Laina Turner-Molaski

As some of you may have seen on my facebook status yesterday I tried to bribe my eight year-old son, with $5 bucks, to watch his younger sister so I could finish the edits on my book. He negotiated me up to $15 and then offered his dad $5 of that later in the day to watch her so he could go to his friends’s house. I have to admit I was proud of his business chops.

Today when he tried to collect I told him I wasn’t able to finish so I didn’t feel I owed him the full amount (I just wanted to see what he would do). He basically told me that was my problem and I was more than welcome to pay him to watch her again. That’s my boy!

He offered to go door-to-door in our neighborhood to sell my upcoming book. His plan was to tell the customer if they bought from him they would be in my top list of fans. He seemed to think that was a compelling enough reason to get someone to buy. He has no fear. I could learn a lot from him.

Have a great Monday!
Laina

My post on Monday was about starting the new year off healthy with a cleanse. I blew it Monday and Tuesday. I had planned on starting back today but didn’t remember until I had already eaten my Dunkin Donuts. So maybe tomorrow?

Oh well. Even those last 10 pounds can’t stand in the way o my happiness that my fiction book will be available on March 30th. Yeah!!! It’s almost like having another baby. The anticipation has been tremendous but now the real work starts. It will be worth it though.

Everyone have a great Wednesday!
Laina

Are you all ready? To tackle 2010 which surely will be a kick-ass year for us all. So I’m going to be all girly for a second and go down the path all us females go down at the beginning of the year and that is weight loss and exercise. I swear to God I gained 10 lbs these last 2 weeks of holiday bliss. My kids kept asking for me to make candy and treats and who was I too refuse those cute little faces. Then how could I not eat with them. However for them they burn calories within 2 seconds. Me not so much.

I spent some time yesterday looking for a good cleanse to jump start my new healthy eating and as of 9:38am EST I have not yet blown it. Pretty good for me. The cleanse, in case anyone wants to join me, is a liquid meal for breakfast and dinner with a sensible meal for lunch. No eating after 7pm and no alcohol and caffeine. So wait, I have already blown it. Damn coffee. Oh well never said I was perfect. But let’s not dwell on our screw ups. I am going to stay strong today.

I am also going to dust off the stairmaster tonight. With you all as my witness I will actually use it for it’s intended purpose not as a jungle gym for my 3 yr-old.

I am also going to catch up on all my emails before I go to sleep and finish my portion of the rough draft of my biz book.

Let’s start cranking out the accomplishments…hooyah!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
— Mark Twain

I love this time of year. Listening to beautiful Christmas music. My favorite is… Can’t decide.

What’s yours?
Laina

Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.
— Nido Qubein

Thanks Mack for the great idea of “Laina’s Life” and yes I am thinking about changing my twitter handle:)

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”
Robert Collier

Your power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.
— Stephen Covey

Those who know me know I’m not a big fan of the warm and fuzzy. However, my blog post today is all about the importance of connection and relationships. With my background in HR I talk a lot of Human Capital, essentially the ability to measure return on employees. After attending a fantastic Rainmakers event this morning I started to think about the importance of Emotional Capital, which by my made up definition is the amount of the warm and fuzzy we get from others. Last night and again this morning I received that in abundance.
Sometimes life gets so busy I tend to not think about the people around me and how truly important they are to my well being. At the beginning of the year I had a conversation with someone about how many friends I had and I remember replying that I had a lot of acquaintances but not really friends. The person I was talking to seemed to find that strange and asked me what my definition was of friend. I found I really didn’t have one but I just knew I didn’t have any. Their reply to me was they thought that was sad. That conversation has stuck with me all year and has replayed itself in my head almost daily as I have come to realize that I have a lot of great friends. More than most people and probably more than I deserve because the other thing I have learned is friendship is a two way street. Real friends are tough on you to make you a better person and are with you every step of the way on your journey. Friendship, like any relationship, is not easy.
I saw a quote the other day and forgive me for not remembering the author but it said “Friends are the ones who love you when you don’t love yourself” and nothing could be truer. This past year I have found so many people who love me in spite of the fact I thought of them as acquaintances rather than true friends. These people have spent the year investing in my Emotional Capital in a year when I have been bankrupt. I can’t express how lucky I am that these investors believed in me despite of my beliefs in myself.
As this year quickly starts to wind down remember we all need an investment in our Emotional Capital. My goal for the remainder of the year is daily to thank those people who have made an investment in me with no expectation of return.
Today I want to thank Lorraine Ball who was the inspiration for this post and although we don’t know each other extremely well (yet) has been supportive of everything I have asked of her. Selfishly, from her heart.
Thanks Lorraine!!
Laina