What I've Learned From a Week Without My Droid

I absolutely love my Droid. Obsession almost. The navigation has absolutely saved my life living downtown Denver and I feel like I have the whole world in my hands.

Then, I dropped it in water last Thursday and my Droid died. Upon waiting for a new phone, I have experienced many feelings of loss and frustration:) This is funny coming from a girl who would purposely lose the cell phone her dad made her keep just so she could be "out of touch" in high school. The past few days I have had a lot of thinking time about what is important in life.

Throughout the day, I am constantly texting, calling, facebooking, surveying bank accounts, emailing, googling, and researching. My brain hurts just thinking about all the material I am seeing constantly. The last 6 days have been kind of refreshing. Today I was laying out by the pool reading "Chicken Soup for the Soul- Living Your Dreams" and I found an interesting statistic. Keep in mind, this book was published in 2003 so the statistics are outdated now. The book states that research has shown that about 90% of all our behavior is habitual and one of the worst habits Americans have is watching too much television. The average American watches six hours of television a day (this was in 2003, probably excessively more now!). If you are part of the average, that is one quarter of your life. So approximately 15 years of your life if you are 60!!! If you were to cut out one hour of television a day, that would give you an additional 365 hours a year, which is the equivalent of over nine 40 hour work weeks. THINK OF HOW MUCH YOU COULD LEARN IN THAT TIME...... OR HOW MUCH BETTER YOUR PHYSICAL FITNESS WOULD BE!!! I am proud to say I watch no television. I hope I never become a part of this statistic! However, my phone sure does take over a huge portion of my day! In fact, sometimes I feel like its my entire life. What if I were to take all that phone time and work on roping or training my horse? What if I were to actually read a book without getting interrupted by emailing and facebooking... or even work out hard without returning a text (yes, I am embarrassed to admit this:))

As a recent college graduate, I have been working on figuring out my life path and how to balance making money with finding a career I love and expanding my horsemanship knowledge. STRESSFUL. But I have found myself falling into the me me me trap. All I can think about sometimes is where I am going, how to achieve MY goals, how to carve MY own path, and what I can do to be successful and productive.

A story in Chicken Soup for the Soul really touched my heart and I probably looked like a total dork shedding tears by the pool today, but I didn't care. The story meant that much to me and made me realize what I have been missing out on in my life thusfar....

The man in the story recounted a Thanksgiving when his family had no money and no food and someone came knocking on their door and brought them a huge box of food, a giant turkey, and even pans to cook it in. The stranger said that he knew they needed help from a friend of theirs and that they had no choice and were going to take the box. The experience had a profound effect on the man's life as he grew up and he vowed that one day he would do well enough financially so that he could return the favor to someone else. He started his Thanksgiving ritual when he was 18 years old. He would buy food for a few families, dress up as a delivery man, then go to the poorest neighborhood and knock on a few doors. He always included a note about his Thanksgiving experience as a kid. All he asked in the note was that the receiver would take good enough care of themselves that one day they could do the same thing for someone else.

He and his new wife were in New York away from their families one Thanksgiving and she was really sad because she wanted to be decorating the tree and house for Christmas at home. He said, " Why don't we decorate some lives today instead of some old trees?"

The couple proceeded to buy several weeks worth of food and get a bus ride into the bronx to give food away to families who really needed it. They fed seven families for 30 days. They made a huge difference in people's lives on that holiday. I want to be a person that can help other people. I commit to doing something like this with my family one day. This kind of behavior is so rare and it is really sad.

Reading the book today also really prompted me to step up in a situation that I almost didn't take action in. A few weeks ago, my father met a woman on an airplane who has a daughter that just recently had her leg amputated because of cancer. This girl is 17 and was a highly competitive gymnast before the amputation. My dad told her that I had experienced some adversity in my life and that they should connect us to talk. This girl wants to get a prosthetic that will help her tumble again and also wants to do some motivational speaking. During my year as Miss Rodeo Montana, I had been the keynote speaker for SOAR (Students Organized Against Risks) and had spoken at numerous banquets and events.

The girl had emailed me and it took me a week and a half to get back to her because I felt emotionally frail and wasn't sure how to handle the situation. But we are corresponding now and I am really going to befriend this girl. I gave her some advice on how to get into motivational speaking and how to stay positive through difficult times. Reading the story today on helping others has got me thinking about how I can help this girl and be a good friend to her. I almost missed out on this opportunity because I was so focused on my own life and day to day meaningless activities and stress. I am excited for our friendship to progress and I want to find other ways to help people. So much of life is take, take, take, me, me, me, and I don't want to get sucked into that.

