Planking Through Prayer—Turning Habits into Record-Breaking Miracles: DonnaJean Wilde's Story - Latter-Day Lights

What happens when years of faith-formed grit turn minutes of daily discipline into record-breaking triumphs?

This week on Latter-day Lights, Scott and Alisha welcome Guinness World Record holder, book worm, and Gospel-loving Latter-Day Saint—DonnaJean Wilde—to the show, whose once broken wrist and five-minute planking challenge sparked a decade-long journey of fitness fueled by scripture study and mindset training. 

More than just a story, she unpacks the habits and “living toolboxes” that moved her from classroom to the world stage: Memorizing the Success Scrolls and inspirational quotes from The Book of Mormon, cultivating an unwavering work ethic of keeping promises, training to uplifting spiritual music, and many more valuable practices that turned seconds into minutes—and minutes into history.

Along the way, she shares the tender mercies that steadied her, the thought-transforming books that turned doubt into devotion, and the hard-won lessons that readied her for the Guinness World Records.

Stay tuned and be prepared to live like DonnaJean, inspired to build on one Christ-centered promise today until forever.

*** Please SHARE DonnaJean's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/y4Qo8jf8oak

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To READ DonnaJean's Book, "From Minutes to Hours: I Wrote This Book While Planking," visit: https://a.co/d/2WFADXQ 

To WATCH DonnaJean's planking attempt, visit: https://youtu.be/BcnAZb7z0DE?si=boBvVl-4uR1Ensqp 

To WATCH DonnaJean's pushup attempt, visit: https://youtube.com/shorts/NkIt77-8oWM?si=NLIKNXkRm-jWP-Gc 

To READ the 10 Success Scrolls, visit: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:71ba5e80-176b-4406-b71b-ffd1bd632bd4 

To GET the Gospel Living App on Google Play, visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.lds.liv&pcampaignid=web_share 

To GET the Gospel Living App on the App Store, visit: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gospel-living/id1245330433 

To READ "I Dare You" by William Danforth, visit: https://a.co/d/jc9djRj 

To READ “Train (Your Brain) Like an Olympian” by Jean François Ménard & Marie Malchelosse, visit: https://a.co/d/bi607iy 

To READ “Why Not You?” by Ciara and Russell Wilson, visit: https://a.co/d/ahsQFdM 

To READ Scott’s new book “Faith to Stay” for free, visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Chapters

• 0:00 “Faith to Stay” by Scott Brandley
• 0:28 Intro
• 1:00 Welcoming DonnaJean Wilde to the show
• 2:55 DonnaJean in a nutshell
• 4:00 DonnaJean’s family and ancestors
• 5:20 The Ten Ancient Scrolls for Success - The Story of Pathros and Hafid
• 8:05 DonnaJean’s favorite scrolls
• 11:20 “I Dare You” by William Danforth
• 12:45 DonnaJean’s introduction to fitness - The Canada Fitness Awards
• 15:00 DonnaJean planks with an arm cast + reads scriptures
• 18:30 “Train (Your Brain) Like an Olympian” by Jean François Ménard & Marie Malchelosse
• 21:00 “Why Not You?” by Ciara and Russell Wilson
• 21:45 The importance of memorization
• 22:35 Creating “living toolboxes”
• 24:00 DonnaJean’s personal “spiritual toolbox”
• 25:20 The importance of reading the Book of Mormon everyday
• 28:50 "Because I Said I Would" - Keeping promises to ourselves
• 31:30 DonnaJean’s world record-breaking planking journey
• 36:40 DonnaJean feels her mother’s presence
• 40:30 DonnaJean receives a care package
• 43:50 DonnaJean’s journey after breaking the world record
• 47:00 Healing transverse myelitis with dead hanging
• 50:30 DonnaJean’s record-breaking planking time
• 53:00 Be better than you were yesterday
• 54:35 The importance of smiling + The Gospel Living App
• 58:00 About DonnaJean’s grandkids
• 1:00:15 DonnaJean’s book, “From Minutes to Hours: I Wrote This Book While Planking”
• 1:07:35 Final thoughts
• 1:09:45 Outro

Transcript

Scott Brandley: 0:00

Hey there as a Latter-day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today my brand new book, faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted and spiritually recharged, just visit faithtostaycom. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley: 0:31

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley: 0:40

On today's episode we're going to hear how hours of planking has helped one woman find the power to believe in herself while exercising her faith in the Savior. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we have a special guest, donna Jean Wild, world record holder for the Guinness Book of World Records, which is pretty exciting. She's going to tell us her really cool story and her adventure on the show. But welcome, donna Jean.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:20

Well, thank you, Alisha and Scott, for having me on your show today. I'm so excited to be here and share my story.

Alisha Coakley: 1:28

We are super excited to have you and I have to say I I mean in the. In the little intro there we talked about planking. We are going to hear more about how that is related to the world guinness book of the guinness book of world records. Um, but you're not going to be planking during this episode, right?

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:46

I'm not going to be planking. Maybe if I wasn't on video I would plank.

Alisha Coakley: 1:53

Maybe we'll just make Scott do it. He'll just move his chair out of the way back up a little bit and just see how long Scott can go.

Scott Brandley: 1:59

That'll be a minute, and then we'll be back to the show.

Alisha Coakley: 2:02

Okay, 90 seconds tops yeah, so something fun.

Scott Brandley: 2:10

Donna jean and I grew up in the same area in southern alberta, so that's pretty cool, we know some of the same people and yep. So, mcgrath alberta, I grew up in McGrath, she grew up in Welling.

DonnaJean Wilde: 2:33

I did. Well, I'll tell this story. But my father was a seminary teacher and institute teacher, so we moved back and forth from McGrath a few times, but McGrath, I would say, is my roots and Welling is my husband's, so yeah, Gotcha.

Scott Brandley: 2:44

Yeah, just little towns in the in Southern Alberta but they were founded by pioneers so that's kind of a cool. You know background.

