Sunday, November 28, 2010

My Motivational Quotes

Motivation plays a major role in whether or not we truly find success, happiness, and peace.  While some people have that natural ability to strive for their goals on a daily basis, others face life challenges which may have left them in pain causing them to pull even further away from family, friends, and anything else that used to be important.  This list of quotations might help if your getting stuck in the holiday/winter rut or it could provide you with a great selection to choose from for your next status update on facebook.  Enjoy. 

Adversity is the first path to truth. - Lord Byron
Believe you can and you're halfway there. - Theodore Roosevelt
Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise. - Sigmund Freud
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. - Marie Curie
Be a friend to yourself, and others will be so too. - Thomas Fuller
Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create that fact. - William James
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. - Albert Einstein
Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots. - Victor Hugo
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. -Arthur Ashe
The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. - Mark Twain
To live happily is an inward power of the soul. - Marcus Aurelius
Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. -C.S. Lewis
I walk slowly, but I never walk backword. - Abraham Lincoln
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. - Henry David Thoreau
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Winston Churchill
Success is a journey, not a destination. - Ben Sweetland
Adversity is the touchstone of friendship - French Proverb
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt
Always do what you are afraid to do. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers. - Henri Frederic Amiel
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Failure is success if we learn from it. - Malcolm Forbes
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. - Theodore Roosevelt
Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got. Jim Rohn
It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want. - Franklin D. Roosevelt
You cannot depend on your eyes when you imagination is out of focus. - Mark Twain
There is no instinct like that of the heart. - Lord Byron
The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. - Buddha
Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert Einstein
To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin. - Lord Byron
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. - Jonathan Swift
Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone. - Victor Hugo
With the realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world. - Dalai Lama
If you're doing you best, you won't have any time to worry about failure. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Nobody can hurt me without my permission. - Mahatma Gandhi
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. - Henry David Thoreau
Nothing happens unless first a dream. - Carl Sandburg
The beginning is the most important part of the work. - Plato
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. - Buddha
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. - Dalai Lama
The important thing is not to stop questioning. curiosity has its own reason for excisting. - Albert Einstein
Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it. - Buddha
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. - Theodore Roosevelt.
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. - Theodore Roosevelt
The most important question to ask on the job is not "What am I getting?" but rather "What am I becoming?" - Jim Rohn
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourselff in the service of others. - Mohandas Gandhi
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. - Benjamin Disraeli
Choice, not circumstances, determines your success. - Author Unknown
The energy of the mind is the essence of life. - Aristotle
Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. - Dalai Lama
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Teresa
Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. - Buddha
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. - John F. Kennedy
The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. - Winston Churchill
Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. - Marie Curie
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. - John F. Kennedy
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato
What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens. - Thaddeus Golas
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. - Lao Tzu
Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek. - Dalai Lama
If you take care of your character, your reputation will take care of itself. - American Proverb
The purpose of our lives is to be happy. - Dalai Lama
We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves. - Dalai Lama
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mohandas Gandhi
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. -Marcus Aurelius

Thursday, November 18, 2010

"Teach me how to Twitter"

Lori: "Tweet it to me so I can retweet it out"
Me: "I need to learn how to use twitter"
Lori: "I can give you a lesson tonight".

Have I mentioned yet how much I love my best friend Lori!  She is truly my real soul mate.  I did research on the whole soul mate search and love at first sight and its definitely not what we all learned watching those countless romantic movies like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail".  Soul mates can be your best friend or somebody that walks in your life for a certain reason.  I would say probably less than 10 percent maybe even less than 5 percent actually end up marrying or having a real legitimate relationship with a soul mate.

Eight years ago I had ssimilar to a "love at first sight"  something extremely better.  I like to call it "She's going to be my best friend forever at first sight". 

Five years ago we started talking about my book "Stilettos to Combat Boots" before I left for Kuwait in 2004.  I started writing a bunch of stories and journal entries while I was there and after my return.  I wrote about everything from relationships, haircuts, and how crazy it was for me to join the army.  I am now in the process of searching, looking, and creating some sort of collaboration for all of the amazing ideas I have and of course my bluntly honest opinion on what I have learned along the way.

I always wondered why I was never the kind of girl to get too hung on to relationships or friendships that came in and out of my life.  I almost felt like of cold.  Well, I actually still feel kind of cold at times.  I'm not much of  a hugger, birthday remembering, present giving, or emotional kind of friend.  I'm not going to always remember to tell you how much you mean to me, but.........

