Rise And Shine

"What ever your 100% looks like, give it." -Lance Armstrong

Last week I began with two of my weaknesses, so this week I'll begin with a strength. I....am an incredibly good motivator. I like to make people feel as though they can accomplish anything, because in reality they really can, sometimes they just don't know it or don't know where to begin. That's where I come in. I'm good at the little details, getting things moving (or metaphorically shoving you out the door), being persistent and keeping the hope alive. My mom was captain of her cheerleading team and it's quite possible I've inherited the cheerleading instinct. There's nothing I love more than cheering people on to success, whatever it may be.

My first study abroad I lived in London with two amazing, super fun girls. We hadn't been in the country for 24 hours before Jackie's straightener exploded, causing a small fire. I like to think of that as a premonition for all of the crazy adventures we had that Spring. When it got pretty cold in the mornings, no one wanted to wake up, especially Jackie. The best way to get Jackie out of bed was if I sang the "Titanic" song. No, NOT that horribly depressing theme song. As if! I'm talking about the Camp Calleva sing-along version that I learned when I was 9. It requires audience participation, so consider that your warning if you ask me to sing it. The second most requested song was something my mom used to sing and it goes a little like this..."So rise and shine, and Give God your glory, glory, rise, and shine, and give God your glory glory RISE AND SHINE AND...Give God your glory glory Children..of the...Lord." Jackie got out of bed, Kara would laugh and sing along, and we all started off our morning on a happy note. Motivation is a wonderful thing.

I tried an experiment on myself this week. Jake, (my new advice expert), inspired it. I decided that rather than pay attention to what Wasn't right with people (slow walkers anyone?), I would look for what traits I actually admired. I treated it kind of like a game, you pick a person you are with and ask yourself which of those personality traits would you want to adopt and develop as your own? It turns out, there are TONS!! For example. My sister Chloe is one of the best flirts I've ever seen, she's figured out how to talk to men since she was 5, and she's good at it. Sometimes I tease her about it, but mainly because I'm jealous she's that good. She is also an amazing entertainer and I love spending time with her because I literally laugh the entire time. Chloe has a lot of really good traits (witty AND smart) that I'm working on developing in myself. I looked at everyone I interacted with this week, and found SO MANY traits that I loved--persistency, putting people at ease, being a great listener, outgoing and laid back, working hard, inspiring confidence in others, being a great leader, being able to laugh at yourself and make anything sound funny; I could go on forever. The word 'Namaste' means something to the effect of I honor the light that shines within you. I've always loved that phrase, but never really practiced it continuously until this week. What a difference it makes when you see people for the good they contribute to society! I'll be continuing this fun little exercise.

Lastly, yes. The biking quotes continue. I came across this LA quote and loved it. I'm actually not really a fan of LA as a person (namaste, remember?) but we are focusing on the good and it turns out he's quite inspirational. I made it a goal to give my 100% (at the very least) to work every day this past week (following my dad's advice: work smart, not hard). The difference, was HUGE. I got so many things done and the knowledge that I was working at my Prime gave me more energy and enthusiasm to get extra things done and still have the energy to play after work. So what ever YOUR 100 percent looks like, give it!

Cheerfully yours,
Lolo

Forward

"It never gets easier, you just go faster."-Greg Lemond

Time for a bit of honesty I suppose. I am absolutely terrible at two things-I have no sense of time and No sense of direction. You'd think that given nature's odds there would have to be at least ONE time that I exit the elevator at work and turn the right direction. Nope. Every single day I get to either the lobby or my floor, turn the wrong way, then double back. Every time. Then there's time...I don't know how most people count their days or months or years...I used to know what day/month/year it was based around school...that's how I counted time. When I started working I started waking up every morning with absolutely NO idea what day it was. Sunday? Friday? Thursday? Saturday? I was perpetually in total panic mode in the morning. Being the problem solver I am, I figured out a solution: facebook. No one has ever asked me about it, but every day I post a status with not just a quote but a "Happy _____"insert day of the week. Not because I'm thrilled it's Monday (WHO IS?!) but because it's how I keep track of time.