Alisha Coakley: 2:52

But that's really good. So, other than growing up in Canada, why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself, donna Jean?

DonnaJean Wilde: 3:01

Okay, so I'm a recently retired school teacher and administrator. My husband and I live in Welling. Like we said, we have five children and 12 grandchildren that live so close to us. We are very blessed and they keep us very busy. They're very active and we love spending time with them.

DonnaJean Wilde: 3:26

If I back up a little bit, my dad when I was growing up, my dad was a seminary and institute teacher, so every night I would watch him prepare his lessons for the next day and he would often share with me what he was studying and that I know, was a big part of the foundation of my faith and my belief in the gospel and helped me develop a testimony of Jesus Christ. I just want to tell you a little bit more about my family. You mentioned ancestors, so my great-grandfather and my husband's great-grandfather both were pioneers that homesteaded here in southern Alberta. We live in the house that my husband's grandfather built and my husband's dad was born in. He was raised here, my husband's family, we raised our kids here and now we have a grandchild living next door. That's fifth generation on our farm. Wow, our roots go very deep on our farm and we are so grateful for our ancestors and the example they've set, and I think that's a big strength to us in our testimony as well.

Scott Brandley: 4:50

That's so cool. I have ancestors that founded Sterling. Oh, that is very cool so our ancestors might have known each other right.

DonnaJean Wilde: 5:01

They might have my roots. I'm a Beezer from the cardston and beezer area and so same thing. Yeah, my roots are are up there, so yeah, that's fun.

Scott Brandley: 5:13

Yeah, well, cool. Well, we're super excited to hear your story, so why don't you tell us where your story begins? Donna Jean?

DonnaJean Wilde: 5:21

okay. Well, I love the word positionality. I learned it in when I was doing my master's degree. I had to do write a paper on it and I feel like all of us um are where we are today because of the experiences where we've lived, where we fall in the family, um, the things that we've been able to do. But I will say, my life strength not only came from my parents, but came from a book. It's called Principles, promises and Powers.

DonnaJean Wilde: 6:00

When I was young I was the youngest of five children and so when I was at home before I went to school, I became the self-appointed librarian in our family and my parents loved books and my dad was also a chiropractor, so we had medical books and church books and travel books, and my dad was also a chiropractor, so we had medical books and church books and travel books. One day, when I was eight years old, my parents brought this book home in 1978. And I just fell in love with the cover and the color and the title and I just flipped through it. There was no pictures in it and I came to this story called the Success Scrolls and years later I learned that it was a condensed version of Augmandino's the Greatest Salesman in the World. It's by Sterling W Sill and it's a legend of 2,000 years ago when Hayfid the camel boy worked for Pethros, who was a great merchant, and he had a caravan of camels and Hayfid was the boy who watered the camels of camels and Haphid was the boy who watered the camels. He wanted to pass on his knowledge and everything to Haphid, petros, and he told him that he had 10 scrolls that were so dear to him that, if Petros would, if Haphid would learn those scrolls every day, he had to say one of the scrolls three times for 30 days and learn them. Well, in elementary school I wanted to be like Haifid, and so I learned the 10 scrolls. They have stayed with me my entire life and have driven me to do great things.

DonnaJean Wilde: 8:06

I just want to just maybe quote one or two. The first scroll is I will form good habits and become their slave. The greatest power in the world is the power of habit. Good, well-established habits absolutely control our success. Our habits determine what we are. Most of us err in this important success requirement because we do not know how to build a habit. Most of us do things only when we feel like it. When we do things irregularly. We are doing as much toward tearing the habit down as we are toward building it up. We are doing as much toward tearing the habit down as we are toward building it up. We should all make a list of our necessary habits and then become their slave.

DonnaJean Wilde: 8:52

So that's scroll number one. Scroll number five, though, is my absolute favorite, so I just have to quote it it is. I will live this day as if it were my last, because the sand cannot flow upward in the hourglass. I will waste not a moment of this precious day. I will make this day the best day of my life. I will push my muscles till they cry for relief and I, not they, will determine when I rest. I know no one got on the top of the mountain because he fell there. I will work harder, sell more goods and have more joy than I or anyone else has ever had before.

DonnaJean Wilde: 9:37

So I memorized those scrolls and I carried them around with me forever and I put them up in our house. I tried to get my kids to memorize them, but the story didn't mean quite as much to them as it did to me. But they knew that I had them and they were influenced by them and those scrolls have helped me through my life. The Tenth Scroll talks about faith in God and trusting in Him and Him trusting in us, and so that one thing alone helped me so much it actually developed a love of memorizing that I kept memorizing quotes and memorizing my patriarchal blessing. I really feel like if we memorize scriptures and memorize quotes, memorize things that prophets have said, that they pop into our mind and help us and just keep us buoyed up when we need it, and we can fill our little toolbox, which I'll talk about. We can fill our little toolbox, which I'll talk about, full of great things that will help us get through those hard times during the day, during the week, whatever. So that is a huge foundation for me. So I'll relate that a little bit to when I was on the platform planking for four and a half hours, I said those scrolls in my head, like I was busy thinking of things, doing things like that, that that kept me going. So they've been a real strength to me. So so that one story has been a a really big strength to me.

DonnaJean Wilde: 11:17

Um also, uh, when I was very young, my sister I'll just reach for it here she gave me this book by William Dansforth. It's called I Dare you, and I have these links that I have shared. But this book was written like in the 1930s. It was before we had like motivational books or anything. But this man wrote this book and he had this four area of motto stand tall, walk tall, live tall, smile tall and just I dare you. I dare you to make me discouraged, I dare you to put me down, I'm just going to forge ahead and attack each day. And just a real motivating book.

