Archive for March, 2010
The Importance of Goal Setting
Women often approach me with the question of how I’ve been able to enjoy so much success in my professional life as a children’s author and researcher as well as in my personal life as a mother and wife. I attribute my enriched life to my personal goal setting, a fundamental activity which is the basis of everything I do.
Goal setting is the bridge between your vision of your ideal future and actually living your ideal future. When you set goals right, you are actually taking the first step in turning your vision into a reality, motivating you and allowing you to take the practical steps in your life necessary to achieve your dreams. Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful businessmen, and high achievers in all fields, giving them short-term motivation and long-term vision. With goal setting, your dreams are attainable.
Tina Turbin
Turn off the TV—Tips for Families
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does—television, that is. One of the best decisions I made years ago for myself and for my family was to cut down on television drastically. At first this may seem like a daunting task, but with a few simple tips, parents find it’s much easier than they suspected it would be.
First of all, there is the matter of reducing the amount of TV your family watches to just a few shows a week. In order to do this, I recommend a family meeting to discuss your goals as a family and as individuals. Then take an honest look at what everyone is getting out of television. Everyone will agree that they should watch less TV and spend more time pursuing their own goals. With a meeting like this, your kids and spouse will be much more likely to go along with their new lifestyle of less TV because they’ll understand the reason behind it.
I highly recommend implementing a service such as TiVo ® to help keep TV watching to a minimum. After deciding on the reasons for watching less TV, each family member can decide on a handful of shows to watch together as a family, plus a personal favorite or two, to watch only during designated watching times—Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, for example.
Finally, come up with stimulating alternatives. Take the kids to the library or play board games. Have larger, longer family dinners at the table. Keeping everyone busy will get their minds off this missing element in their lives. I highly recommend using this time to get the kids to strengthen their reading skills and develop a strong interest in reading. Soon you might find that your family—gasp!—may prefer reading over watching TV.
Tina Turbin
Get Some Sleep
About 70 million Americans experience sleep problems ranging from chronic sleep disorders to sporadic sleep troubles. Studies show that just one night of insufficient sleep can affect memory, productivity, and even the ability to carry on a regular conversation. In my work as a writer, researcher, and humanitarian, with several radio interviews a week, I can’t afford to not be at my mental peak, and chances are you can’t either. Long-term sleep deprivation can have serious effects such as higher risk for high blood pressure, depression, heart attack, decreased immunity, obesity, and diabetes. As you can see, getting enough sleep should be as much a part of your health regimen as eating well and exercising. Fortunately, by making a few adjustments to your diet, you can improve the quality of your sleep.
Tina Turbin
Americans Need to Make More Friends!
Statistics are showing that Americans have fewer friends than they used to, according to a recent study, “Social Isolation in America,” which was published in the American Sociological Review. The authors found that the number of Americans who feel they have someone with whom they can discuss important matters dropped by nearly one-third from 1985 to 2004, and the number of people who said they had no one they could discuss such matters with tripled to nearly 25 percent of Americans. The authors suggest the cause for this decrease in intimate friendships may be longer work hours and the increased popularity of the Internet and television.
The same study also determined that the number of people who discuss important subjects with family members only increased from 57 percent to 80 percent, and those who depend solely on their spouse for such intimate discussions increased from 5 percent to 9 percent.
So what does this mean for you? It may be harder than ever to fight loneliness in society and to form intimate connections with others, but the health benefits are worth the effort to forge friendships with a large number of people.
Start visiting with friends on a regular basis and befriend their own friends, family, and acquaintances to instantly increase the number of friends you have. There are countless ways to meet people in your community as well. You can get involved in volunteer work, take local classes in subjects and hobbies you’re interested in, or start a book club at your neighborhood bookstore or café. You can also take advantage of online social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, but with the view of using these to set up real-life meetings with the friends you make online, taking the safety precautions of meeting new people in groups of people you already know and in public places, of course.
Tina Turbin
My Interview in Amsterdam-Holland
This was a fun interview! Charlie Valentino of glutenfreegroove.com found me through a search on the internet and asked if he could interview me. He then sent me the questions and we had a blast form that point on. His questions were fun and so was his interview!
He placed my replies up and here they are for your reading pleasure.:
Tina Turbin
Danny the Dragon – A Judge’s Commentary
Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy was entered in the 17th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards. Below I am sharing with you a wonderful, professional judge’s commentary on the book:
“What a terrific cover illustration! Danny the Dragon is wonderfully drawn and is sure to appeal to kid readers; Skipper and Jimmy are wonderfully drawn, too. The interior illustrations are as wonderful: bold, bright, comical, full of amazing detail, quirkily fun – wonderful for the story and wonderful on their own. The story itself is delightful. What child wouldn’t be intrigued by a talking shell – that turns out to house a talking dragon? Kids will love that the mother very calmly and casually invites Danny and Skipper to stay for dinner and even agrees to let the dragon spend the night. (They’ll wish their own moms would be so accommodating.) Danny is loveable and polite (a nice, subtle lesson in manners for the kids reading this book); Jimmy and Sally’s reactions to his appearance in their household ring true (it’s also nice that they’re shown, without comment, cleaning up after themselves – a nice lesson for kid readers that is done subtly enough to not seem like a lesson). The story sets up itself for a series of future adventures. Children will enjoy reading about Danny again and again.”
Danny the Dragon Contest Winner – February!
William Morris is my February contest winner for a Danny the Dragon gift basket full of fun stuff from Danny the Dragon. Here is what William and his family had to share about his winning a basket like this:
I’m sending Danny the Dragon a picture of me. I hope he can come to my house soon. I love him.” Thank you Tina! -William Morrison Age 4
