Laina Turner-Molaski

Archive for October, 2009

Work as if it was your first day.
Forgive as soon as possible.
Love without boundaries.
Laugh without control
and never stop smiling.

One of my favorite inspirational books is This Is Not the Life I Ordered. It is simply a journaling of the main characters and their life stories and their journey’s and how they persevered and were able to receive strength from each other in order to make it through those times of success and failure. I would encourage you to pick up a copy as it is one of those books that is good to have on the book shelf for those times you need a little pick me up. Let’s take today for example. It’s Monday, and because of a lot of craziness in my life, I definitely needed some inspiration to get me going. Throughout this book are quotes that I enjoy and the one today that caught my eye was from Cicely Tyson. It says “Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They’re what make the instrument stretch- what make you go beyond the norm.” What it said to me today is that instead of letting those challenges get us down we need to look at them as ways to make us better. It’s not always easy but it’s a better alternative than being sad and depressed about what might seem like an insurmountable challenge.

Laina

Chiczofrenic – Barbie & Ken

We all remember back when we were young and it was all about Barbie dolls and Baby Alive. If we had brothers there might be a stretch Armstrong and some Hot Wheels thrown in. However, how many of us played house. Traditional ‘play’ acting for girls and boys alike. Mimicking our parents and grandparents or people we may have watched on television. Is this where we learned that we wanted to have that perfect life? Did the those folks really portray the perfect life? It’s what all the people against Barbie and Ken were fearful of, the ideas that people could be perfect. We played with the perfect Barbie, in her perfect clothes, her perfect corvette, and perfect Ken. Did we feel this was how life was supposed to be? Perfect?

How did you feel the first time you realized that life wasn’t going to be like Barbie and Ken living the life in the Dream House? I know I’ve felt cheated at times. I thought life was supposed to be all rainbows and marshmallows. Damn that fantasy! It set some high expectations that now I must reach or live disappointed. Trying to achieve that dream is what is driving me crazy these days (among others). How about you?

As a writer, and a goal oriented person, I tend to focus too much on word count. Whether it’s a daily amount or overall, I look at word count as a measurable. When half the time I figure my writing is crap and no one will want to read it at least I can say it’s 90,000 words of crap (I know I’m reaching). But how can one let go of that need to meet  the goal when writing is so subjective. I am asking because I want to know how you all out there do it. Do you feel content if you write a certain amount a day, whether you feel it is good or bad. Or do you look at the quality of what you are writing? Obviously, at some point we need to look at quality but when? And do we as writers ever really feel it’s quality? I know I might for a few minutes at a time but it rarely lasts.

This writing thing makes a job a Wal-Mart or Starbucks look appealing at times!

Laina

Today I woke up and was not ready to face the world. I wasn’t motivated to get dressed up and rush off to work. Not that I didn’t want to go to my appointments but rather I just felt like doping it in sweat pants or my pajamas. Who ever came up with the rules that you have to get dressed in the morning anyway? Isn’t that saying right there to judge a book by its cover? Shouldn’t we be judged by our merit not how cute my new Donna Karen suit is? Or how my hair and makeup looks?

What would happen if we all rebelled and showed up for work tomorrow in our pajama pants? Do you think we could make a statement? Would people even notice? Would it make us not so great employees?

As a professional I do get the point of needing to present yourself in a certain manner. But don’t we all have those days where we just want to less loose and be relaxed and comfortable, rather than professional?

As I was reading through this book I came across an excerpt by Catherine Newton, Create a Magical Life: Tap into Your Soul’s Intention of Abundance. It is about trusting yourself when your proverbial castle is crumbling. When it seems that everything in life is falling apart you must trust in yourself and your actions that things happen for a reason and the right path and destiny will show itself.

This really spoke to me, as it is what I am currently going through in my own life. Each day when I feel that surely things couldn’t get any worse…it somehow seems to. Normally an optimist by nature, it can be hard sometimes not to let despair overtake my looking into the situation for the positive. Or, how this one more challenge can make me a stronger person.

I came across a quote once somewhere by Mother Teresa that said “God only gives us what we can handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.” It’s true. Much like what Catherine said about trusting yourself and who you are, we are all capable of great success if we perservere. We can all achieve anything we dream of but it’s not always going to be easy. We have to keep the faith and our trust in ourselves during those tough times because not to will cause us to lose traction on the road to our successes. It is not easy but the victory of achieving our goals will be that much sweeter as we reflect of what we overcame.

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So, this week I had this great idea, well I thought it was great at the time, to cut back on my caffeine intake. You see I typically drink a pot of coffee in the morning just to get me going and then several ice tea’s during the day. Then at night wine to relax me (but that’s a post all in itself). I began to realize that I was having trouble sleeping and figured it was due to one of three things. My high stress level, sleeping with my Blackberry and feeling compelled to see what emails came across at 3am, or way to much caffeine. Since caffeine seemed to be the easiest to cut out I decided to go with that first. But now after three days of headaches and being bitchy to everyone, I am not so sure it was such a great idea.

That leaves me in a bit of a quandary. I have made three days of headway on cutting back (not out) the caffeine and I would hate to give up all this great progress. But I am tired of feeling, well, tired and crabby. When will this end? When will this vicious drug be out of my system? How can this be legal and marijuana’s not (okay I know the answer to that one-just trying to be funny)?

So, I ask you all to support me today in my fight against caffeine by going cold turkey – no caffeine – for an entire day.

Together we can do it (I sure hope so at least)!
Laina

Book progress or lack thereof…

Deadlines, what can be said about deadlines?? Right now I would like to say I hate them. A procrastinator by nature, making the final revisions to my book are not something I can put off because if I do not have them to my editor in time then they can’t do their work and everything gets thrown off. Don’t you hate that? I mean really, sometimes I just look at the screen of my laptop and want to stare off into space. It’s much more fun. I don’t feel like using neither my creativity nor my imagination. Honestly, I would rather go shopping right now. I even spent some time this morning thinking about what bills I could get rid of that might allow me to stop working. But then I would still want to shop and that idea went right out the window.

I need to be motivated and it’s just not there. So I need to draw some energy from you all, my friends. What do you do when you are faced with something you need to do, you have to do, and usually you want to do. But don’t want to do any of those things right this minute?

Help me????

Laina

The other day I stopped in a McDonald’s and had one of the most unbelievable customer service experiences I have ever had. By unbelievable I mean BAD. I ordered my usual unsweet ice tea, they handed me a cup, I paid for it, all the usual steps. I then went over to the drink dispensary, or whatever it is called, to pour my drink. Typically there is a container of sweet tea and a container of unsweet. This day there were two containers of sweet so I thought maybe I was just being dense and there was missing it. I stopped a lady walking past and asked if there was any unsweet tea. She looked at me and, I kid you not, said “no” and walked on.

As I just stood there in shock just not believing that someone would be so blatantly rude another employee, who overheard the exchange, came over to me and got me what I needed. Then proceeded to ream the other employee and yell at the manager about the other employee and generally caused a ruckus.

Then I was happy, after all I had my ice tea, but am still appalled at the behavior of the employee at the McDonald’s. We are currently in a time where many folks don’t have jobs. So if you don’t want yours to the point that you are going to be rude, then let someone else have it.
Laina

I often include myself in this category. I mean, why not? I am cool, fabulous and basically I am every woman! But where did it start? Who was coined a diva back in the day? Who is one now? All these questions plague my mind as I wonder how much of a diva I am considered by the masses? Well, like I usually do, I get on the computer and do some research and here is what I came up with…

What is a Diva?

Check it out and let me know if your a diva and why!