DonnaJean Wilde: 12:07

This is what I feel like I learned also from my dad as he studied his lessons for seminary and institute. He studied so much and so many good books. It just spilled over into our family. To continue to fill your mind with good books Good like, of course, scripture, study and all that. Of course, number one is that too but every day to either listen, to read, memorize, find something that's going to help you and then you can write down your thoughts. I do want to tell you how my love of fitness and being active in sports and health started I was in grade five. We actually were living in Calgary because we were transferred there for a little while. My dad was teaching Institute in Calgary and they had something called the Canada fitness awards and they oh yeah, I don't know if you remember those, I remember.

DonnaJean Wilde: 13:14

So I was in grade five and I thought I was pretty fit, and so we went through the Canada fitness words are like um, standing long, jump shuttle, run the flex bar, hang some speed sit-ups that were all timed in gym class. And then you went through this for a few weeks and your gym teacher took notes and tallied it all up and in the end you were given whatever you earned.

Scott Brandley: 13:43

You could get like gold, platinum yeah there you go.

DonnaJean Wilde: 13:47

So I thought I did pretty good. And then he lined us all up and he gave me this badge. This is the badge. Oh yeah, yep, silver. I was a little disappointed in myself and I thought wow, I thought I did better than that. Next year I'm going. Thought I did better than that, next year I'm going to get the award of excellence. So I went home that day and I found a notebook and I wrote award of excellence at the top and then I started keeping track of working out. This is grade five. I just wanted that award of excellence. So I started running and I became a runner after that. But I started running and then I had a very encouraging gym teacher. I think that just inspired me that I wanted to be strong. He was very strong, very inspiring, and the next year I was handed the award of excellence.

Scott Brandley: 14:47

Wow.

DonnaJean Wilde: 14:48

So that started my love of sports and my love of driving myself and wanting to do better and it just, you know, it kind of goes along, of course, with the gospel. We just that's what we do. We strive every day to try and become better. So fast forward to 2013. We kind of talked about it. Just preview before the show I was teaching school. I fell in the gym. I was actually a music teacher at the time, but we were using the big, colorful parachutes in the gym. I ran across it and slipped. I broke my wrist and I was devastated that that had happened. I couldn't run, I couldn't work out. I had a very heavy heart, very sad.

DonnaJean Wilde: 15:39

About a week later we're in our farmyard with my married children, our married children and a few grandkids, and it was the five-minute planking craze that was happening. Everybody was trying to plank for five minutes. So my family wanted to have this challenge and I was in a cast. So at first I just watched them get down on the grass, but I have a hard time not jumping in. So I thought, whatever, I'm going to just try it and I could plank with a cast. Not very long A minute and a half, maybe, maybe a minute and a half. I don't know, I can't even remember. A couple of my sons and my husband went probably five minutes. The rest of us settled for like a minute, minute and a half. I was so happy that I could do something physical with a cast that later that day I tried it in the house and I could do it. So I thought, great, I can do something.

DonnaJean Wilde: 16:40

So the next day, you know, I tried to do what I could with the cast. But I started planking and I had this feeling right off the bat to turn on my scriptures. And so right from the beginning of my planking they went hand in hand with my scriptures, and they still do today this is a long time later. I plank every day with my scriptures. So every morning I would do this and, strangely enough, I started timing myself and watching myself get better at it. I couldn't believe it. So of course, my scripture sessions got longer and then I started um planking a little bit more when I was reading and doing different things. But I always read my scriptures while planking and I feel like that gave me a lot of strength to to do that. Then, through the years, I just continued to plank while I got lessons for school, while I read. I didn't just plank in the mornings anymore, it was just like whenever during the day, whenever during the day after I've been playing for a few years. Well, I I would tell my children and grandchildren not to tell anybody that crazy grandma is playing all the time, but I closed my classroom door after school and just playing while I got my lessons and I playing through my master's degree. That's kind of how that all happened.

DonnaJean Wilde: 18:22

Okay, but a few things helped me along the way. So I'll just tell you a few things that that really helped. Um, while I was doing my master's and I was planking, it kind of made a parallel. Um, I got to kind of choose my focus parallel. I got to kind of choose my focus and so I focused on brain and behavior because I worked a lot with the learning support students that needed a little bit extra help at school and so I wanted to study all about the brain and how to help students learn. Of course, all of this is done with a lot of prayer and I know I was helped so much to study this topic.

DonnaJean Wilde: 19:10

One of the books that I just found it wasn't part of my schooling. But is this book and I do reference it Train your Brain Like an Olympian. It's by Jean-Francois Menard. I've actually connected with him since we're friends now. He is a professional sports coach and he goes even to the Olympics and helps athletes professional athletes with their mental health, with their concentration and all of that. But that's not. His book is not written for athletes. His book is written for us to learn how to train our brains like an Olympian does, and so this book helped me along the way.

DonnaJean Wilde: 20:00

I've read it a few times and it just one little quote in it was if you're going to be extraordinary, you have to expect a little bit of pain along the way, and I just love that. If you have to do some uncommon things and so that that really helped me too I feel like that's like the gospel too. If we are not common which we're not, we might be. You know, we've been called a peculiar people, maybe because we're so happy, I don't know we have the spirit with us Then we need to do uncommon things, and that's what we're asked to do to serve, to serve missions, to hold callings that we don't get paid for and all of those things. And so that's one of the things that really helped me. A few other things did too. Things did too.

DonnaJean Wilde: 21:02

There's this book that I absolutely love. It's called why Not you, so it just is a kid's book, but it's for adults too. It's so inspiring and just says why not you, like you think that the sky's the limit, but you can break through and do all those things that you want to do. So I guess, through all of this, that I'm sharing these books, along with the scriptures, along with the conference talks, along with all of those things. There's so much good material out there for us to learn from every day, and I think that that's that is the key right Is doing that every single day is the key right Is doing that every single day.

DonnaJean Wilde: 21:50

Another thing that I really would emphasize, too, is and I've said it before is just is memorizing. We have this, we have this poem that we've had on our fridge forever, called Good Timber and the tree that never had to fight for sun and sky and air and light, but stood out on the open plain and always had its share of rain, never became a forest king, but lived and died. A scrubby thing If we can have things in our mind like that to help us, then I think that we can create our own successful day, and that's what I learned during my master's degree. That's what I learned during my master's degree that we are in charge to a large degree, how happy we are each day. We can plan for that, and one of the biggest things that I learned that I'm so grateful for is how to create toolboxes.