My memory is freaking awesome.  After reading a few books and doing some deep research into my past, I realized that my memories alone were what I was capturing.  I can remember the smallest details from my past and I saved things along the way.  I keep a box of things to remember like old movie tickets or random tickets to trips that we took.  Did I mention all the business cards I have.  I looked through them a few months back.  I have almost everybody I have ever met!  Even before the facebook, myspace, twitter generation.  I have stores, restaurants, and random businesses from NYC, L.A, Vegas, Europe.  I even have crazy shot glasses and other random small "memory reminders" from Mexico, Myrtle Beach, Kuwait, etc.

Okay now to the point.  All my life I have been subconsciously planning/going through the process of becoming a writer.  I just never really knew it until a few months ago. 

1.  I knew I always wanted to write
2.  I have saved emails, myspace and facebook messages,
3.  I have notebooks after notebooks with quotes from friends, to do lists, and ideas
4.  I have every single CD from high school and all my mixed CDs (songs bring back tons of memories)
5.  I have all my old hard copy pictures from childhood until digital pictures organized and labeled in photo boxes.

I have only just began to really start "cleaning out my life" and go through all these things.  It makes writing my book so much easier though.  I have to say reading all the old emails back from 2004-2005 is going to be emotional because I will see what friends were really supportive during my time in Kuwait.  **Oh yeah I just remembered.  I have hand written letters from while I was in basic training/AIT.  I can't wait to find these!  I can already remember specific friends who I am not in contact with at the moment who were truly there for me while I was gone and kept me in their thoughts and prayers.  To all my Friends, Family,"Sigma Sisters" and whoever else who has come into my life, I might just have a few surprises in the next year or two.

Procrastination is my biggest flaw, along with being late to just about anything.  But I see it like this:

"I don't believe there is such a thing as being too late" - Kristin Wasilewski

Its never too late to apologize, say thank you or congratulations, email somebody back, or in my world text or call back.  It is never too late to make it to an event, apologize for not making it, or confess to somebody that you have a problem with time and it doesn't mean you don't really care about them.  It is truly never too late to let someone from your past know how they made you smile or how much you appreciate them and how lucky you are they came into your life  :) 

So now your asking how does Lori, my best friend, sister I never had, soul mate, fit into all this.  Well she is just like me.  I don't think we have ever called, text, or given presents for birthdays or Christmas.  (I take it back I did give her an awesome gift one year.  Hilarious actually.  I'm not going to say yet, I want to ask her if she remembers first).  Lori might call me and leave a message that is so funny to listen to and I won't call her back for weeks.  We have gone months without talking for some reason or another.  She never understood my relationship, which should have been a RED ALERT from the beginning.  I never understand hers.  But in reality, we actually do understand.  Does that make sense??  We never hugged when we left each other for saw each other.  We often met at the bar or club, and didn't really like "getting ready together". When Lori stood up at my first official Sigma event and answered this question. 

Who do you look up to the most as a role model and why?
Lori:  I look up to Britney Spears because she is only "22" at the time and she has done "blah blah blah".  She listed off all the awards, credentials, and whatever that Britney Spears had done so far.  It was that moment that I watched her standing there and my mind just said to itself "She is going to be your best best friend forever".  Crazy huh?  Of course Britney Spears has been my #1 since I was 15 years old, but it was more than that.  It was the way she described her,  the passion in her description, the way she was truly selling our girl Britney.  Not to mention the way that she was goofy, silly, and really didn't care what anybody else would think of her "stupid and possibly shallow choice of a role mode".

From that moment, we were just the same.  Make-up checks in the car, traveling like we were born for it, passion for fashion and it goes on and on.  **Oh and my favorite.  The first night I stayed at her parents house in the guest bedroom.  I woke up for the first time before my other friend.  She slept in even worse than me!  I remember thinking dang, I can go back to sleep.  I even remember wondering if she was ever going to wake up!  And that is when I knew I had met my match.  Oh yeah and of course we are ALWAYS LATE!!!

And this relates to my writing and future how?  Well we all need that somebody that motivates us and makes us better right.  Well lets just say that after one crazy 15 minute conversation and one 30 minute Twitter lesson later, I have just sat here without moving and written out this crazy blog post.  How about that for some inspiration?  Who needs to get married when you can become something great with your best friend right there beside you.  Or on the phone over a thousand miles away in New York City

Monday, November 8, 2010

"Peace, Passion, and Procrastination"

Inspiration can come in any form and at any time of the day.  I can be in the middle of a conversation and a single thought from something that happened over a month ago can pop into my brain and take over!  Well today that is what happened when I found what I think is the best title for my blog "Peace, Passion, and Procrastination".

