It is the toughest moments that show us the most clarity

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  31st January 2013

It’s crazy sometimes how in an instant, your world can change. How in an instant, your fears and worries seem like a small pittance to pay in this journey through life. The worries we have become so clearly minor compared to the worries that SO MANY people in this world have. But in one instant, that all can change…

Yesterday was one of those days… a day that kicked us in the stomach…hard. And then once we got up, we were shoved back down. Pushed to our limit and asked how much we can take. I kept telling myself, be strong, there are others that need your strength now more than you need it yourself. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and prayed for strength. I asked for courage as I put the burdens of what seemed like the world on my shoulders. It is in these moments, the moments that test our resolve, the moments that are the toughest in our lives that show us clarity. It’s these moments that show us how strong we can truly be.

It’s in an instance like this that we might cry out to God… “Why has this happened?” We might cast blame and wonder how a God of glory, a God of all power, could allow this to happen. God could prevent this pain that we feel, this pain that he feels, but he doesn’t. But the thing is, although God could prevent the things that cause us pain, he wants to use us, his servants, to share in His glory. He wants us to look back on the moments that define us and be able to say look how much I accomplished in your glory.

I read the following words in Live to Give (by Austin Gutwein) just a few short days ago and I didn’t realize how true they were until today.

“God has made a plan to use you to accomplish eternal, life-giving, miraculous things!” – Austin Gutwein

I continued to read further.

“The thing we can know is that when we live to give, we get to partner with a God whose love has no end, and we get to play a part in His incredible plan – a plan that will last for eternity.”

In life, we are only given one chance. Don’t waste it. And when God does call on you, follow His plan.

On Tuesday, we shared the What’s Next of 10 AMAZINGLY brave individuals and we promised to share our What’s Next too.

At this moment, at this time, after one of the hardest most trying days of our lives, we know EXACTLY what we are called to do. Our What’s Next is based fully off of this:

We serve to help everyone live a more AMAZING life. To help everyone know a life of Unconditional Love; to help everyone experience a life of Joyful Happiness; and to help everyone serve gracefully with heartfelt authentic gratitude. It is our mission to help every couple we photograph grow stronger in love and to have a marriage that will last for all eternity. It is our mission to help people find more happiness in their lives through the simple moments. It is our mission to Live to Give and serve with full and heartfelt authentic gratitude. It’s our mission to choose LOVE over hate. It is our mission, to show that no dream is too small. It is our mission to show that this one wild and crazy life is one worth living fully. It is our mission responsibility to make this world AMAZING.

And to start, we will be digging in right to the core. In February, we will be speaking our hearts to an incredible group of people (so much more on that to come! ;) ). And we will be following shortly thereafter with a webinar and other exciting AMAZING Life Experiences. If you are interested in joining us, head on over to http://amazing.lizandryan.com and click learn more to be notified of more information and have the first opportunity to sign up.

For those of you who pray and/or might be wondering what is going on, we have a family member that is going through some really difficult stuff. We would absolutely appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts you could send our family! They will mean more than you know! Thank you!

 

AMAZING Life Experience Consultants | The What’s Next Tour

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  4th January 2013

To say our January is going to be crazy is probably a little bit of an understatement.  The wildest-most-fun-little-bit-chaotic-time-of-our-lives is probably a better description.  We mentioned on Monday that we would be heading out on the road with Justin and Mary for their What’s Next Tour.  When we try to explain this to our family and friends, we often get asked tons of follow up questions.  So today, we wanted to share a little bit more about some of the preparation and planning we have been doing to get ready for our crazy adventure on a bus.

The thing we have probably been asked the most is where will you be staying and getting around during the trip? 

We will, in fact, actually be staying on a bus for the entire trip! Crazy!  Ok, it won’t be that bad, we do have a pretty sweet ride thanks to the amazing team over at Showit.  It’s equipped with an espresso machine and two Apples TVs just to name a few of the awesome amenities.  ;) See more about the bus at Showit’s website:

http://bus.showitfast.com

After we finish explaining to everyone that we will be living on a bus for three weeks, the next thing everyone usually asks is what will you be doing?  When Justin and Mary asked us to be part of their crew we pretty much said yes without even asking what they would need us to do. (Honestly, we were ready to learn how to drive the bus! ;) lol!)  Maybe it was because we just both finished reading Love Does. One of our favorite lines in the book is:

“You know what it is about someone that makes them a friend? A friend doesn’t just say things; a friend does.”