DonnaJean Wilde: 22:46

So what we would do is we learned how to help students create their own toolbox to help them. So like a toolbox that would help with anxiety might look like get up and walk around, color, listen to some music, sit in a favorite chair, paint, call a friend. Like for those students that struggled at school a little bit more little at school, a little bit more. They would come into my office and we would create toolboxes just for them so that when they got to a hard part in the day or in their week that they could pull those tools out of the toolbox. So it's not a to-do list, it's actually an enabling list list. It's actually an enabling list. It's tools that we would put in and pull out to help us. So I started calling these toolboxes living toolboxes. They're inside us, they live inside us. So we created toolboxes for anxiety or focus.

DonnaJean Wilde: 24:02

So I took that a step farther in my life and created a spiritual toolbox for myself, which is what we all do anyway, but it's a different way to think about it. So every morning, when you read your scriptures, when you pray, when you read something uplifting, when you serve, when you minister, when you go to the temple, when you attend sacrament meeting, you're putting tools in your toolbox to be able to pull out later. So one important tool I feel like should be in everybody's toolbox is reading the Book of Mormon, no matter what we're doing in. Come Follow Me is a huge one to have in your toolbox. Those are tools that you can pull out later in the day when someone needs help.

DonnaJean Wilde: 25:00

I've done a few youth conferences where I've talked about toolboxes, kind of help the kids, kind of think about what they would do with their toolbox. But I want to tell you a story about having the Book of Mormon in your toolbox. So it was before I did my master's degree. I can't remember the exact year. It was the early 2000s and President Hinckley had us read the Book of Mormon from September to December I can't remember what year that was and he gave great promises of strength and just help that you would get in your family and personal life If you, if you decided to do this program from September to.

DonnaJean Wilde: 25:49

December. So I did. I was reading the book Mormon. Well, at the same time I just got a new position as the high school foods teacher and home ec teacher. I was just that for a couple of years. So I'm in the room, in the home ec room brand new teacher. The kids are so busy I'm, you know, my head's kind of spinning. Whatever. I'm helping all these students do their things.

DonnaJean Wilde: 26:16

The administration walks in and they asked for a document that they had given me or that I needed to give them, and they just stood there waiting for it. Well, in that home ec room I wish I had a picture to show you A whole entire wall was a bank of drawers. The whole wall was these little drawers and I had put it in one of those drawers. Unlabeled drawers. You got labeled soon after. Unlabeled drawers I don't even know how many, it was 50 maybe. So they're standing there waiting and it's important and I have students everywhere and I was in a panic but I tried not to show it.

DonnaJean Wilde: 27:05

I just smiled and said okay, and without consciously thinking about toolboxes. Back then I said the most heartfelt prayer I have ever said, I think, and I said I read the Book of Mormon this morning. I need help now. I need that document now and I will tell you if you've ever watched the Queen's Gambit I don't know if you've watched that show about the chess game but that drawer that was in out of all those banked drawers was like it just got larger in my mind. I walked right to it, I opened it up and that document was in it and I just had to hold back the tears and I handed it to the admin and no one knew what had just happened, like the biggest miracle ever in that moment and I know it's because of President Hinckley's promise to read the Book- of.

DonnaJean Wilde: 28:14

Mormon so that is a tool in my toolbox is reading the Book of Mormon every day, and I have had many miracles since, and I know that many have, and I have a real testimony of reading the scriptures and reading the Book of Mormon. So that was a big testimony builder for me. I also, through the years, have been involved in so many different things at school. I'll tell you a couple more. When I was an elementary teacher and high school teacher, I was involved in something called Hope Squad. I don't know if you've ever heard of that before, but it is students nominate other students that they trust, and the teachers in the school or the ones who are over this Hope Squad have these students that are the eyes and ears of the school and they just kind of take care of everybody. And these other students plan things and try and just take care, and if there's any signs of like that anything is wrong, then they'll just reach out and they'll just try and be a friend. Well, while I was on Hope Squad, we had a chance to do an impact training session with a man named Alex Sheen and he started a movement called Because I Said I Would. That was while I was in high school and so that year our whole high school took on the theme Because I Said I Would. That movement was from Alex Sheen.

DonnaJean Wilde: 30:07

When his father passed away he spoke at his funeral and he was going to make some promises to his father because he said he would. So it's all about making and keeping promises to ourself. It goes right along with the gospel keeping promises that we say we're going to keep and covenants that we make in the temple. But we all got shirts that said because I said I would. So that also helped me while I was on the platform planking while I was preparing for the world records, because I said I would. So students that year they all on sticky notes, would write I'm going to be a better friend. We had sticky notes that had because I said it would on the bottom and our bulletin boards were full of I will smile at someone in the hallway. I will stop um texting and driving. I'm going to be a better daughter because I said, oh, I'd like.

DonnaJean Wilde: 31:14

At school it was the most amazing year and I I feel like we just grew so close because we made those promises. But I will tell you a little bit about my planking journey. So all these years, all this stuff just helps us right. Like, what are we striving for? What are we trying for If we're? One of my favorite quotes is opportunities knock with those who know. Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor. So if we're already on the dance floor, we're already out there, we're already seeking, we're seeking the spirit, we're seeking to be better, we're seeking to follow the savior, we're seeking to our education.