Well, the man in brown is bringing me a new Droid today. But I'm going to remember all of the lessons I learned away from my cell phone and work on being a more loving, unselfish, focused, and productive person! Have a great week my friends!!

"BREAKIN' NECKS and CASHIN' CHECKS" Cowgirl Profile: Wylene WIlson of Wild West Horsemanship

WATCH FOR THIS GIRL!!!

(Photography by Charles Brooks)

Wylene Wilson is making a SPLASH in the equine world! Not only is this chick hilarious and gorgeous, she is more of a hand than any man I've seen. It only makes sense that she specializes in colt starting!



Dubbed as "Extreme Wylene" because of her daredevil riding presentations and fearless competing style, Miss Wilson sure is building a reputation for herself. She has won Extreme Cowboy Races, Mustang Makeovers, and was just in an inspirational documentary about mustang trainers called "Wild Horse, Wild Ride". The film has debuted at many film festivals across the country and Wylene can add *MOVIE STAR* to her resume.



I met Wylene at one of her clinics in Arizona and she invited me to come assist her with a clinic in St. George, Utah. We had a blast and I learned a lot from her. I was blown away at how great the colts turned out. I have always started colts so slowly and with Wylene I was loping down the river wash on colts on their 2ND DAY! Her style and the way she builds confidence in horses is almost hard to believe!



Choosing Wylene as my first cowgirl profile was easy because she exemplifies COWGIRL! She can get the job done looking damn good! She wears makeup, hair glitter extensions, and a flower in her cowboy hat. Check out her website and youtube videos...It's a kick!!!

www.girlinprogress.com/wylenewilson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc4IMcfUyzQ

***Charlie Brooks, Wylene's friend and professional photographer is great at capturing all of the CRAZY moments:) Check him out at www.brooksphotog.com/ ***

"As Long As We Structure Our Lives in a Way Where Our Happiness Is Dependent Upon Something We CANNOT CONTROL, Then We WILL Experience PAIN."

Are you someone that allows the troubles of the world to affect your level of joy? Most people are. I read this quote in Tony Robbins' book "Awaken the Giant Within" and I realized how simple happiness could be. We all believe that we will have joy around the corner; when we open up our new business, or get married, or get a material item. This is false. This belief system will make you depressed. Ever wonder why rock stars and celebrities are so unhappy and headed to rehab because of addiction? Most of them have expected their success to bring them constant joy and when they reach the top they feel unfulfilled. They need Coke, Meth, and Ecstasy to flood them with endorphins. Tony Robbins suggests setting up your happiness so you're in control. Create and list by filling in the blank: ANYTIME I ____________ I FEEL GOOD.

If you ever start feeling down- grab the bull by the horns and do some of the activities on your list!!! Here are a few from mine:

LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT HORSEMANSHIP

READ MOTIVATIONAL BOOKS

SPEND TIME WITH MY DOG

WORK WITH YOUNG HORSES

DOIN' SOMETHIN' RANCHY:)

Here's a few more from my list...exercise. being a good listener, helping someone and expecting nothing in return. doing spin class. g something new. being positive. eating healthy and frequently. listening to music. hanging with girlfriends. getting dolled up. lighting candles. getting massages...

It's awesome if you can combine some of these together to get an extra boost!!! For example- this is dorky but I created a DOG WALKING MIX of happy songs on my ipod and combined listening to music with hanging out with my dog.

CREATE YOUR LIST and let me know how it goes:)

People usually Regret the things they DON'T do, not the things they DO...

I heard this once and it will be with me forever. To me the most painful experience in the whole world is thinking about myself as an old woman wishing I had experienced something that I was either too lazy or too scared to do. Do you want to be that person that lives vicariously through your children because you never achieved your own dreams? I saw that a lot in the pageant world when I was Miss Rodeo Montana. What holds people back from what they want to do deep down? I believe it is more discomfort than fear of rejection, even though both are common. It's uncomfortable to make the phone calls, write the letters, and put yourself out there when you are stepping closer to your goals. But the pleasure of long term success must outweigh the short term discomfort.

If fear is what holds you back, you must get aggressive with your goals. Rejection is great. It's an awesome thing because every time you are rejected and improve, then try again you are getting closer. I used to be worried to try things when I was training horses because I didn't want to make a mistake. One of Australian horse trainer Clinton Anderson's favorite one-liners is "Mistakes are good". Don't be scared to make mistakes. They will just make you better.

Don't be the person that looks upon others living their dreams with jealousy. Visualize yourself as an old grandma or grandpa looking back at your life. If you would say, "I wish I did that", go do it now!!! Err on the side of doing too much!