17th Anniversary of 9-11...

17th Anniversary of 9-11...
On the 17th Anniversary of 9-11, we continue prayers for a path to peace. (Picture above - TishTrek and husband Harry @ the podium inside the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City). It was the privilege of a lifetime for us to be with leaders from around the world on a night when honoring excellence in writing and reporting was the common language uniting all of us. As one of the proud sponsors of the Annual U.N. Correspondents' Dinner, we enjoyed honoring excellence in writing and communications by helping to fund scholarships for international university students who had the courage & talent to tackle some of the difficult issues of our time. Through their magnificent words, they successfully created content that helped readers see through the lens of their research & life experiences. These students inspired all of us. I have confidence the next generation will pick up where we leave off.

Friday, January 22, 2010

The OZ Principle & My Beautiful Ruby Red Slipper

Day# 21 - Step, step, step... Amen - It's remarkable to report that those repulsive-to-watch on TV green Mucinex Globs have actually chased my nasty sinusitis to the brink of extinction! Have you ever seen those hard-to-watch commercials? Yuk - I swore I'd never use the product and then I found myself screaming for "Team Mucous" when my head was about to explode and roll down the hallway?! Someone call the advertising firm - the little green men make for bad TV, but their pitch worked!! So here we go... Step, step, step: TishTrek is marching on and right back into the arms of my Virgin HealthMiles GoZone Monitor. Away we go... 1,2,3,4.

I'm glad my sinus is clear so I can yell from the rooftops - without my head hurting - that I've got GREAT NEWS!! Three days ago, my doctor tested the lipids in my blood which had not been tested since my September adventure at Jersey Shore Medical Center. The drum roll, please... The results arrived yesterday and they were absolutely astonishing! I am giving myself a standing ovation today! Go Tish! Go Tisha! Go Pat! Go Pat Fat! Yes, Kate! Yes, Scott! Hey, Harry - I'm hot! I don't care what you call me... Just scream, "You - Go Girl!"

If you want to focus on numbers, skip the scale in the bathroom, and focus intensely on those numbers your beating heart cares about. In 4 months:

My Total Cholesterol dropped 92 points to 195, (the goal should be less 200) - Yes!

My LDL - "lousy" or bad cholesterol dropped 89 points to 118, (the goal should be less than 100)- The work, work, work... continues.

My HDL "healthy" or good cholesterol which naturally removes that bad cholesterol from my ciruculation dropped 17 points from 67 to 50, (the goal for females is that this number be greater than 50)- Hmmm? I have to research some food choices that can keep this number higher. Any answers out there??!!

My lifestyle changes are working! Now I have to figure out how to keep my good cholesterol numbers up while keeping that bad cholesterol on this healthy downward spiral. I can do it!

When I worked for Schering-Plough, I took a training course called, the "OZ Principle" which was created by Partners In Leadership, 2006. Themes from the Wizard of Oz were leveraged as a foundation from which people could create action plans to produce positive results in their daily lives. The course which was focused on personal accountability emphasized tackling each challenge or issue in life by working hard to do the following:

1) SEE IT 2) OWN IT 3) SOLVE IT and 4) DO IT!

The instructor emphatically stressed that we can all control and/or alter an outcome and deliverable - in more ways than we ever imagined - when we work through issues with methodologies that keep us personally invested. I've been in over 100 corporate training programs throughout my career; and this one was THE jaw-dropper!

I'm pretty sure that my former boss, S-P's VP of Global Staffing Jim Toper, would remember that at the end of this training course, I actually gave the instructor a pair of ruby red slippers (a Christmas ornament) with a note. I told him that I was truly inspired by the knowledge and perspective he had worked so hard to transfer to me and others; and that the value of this course went so beyond the workplace. It was a humbling experience.

Shortly after this training, I couldn't believe it when my son Scott came home with a single ruby red slipper ornament that he had purchased for me during his 8th grade trip to Washington, DC. It was like the message from that training class was following me around with a baseball bat. I put Scott's ornament in my special cherry cabinet in my living room where a light has shined on it for over two years.

I often gaze quietly at this ornament to remind myself that the power and strength of the ruby red slipper is always within my grasp. It lives inside of me. TishTrek - my 51/51 Challenge is about letting it out.

Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish
Score: 7/51

Quote of the Day: "The flower looks up high to see only the light, and never looks down to see its shadow. This is a wisdom which man must learn."
- Kahlil Gibran, Secrets of the Heart, Meditations, 1968

2 comments:

  1. http://www.nutralegacy.com/blog/general-healthcare/good-cholesterol-foods/

    Lots of fish, leafy green vegetables, and soybean products raise that HDL you're talking about. Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your inspiration has pushed me to walk 4 days this week (and the week's not even over!) I don't have the virgin meter, or whatever you call it, but I have a smile on my face : )

    ReplyDelete