DonnaJean Wilde: 32:02

Then doors open kind of like planking and pushups and how it happened that I was able to break those records Through the years. I just kept planking and reading while I planked and did all this. So then in about 2020, it was during COVID, during the pandemic my family wanted to have another planking contest because they wanted to know how long I could plank. They knew I planked. They kept saying, mom, you need to like, try and break a record. And I was like, no, I'm not going to do that. Nobody knows I plank, just don't tell anybody. So, over like our phones, we all had another planking challenge and I decided I would really try to stay super still and not move at all and so kind of surprised myself a little bit. I in my book oh, I didn't show this, but I had I've written a book. It's called from minutes to hours that all of my stories are in. I'll kind of talk about it again, but in my book is a picture, the actual picture, of when I planked that for our second family planking challenge. It was like I don't know an hour and 50 minutes or something like that that I was able to do without moving at all, and so I was still reading and doing things while I planked. I wasn't just sitting there. But after that, Um, after that I thought maybe. I didn't tell anybody. I thought maybe, maybe, maybe I will try. I was a long ways from the planking record. It was back then it was four hours 19 minutes. So in the back of my mind I thought maybe I'll just keep trying. So a couple of years later, I was very comfortable with planking a couple hours, two and a half hours. Finally, in 2023, in January, I said it out loud to my husband I think I'm going to try and break the world record. He's like okay. So he's like yeah, you can probably do it. Oh boy. So that year I really focused, I really trained. But what I started doing is praying before every time I was planking so that I would know what to read. That would help me. I would know what to think about. That would help me. I was still teaching school. I was doing my lessons, but I just needed that extra help.

DonnaJean Wilde: 34:55

So in 2024, in January, a year later, then I did apply and Guinness was so wonderful to work with they're just amazing and the headquarters is in London and they got back to me soon and they encouraged me and so I had set my date for April. It ended up being March, april it ended up being March. So from January to March they sent me some guidelines. So I had always planked with shoes, so I had to be in bare feet I couldn't touch my hands your hands can't touch at all and of course you have to be perfect, so perfectly lined. So then I started really having some anxiety a little bit, but I continued just praying every time before. I claimed every time what I could read, what would help me the most. And so anyway, we, we got pretty close to the time I so many miracles happened, oh, my goodness, to the time I so many miracles happened. Oh, my goodness, so many miracles happened leading up to it. Um, just like getting the venue, uh, we the planking, um attempts took place in the McGrath uh theater, which was a miracle that it took place there just after I retired.

DonnaJean Wilde: 36:19

That was wonderful. We had to get the adjudicator arrange all the flights and everything, which there was little miracles in that and a snowstorm. We had to change her flights. A film crew came down from Calgary in the storm, and just so many things. But I want to share with you some sweet, a couple of sweet little stories A couple of days. So my parents have both passed away, but they are close and I feel them and their strength all the time.

DonnaJean Wilde: 36:55

A couple of days before the attempt, I was praying and asking Heavenly Father to please help me to know what to do that day to improve. And so I had the feeling to study my patriarchal blessing, which I do often anyway. So I felt like, wow, okay, I will. In my patriarchal blessing it says to confide in my mother and learn of her experience. So, thanking, reading my patriarchal blessing, I'm pleading with Heavenly Father and saying just the littlest thing, just something. Show me something that my mom is here and helping me and strengthening me, just something.

DonnaJean Wilde: 37:51

So in one of our rooms we have a poem. It's called Don't Quit. Like 20 years years ago my mom gave us that poem. It's fastened to the wall with little teeth hooks to the wall. It can't move at all. It's like fastened there. It's been there forever and I read it. I haven't. It's one of the things I didn't memorize. I have memorized since, but it's called. It's like how does it start when things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you're trudging seems all uphill, when you want to smile, but you have to sigh. Oh, when the funds are low and the debts are high. When you want to smile but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down. A bit rest if you must, but don't you quit. So there's a whole bunch of verses that go along with it uh-huh the next day I came downstairs.

DonnaJean Wilde: 38:51

I have it right here. I pulled it off the wall. The next day I came downstairs. It's obvious that this is crooked on the wall. It's so obvious. It's just right in front of you.

DonnaJean Wilde: 39:05

I hadn't had grandkids there, we had just gone to bed that night. It was on the wall straight. I would have noticed it. My mom is well-known for wanting pictures straight. That was a joke in our family. A little bit. She had to straighten everybody's pictures when I would hold it and read it Don't quit. So I just stood there and cried and cried and I told my grandkids this story. And I know, I know, heavenly Father, let my mom send me a message don't quit. And when I was on that platform, that gave me so much strength to think I could quit. So at that point I didn't have it memorized, but I could have my phone for a while while I was on the platform. So I had that, so I was able to read through that and that to me was just one of the many, many miracles that happened that day.

DonnaJean Wilde: 40:34

So many other miracles happened. Like I had a cold? What if I started coughing? What? I couldn't get off the platform and use the washroom. How is that going to work? I could have a drink, my husband could give me a drink of water, but all of those things just kind of work themselves out. And there's another little miracle that happened. And it seems so little, but it's not so. If you've ever watched the movie iron will, it's about this dog sled race in Alaska. So this boy, you know, is racing against all these men. Well, I didn't know what I was going to eat and what I was going to drink before I prayed and prayed, like, how am I going to do this? I'm looking at four and a half hours. So I knew I had to go in a little bit dehydrated so that my husband could just give me a drink. But I didn't know what to eat, but I just felt like I needed that fruitcake. Know what to eat, but I just felt like I needed that fruitcake.

Scott Brandley: 41:45

Like in the story.

DonnaJean Wilde: 41:45

He has fruitcake, that his mom made him special fruitcake and I just thought I need to find that. I need to find something, that's that. So we bought all of these health bars, protein bars, and nothing was happening. So it was just like whatever, I won't worry about it. Well, my daughter, she wasn't able to come to the to the um attempt, but her boy, her boy was. He's one of my 12 grandchildren and I didn't know that. So my husband went to pick up the adjudicator in Calgary from the airport and then picked up my grandson. Our grandson and my daughter had made a care package and I didn't know, and that was the day, the night before. So in that care package you probably have seen these before, but I had never seen them before were these bars? And I picked them up and I opened them up and I said to Randy, this is the fruitcake, this is what I've been praying for, this is what I need. She had sent four. I ate one. The night before I won, before I went, and I just felt like that was another little tender mercy. That was another little tender mercy. That's what I was looking for. That exact texture, that exact whatever it was. That helped me also through the planking, and so I just had so many little miracles happen that our family got family T-shirts and they didn't come in. So a miracle happened that they were still able to be made. And they said I can't remember Plank Strong, livestrong, I can't remember now what is on there, but just miracles, one miracle after another. So I just felt like I had the Lord's help to do that challenge. So right after that and I'll tell you a little bit more about this book Right after I broke the world record and it was just kind of crazy I had a lot of interviews, a lot on the news and people just kept saying write your story.

