 5-6 hours. That first Sunday was awesome. It was so fun to hold you. It still is. Ever since then you have been breastfeeding like a champion. You have been one amazing Baby. Now to some other highlights over the last three weeks. I won’t go into as many details as I did about your birth. Your Grandma Liz and Grandpa Clark were in town until Tuesday Morning the 29th. Your Grandma Liz was able to hold you for a good hour before her flight left early in the morning. That night your other Grandparents came into town to hold your sweet angelic self. They stayed for 8 days. In those eight days we just had a lot of adore Ellie time. I had a lot of work to do so I will forever be grateful for how much they helped around the house as well as how much they loved and took care of you while they were here. One night your Grandma Fisher was cooking meatloaf and your Grandpa Fisher suggested that me and him go to Rudys for dinner right as the meatloaf was being done. It was like he was inspired because Im not the biggest fan of meatloaf. I accepted his offer faster than an ATM shoots out the cash. We were able to talk business which is always something I love doing with your Grandpa Larry. When your Grandparents went to San Antonio for 2 days, your Mom and I continued to love you to death. During that week, I also had a life changing experience at work that I will talk about in a later post down the road. Because of that experience, I have never felt more confident than I do with the path I am on as far as work is concerned. I feel like a better person because of that experience and I feel I was able to help the company I love out in a way that not many people could do. On Wednesday May 7th, I flew to Oakland California for my 9 day business trip. You see Ellie, right now LimeLight Solar, which is a business your Dad started with 2 of his friends, is growing faster than I could have ever imagined. If I let it, which sometimes I do, It can consume 18 hours of my time every day. Your Uncle Christopher and a great friend who also works with LimeLight picked me up and I was one tired man. I was so sad to leave you. I went to bed that night at about 1:30 AM because I couldn’t stop looking at you. I had to wake up at 4:00 AM and you are your mom took me to the airport. While in California I gained so much love and respect for so many people that are helping build this god inspired business. I had a blast in Dublin CA with your Uncle Bud and two other guys. The four of us laughed and worked our tails off for 4 straight days. I was able to go knock doors with so many talented people. In the 4 days I was knocking doors in the Brentwood, CA area, I knocked over 350 doors and found many many people that were interested in buying there energy cheaper and cleaner from LimeLight. I was able to go eat Pizza in San Francisco with Josh Van Orden and Sam Lewis and a guy named Justus and your uncle bud. The pizza was great but realizing that I was soon about to move to a city 40 minutes away from one of the most amazing cities in the world was even greater. Oh by the way Ellie, your Mom and I and you are moving to Dublin CA in two weeks. Don’t bring it up to your mom yet, shes still a little sensitive about it. ☺
I will never forget a great managers training with the great Jeff Jamieson. He is one of my business partners and everytime I’m around him I am blown away by how gifted and talented he is. He is a guy that could walk into a room and have you buying or doing whatever he wants you to. I will never forget sleeping in an apartment in the living room on a Mattress that was just brought back from Bakersfield, CA by Dave Diehl and Daniel Conner. I will never forget the conversation your Mom and I had one night. It wasn’t really a conversation, it was more me talking about my vision of the next 6 months of my life. I will write about that vision in a later post. The post will be called Ironman. I will never forget how much I learned about our sales process in those 4 short days. I will never forget the great conversation I had at IHOP with one the LimeLight Originals Eric. What a great dude. I will never forget being so tired Monday Night after going to 6 appointments and only 3 people being home yet finding a few others in the middle of it all. I will never forget the incredible feeling I got from going to Church in the ward your Mom and I are about to move into. I know we are supposed to be there. Tuesday morning I flew to our other office in San Diego CA. Your Uncle Dallin picked me up. On the plane ride over, I didn’t know how I was going to have the energy to do 4 more days of what I just did. The second I got into your Uncle Dallins car, he turned on the perfect music, rolled down the windows, and just like that I got my second wind. I was able to get to know so many incredible people that work for LimeLight. I loved being apart of the San Diego’s Team meeting with Thayne at the head of it. These guys are on track to doing big things. I was able to share my vision of where we were headed and then we went out and worked our tails off. Your Uncle Dallin and I were getting pretty beaten up on the doors and then showed up to a house with the number 666. We literally thought this would be the death of us. Turns out the guy was super interested. We found like 5 more potential sales in the next 2 hours. I loved staying in the same apartment as Casey, Jake, and Tyson. We worked so hard that day and played Tennis that night. It was magical. The next day I was able to witness another teams meeting. This one was lead by a great man named Elone. He is one of the most talented individuals I have ever met in my life. He lead that meeting better than any meeting I have ever been apart of. His team is full of legends. After the meeting I was able to help everyone with building some quotes. We were able to get some potential customers more savings than we thought. The feeling in the room was so enthusiastic. I then was able to have a good 90 minute heart to heart with Elone. That conversation will be one I will never forget. It was an answer to a prayer that I needed. It confirmed that the path I was on for this company was the right one. It gave me so much confidence that this company is going not only change lives but change the world. That night I needed to get away so I called up my good friend Tyler Gleason who is an old neighbor and who is a site surveyor for my company. I took him to Spiderman 2 and it was exactly what the doctor needed. There was a quote in there from Spidermans girlfriend that I want you to always remember little Ellie. “My wish to you is to become hope”. So many people need hope. If you can be that hope Ellie, you will have a great life. That quote recommitted me to be someone that gives people hope in more than just work. That next day I had the privilege of taking over the building customer packet duty. My business partner Nate who may be your future father in law, is on vacation and was usually the one to build these. I gained a lot of respect for him. These things were tedious and by the 7th one I was ready to throw my computer at a wall. Needless to say, It was confirmed to me that I am not a sit behind the desk type of a guy. I need to get out and be active to not go sain. I was able to go to an appointment with one of the guys and we were able to have a good talk about the gospel on our way home. The next day was Friday and our account manager from Sunnova was in Town. We had a training that went awesome. These guys now have the confidence they need to succeed. Bottom line Ellie, is that ever since you were born, I have wanted to work harder so that you can do some amazing things in your life. I flew home that day and I was so happy to see you. You held my hand on our drive back and I have been able to pace around with you over these last two days. Ellie. I love you. I hope you know that. I hope you also know that I love people. I am humbled by the stories of people around me. Sometimes when I think my life is hard, I always run into someone who’s life is harder and who still maintains a positive attitude. The Lord has blessed me and our family in more ways than you could ever imagine. On my flight home I came up with a vision until the end of the year. I am going to attach it to the bottom of this letter. Once I post this, I will think in the back of my mind that you will be holding me accountable. You are the last person I would ever want to let down. Thanks for being the miracle in my life that I needed. You came at the perfect time. I love you and your Mom so much! Until next week… (I promise the next weeks letters won’t be as long.. Ok I don’t promise, but I’ll do my best)