So we decided to DO.  We said yes and knew we would figure out the rest later.  Since then we have given ourselves the title “Experience Consultants” and have pretty much been working non stop coming up with ideas on how we can make the tour as AMAZING as possible for Justin & Mary and everyone attending.  We feel so blessed to have friends like Justin & Mary that trust our vision.  We can’t give away all the secrets but let me just say that the tour is going to be AMAZING and that if you have a chance to attend you definitely don’t want to miss it!  Below are a few sketches of some of the ideas we came up with for the tour that we created with the Paper App.  Forgive my poor drawing skills, at the time I wasn’t planning to share my sketches with the world, otherwise, I would have at least given the barista in the one sketch some hair! :)

One of our favorite parts has been creating a “What’s Next Café” that will serve drinks as people arrive. Now, if we could just figure out how to get this giant sign we are making in our luggage …

In addition to coming up with ideas on how to make the tour super AMAZING for everyone attending, we have also been hard at work coming up with ideas on how we can make life on a bus super AMAZING.  One of our ideas might just include gold stars.  Yes gold stars! You know, the ones you used to get in 3rd grade when you scored a 100% on your spelling tests.  We will be sharing more of these ideas throughout the tour, so be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter at the top of the page to stay up to date!

Finally, the last question we get asked is where will be going?

We will be traveling to 10 cities with Justin and Mary for their tour.  The cities are Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Orlando, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., New York City, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Kansas City!  If you have any suggestions on fun cafes and places to eat in any of these cities we would LOVE to hear from you!!!

We will also be stopping at a few other places along the way.  We are hoping to have some spontaneous twitter meet-ups during our “off” days too!  Be sure to follow everyone on twitter so you don’t miss a chance to hang out with us.  Below are links to everyone’s twitter pages so you don’t have any excuse not to.

https://twitter.com/marymarantz
https://twitter.com/justinmarantz
https://twitter.com/liz_and_ryan
https://twitter.com/abarnettphoto
http://twitter.com/jeremymitch
https://twitter.com/THEandrewbarlow

If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet be sure to do so today!  LA, Dallas, and DC are almost sold out!  And if you use the code “lizandryan” you will save $50 on your full day ticket!

www.thewhatsnexttour.com

Can’t wait to see many of you out and about!

 

Amazing Life Experiences

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  3rd January 2013

Ohh friends, we are SO incredibly excited to share a little sneak peek into something we have been working on over the last few months! Since the launch of Liz and Ryan, we have found a true passion in inspiring people to live an AMAZING life. By celebrating our zest for life and sharing what makes our lives AMAZING, we have realized that we truly can make a difference in the lives of others and encourage everyone to live amazingly!!! That, my friends, makes our hearts sing!

With our singing hearts, we are so so so excited to announce the AMAZING Life Experiences portion of the Liz and Ryan brand!!!

Check out the site preview at: http://AMAZING.lizandryan.com

We have so many AMAZING things planned for this year and beyond! ;)…but we can’t give them all away at once! ;) (Truth is, we are still working out the details for many of them! More to come soon! ;) ). However, we can’t leave you hanging (and plus, we are bursting at the seems to share more with you! ;) ), so we are going to let you in on one of our favorite portions of the AMAZING Live Experiences… and that is our AMAZING Life Escapes! It just sounds so fun, doesn’t it?!? We all need an escape now and then! ;)

In a few months (dates to be announced soon!), we will be hosting a 3-night getaway for couples who are excited about escaping the everyday craziness of life to discover what makes their lives AMAZING! The Escape will take place in an incredibly beautiful location meant to provide the best of both worlds… both relaxation and adventure! Through a mix of workshops, hand-on adventures, and quiet time, we plan to provide an opportunity to dream about your AMAZING life, in hopes that every couple walks away with hearts full of unconditional love, joyful happiness, and authentic gratitude! The escape will be limited to a small number of couples to create an intimate experience that is sure to lead to a life full of amazingness! ;)

Ahhh! This is so much fun to get out there! We hope that you are as excited as we are! ;) If you are interested in learning more about the AMAZING Life Escapes or even the AMAZING Life Experiences in general, please check out our initial site and take a moment to sign-up to learn more! Your sign-ups will help us gage how much interest there is and how we can help make your lives more AMAZING! Ohh Happy Day!