DonnaJean Wilde: 44:05

And so I did. I wrote a book and I wrote all those things in the book and told, and I tell in there what a big part of my training was prayer and scripture study and the Lord's hand. I know that. But while I was training for the planking record, doing push-ups was a big part of my training. I did hundreds of push-ups every day and I fell in love with doing that too. So that just kind of rolled into the next one. We were able to book a different venue to do the push-up attempt and my husband's mother, who was 91 years old, was at the Diamond Willow in McGrath and so we were able to do the push-up attempt at the Diamond Willow. We didn't have adjudicators come, we had judges different judges in the community come, but she was there. That was very special because she passed away not too long after that.

DonnaJean Wilde: 45:09

I write that whole story. This is kind of like my story, my heart, that I wrote down and so many things about believing believing in yourself, putting yourself out know little quote that I wanted to say To expect well, I'm not sure where it is, but just to expect the miracles in your life, to follow Heavenly Father's plan, to follow the prophet, to make scripture study part of your daily life, to create your own toolboxes and then expect miracles. Like, go into your days and expect miracles to happen and they will, just like they did for me. I still can't believe that that actually has happened. I do have some other Guinness records kind of in my sight. Maybe in the future a little bit, we'll see if that happens or not. But this has been just the greatest experience ever for me and I'm just happy to share my story.

Scott Brandley: 46:44

That's so amazing.

Alisha Coakley: 46:46

Wow, I'm curious, what are some of those other? You know Guinness records that you're kind of eyeballing.

DonnaJean Wilde: 46:54

Well, I haven't really said yet what they are, but I will share something else with you. Like, there is another, just a. I'm not going to do this as a guinness world record, but I I just want to say just in the past few months I've added, um, the dead hang to my training, that the like the bar hang has a list of health benefits. About that long, just so long. And I didn't tell this story. Oh, I guess I should tell one more story.

DonnaJean Wilde: 47:32

Um, while I was at school I got something called transverse mellitus and it's. I actually went paralyzed for a little while, was in the hospital. Um, I was going to university at the time. My hands ended up not working. I've been, I have chronic pain in my hands, so it's been kind of a ongoing thing. So my husband said that's why you can play so long, because you're so used to having chronic pain. But the reason that I mentioned the bar hang is because that's really helped me and helped my hands. But about four months ago I could only hang like maybe a minute. It was just such a struggle to hang. But now it's been four months and I've been doing it every day and I am once in a while I can make it to two minutes, and so in that small amount of time, instead of my book saying from minutes to hours, you could say from seconds to minutes, is such a testimony of improvement for all of us. In no matter what it is we do. It's actually called right Aggregation of marginal gains, if you've ever heard that.

Scott Brandley: 48:53

Yeah, yeah.

DonnaJean Wilde: 48:54

The British cycling team and Dave Railsworth, or whatever his name was like, changed their their style and changed everything.

DonnaJean Wilde: 49:03

That is exactly like slowly, then suddenly. And I just have such a testimony that if we just like decide what we want to do, what we like to do, and Heavenly Father is going to help us improve and we're going to improve, we have the brain capacity to improve. It makes those pathways, it's just all connected. And have the brain capacity to improve, it makes those pathways, it's just all connected. And it just gets me so excited because everybody doesn't love planking or pushups, but what do you love? So then just take that step and start and then you magically get better.

DonnaJean Wilde: 49:41

So I've seen it again the past few months in the bar hang and, honestly, an answer for me because it's helped the pain in my hands, my hand grip, everything to do with what I've been suffering with for so many years. And so another just answer to prayer, many years, and so another just answer to prayer. So I just I just emphasize, just look for those miracles, like expect, expect the miracles to happen and have. And if you're doing all those things and you're striving, then they're going to happen in your life, maybe not the way you think, but it's going to open other doors for you. Wow.

Scott Brandley: 50:25

I'm sorry.

Alisha Coakley: 50:29

I don't know if I missed this part, but I was like I don't know, but what was your time?

DonnaJean Wilde: 50:35

for Guinness. Oh, my time Maybe I didn't mention so for the planking was four hours 30 minutes and 11 seconds. And so when I did break the record and the whole like theater was cheering, everybody was cheering, it was full of people, it was so kind, they were so kind to me. My husband came close and he wasn't allowed to be like tell me anything or talk to me, or anything. Nobody talked to me. My husband came close and he wasn't allowed to be like tell me anything or talk to me, or anything. Nobody talked to me. He just came to me and he said you have to stay there for 10 more minutes at least. So it had been four hours and 20 minutes. You got to stay there for at least 10 more minutes till it's four hours and 30 minutes. So, anyway. So somehow I got the strength to do that. But my whole body emotion changed as soon as I broke that record. I was so emotional that I could feel the strength change. And my grandkids are there Grandma, grandma, grandma. All I wanted to do is jump off that platform and go hug them and everything, but managed to stay there and then the record was um, the most push-ups in an hour by a female um, it was I did 1575 oh my gosh, that's incredible what was the

DonnaJean Wilde: 52:00

previous record 1270, I think.

Scott Brandley: 52:08

Oh my gosh.

DonnaJean Wilde: 52:09

But you don't have to do it continuous. I trained for that and figured out how to do it, so I did about 30 every minute.

