Garden Towers Project: A Big & Important Initiative

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Garden Towers Project - Kevin Guest

Where Hope is Grown. It’s a powerfully optimistic statement that at once brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.

“In our world, nearly a billion people go to bed hungry each night,” says Brian Paul, president of The USANA Foundation. “Instead of going to school, countless children are in the daily fight for their lives just to get something to eat.”

And, Paul continues, impoverished or remote spots aren’t the only problem areas. Food insecurity is real within our own communities.

That’s why, thanks to your support, USANA and its partners have delivered more than 50 million nutritious meals and completed hundreds of life-sustaining projects at home and in nearly 40 countries around the globe.

The Healthiest Family on Earth — that’s USANA’s goal. Often, it starts with our own communities and extends outward.

Garden Towers: A Big Goal

The USANA Foundation, through its latest worldwide humanitarian effort, is offering hope to many by building low-cost, self-sustaining garden towers.

If you’re unfamiliar with garden towers, I encourage you to watch this explanatory video. It’s such an innovative, yet simple, way to help alleviate hunger. Already, the towers are helping so many in places such as Kenya and Mexico.

And with your help, we’ll achieve an ambitious goal: to raise enough money to fund 30,000 garden towers by August 2022.

It’s a big number, for sure. But to break it down, a donation of just $20 covers the entire cost of a tower—the fabric, the soil, the seeds, and the training on how to use the garden towers.

Where Hope is Grown.

Thank you, as always, for your support of The USANA Foundation. I hope I can count on you to help us to provide hope to those in need in our own communities and beyond.

Here’s where you can learn more and donate.

A version of this article originally went to e-newsletter subscribers on Sept. 21, 2021. I invite you to subscribe.

Change is Necessary. Adapting to Change is Critical

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Adapting to Change

As I’ve written before, self-care became a priority for me over the last 18 months. I learned how important it is that we are kind to ourselves. It can be difficult, especially in times of change and uncertainty.

As I work to navigate through the pandemic, I continue to realize that change is necessary. And adapting to a changing world is critical.

Understanding and accepting these two concepts, while perhaps slightly uncomfortable at times, is so valuable. As we think about change, I reflect on a book I recently read. The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, deals with change at a high-stakes level.

Part of Iger’s governing principles as a leader centered on curiosity. For me, as I think about adapting to the so-called “new normal,” I want to do so with a curious mind. Ask “what if?” questions. Approach change from an optimistic vantage point. Don’t make it bigger, scarier, or more ominous than it needs to be.

Change is not a negative thing. Very often, it’s the catalyst that helps us grow in ways that we couldn’t have otherwise.

Succeeding Through Change

For USANA as a company, this last year tested us — as it did many organizations around the world. But I don’t believe USANA would have grown in the ways it did had we not faced the challenges of the past 18 months.

It allowed us to take a closer look at who we are and how we’re positioned for the future. The company is nearing its 30th anniversary. Yet, USANA continues to innovate and excel. We’re able to do that, I believe, by embracing change. Surviving and thriving require an innate curiosity.

 

10 Ways to Build Resilience

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September is National Self-Improvement Month. For me, improving on oneself requires resilience.

Therefore, I’d like to offer 10 ways to build resilience.

Resilience is a topic that’s been top of mind for me. Throughout the year, as I’ve spoken to entrepreneurs and employees across the globe, I’ve aimed to make it a focus. I define resilience as the ability to bend in the face of a challenge. To bounce back and to continue moving no matter what life throws at you.

Resilience

Research shows more than 55% of employers see resilience as a key skill for workers. Most successful people are those with the most resilience. At USANA, we’ve seen that a resilient team of employees is more motivated, and they deal with change better.

Resilience: 6 Necessary Skills

Here are six skills that focus on the individual.

  1. Strengthen your relationship with yourself
  2. Exercise to reduce anxiety and stress
  3. Lean on adversity you’ve faced—and be reminded how strong you are
  4. Regularly give yourself mental breaks to recharge (watch a movie, read a book, take a walk)
  5. Get comfortable making mistakes, learn from them, and carry on
  6. Take excellent care of yourself.

4 Practices to Employ

  1. Socialize with resilient people and learn from them
  2. Stay in contact with others
  3. Build your community of colleagues
  4. Live in the present and do things you enjoy

All the Right Reasons Book CoverThroughout 2021, I’ve been speaking on the value of cultivating resiliency in your everyday life as we grapple with the ongoing pandemic.

In my book, All the Right Reasons, I speak to equivalent qualities of star athletes, such as Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps.

Even though Jordan and Phelps have innate talent, their achievements are a result of their unrelenting hard work and perseverance. No matter the countless obstacles they faced, they were resilient in facing and overcoming them. We can apply that same pattern.

Resilience allows us to build something stronger and long-lasting in the future. We are determined as teams, and we are resilient as individuals.

I shared these thoughts and more in a news release that went out on Aug. 31, 2021.