My Vision:

Financial-

Sell 2 Systems a week-

June- 8 Systems

July- 8 Systems

August- 10 Systems

September- 12 Systems

October- 10 Systems.

November- 8 Systems

December- 4 systems

60 Systems by December

300 KW By Jan 1st 2014

What I will do to get there-

I will knock 400 doors per week.-
I will be an enthusiastic, positive person every day
I will make follow up a top priority with every interested person I find.
I will ask for referrals with every person I meet.
I will set up 10 Appointments per week
I will attend at least 5 appointments per week.
I will close 10 KW per week minimum.

*This is just for me personally. I will also be helping everyone in the company sell systems and I won’t count that.

Physical-

I will work out for at least 1 hour per day.
M- Chest and Tri- Run
T- Back and Bi- Bike
W- Shoulders and Legs- Swim
T- Chest and Tri- Bike
F- Back and Bi-Swim
S- Shoulders and Legs- Run

I will lose 2 Pounds per week.
By November 1st- I will be 200 Pounds
I will be ready for the Triathlon on July 26th

Eating-
I will drink 2 liters of water per day
I will eat 2 cups of Vegtables per day
I will try avoid carbonated drinks at all costs
I will do my best to not eat out as much.

Travel-

I will go to Hawaii from Oakland with Jan and Ellie and 2 other couples sometime this year.
I will do my best to help all of my friends and people I love come visit Jan and I in Dublin and host them like celebrity’s.

Spiritual-
I will read the book of Mormon from Start to Finish by Jan 1, 2015
I will be 100% on home teaching starting June 1.
I will not look at my phone during sacrament meeting
I will attend as many service projects as I possibly can
I will magnify my calling
I will be a reacher outer
I will pray a lot more. My prayers will be more sincere.

