Day 81: Lanie Adamson
“By being inspired by other people and by being enthusiastic about recovery, I was able to return to work six months later. In fact, it was one of the women that was … one of my roommates was a lady who only spoke Spanish, and she taught me “Yo puedo”, which is “I can.” So never give up.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Lanie, for agreeing to be part of the Project with us, and before we begin the interview, can you please introduce yourself?
Lanie Adamson: Well, Toni, it’s a great pleasure to be here. My name is Lanie Adamson. I’m a medical writer and a speaker.
Now, very few people know what a medical writer is, and what we do is we tell the stories of medical research, and we work on the research team very often. What we do is we can talk about the way we get to the medicines that we take.
For example, going from the molecule to the medicine cabinet, there’s a lot of research that’s involved, and on the team we have the researchers and the statisticians and the medical writers. The researchers investigate, the statisticians calculate, and the medical writers communicate the research.
And then lately, I’ve been inspired to do other things; for example, screen writing. So it’s been a good life.
Toni: Fantastic! Well, that leads us beautifully into the very first question, which is, when you think about inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?
Lanie: I actually had to ask my family, “How do I inspire you or do I inspire you?” And they said “Yes, that you inspire us by how you life your life.”
For example, I had a stroke on December 6, 1997, a day that will live in infamy. It paralyzed my whole left side. It took out everything; everything from my hair down to my toenails. By being inspired by other people and by being enthusiastic about recovery, I was able to return to work six months later. In fact, it was one of the women that was … one of my roommates was a lady who only spoke Spanish, and she taught me “yo puedo”, which is “I can.” So never give up. My family says that I inspire them.
And then, I try to inspire people who struggle with family or health or work problems because I think that every one of us needs to have encouragement; and I feel differently now than I did in my younger years. In my younger years, it was more that I could agree with one side or the other if there was a conflict within the family, and now I say “No, time is so short.” There’s no time to suffer needlessly. All you do with being unhappy is it gives you wrinkles.
Toni: It sure does.
Lanie: That’s what I try to do. I try to encourage other people. I encourage writers and encourage them and tell them how to write to get from the keyboard to the bookshelf. I like to talk with other speakers as to how to find your stories. My children and my grandchildren especially – I have 12 grandchildren, 10 of whom are boys — and right now I’m swapping college tales with the older grandsons.
That is some of who I inspire and how.
Toni: When you talk to the people that you inspire and you deal with life in this enthusiastic way — and particularly I like the phrase “I can”, and your grandchildren — when you are having those conversations with them, how do you think being inspiring to them helps them to explore their potential?
Lanie: I think that being inspiring just does open them up to a whole new world of how to look at life, how to look at life from a very positive aspect instead of always from a negative aspect. And I think especially teenagers that go through some rough things in their life and they’re fighting for their identity, and I think if you show who you are and what you do, that it helps them to find their own identity.
I know I just enjoy talking with them so much because they’re so young, they’re enthusiastic, they have a whole life ahead of them, and they all say “Oh, no, I’m getting so old.” I say “No, no, no – you’ve just begun. You’ve just begun.”
Toni: When you’re working with other writers and speakers and you are being enthusiastic and helping to motivate them, how does that translate then for them to explore their potential in different ways?
Lanie: Well, the other writers and speakers … for example, I am a part of the American Medical Writers Association. I help to teach medical writing once a year at the annual conferences and sometimes at other conferences.
What I do is I help them to see some of the possibilities that they have open to them. Because it’s easy to go into work and every day see your job as being one thing and you’ve got a boss, you’ve got people under you or people beside you. And if you can begin to open up your heart as to who you are and what is good about yourself, then I think that it helps them in their careers.
Toni: So it’s really that reflection that you’re trying to provide to them in order for them to see that they can do what they want to do.
Lanie: I agree. I think that that’s a good description, but I also want to make it very clear that I’m not perfect. I am not perfect, and my life has not been perfect, and so I don’t want to ever tell the kids or imply to the kids or anybody else that I have all the answers.
I also listen. I really think it’s so important to listen and to learn from other people.
Toni: Lanie, when you think about inspiration for yourself, what do you need to be inspired?
Lanie: Well, I sit here in front of my monitor, and about any suntan I might get is coming from the glow of the computer monitor, so I kind of live in front of that thing. The most important thing I need is to connect with other people. I try to keep up with what other people are doing.
For example, with the grandchildren, I try to keep up with the latest music so that at least I can say something intelligent whenever we’re talking, and I can mention Taylor Swift or Beyonce or Eminem or 50 Cent, and so that’s what I try to do to inspire others.
