Category Archives: Liz’s Life

Some New Years Resolution for 2012

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I saw this post come across my newsfeed in Facebook and sort of loved every single point it made.

” 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself” 

Here were my favorites:

Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive.  But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.

Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.  Ask yourself this:  “What’s something I have that everyone wants?

Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.  Read Getting Things Done.

Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well.  You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears.  The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.

Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out.  But making one person smile CAN change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  So narrow your focus.

Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.  One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?”  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

Definitely food for thought as we head into the new year…

Do What You Love. Love What You Do.

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My generation (yes, I am a millennial. I don’t like to talk about it.) grew up being told a lot of things in relation to finding our life’s calling.

– You can do WHATEVER you want. Be WHOMEVER you want to be.
–  Find your passion and live it every day. The money will follow.
– Don’t settle for a career that you don’t wholeheartedly LOVE.

For some, these lofty aspirations have resulted in some negatives… failure to launch, discontentment in perfectly great careers and endless searches for that thing we’re passionate about.

But for others- the lucky ones – it’s helped us take the leap into a career that is so much more than a job.

Today is my one-year anniversary working at Vail Resorts – specifically at Heavenly Mountain Resort here in Lake Tahoe. It’s been without a doubt, one of the most fulfilling years of my life. I’m proud to say I think I cracked the code on this whole “finding a job you love and are passionate about” thing.

Now, I don’t want to make this post a long diatribe about how great my job is. We all know that is annoying. But I do want to highlight some of the things that make me love what I do….mainly because I have some people to thank.

1. The People. I really love the people I work with. Both here at Heavenly and and throughout the company. The relationships I’ve built here are ones of support, encouragement, collaboration and celebration. Sure we’re competitive, but we’re all on the same team when it comes to our end goals.

2. The Passion. Everyone knows you don’t work in the ski industry because you want to make a ton of money. The people in this company are here because they LOVE skiing/riding, the mountains, traveling and sports. It’s incredible what can happen when you build a company with people who have chosen to live their passions every day.

3. My Mentors. I believe you can only be as good as people allow you to be. I’m extremely lucky to have mentors here at Heavenly and throughout Vail Resorts who champion my career, who believe in me and who provide me with opportunities to continually grow.

4. The Innovation. I am a dreamer. Put me in a brainstorm, and I’m the one who can’t be quiet. I love thinking up a big idea and then bringing it to life. Thankfully my company values innovation and is always looking to “try some experiments” as our CMO says. Just check out www.EpicMix.com if you don’t believe me.

5. The Skiing. Duh. It’s hard not to love a job when you have something as fun as skiing in your job description. In fact, this Friday, the whole marketing team here at Heavenly is skiing together to “test the product.”

A year later, and I still think taking this job was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Special thanks to everyone at Heavenly and Vail Resorts for making this year “Epic” for me!

A Man of Grace

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Yesterday was my guy’s 30th birthday. Leading up to his day, Luke told me repeatedly that he didn’t want a party or special trip, but that spending the day skiing with me was what he wanted to do.

I felt like I probably should have made a grander effort to celebrate his birthday beyond just a normal day skiing together, but between my crazy work schedule, recent travel, hosting Thanksgiving and helping my sister prepare for the birth of her first child, I just didn’t have time to plan anything.

Well yesterday,  we drove to Heavenly for our “special” day of skiing together. It was going to be even better because Luke’s brother and sister were already up there getting a lesson. When we got to the front of the line and had our passes scanned, we were told by the ticket scanner  “all employees and dependants are restricted from skiing today because of holiday crowds.”

I couldn’t believe it. I totally knew about this restriction, but for whatever reason had convinced myself it ended on Saturday. With everything going on the past week I totally spaced on double checking if we were in fact allowed to ski or not.

Luke was clearly disapointed and I felt just terrible.

After lugging our stuff all the way back to the car, we headed home. Sitting in the passenger seat, I thought about everything Luke must have felt right then. “It’s my 30th birthday and all I wanted to do was ski. Why didn’t she plan this better? Now my birthday is ruined. Am I not important to her?”

I put so much pressure on myself to give 100% to so many things – work, holidays, family – that I ended up letting down the one person who should come above everything else in my life.

My eyes welled up with tears and right when I expected Luke to say he was angry, he took my hand and said “It’s okay babe. It’s nothing to be upset about. We’ll have plenty of time to ski together. You’ve taken on a lot lately and I’m really proud of how you’ve handled it all. Don’t worry about today at all.”

He held my hand the rest of the 45 minute drive home reassured me until me tears were dry.

In that moment, I felt incredibly blessed to be able to love this man for the rest of my life.

Happy birthday Luke. You are the most important person in my life and I cherish our love above all else. Thank you for all the times you lift me up. I love you forever and always.

I’m Back! What’s Been Happening?

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Hello dear friends. I am sorry I was away so long. The past few weeks have been a frenzy of working 24/7 to get Heavenly Mountain Resort open, traveling to Chicago for a conference, traveling to San Francisco for meetings and now hosting my in-laws for Thanksgiving.

But it’s all slowing down, and for that I’m thankful.

Right now I’m sitting in Tamarack Lodge at the top of Heavenly waiting for our big apres ski event to kick off. I could definitely think of worse places to write a blog post. Here’s a photo I snapped on my way up the Gondola.

While I was on my little break, I thought of you guys. At first I thought “I might like this not blogging thing.” Afterall, it is quite a lot to keep up a personal blog on top of Heavenly’s blog. But I found I felt quite the opposite. As things happened I kept thinking “this would be a good blog post” and “I wonder what Batty readers would say about this?”

I realized that this blog is very much apart of my life now. And then I felt warm and fuzzy. :)

So here’s a quick update on what’s been going on:

– I became a godmother! My best friend Julia gave birth to a precious baby boy named Liam. And I’m lucky enough to be his God mother. Such an honor.

– I’m about to become an aunt! My sister is due to give birth to a baby girl any moment. I can’t wait to meet the little angel.

– Luke turns 30 on Sunday! I’m making him an orange, chocolate cheesecake and his family is here to celebrate. Man I love that guy.

– Heavenly now has 64,000+ Facebook fans. My pet project. When I started last year we had 8,000.

– It looks like we’re going to get our house! The first bank accepted our offer and we’re just waiting on the other one. We could move in by Christmas.

– I have become obsessed with looking at home decor. We own nothing but our bed and have to furnish a three bedroom home soon. Send me home decor and furniture links please.

– We’re hosting our first Thanksgiving tomorrow. I had to work on Thursday, so Saturday it is. Wish us luck.

– I bowled five strikes in a row. But our team is still in last place in our bowling league. This is apparently a VERY competitive league.

– We had our first powder day. It felt soooo good to be out there again.

That’s about it. What’s new with you? How was Thanksgiving?