LimeLight-

I will make sure I am setting the example of how to sell.
I will be the first guy in, last guy out.
I will make sure Social Media is being taken cared for.
I will make sure to send every single person in this company a present and note on their birthday.
I will slowly but surely figure out the best way to market our company
I am passionate about our customer service and want to make sure our customers are being cared for.

I will do my part in keeping our partnership unified.

Family-

I will make sure I keep my stuff more clean and organized at home.
I will make sure I help out with Ellie more than normal.
I will make sure we have morning and night prayers and read the scriptures every single day.
I will make sure we have family home evening every Monday.

Personal-

I will make sure I write in my Journal 1 per week
I will make sure I am posting a blog post at least 1 per week
I will text people back the same day
I will check my voicemail’s the same day and call people back the same day
I will read 1 book per month

Love what you do

This will be short: 

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. The word alone sounded so cool to me growing up. My Grandpa was an Entrepreneur and he always seemed so dang happy. Here’s a guy who could wake up at 3:30 AM every morning and have energy to go full speed all day every day! I’ve always wondered how he did what he did. I thinking I’m finally starting to figure it out. 

Steve Jobs said: 

I’m not to Grandpa 3:30 AM status, but I’m getting there… Slowly but surely! 

I love what I do. Its 2:23 AM. I’m debating what time to set my alarm for. Hmmm.. WTWGGU (What time would Grandpa Get Up?) 

3:30, nah. 7:45 it is (Slowly but surely) 

May anyone who reads this ask themselves if they love what they do. If you don’t, please go find it! 

 

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Cities

I love when people ask me “What are your top 5 favorite…movies, foods, restaurants, basketball players, etc?” I seriously love it.

Within the past month I’ve been asking people around me what there top 5 favorite places in the world are. I’m talkin places where you just feel in your freaking element. I’m talkin cities where you could live for the rest of your life if you were required to. I’m talkin places of revelation that elder packer talks about. I’m talkin… okay I’m done talkin..

After much thought and consideration at the gym tonight, (yup I”m two for two since watching that motivational video yesterday), this weeks top ten tuesday will be geared toward my favorite places in the world.

The List: 

10. A Tie Between Fruit Heights UT, and Idaho Falls, ID

Why Fruit Heights? 

If someone held a gun to my head and said “You have to pick one place where you will raise your family for the rest of your life and you can’t move, where do you move?” I would honestly say Fruit Heights, UT. Its 20 minutes from SLC,(Which I love by the way and apologize to it for not putting it on my list), its quiet, its full of incredible people and its one of the 3 places I have called home.

Why Idaho Falls? 

When I moved to Idaho Falls when I was 17, I immediately felt something special about that place. I know it doesn’t have much from a birds eye view but I just love that place. I love the air, I love the old downtown that has my 2nd favorite restaurant in the world (Snake Bite), I love the Edwards cinema there (weird I know but I really do love that theater), I love the Idaho Falls Temple, I LOVE the people, oh yeah…I love it so much I dedicated an entire top 10 tuesday to it about 2 years ago. Cheers to you Idaho Falls, you were a long shot to make this list but you’ve just treated me so right that I just felt that it was the least I could do.

9. Jackson Hole, Wyoming 

Why Jackson Hole?

For starters, there are few drives in the world that are prettier than driving through the Teton Pass to Jackson Hole. Its a place where the Clark klan has had 2 family reunions. Its the place where I had one of the most amazing memorable adventures of my life with great friends. (I see you Chris, and Brady) Its a place I worked a few days a month in high school and never wanted to leave. Its a place that is home to one of my top 15 favorite restaurants (Bubbas). Its a place that I leave with a new perspective on life. Every. Time.

8. Any City in Switzerland

Why Switzerland?

Really? Why Switzerland? Oh I don’t know maybe because it is the most incredibly beautiful country that god spent the most time on during the whole creation process. (See D&C 158 Verse 1) Maybe because i’ve never in my life met a swiss person who I didn’t want to become friends with.(Seriously they are the most brilliant, humble, smart, great at english people you will ever meet) Maybe its because in my 3 short days that I spent there, I can remember every piece of chocolate I ate (Shout out to you switzerland for the best chocolate in the world. Game. Set. Match), every place we drove, every swiss cow that I named as we were driving from one incredible view to another, every over priced Mcdonalds that we ate at (Just one), I could go on and on. Even though I may never be allowed back in, due to an outstanding 300 dollar speeding ticket that a great friend of mine got while driving a car under my name, I still have permanently saved a little piece of my heart for my most favorite country in the world. Ok, second. (USA, USA, USA)

7. Florence,Italy

Why Florence, Italy?