Alisha Coakley: 52:19

Wow, oh my gosh, that is crazy awesome. I couldn't watch a show like on my couch for 1,530 minutes or whatever. You know what I mean. Like I'm just like, oh, that is phenomenal, one that you were able to do it. But also just like that heavenly father designed our bodies to be able to do things like that right, like if we just actually tapped into the amount of ability we have, can you imagine like this world would be amazing. That's, that's phenomenal.

DonnaJean Wilde: 52:58

You're phenomenal, and we well, but and everybody does it, we all do it, we all that's what we are striving to do in the gospel is to be better than we were yesterday, in whatever area, and it only takes that 1% right, just just something, just a little something. That 1% right, just something, just a little something. And you can ask Heavenly Father to help you. What can I be better at today if you don't know? Or, please, can you help me not to be so anxious, or something, and he does. He'll help you in so many ways, so many ways.

DonnaJean Wilde: 53:45

I could read you this quote. Just, I have so many quotes that are my favorite. I want to get this one right. Well, actually, it's been said a few different ways. I kind of made this one up this way um, what we do with the minutes each day creates the life that we have now. If we want to create a different and better life, we need to plan for and change what we do with our minutes, starting today. It's true, it's just minute by minute, right. What we do with those minutes every day will make the difference in our lives.

Scott Brandley: 54:19

Yeah, wow, your attitude and your smile are contagious, I just have to tell you absolutely like just watching you.

DonnaJean Wilde: 54:28

I'm like I can give everything the whole wide world and I one of the things in my toolbox when I was on the platform was smiling, Like that was one of the mental things that I kind of my list of things that I pulled out Because it does it changes right the whole chemistry in your head. It makes you feel energized.

DonnaJean Wilde: 54:54

And there is one thing I forgot to talk about, and that's the Gospel Living app, the music on there. I trained to that so much. Those songs on there, if you Believe, by Patch Crow, change, by Nick Day, were all changing. So while I was on the platform, I was able to have some earbuds and my phone for a while just as long as my hands didn't touch and so I was listening to the playlists on the Gospel Living app, which are a huge part of my life, and they just bring such joy right. It just is like change, just the one about change. Yeah, we're always changing, or you can move mountains, whatever it is that on those songs. They just make you feel like, yeah, actually I can do that today.

Scott Brandley: 55:48

So is that part of the gospel library?

DonnaJean Wilde: 55:51

Oh, it's a gospel living app I'm going to show you right now on my phone. So it has 100 playlists in it and I will tell you every single song is uplifting Every song. So we have speakers in our house, just like JBL speakers that my husband and I listen to. That's what we work out to Every day. I jump rope to, if you Believe, by Patch Crow. Every day it starts my day and then it just makes you feel like you can walk across the water, you can move mountains because you have Heavenly Father's help and it's just yeah. So that is a big part of my life.

Alisha Coakley: 56:30

That is so neat, that's awesome.

Scott Brandley: 56:33

I didn't know that that was a thing, so in that.

DonnaJean Wilde: 56:37

Gospel Living app. It just doesn't have music, it has just quotes. It has stories. Lds has tons, hundreds of faith-promoting stories of youth or adults. It helps the child and youth program. It's a place where the kids can set their goals and they give ideas of what to do for their goals, for the child and youth program. So children, youth or however you say that, yeah, that is a wonderful app and I talk about it in my book too, like it is apt for everybody in the world wow, that's neat yeah, it's good to that's great to find some uplifting music.

Scott Brandley: 57:26

I mean, we definitely need that these days for sure.

Alisha Coakley: 57:29

So thanks for sharing that yeah, for sure, I love this whole story. It's very uplifting and and just I don't know like you're. You're incredibly inspirational, right I the things that you've accomplished, not just the planking and the Guinness, but like also writing a book, and like just you with your marriage and your kids and your grandbabies, and you know, I just I don't know, I just this is a good one. I really love this one. So thank you so much for making us smile today. Thank you.

DonnaJean Wilde: 58:01

Thank you A lot. My grandkids are plankers and pushup kids. Now one of my grandsons. Last year he decided that he was going to do 120, well, a hundred pushups a day. He ended up doing 120 every day. So it ended up being like I don't know 44,000. I can't remember how many, but he also decided to go the whole year without eating sugar. He's 12.

DonnaJean Wilde: 58:30

He went the whole year without eating sugar and the whole year of push-ups every day, and so that was inspiring for me, because, anyway, he just kind of rolled with what was going on in our family and so he inspired all the kids.

Alisha Coakley: 58:48

Wow, that is so sweet.

DonnaJean Wilde: 58:53

That's because he's trying to be like grandma.

Scott Brandley: 58:56

He surpassed me anyway, this is awesome. I mean, I've seen the Power of Goals in my life. Atomic Habits is one of my favorite books. I think we're kindred spirits in a lot of ways, but you're inspiring me to do better for sure. So I really appreciate your thoughts and your excitement and your drive and I love your quotes. Man, thank you so much for everything you do and for all the hard work you put on, Because I do think you know you are able to impact a lot of people because you show people like when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile that showed that that was possible, Right, and I think you're. I think you're doing that for a lot of people in the world and you're showing people that, hey, anyone can do amazing things if they put their mind to it and they just do a little bit better every day and they focus on it and they have a goal. You can do incredible things and if you have God on your side, that's your superpower, right.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:00:05

That is your superpower, yep, and if you write those goals down too, that's even another step right.

Alisha Coakley: 1:00:13

Yeah Well, donna, jean, tell our listeners, I mean, you've made some great book suggestions, but of course we want to know about your book Like, tell us, where can we find your book, how can we support you guys in that and how can we learn the whole story and learn more about you know, achieving our own goals and stuff through what you've written?

