LaurieTALKS

Running Toward Opportunity: A Story from the LaurieTALKS Blog | EP41

I begin this episode by reading to you from my blog. It’s a story about how we sometimes use our perceived limitations as an excuse to continue to fail.
Listen for my mom’s use of the word opportunity.
I’m sharing this story to remind you that opportunity is everywhere and to always be on the lookout for it.
I’ve included the text of the story for your convenience.
When I was growing up, nobody in my family talked about any of us kids going to college. The only expectation was that we would all graduate from high school. This was considered the BIG accomplishment.
I graduated and settled into a regular, boring, hourly job and lifestyle, working at a department store. I was on the path to becoming quite happy with my “eight-to-five” way of life.
I felt like a real adult. I was making enough money to survive. This was all I needed and wanted.
I could buy my own clothes, keep my car on the road, and maintain an exciting social life.
Back then, this seemed to be enough. Yippie! No more school!
Or so I thought.
A year after my high school graduation, my mother suggested that I do something more constructive with my life.
For the very first time she told me, “GO TO COLLEGE!”
I’d graduated with poor grades, and I had absolutely no intention of going to college.
In fact, it had never occurred to me that I could go, given my academic performance.
I have eight sisters and brothers. I’m number six.
Up to that point in my life, of all my relatives—parents, grandparents, first cousins, and everybody else—only my older brother Kevin had gone to college.
To this day, I’m not really sure how I got accepted at a university. My mother, however, was instrumental in me being given this opportunity.
And even though I don’t know how I got in, I’ll never forget how I arrived on campus.
When it was time for me to leave home, my mother and I drove from Hempstead, Long Island, to upstate New York.
Seven hours into our drive, we ran over a rock large enough to puncture a hole in the gas tank. Since I hadn’t wanted to leave home, I perceived this as good news. I was actually relieved.
My mother, on the other hand, had a different idea.
We took public transportation back home, borrowed a car, and began our trip again. I complained the entire way.
Hours later, she deposited me at the campus then started to drive away.
I took off running after the car.
My mother pulled over and stopped long enough for me to repeat what I’d been more or less saying the entire trip: “Please don’t leave me here! I don’t want to go to this school or any other school!”
Her reply that day was one of the pivotal moments of my life.
She said, “Look. All I ask is that you stay one week. After that, you decide. But stay this week and feel the experience for and within yourself. If it’s not for you, then you can leave.
“At least you won’t go through life saying you didn’t have the opportunity to go to college.”
College was my wake-up call in two serious ways. One, it made me quickly comprehend why family members and teachers had referred to me for years as a first-class, cloud-niner, out-to-lunch daydreamer. Two, it exposed me to just how unexposed I was.
I spent an insane amount of time in a state of shock as to how academically and socially deficient I was.
I wanted to run away from the challenges I knew college would present.
Yet an education helped me see the world through fresh eyes, in a way that a nonacademic setting would never have revealed to me.
Thank goodness my mother stopped the car that day . . . otherwise, I might still be running.
“Running is the answer if you’re on the track team—not so much in life.” ~ LaurieTALKS
Thanks for reading and/or listening. I appreciate you. LaurieTALKS

Maintaining a Wealth-of-Health Mindset | EP40

Dear Big Dreamer, 
Here are alternative titles I considered for this episode.
 
It’s Not Your Circumstances, It’s Your State of Mind
Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
Live for Today, Choose for Tomorrow
Replace Poor Habits with Rich Choices
Replace Poor Choices with Rich Thoughts
Changing Yourself from the Inside Out
Break a Habit So it Doesn’t Break You
When Do We Change? When We’ve Had Enough
Yes, We Are Self-Made
Can You Really Teach Yourself What You Most Need to Learn?
You Are Your Own Best Teacher
 
Stay awesome.
 
TALK soon,
LaurieTALKS
@k.sounds.audio
@moehayslett

Avoiding Arguments: Easier Said Than Done | EP39

Think for a second about what happens when you get into an argument. It’s rare that anything truly positive comes from it.
In fact, winning an argument is overrated. And wasting time on inconsequential nonsense is pointless.
On the other hand . . . argue with no one and everyone wins, right?
Listen now to discover ways to save your precious mental bandwidth, to direct more energy toward focusing on your big dream, and to maintain your peace of mind—all by avoiding arguments.
Easier said than done. I know.
Thanks for listening to @LaurieTALKS
TAP IN to Your Full Potential
@k.sounds.audio

10 Tips for Remaining Positively Mindful | EP38

I know I waste time. I waste my time. How? Pondering stupid stuff that doesn’t matter and certainly won’t matter years down the road or even tomorrow.
Listen now as I share 10 ways to avoid mental distractions that take you away from your big dream.
Thank you.
 
@k.sounds.audio
@LaurieTALKS
TAP IN to Your Full Potential.