I had the opportunity to go on a european religious history tour during my sophomore year of college. I will dedicate an entire post to that experience another time, but for this post, I can honestly say that Florence was without a doubt my favorite city on that tour. The gelato over there tasted better than the gelato in any of the other italian cities we went to. The walk to Michaelangelo’s hill while the sun was coming down is something I wish every human being could do at some point in there life. I also loved the market thingy. I bought like 10 3 euro ties and got suckered in to buying a leather jacket that I was sure I got an incredible deal on but thats just how good those sleezy Italians are. The pizza was just my type of pizza and did I mention how good the gelato was? Golly.

6. Tie between San Diego California and Kauai, HI 

Why San Diego?

I went a road trip with a few friends a couple years back. I’ve been on a lot of road trips, but that road trip will always be number 1 in my mind. Why? Well, if you’ve been to San Diego, you know why. The weather, the food, the chill people, the beach, the sunsets, the city, going to a padres game for 7 bucks and sitting like 10th row, the shopping, the surrounding cities, the temple.. HELLO, just the feeling. Every city has its own feel, and there are maybe 1 or 2 cities who have mastered the “perfect feeling” city and San Diego is on that short list.

Why Kauai, HI?

I’ve been to Oahu, I’ve been to Maui, and I’ve been to Kauai. Someone puts a gun to my head and says “Best all around hawaiian Island that you’ve been too.. Go” Kauai gets the nod. Heres a place where a lot of celebs go because its one of the only places where you truly feel like you are a local on the island within a matter of days. Its quiet, its full of the greatest hikes in the world, its home to 2 incredibly beautiful Marriot resorts where you can sneak into the pool and hot tubs and feel like you are a member of the richie rich family, Its got the Napali Coast, Its got great golf at good prices, and you can get from one side of the island to another in less than three hours. I had a teacher who’s wife was some high up doctor. They traveled the world and he loved snorkeling. He would always tell us how great snorkeling is. When asked where his favorite snorkeling place is, he said tunnels beach in Kauai Hawaii. I second that opinion. Fortunately my Grandma and Grandpa have a house in Kauai that we’ve been able to take advantage of, and every time I fly into to that little airport in Lihue a smile is on my face and doesn’t come off until we pull into the airport for our traditional returning red eye flight. If you are ever going to Kauai, please email me and I’ll give you some incredible things to do.

5. Schwarzenberg, Germany

Why Schwarzenberg?

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Now for those that share the same love and appreciation for christmas, imagine your dream christmas town. If I were to speak for most, this town would be full of lights, this town would have special christmas food that warms you belly, this town would be one of the homes of where the nutcracker and other incredible christmas things come from, I’m also sure this town would have incredible festivities leading up to Christmas. Well folks, this town is Schwarzenberg Germany. I was able to serve in this cozy little town for 1/4 of my entire mission. Its 20 minutes away from the Check Republic border, its 2 hours away from the historic Dresden Germany and a little over an hour away from the miracle temple in Freiberg. Schwarzenberg translated into english means Black Mountain and is known for its rolling “mountains” which are really hills if you are from anywhere with real mountains. You won’t find better people in the world than you will in Schwarzenberg Germany. If I ever strike it big, I will take my family to Schwarzenberg for Christmas at least every 4 years. Thats cool with you right Jan?

4. Austin, TX

Why Austin? 

Not many people can remember everything about there life as a 7-11 year old. For some reason, I can. That reason… Austin Texas. Seriously, talk about a place that you go into and you leave not forgetting. This town has figured out how to bring and keep a culture to a town. Whether its the incredibly southern hospitality minded people, home of the greatest food in america, the place with the coolest greenbelts in america, home to a very “weird” but amazing downtown, headquarters of one of the greatest college football programs in the nation, or just home to the coolest putt putt golf course that I can remember as a kid (Peter Pan Golf)… Austin Texas is just one cool city. Its also 45 minutes away from two of my favorite co cities Fredricksburg, TX (A german settled city full of right on the money german food and pastries) and Horseshoe bay Texas (Which is a must go to resort if you ever have a couple hundred bones to drop). Yeehaw.