Make 2013 AMAZING | A Note to Self

Dream Big, Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  2nd January 2013

With our papers in hand and journals by our sides, we sat in our favorite places and hunkered down to do the “hard work!” Ryan was at Starbucks surrounded by the music and energy of the coffee shop while I was on our couch cozy under a blanket sipping my tea in silence! We have learned that these are our spots that we go to when we really need to crank it out! We set out to complete the same set of papers… a Year-End worksheet we found through our fav, Chris Guillebeau! The 25 page worksheet put together by Susannah Conway (thank you Susannah!) was a little daunting at first glance, but we knew it was everything that we needed to let our hearts wander and see where we end up.

It is amazing what can happen when you take just a few hours in “your spot” to reflect, dream, and explore! The “hard work” quickly became an incredibly enjoyable experience. The answers flowed from our hearts onto the worksheet. At one point the worksheet said:

“Imagine you are sitting in that cafe again [for me, on my cozy couch! ;) ]. Across the table from you- looking utterly fabulous- is your future self from December 2015. She has three years’ worth of wisdom to share with you- what does she say? What does she tell you to let go of? What does she tell you to pay attention to… to believe in… to trust?”

I started (as instructed) with Dear Liz: and everything else just flowed from my heart. At one point while writing, I remember thinking “gees, that is everything that I needed to hear. Thank you God for giving me the chance -in advance- to hear your words through my future self. ;) I am going to share my letter with you, because it might just be God’s way of making sure everyone hears what they need to.

Dear Liz:

You are right where you are supposed to be. God has led you and Ryan down this path because He believes in you and has given you the talents you need to make a difference in the lives of others.

Although you may not feel like your audiance is large enough or you are not reaching as many people as you hoped- you should know that every single person you meet/touch has been impacted by you. Your audiance will grow organically- especially if you have patience. Trust that God will take care of you.

Focus on you and Ryan and don’t let what other people are doing distract you. Stay true to who you are and go where your heart may guide you. Embrace your love that you and Ryan share and know that God is using your relationship as a model/example for others- to give them faith and fill their hearts with love and joy.

Let go if the things that are not important. If it causes stress, it is probably not worth your time and energy. Let someone else take that off your hands. Trust in God and lead with your serving heart.

With love.

<3 You

As you begin this new year, we hope you are taking some time to reflect, dream, and explore! Find your spot and hunker down for some “hard work” that will definitely leave your hearts smiling!

Here are a few of our favorite Year-End guidelines to get you started:

Susannah Conway’s Workbook

Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review Guidelines

Lara Casey’s Goal Setting Part 1 and Part 2

Emily Ley’s Financial Worksheet

 

Read T’was the Night Before Christmas: Advent Day 24

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  24th December 2012

Wahoo! It’s Christmas Eve! And today is one of our favorite days EVER! We have so many traditions that fill today with magic, joy, and fun… one of our favorites will happen tonight at MeMe’s house when we all gather in the living room to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. On this 24^th Day of our AMAZING Life Holiday Advent Calendar, we invite you to gather your loved ones together and read T’was The Night Before Christmas. Magic will definitely fill the air!Picture about 60 people (probably more once you add in the friends that come and go throughout the evening) packed in the living room of a home. Kids running around with their toys, conversations running over each others conversations from across the room, people sitting on each others laps and many people hanging out on the floor! This is the reality of our Christmas Eve and it is everything that we dream of! ;) The best moment is when we gather around to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. The room suddenly gets quiet and the wide-eyed kids start to feel an extra bit of magic! As soon as the story is over, we start singing… and every single year we have been blessed by a visit from Santa!! Santa comes to MeMe’s house and it is pretty much the most magical thing you can ever imagine! Yes, I am no longer a little kid… but that is one of the moments that I look forward to year after year! The wide-eyed kids quickly spread the magic in the air and there is nothing quite like it!Wherever you are today and tonight, take some time to soak in the magic! Read T’was the Night Before Christmas and hug your loved ones tight!