Second way I keep track of time: sports. It's weird, but I know what month it is based on what sports are playing. I was just thinking about the rest of this year-like May is French Open, June is Wimbledon, end of June/July is Tour de France, April is when baseball starts (and ends in October/Nov), August this year is the OLYMPICS!!! (no really, it's that exciting) and NBA championship is thrown in there somewhere. When the next tour de france rolls around I'm like "wow, has it really been a whole year? I guess it has!" and that's how I know it's been a year. You have your ways, I have mine.

I decided to take my own advice this week and write down a jumble of thoughts and send it to my dad. Here's the thing: I scored the jackpot in the lottery of dads. He gives hands down, the best advice. He's objective about it, he can point out reality from emotions and he's got so much common sense it's crazy. He also gets approached from Everyone I know for advice. So needless to say, it helps that I'm his daughter and I get to go to the top of his list for attention and help. This week was a big one for me. It's like everything that I was thinking/worrying/stressing about came to this GIANT climax where I couldn't see backwards or forwards and I had freaked myself out. On my way to a yankees game I sat on the subway and typed out this email to my dad, spilling everything and not really sure if I was making sense. When I got home from the yankees game he called me (TEARS of JOY are not enough to explain how happy I was to hear from him), he was on his way home from the success of one of his many incredible extracurriculars and said it would be easier to call than respond to my email. He gave me TONS of advice. I have been struggling with balancing my life-work, social, church calling, etc and my desires to excel at all of them. He told me the key is to "Work smart, not hard." Make efficient use of my time at work, get things done twice as fast. He also talked about being that person that gets things done, becoming invaluable in the office and working in a way that people feel they can't survive without me. It doesn't mean work has to take over my life, I just work smart. He also talked about how to get things done, and that may have been one of my favorite conversations with him. He talked about his strengths and told me some of my own. If you don't have someone that can tell you what your strengths are and help you out when you've experienced mild amnesia, you Need one of those!!! Find one. And then be that person for them. Then my dad talked to me about my social life and it turns out that not only is he an expert on careers and business, but on love and relationships as well (he credits a Lot to my amazing and inspiring mom, she's basically the key to everything.) All in all, best talk. And I'm back on track and sure of where I'm going and what I'm doing and it feels GOOD.

As I woke up this morning, I thought about a quote my dad talked about yesterday, after finishing the half marathon with my mom (seriously, could my parents be cuter?!) and he was telling me about his talk that he's giving in church. He said when Greg Lemond won the Tour de France for the third time they asked him if it was easier after having won two previous times. He said "it never gets easier, you just go faster." What a brilliant metaphor for life. A lot of people think the Tour is boring...people spinning wheels through the countryside for 3 hours a day, how dull. But my Favorite part about cycling is to see the rider's faces. They say Lance Armstrong was able to win the Tour so many times because he Enjoys suffering, the more he suffers the happier he gets. You watch these riders race to the finish line, crash and mount their bikes covered in blood and road rash, riding with broken bones and total dehydration, and you can literally see the pain etched on their faces. The riders that win the stage, that win the Tour, are the ones with the Mental capacity to shove the pain aside, and keep riding. Keep going. Because it never gets easier, you just go faster.

Happy Sunday! :)

Leaps and Bounds

"Enjoy what is, for a change, without worrying about what might be."-Lisa Wingate

You know how most people love to camp? Not me, but most people just love it. I was on vacation this past week, at the beach (as if I'd spend my spare time Anywhere else), and realized that I feel for the beach what most people feel for camping. I can smell like saltwater, be coated in sand and have super tangled blonde beach fro hair and I love it. I'd like to think this is equivalent to smelling like campfire smoke, dirt in my socks and greasy braided hair. Not saying I developed this sudden love for camping, haha. Yeah right. I just now understand why it appeals to some people.

Ok so back to the beach. Anytime I go anywhere I have to schlepp all of my stuff with me-iphone, ipad, macbook, ipod, blackberry...and all of the power cords. I'm amazed my back hasn't snapped in half. Or at the very least turned into quasimoto. However you spell that. It's one of the requirements of grown up life, or grown up life in NY or maybe just a busy job...you have to be able to work from the kalahari to mount everest and every random place in between "just in case" there's a crisis. Ok so I did lug this stuff all the way to Florida. But I also abandoned it in the hotel room (yes, even both phones!!) and I loved every minute of living in the present without worrying what stress might come up. I also read four books which while they were all extremely different, all FOUR of them had the same exact message: stop focusing on the future and enjoy what is right in front of you. There's this quote that says something to the effect of "a life focused on the future will always be a day away from being realized." So somewhere between lobster tacos on the beach and reading what has to be the best dating book out there (ask me for the name, I promise it's amazing), I realized that my planning for "someday" is never going to happen if I don't focus on and love the person I am right now. This is, as it turns out, makes life so much more fun!!