3. Grover, UT

Why Grover?

I’ll make this one quick. 10,000 lakes, red rock on one side, green mountains full of lakes on the other, no cell phone reception, home to grandma’s perfect cooking, great and I mean great 4 wheel trails, and last but not least my number 1 go to place of revelation. I love you Grover

2. Seattle, WA

Why Seattle?

One of my best friends did me the pleasure of marrying a girl from the seattle area and then getting a job and moving up there. This forced me to have to visit him at least once a year. Shoot. In my 4 trips to Seattle, I have yet to find a reason why I don’t want to retire there someday. You cool with that Jan? I love fish- Check. I love rain- Double check. I love water- Check. I love cool downtowns- Check. I love sports- Check, check, and soon to be check now that the sonics will be back in town. I love driving around and seeing cool things- thats the whole time in Seattle. Checkity check check check. Mckay and Ali, make room for Jan and I and our 20 kids cuz we be comin to Seattle in a matter of no time. Oh and Jax, my dear godson, you are my favorite little guy until I have my own someday. I got permission from your parents tonight to take you on trips around the world with our family and we will leave your mom and dad at home. Keep practicing that soccer, you gotta pay for my travel addiction somehow. 🙂

And the winner of my favorite city in the world is….

1. Park City, UT

Why Park City?

When I go to Park City, I feel free. I love feeling free above just about anything else. I don’t know what it is about that place. Maybe its the clean air. It might be home of my favorite bowling alley in the world (Jupiter Bowl). It probably has to do with the Canyons, Park City, and Deer Valley. It probably also has to do with being the home of my favorite restaurant on this planet (Ruths Chris). It definitely has to do with my love for hotels and being home to some of the greatest places to stay west of the Mississippi. (Waldorf, Silver King, St Regis to name a few). It probably also has to do with the fact that it has great places to shop for not a lot of money. It probably also has to do with the fact that it is only 15 minutes away from Midway, which is home to my top 3 favorite hotels the Zermatt, which then is home of one of my top 3 favorite golf courses Wasatch. It also probably has to do with Jordenelle being really close and having the option to go boating during the summer at a lake that doesn’t feel very crowded if you time it right. Another reason is Maxwells Pizza, another reason is sundance, another reason is main street park city. Its where Jan and I got our engagement pictures. Its where I choose to go for my birthday every time if I have the option. I just love that place. I really really do. I want to live there someday. When the guy that pulled  the gun to my head in the previous paragraphs starts to pull the gun out again to ask a life or death question, I will just say “Park City”. Why? Because there really is no downside to that incredible city.

 

An inspirational/motivational video that woke me up…

We had our Monday morning sales meeting today. One of my co-workers, (Parker Hackett aka a legend), asked if he could share an inspirational/motivational video to start the meeting.

Here is a couple things that you need to know about me:

1. I’m a sucker for inspirational videos
2. Good inspirational videos always inspire me to change my life for the better… Every. Time.
3. You know i’m zoned in on an inspirational video, when I get up from the couch and just start pacing around a whispering “lets go” under my breath.

This was a pace around video for the ages…

Just watch and then we’ll talk:

ummm… OKAYYY!

Now here are  my thoughts and some goals  that I spent the day compiling, after watching the above video.

The big 3…

Physically:

-I need to lose weight and get back in shape. (period)

How I’m going to do that…

My food plan: Game on Diet (The greatest, smartest, diet on the planet. Its not a diet, its a lifestyle change)
– Its fun, its competitive, you eat normal foods, you get days off, its just the real deal.

My Workout Plan: Just go to the gym
– I’ve committed to compete in the Capitol of Texas Sprint Triathlon on May 27th (98 days 7 hours away)

Spiritually:

-Read the scriptures and pray more! (Exclamation Point)

-I want to feast on the words of christ…
-I will feast on the words of christ.

-I want to pray more
-I will pray more

-I want to really serve in my church..
-I will serve in my church

-I want to read scriptures for a least 5 minutes a day with my girl
-You get the point. I will do that

Mentally:

-Learn how to be a better husband, friend, leader, co worker, brother, son, brother in law, grandson, etc; (Semi Colon)

-I’m going to read more. I know my A.D.D makes that really really difficult but I know I can do it, so I will. I believe if I’m working on the spiritual and physical parts of my life, the mental will be a lot easier.

