Stuff I Learned Yesterday
About Stuff I Learned Yesterday
Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a podcast that aims to encourage, inspire, challenge, motivate, and improve the lives of those who listen to it. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is released each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode ranges from 5-15 minutes long and contain short stories based on real events and lessons learned by the hosts. Friday episodes are called the Friday Forum and are filled with inspirational and motivational thoughts submitted by Stuff I Learned Yesterday listeners. Submit your story for a Friday Forum episode by calling 304-837-2278, visiting our feedback page, or click on the Send a Voice Message button on the left hand side of this page.
221- It’s Time For Change
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Sitting on the couch in my living room right now are two little girls, friends of my daughter, Addison. One of the girls is named McKenna. McKenna has short, shoulder length brown hair. She’s currently wearing a blue dress with sparkles, and matching blue shoes. She has a blue beaded necklace around her neck. She has a cute face and you can see her teeth when she smiles.
Sitting behind her is a girl named Kelly. Kelly also has brown hair, but it’s much longer and reaches most of the way down her back. She also has a cute face and great smile. Her outfit is all pink. These two girls have been friends of Addison for years. In fact, there have been days where all they did was play together. They’ve gone on walks together, slept in the same bed, and made up stories together. Read More…
220- Friday Forum
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Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from George and Bonita. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page Read More…
219- Leaping Lizards
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A few days ago we attended a really great birthday. A good friend of mine had a joint birthday party for her son and daughter, and our entire family was invited to celebrate. The party was for a mixed age group, and there were kids at the party ranging from age two to age 7, and there were probably around 30 kids total.
Did I mention that this party was also a surprise for my friend’s children? It was! They walked into a room full of their friends, filled to the brim with balloons and party food. Their eyes lit up like Christmas morning as they entered the room from outside to find all of us there yelling “Happy Birthday” and each of the kids eagerly scanned the room to see which of their friends were able to make it there to celebrate with them. Read More…
218- Asking The Right Questions
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They guys looked confused. They pointed at me and said I had told them he drove a Mustang. My brother grinned at them as he told them that he did in fact drive a Mustang but had decided not to bring it that night. When the guys questioned who’s green Mustang was in the parking lot my brother lost his grin and ran outside.
217- Preparing for Impact
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Unless this is your first episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, you’re probably well aware that I spent nearly 19 years working at a local bookstore. When I first started with the company the store I worked at was about 12,000 square feet in size. About two years later we moved to a much larger location, that gave us a lot more space and opportunity. However, there were some nice things about the old smaller location.
After I’d been working there about a year I was promoted to oversee the Bibles and church supplies department. These items took up about two thirds of the back wall. We also imprinted names on Bibles, so I spent a lot of time at the imprinting machines. From my view at the imprinter, I could look down one of the two main aisles all the way to the front register and out through the front door. Read More…
216- Pushing Your Boundaries
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I grew up in a home that always had music playing. Sometimes it was my own radio, but most of the time it came from another source. My step brother loved heavy metal music, and everyone knows that you can’t listen to heavy metal music unless it’s cranked up to 11. So if he was listening to his music, we were all listening to his music.
My parents were fans of country music. Every morning as they got ready for work they would turn on one of the local country stations and fill the house with the steel guitar and fiddles. I’ve mentioned before that my dad is one of the very best Hank Williams tribute singers on the planet, so there were many times when our home was filled with the sounds of my dad playing his guitar and singing songs that Hank wrote. Read More…
215- Friday Forum
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Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Jeremy and Justina. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page Read More…
214- Resolutions and Revolutions
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You know how there are those moments etched in time, where everything feels clear and patent? This was one of them for me. I was sitting in Marin’s room, lit softly by a lamp as butterfly shaped shadows danced around me. I was cuddled in a sage green microfiber rocking chair, with both of my children on my lap, rocking and reading a book before bedtime. Clint came in to grab Jonas and tuck him into his bed, so I gave him goodnight kisses, and was left snuggling with Marin, before getting her tucked in as well. I smelled the sweet top of her head, and rested my cheek softly against hers, admiring her long eyelashes and rosy cheeks and lips as I gently tucked her dark brown hair back behind her delicate ears. I whispered a little prayer of thankfulness and wept, feeling so grateful for the family I had been given and so fortunate to have been entrusted to be these children’s mother. Read More…
213- Resolutions and Goals
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Now I’m sure you know, just like the majority of people out there know, that most New Year resolutions are not followed through with. In fact, the number I found is 92% of resolutions are discarded within 30 days of making them. And this isn’t just for New Years resolutions either. Almost every time you make a resolution without an end goal in mind you will probably fail. So what’s the point of making resolutions? The point is, resolutions are needed in order to reach an end goal.
212- Hitting the Target, Yet Missing the Mark
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Today I’ll be wrapping up my series on goals. I hope this series of episodes has been helpful for you and has inspired you to dream big for 2015. As I bring this series to a close, I’d like to share a different perspective on goals. I want to share a story that taught me that it is possible to achieve goals and still fail. How is that possible? It’s possible when we miss the point and focus too much on goals and not enough on the other things around us.
In the summer of 2002 I was offered a position within the bookstore chain I was working at that I had wanted for a long time. It was a job that dreamed about getting soon after I began working with the company 8 years prior. The position was the position of buyer. Read More…