Intergrity and Virtue

Posted on January 30, 2011 by laina

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Those two words aren’t always commonly found in the realms of professional sports where money and competition are often the two front runners of what’s important. However, recently Kansas City Royals pitcher, Gil Meche, showed us he had both.

Meche walked away from a 12 million a year salary that most of us can only dream about. Why? Because he felt he wasn’t earning his keep and that he didn’t want to take money he didn’t earn. How’s that for honesty. How many of us would do the same thing? One might argue that over the years he has made millions so is able to walk away from even more millions and have enough money to live on. And yes that is true but even still it’s usually the American way to spend more when you make more.

I found it refreshing that regardless of how much money he currently has that allows him to retire at such a young age that he took this measure. I feel in light of all the negative things pro athletes find themselves in the news for it is good to have a happening such as this to remind us of what is really important. Which is this circumstance is living up to the expectation and when that isn’t possible then not taking a ride.

What are your thoughts on what he did? Do you feel more pro athletes should take his lead?

Laina

Baseball Pitcher Gil Meche Turned Down $12 Million (blogher.com)
Gil Meche: Was he right to forego $12M? (nydailynews.com)
Gil Meche Takes The Lazy Way Out By Saying He Retired Because He Felt Bad For Taking The Royals’ Money (businessinsider.com)

The MS Project

Posted on January 25, 2011 by laina

Raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. That is what The MS Project is, does, and stands for. If you keep up with my blog you will know that I am working on a book which is a compilation of stories by people who have MS or who have a loved one with MS. First, I have to say this has been an amazing project to work on. I have met some many great and courageous people who have submitted their stories and shared with me and I truly appreciate it. However, I have to admit the putting together of all the stories has taken me a lot longer than planned. My deadline to get this done and to the printer is Monday and I am not even close to having it ready. Why? Not just because of my typical procrastination but rather this has been so incredibly difficult. I can’t sit down to edit without crying at least once. Not because the stories are so sad but because they are so strong and full of hope.While it has been tough I am so thrilled that I have this great honor.

Thank you everyone!

Laina

Multiple Sclerosis Resources (everydayhealth.com)
Women with MS more likely to have MS-related gene than men (physorg.com)

Emotional Capital

Posted on January 21, 2011 by laina

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 meeting 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. Last 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.
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.

Laina

You Need To Work on Friendships (brighthub.com)

History repeats itself – over and over

Posted on January 20, 2011 by laina

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It is interesting to look at how things tend to have a consistent life cycle. Although they may go dormant at times, chances are if you wait long enough they will cycle around again. It happens in fashion all time much to my dismay sometimes. But what about when you don’t want history to repeat itself but yet it does. Is it just destiny or do we subconsciously set ourselves up to rinse and repeat? Even when you are determined to not repeat past mistakes and yet it happens is that your fault or is it just meant to be? I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately as I have been finding myself allowing history to repeat itself, in a personal relationship, even when it’s not the path I want to take. But I didn’t realize this until just recently and yet looking back it is so clear that I was headed down the same path. What was I thinking? Why did it take so long to figure out when it’s the second time around making this mistake? Shouldn’t I have noticed the signals? I am afraid my behaviors and patterns are so ingrained that I will continue to do this over and over. How do you pay close attention to what you are doing to make sure you aren’t making those same mistakes without getting paranoid and not trusting yourself and looking for problems around every corner? I know the feeling I have now of wanting to walk away from any relationships and just have a relationship with myself isn’t healthy and again in the long run not what I want either. But I’m not sure if I can change course at this stage in the game but not sure if I want to start over either. Ahhhhh…what to do? I am not complaining I am just trying to reflect and figure things out. I don’t want to keep making the same mistakes and I want the life I have envisioned for myself with compromising that too much (I know there is always compromise at some levels). If you’ve been successfully getting out of our cycle of less than desirable behaviors please share how you did it.

Laina

New Laina Turner iPhone app (lainaturner.com)
Why Ruminating is Unhealthy and How to Stop (psychcentral.com)
How to Have Enriching Relationships (dumblittleman.com)

Fragmented Writing

Posted on January 20, 2011 by laina

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I am having a hard time shifting gears the last few weeks. College professor by day and writer/blogger by night has usually been an ok transition but lately when I sit down at night, at the start of what I like to call my second shift, I stare at the screen trying to will myself to be creative and work on my next fiction novel but I do nothing but simply stare at the screen. I have story lines and ideas in my head but they are all jumbled and I have been having difficulty putting together enough cohesiveness to get the words out the way they need to be. I normally have been able to write from my idea outline and then continue a process of working my way from start to finish or middle to finish, adding additional story lines, details, more flair and dialogue until I get a finished product. This time it has been much different. I did complete the first rough draft the way I just explained but since then have just had starts and stops where I will start a new document and write a secondary story line based on one idea. Not even sure where it will fit into the story. So I have a 30,000-word rough, rough draft and a bunch of couple thousand word “extras.” And I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around putting them together. It’s making me doubt the story although I do realize that is not the answer but rather a by-product of my frustration. I keep hoping as I write these “extras” I will eventually come to the A-HA! Moment and know exactly how it is all suppose to fit. So until then, fingers crossed.

Any advice?

Laina

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