-I’m going to read a book on leadership every month. This month I read Mark Cubans Book How to win at the sport of business. (That book will earn its own post later this week) This next month I am going to read start with the why by simon senek. I’d love and am open for suggestions via text, email, or just in the comments below.

-I’m going to not be such a fluke with my friends and family. I’m going to repsond to texts and voicemails the day I get them (Sound dumb, but it really is a weakness of mine).

-I’m going to write thank you notes and be more grateful to people that make an impact in my life. This was one of the top three things I learned from my mission and i’ve been a major dufus when it comes to this department.

Everything else:

Writing:

– I am going to write at least 15 minutes a day. I got my feet zoned, which deserves a post itself here pretty soon, and the feet zoning lady told me that I need to write at least 15 minutes a day to get rid of the daily stress of life. So I’m going to do it. Some of the writing my just be put in my personal journal, some of it will be thrown up on this playbook for my life.

Fun:

-I am going to watch and cherish the TV Shows I enjoy watching without feeling one bit guilty about it. Its one of my wife and I’s favorite things to do together. We love us some biggest loser, office, greys, shark tank just to name a few.

-I am going to continue to exercise my right to be a Jazz fan and cheer them on like they are going to win the championship this year until they lose in the first round to the spurs. (sorry fellow Jazz fans, its going to happen)

-I am going to get better at golfing this year. I am going to work my flipping tail off at work so that I can have enough extra cash to play this amazing but sometimes expensive sport.

-I am going to become a better bowler, basketball player, tennis player, and swimmer as well.

-I am going to continue to be adventurous. I love to travel. I freaking love it. It makes me so happy. So I am going to continue to find creative ways to travel the world and learn from other peoples cultures with the people I love.

Work:

-I am going to live sleep and breath what I do. I love what I do. Steve Jobs said “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” I can officially say that I love what I do. Its been one crazy road to get to this point but I am so grateful for my heavenly father for helping guide the way. I am extremely passionate at what I do and I’m not going to pull my foot off the pedal until I accomplish my goals. I am going to work my big butt off to help others succeed around me. This sounds cheesy and cliche but there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing the people around me pumped, happy, and successful. I am fortunately in a position where I can help others be those three things. When you are in the service of you’re fellow beings, you are in the service of your god. You serve god, you will be happy. Its that easy.

Last but not least I am going to be honest and have integrity in all that I do… Thats all.

Why I blog…

There are three reasons why I blog..

1. I write for my posterity . I want to leave behind something, that is not in my chicken scratch hand writing, that my kids and grandkids will be able to read someday and have a better idea about there pops/ grandpops. My father sets the greatest example of journal writing and I can not wait to someday pick up his 25 journals and see his perspective on our family’s life, as well as learn more about the incredible person and leader that he was. I feel an obligation to give my personal family the same privilege even if I am not as amazing and inspirational as old Marty Clark. For the record: I do not enjoy writing about myself.  However I feel that if I have the mindset of, this is something my great grandkid will stumble across someday and this could potentially help make them have a better perspective on life and make there day, then I feel much more joy writing about my often different self. Oh also, I know my Mom and Grandma’s and Wife enjoy hearing about how i’m doing, and that serves as a motivation to blog as well.

2. I write to honor the people that make a difference in my life. My “legend of the week” posts are my absolute favorite posts to write. They are the easiest to write and I’ve found myself not being able to stop because of the impact other people make on me. I love people, and I really love people that I know on a personal level. I have a life goal to write a legend of the week post about every single person that has helped make me a better person. If I haven’t written about you, have no fear, your post is just around the corner.. even if that corner is 4 years down the road.(Don’t forget that I get easily distracted and sometimes my posts will be 1 year apart 🙂 )

3. I write because I have fun when I write, and I love having fun. I am not a serious person. I am a yellow personality through and through.(42 yellow 3 red 0 blue 0 white)  I am my best self when I’m happy and when I’m having fun. My goal in life is to be the very best person that I can possibly be and heck if writing helps me be that person, than I’m just going to write without even thinking. Some of those writings will be about sports, some will be about life, some will be about business, some will be about the most random things you could ever imagine, but all in all I can promise you that If I am writing something for this playbook for my life, I will be having fun. If, as an added bonus, the things I share help inspire or help want to make others better people, than I am even happier of a camper. I don’t expect them too, but hopefully someday I can be an instrument on this earth that helps people just be happier and have more fun.