"Peace" is something everybody is truly searching for their entire life.  I found peace "inner peace"  this past summer after I endured experiences that will eventually come out throughout my blogging so that you will better understand.  I will have to give credit to these books "Eat, Pray, Love" and "The Power of Now" which prompted me to further research the subject and eventually link it up with everything I had been taught my whole life about God and the Bible.  The difference is that this time I was learning and understanding it my own way, which I believe is the only way you can truly believe.  Peace is so beautiful because once you find it for yourself, you learn to have peace in everything you do and with everybody that steps in and out of your life.  I started to realize that I couldn't get mad or angry at anybody or anything.  I wanted to make peace with my past and I learned to live in the present moment.  I now enjoy every moment of my life just like I should and I absolutely love life.  Peace is also wonderful because it opens up the doors to the next word "Passion"

Passion is my new favorite word.  By the way I'm leaning towards this word to be used as my very first tattoo which I have been searching for about ten years now.  Here is the link for the official definition
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/passion  My own definition would go something like "to love, believe, and put forth all your energy into something"  I love having a passion for something and I truly love to see when others have a passion for something.  It inspires me every day when I talk to people who are truly passionate about what they are doing or what they believe in.  There is a bit of a problem with the word for myself because I am too passionate or to describe it better "I have too many passions"  Here are just a few:

writing, reading, learning, life, people, traveling, culture, music, fashion, religion, relationships, communication, nature, animals (dogs), organizing, friendships, romance, entertainment, psychology, fitness, health,etc

Just about anything and everything other than sports.  I can never see myself passionate about a particular team or sport.  I like working out (running in particular) and I don't mind going to games and watching sports, but I don't feel like I need to spend time studying, learning, or keeping up with this subject.  I guess I'm just a girl or whatever, but I just can't get into it.  I tried once or twice.  I bought a book "The Girlfriend's Guide to Football" and I played fantasy football for two years, but this didn't trigger any attachment to the subject at all so I quit trying.  I would rather just spend time doing what I know I like, but at least this goes to show that I will try anything at least to see what happens. 

Procrastination is my biggest, largest, worst flaw ever.  I already know where it comes from, but I won't blame it on her completely.  I will just say that my memories from my childhood can easily explain why I wait until the last minute to do anything and I just live in the moment.  I have countless stories to tell on this subject so I won't go into detail now.  I have mastered the art of being a procrastinator and I can relate to all those who share this fault/character trait.  We are "perfect procrastinators". 

So there is the explanation for my blog.  "Peace, Passion, and Procrastination".  I'm so excited that my blogging has some sort of direction now!  Well I'm going to peace out of Barnes and Noble and go for a run with my dog to clear my head and burn off some of this excitement. 


Peace, Passion, and Procrastination

Kristin

"I'm not Perfect, but I'm never Boring"

Well I can't believe I finally did it!  I finally published my blog and its not perfect.  My whole life I have been struggling with, well what have I not been struggling with.

Several books, articles, and conversations/experiences later, I realized that from childhood, I have been always trying to be perfect.  I grew up in church, attended private school, transferred to public school, went to college, and tried to make a relationship work and the whole time I was just trying to fit the mold of being perfect and live up to the expectations that I actually created for myself.  I don't place blame on anybody or anything and I thank everybody and everything that ever happened to me along the way.

I learned the best thing ever which is......"Being perfect isn't even normal.  And I never want to be normal"

So of course this is a warning to all my readers that my blog is going to be imperfect, fun, informal, and whatever else it can be that is going to show you everything that I am.  As you can see my blog is now called "Peace, Passion, and Procrastination" which is a random phrase that I thought of just today as I was leaving work.  Partly inspired by my best friend/soulmate Lori Vining and her recent sign off from her video application which is "Peace, Love, and Sunglasses", I realized that "Peace, Passion, and Procrastination" is everything me all combined into one great phrase which is now my blog!  You will also notice that the actual URL is still one of my old blog titles as I have been trying to find the "perfect" title before I published my blog for the world to read.  And so today, I felt so compelled to write/publish and kick off this passion that I have for writing and I really don't care how not "perfect" it is anymore.  This is a representation of me and so of course it can't be "perfect".

I want all my readers to criticize me on anything and everything.  I'm going to just write and not worry about my spelling, grammar, or anything that will slow me down.  I'm just going to spill out all the crazy stories, facts, ideas, and stuff that is in my head.  Please follow me, read me, share me, and just basically support me and I will be forever thankful. 

Peace, Passion, and Procrastination,
Kristin