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:00:38

Well, it it is written from my heart, it really is, as I wrote this book. I it says I wrote this book while I was while planking is the subtitle, and I did I I have my computer on the floor or voice to text, or whatever. I did that wrote the book while I was planking. In this book, the chapters are driven by the questions people have asked me since I broke the record. So everybody would ask how, like, how did you do it? So in asking how I figured out pretty quick, if I waited a couple more seconds, they would tell me what that question was. Some of them are asking how did you plank for so long? Some are asking how did you train? How did you apply to Guinness? How did you plan for the attempt? Like, if I wait long, if the magical thing about talking to people after is that I have met hundreds of people that I didn't know before, like you guys, this is just so great. So so I have so many hundreds more friends. People stop me on the trails in Waterton or somewhere and be like hey, are you the planker? Are you the planker? Are you the one? It's like yeah, and then they say how? So those are kind of the chapters that kind of drove it Like how did it start? And so I kind of explained that today how that all started. Like how do you plank for so long? Well, it's because I do, because I I can do, because I do right. It applies to anything. You know, I can run because I run, I can plank because I plank. So that's how come I can do it because I keep planking. So that was a really fun thing. It just kind of evolved itself and I really believe that was the Holy Ghost really helping me be like like I had never written a book. I still can't believe I wrote a book, I cannot believe I wrote it, but it kind of goes through the stories that I told today plus a little bit more, plus my testimony of prayer and scripture study is the first tools in my toolbox every day that help me and it just goes on from there.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:03:22

I have so many pictures in here pictures of my grandkids, pictures of when I broke my wrist Another girl at school had broken her wrist and we have pictures of us together and at the school and just things that are like dear to my heart is written in here, and also the um while I was um planking one day in our tiny little 130 year old cabin that we have on our property appeaser um, I had my phone open, whatever that day.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:04:00

The day before I was I had been accepted for the push-up record, so I was super excited. So in my book I'm typing and writing I was just accepted by Guinness to try and break another world record, and so all of that, all of those dear feelings, are in my book and I just share to just believe in what you are doing. Sometimes I have people come up to me and say I don't like planking, but I love swimming and I haven't been a swimmer for years but I started swimming again and now I am so happy I did. Just things like that have just been become so special to me, just have helped me to keep going and the things that I want to do. But you don't have to love planking or pushups, but whatever it is that you love, to keep going at it. A little, little by little becomes a lot.

Scott Brandley: 1:05:05

Yeah, yeah, wow, that's so inspiring, dona Jean. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all that. Do you have some of the quotes and things that?

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:05:17

you've shared on the show today, in your book as well. All of them, yep, all of them and also in the link that I had sent before with my bibliography, there is a link to all 10 scrolls.

Scott Brandley: 1:05:29

Oh, awesome.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:05:31

A live link and yeah, just to a few different things. When I completed my master's degree, I had to do a capping final video of my experience, and so that's on there too. It should take you to a YouTube link that just really says how incredible our brains are. Heavenly Father has given us the best computer that will ever be made is our mind. That can be developed to help us develop whatever it is that we want, to help us in the gospel, to help us on missions, to help us learn languages, whatever it is that during my master's degree, I gained such a testimony of our bodies. Now our prophet says the same thing how amazing our bodies are and that Heavenly Father has given us, and so I share that in there. That's in one of the links. Yeah, just all the quotes and all the different things. I just like open this page. I have written if I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. So I don't know why I opened to that.

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:06:48

I guess because I need to quickly say we're all standing on the shoulders of giants, right of those who have gone before us when I was music teacher, that was our theme for the year of my music, and so we we studied, like Sir Isaac Newton and Helen Keller and all of those giants that have gone before us that we stand on the shoulders of and the soldiers who have fought for us, but also our best giant. I don't mention this in my book, but I will tell you, our biggest giant that we stand on the shoulders is Jesus Christ, who we gain strength from if we will just look to him, and I leave that with all my heart.

Alisha Coakley: 1:07:35

Yeah, oh, geez. Well, thank you so much, Donna Jean, for coming on and for sharing your story and your light and your smile and your inspiration. It's like I always know it's a really they're all good podcasts, right, but I always know that it's something that I really, really like resonated with when my cheeks are hurting by the end of the night or my makeup is right off. Oh, thank you.

Scott Brandley: 1:08:04

I don't. I think this is probably the podcast I've smiled the most in. Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share before we wrap things up?

DonnaJean Wilde: 1:08:19

Well, if you think about, along the line of smiling, there is I can't remember her name, petty Bowl somebody. I quote her. She just said he who laughs lasts. I totally believe that when I was doing my master's degree I had to do public speaking about smiling. They just gave me that topic. And so, to me, if we have the light of Christ with us, we just can't help but smile. And if we walk by someone who's not smiling and we smile, they will smile back Almost hands down. And so that is a way that we can help spread our light to others is just by being happy and smiling. But you know what? We have to do our homework, we have to fill our toolbox, we have to read our scriptures, we have to fill our lamps so that we can share that light with others.

Alisha Coakley: 1:09:25

Love it All right. Well, I'm going to keep smiling for the rest of the night. I'll make it a point to just put it in my head Do it all next week. It's a good time to start, right, right, awesome, all right. Well, thank you so much, donna Jean, for coming on again. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Guys, we're going to ask you to do your five-second missionary work. Share this story with others and let us know what your favorite part was. Leave a message in the comments for Donna Jean and she'll be able to look it up and see. You know just how many other people she's inspiring with her life and her, her knowledge and her, her ability to set goals and accomplish them, and all the good things.

Scott Brandley: 1:10:14

Thank you, yeah and if you have a story you'd like to share, go to latterdaylightscom or latterdaylights at gmailcom and send usa message and we will get you on the show. You can be part of our latterday lightscom or latterdaylights at gmailcom and send us a message and we will get you on the show. You can be part of our latterday lights family, just like donna g absolutely awesome.

Scott Brandley: 1:10:32

Well, thanks again everybody for tuning in and thanks, donna gene for coming on and good luck in your future endeavors. And yes, I can't wait to see what other goals you crushed at guinness thank you so much you bet all

Alisha Coakley: 1:10:49

right, well, until next time, guys. We will talk to you later you.