Now its time to actually practice what I preach to myself. I am going to just have some bleeping fun and be a much more consistent blogger/writer. Hopefully I will write more than once every six months. Im not going to promise anything, I’m just going to DO. 🙂

Why Sports Matter by Rand Sargent

I have read many blogs, articles, and listened to many podcasts about sports throughout my life. I can honestly say that this is one of the best articles/blog posts I have EVER read about sports and why they matter. I am so grateful that Rand let me repost this on lifesplaybook.

I encourage you all to go follow his blog at:

http://thedillyman.blogspot.com/

You will not regret it!  AMAZING!

Why Sports Matter by Rand Sargent

Lessons can be hard to learn. Some people call them mistakes. Others call those same things ‘learning opportunities,’ ‘stumbling blocks,’ or ‘stepping stones.’ In sports, those things are known as turnovers, fumbles, faults, gutter-balls, or bogeys. The important part of sports and of life is developing the character to stand in such moments with a positive outlook on life and a resolution to try harder next time. Life is sometimes unfair with regard to how we are treated. Luckily, most sports help us to realize that few things ARE fair. Often, we (or our team) are not the most talented player/team on the court/field/course. There are underdogs and favorites. Passes get tipped. Shots take bad bounces. Putts lip out. But the worst thing that can happen for our confidence and our character as individuals and as a society is to be given a trophy for simply playing the game. This serves no purpose other than a false sense of accomplishment. The true value of sports and their impact on life comes from knowing you did everything you could to win.

The integrity one gathers from playing hard and playing honestly, as a general rule, transfers into one’s own life. That’s the natural course of sports. If you want to cheat, go ahead. You are only cheating yourself. Others may never find out, but deep down, you’ll know.

To me, there are few memories more vivid than the time I spent with my dad and/or brothers at sporting events. I now watch my brothers with their kids going to Ute football games or Jazz games, and I’ve never seen kids so excited. I can hardly wait til I have kids old enough to do the same thing. “Just going to a game” means so much more in the eyes of a kid who is excited about spending time with their dad or brother. Sometimes it’s the small things that make the big difference.

I realized, after a great lesson at church, that we as a society have made a subtle, yet meaningful shift in how we raise kids. It used to be that we spent more time with our kids. We’d teach them how to repair the car, how to grow a garden, or how to balance a checkbook. Now, we balance the checkbook after buying them an iPad AND a car. Now, I admit, I was spoiled growing up. I got much more than my 6 older siblings received. I’m grateful for what I received, but I am even more grateful for the time I was able (and still am able) to spend around my parents and siblings learning from them. Among my favorite moments to this day are finding time to golf or do yardwork with my dad. We talk about sports, parenting, and life. I love it. I sense he does, too.

Too often, we measure our love for our kids by dollars instead of minutes, iPods instead of affection, and Xbox’s instead of family dinners. We can’t really expect our kids to be any better than us if we don’t do something different to cause a different outcome. That’s where sports can fill a void. Activities with kids, whether sports-related or not, can forge lasting impressions. I used to love even going to high school football and basketball games with my dad. Spending that time with him helped to shape me into who I am (unfortunately, I’m responsible for the rest of me).

After hearing this concept on Sunday, a realization hit me that I can improve quite a bit in this area. We don’t need to have the latest and greatest toys and technology to be good parents (although I do want that darn iPad). Instead of spending money on our kids, all we really need to do is spend some time with our kids. When my little girl comes to me with a book to read to her, I won’t always have that opportunity. Why not take advantage of it for the short time it’s available? One day I will wish that she’d come sit on my lap and let me read to her. My point is, whatever they like to do, spend some time doing it with them. And if they’re excited about going to a game, then take them. They’ll never forget it, and chances are, you never will either.

Sports offer a sabbatical from the mundane of everyday life. An escape from the stress, something to look forward to. But sports are more than that. Sports are more than a game. It’s about more than finding out who wins and who loses. Sports are, in fact, about development. One person, one moment, one experience at a time. Over and over again. It’s a process. Sports can refine a person. They can make enemies friends. But most importantly, sports can change lives.

And that’s why they matter.