Say Yes to You, Try Something New: Spinning a Hula Hoop of Yes | EP37

In this episode, I TALK about why one of my mom’s lectures, when I was just eight, has stuck with me all these years, and how it contributed toward me getting my job with Tremaine Dance Conventions.
Mother’s main points:
Resist counting yourself out by announcing what you can’t do
Remain willing to say “yes” to yourself
Always be willing to seize opportunities and to try something new
Today, I get it. But when I was a kid, all this went over my head.
@k.sounds.audio
@LaurieTALKS
TAP IN to Your Full Potential

Three Kinds of People | EP36

You probably have a few people in your life who are terrible at really listening to you. Terrible at considering anyone’s feelings but their own.
Terrible at accepting they were wrong or at fault—about anything. At the same time, these people are very good at telling lies—big or little.
Good at crossing boundaries you’ve set. Good at manipulating everyone’s attention so that it’s always on them.
 
They’re toxic people, right? They’d never tell you things like “If you were a stock in the stock market, I’d certainly buy you.” Instead, you’re likely to hear “Why are you so stupid? You never do anything right. You ain’t sh*t.”
 
Navigating around toxic people used to be a big challenge for me. But after years of practice, I’ve finally mastered managing them.
That practice began after a therapist offered me great advice about the “three kinds of people,” then gave me a solution for navigating around the toxic kind.  
 
In this episode I share tips on how to:
Limit your interaction with toxic people . . . even in those difficult cases when they happen to be family members
Share pleasantries and ten seconds of small talk to diffuse tensions, then bid the Toxic One adieu
Create that powerful feeling of walking away from the Toxic One, knowing that you ran the show
Avoid directing your energy toward pettiness
Choose kindness over other options, and not worry if someone thinks you’re a wimp for doing so
Find constructive substitutes for the truths you really want to speak
 
Listen now.
@LaurieTALKS
@k.sounds.audio

Teaching People How to Treat You = Boundary Setting | EP35

Teaching others how to treat you is serious business.  
Standing up for yourself and being assertive is not about being rude, pushy, mean, or aggressive.
It’s about finding a way for you to be comfortable when asking for what you want in a way that respects others and that others respect.
Thanks for listening. I appreciate you.
LaurieTALKS
 
@k.sounds.audio
@LaurieTALKS

What‘s Good? Tremaine, Empowered Teens, & Self-Discipline | EP34

What’s good, my friend? In this episode the TALK is:
Eleventh hour, checkmate level, family drama
Tremaine Orlando and the value of dress rehearsal
Physical care of your body
My story of self-discipline
Little wins make the big victory
Empowered teens hold the vision for all that is good
Thanks for listening. I appreciate you.
LaurieTALKS
 
@k.sounds.audio
@LaurieTALKS

Teen Confidence In a Creator Economy | EP33

Tremaine Dance Conventions winter tour, 2021-22 has officially commenced.
We completed 2 cities weeks and I am noticing a new, heightened level of confidence (self-love) in teens.
 
More and more teens are sustaining hope in a creator economy and many are using dance as a medium to self-express to feed their lives.
They’re good enough for themselves. They know this truth . . .  on and off the dance floor.
 
Before closing this episode with a review of the benefits of remaining hopeful, I digress about people who over apologize. Sorry.
 
John Johnson @k.sound.audio created this episode's beautiful outro.
Thanks for listening.
I appreciate you.  Now - especially as it relates to you and your ability to create autonomy, freedom, and abundance.
 
https://www.instagram.com/k.sounds.audio/
@tremainedance
@LaurieTALKS

Sustaining Hope In a Creator Economy | EP32

During the last few months, I’ve TALKed to several people who have expressed a similar concern: Maybe it’s too late for me to pursue my field of interest.
These creatives were counting themselves out because, in their minds, too many others were already doing what they wanted to do. Before giving themselves a fair chance, they had started making statements like these:
It’s too late for me to get in.
I can’t catch up.
Too much time has passed for me to start from scratch now.
I’ve waited too long.
The market is already saturated.
The democratization of creativity.
Creatorship is on the rise. An ever-growing number of empowered individuals are using social media platforms as a marketplace for leveraging their skills and finding new ways to make a living.
 
Thanks to new tools and advances in consumer technologies, now anyone with passion and a smartphone can release authentic and engaging content to large audiences.
 
The reduced costs of producing, distributing, and promoting content without the support of traditional institutions and/or backing have resulted in more songs, books, TV shows, and movies being generated than ever before.
 
Agency and autonomy.
Lowered entry barriers result in more power going to individuals to monetize their handiworks, build a following, and earn a living selling directly to consumers . . . in other words, to create autonomy.  
 
Sustain hopefulness.
There’s no rulebook that states you can’t evolve or grow past a certain point. Nor is there an expiration date on your brand of fabulousness.
 
Hope acts as a source of strength—because when you’re hopeful you:
 
Look for new opportunities, approaches, strategies, and solutions
Believe that, despite whatever disagreeable or unpleasant experiences, may currently exist in your life, you’ll eventually overcome them
Are more likely to persevere and less likely to give up since you’re not thinking about defeat
Can do almost anything because you believe your efforts will eventually pay off
 
It’s not too late.
You stand at the threshold of a new age—one in which there’s an increasing number of people designing jewelry, selling tee-shirts, creating courses, writing books, singing songs, and dancing their dance.
 
Keep listening to your inner voice. It knows the way of the dream tucked away in your imagination. Remain hopeful.
Life is filled with uncertainty. Sustain hope. 
Thanks for listening.
@k.sounds.audio
@LaurieTALKS
TAP IN to Your Full Potential.