P.S. all three of my roommates are currently reading the "dating book" and laughing hysterically as I typed this. It's that good.

All is Well

"Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear; But with joy, wend your way. Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day. 'Tis better far for us to strive, Our useless cares from us to drive; Do this, and joy your hearts will swell, All is well! All is well!"-Come, Come Ye Saints

Is it just me or was conference the best yet?! So many things that I needed to hear, and so many great lessons to absorb. In fact I'm really looking forward to reading all of the talks over again, because let's face it, at some point some of them started to run together. I made the observation on our Sunday walk that when I was younger, conference really didn't have a big impact on me. It meant I was excited to play with legos in my pjs and not have to sit still in church. But on Friday night I was practically giddy with excitement over what topics would be focused on, wondering what revelation and guidance would be important enough to share. I think the difference is that I have a greater understanding and perspective. I have stress and worry, about real life problems. And listening to conference it's like the apostles and prophet know! They describe many of my experiences! They get me! More like I "get" them...and know that the more challenging life gets, the better it gets if you have the strength of the gospel.

Two thoughts from the past two weeks. My timing is Not the Lord's timing. Is it ever?! Haha I'm sure it will be, at some point. Whenever I try to speed things up in my life, take shortcuts, fire up the jet pack, it just gets harder. I get roadblocks. And more roadblocks. And in the end, after I really have exhausted all options and I'm still trying to speed things up, I realize that the roadblocks have been for my protection. And benefit. To save me from a result so far from what I had started out wanting. So I'm learning...or trying to. But the miracles that have come from these experiences have stuck with me.

Second thing. My mom has many hidden talents. Lucky for me, I'm as close as it comes to being her twin. See the picture above for reference. Among other useful skills, she's practically a concert organist. When we are traveling in Europe we stop at almost every church. (Just ask to hear the rhyme, that explains it all). If the church has an organ they let her play. In some cases, the organ hasn't been in use for years because no one knows how to play it. She's played in ancient monasteries, cathedrals, churches. And as has come to be tradition she plays the song "Come, Come ye Saints." It's somewhat ironic given that it's an LDS hymn but that makes it all the more powerful to hear. For a while now I've been getting weird urges to do some genealogy. I say weird because I have sworn not to do any genealogy until I'm too old and decrepit to do other fun things...got to leave something for me to do when I can't get out of bed. But last week I asked Grandpa Glenn for my great great great grandfather's journal. As luck would have it, he had a digital copy. I read the whole thing in a day. He was a pioneer. He spent time with Joseph Smith. He served a mission in Australia. He could literally do anything, pretty much on the first try. Catch sharks? No problem. Volunteer as a sailor? Sure. Lumberjack? Even better. I learned an incredible amount from those 40 pages...and it was humbling. Many times he gave everything he had to help someone else and recorded his tithing diligently. I really did begin to wonder if I was reading the "edited" version of his life. There were no complaining, 'woe is me' or modern-day 'fml' passages. Highly suspicious. In fact at the end of his journal he writes that he hopes his descendants won't judge him too harshly after reading his life's account. Ha! But in many ways his life's account has given my own greater meaning and motivation, and it turns out genealogy is not just a fun elderly activity.

In other exciting discoveries, this weekend I found out one of my good friends is in fact my cousin. Ok, fourth cousin. I happened to mention this journal and the name of my great great great grandfather...which coincidentally is her last name too. And her family was in shock because they have the same journal and he is Their grandfather! Unknowingly I discovered long lost relatives in Connecticut, and all because I listened to some promptings of genealogy.

So to recap -- faith is important, listening to promptings is important, and timing is so out of my control. Shout out to all of the incredible people in my life that have been my answers to prayers and been positive influences these past two weeks. You are appreciated far more than you know :)

Love,

Lolo