In a line, when I’m with other people in a long line and waiting, I’ll make conversation so that we can connect with other people. And then, let’s see what do I do to inspire, is that correct?
Toni: No, what do you seek for inspiration? You have … there’s a wealth of information, and really one thing I do need to share with you is I take notes as I’m talking to people, and I just wrote down the phrase that you care enough to listen to today’s music so you can have that conversation with your grandchildren – that’s amazing!
But the question to you is, what do you need to be inspired? When you need to fill yourself up, what do you do?
Lanie: I do several things. One is I try to keep a positive outlook, and so I read some of my favorite writers. For example, Louis Thomas is a great legendary essayist who wrote about the lives of a cell, and he wrote such beautiful language – scientific work in beautiful language.
Let me see what else … Well, I took chances a couple years ago of doing something I’d never done before, and that is I got involved with a television producer and started to take lessons on the television appearances and improving my ability to speak on television, etc. So I had a heck of a time, a wonderful time, I did the hair, the makeup, the wardrobe, the camera.
It wasn’t until I was part way through there that I realized that one of the other things I need to inspire others is contact with people who inspire me. It wasn’t until I was … I don’t know how far along I was in the program before I remembered that … and I had to look back on it to find out the date … but I had met a very famous person.
The first time I was ever on TV was on November 11, 1971, and I was on with another woman. We were talking about Lamaze classes, because I used to teach Lamaze classes. And then our time was shortened because there was going to be another guest on. So I was looking around figuring out, “Okay, who is this other person? Who is this Frank Capra?”
I didn’t know he was a legendary director of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and he inspired me in a way that is quite, well, I don’t know how you would call it, but he was so charming. And he said afterward, he said “You girls were very wonderful, and I really enjoyed hearing you.” And I thought, “He’s so famous and he’s so important.”
So that came back to me when I was taking the TV classes, and so it was fun. It was something that I enjoyed, and it also harkened back to something in my very early career.
Toni: And you met him. He was actually on the panel?
Lanie: He was on the show right after us. We were on for 15 minutes and he was on for the next 15 minutes.
Toni: Oh, fantastic!
Lanie: It was really amazing, and I couldn’t get over him. He was just this charming, charming Italian man. This was 1971; he lived until 1991.
Toni: Are there tools or methods, Lanie, that you might, in a quiet moment, reach for when you need to kind of fill yourself back up?
Lanie: Yes, I do. I need my family. I need to talk to other people. I need to read other stories and hear other stories of inspiration.
By the way, I’ve gotten very interested in the Get Inspired! Project as I was following through. I’m a perfectionist, and everything I do I hold myself up to a high standard. And as I was listening to the various people in the Get Inspired! Project, I was amazed at what other people go through, even if they fall sometimes. And that really helped me a lot, because I thought that this was a good thing to encourage other people as to keep going. Keep going; yo puedo. I can. I can keep going.
Toni: Fantastic. Thank you so much for even saying that, but I see that you’ve done that in your own life with what you said as going back to work, how quickly you went back to work after having a stroke, and how you live your life and reflect that back to others. It’s just amazing.
How do you see … When you need to be around other people who are inspiring and the way that you try to live your life — and I know that it’s not perfect, and thank you for saying that as well — and that you take chances; but how did that then help you to explore your potential going forward? What do you do to explore your own potential?
Lanie: Well, I actually explore my own potential, again, through other people. But how would I explore my own potential? For one, taking on new projects. This has been actually the most important one for me is taking on new projects, stepping out where I’d never stepped before.
For example, taking that course on television and the TV Guestperts which I enjoyed very much, and also contributing to other books. For example, I’ve got a couple of articles out in other books. By being inspired by others to do things that I’ve never done before.
One doctor came to me and he suggested I write a screenplay. I’d never done a screenplay before. So I did it, and I enjoyed it, and I get a big kick out of it. So now I have two screenplays going around Hollywood. Me and 100,000 other people have this going around Hollywood.
That is part of what I need to explore my own potential is to step outside of what I’ve done all my life. Just step away from that monitor and its beautiful glow.
Also, I also have something that’s developed in me recently, and that is Parkinson’s; and so now I have to learn how to deal with that. So exploring my own potential is also learning how to deal with the things that come to me. I don’t let age or circumstances define who I am.
Toni: What a great gift that you must give your family and your grandchildren, to be able to speak the challenges that you’ve been through, to be able to say to your family, “Hey, look, I think it’s fantastic what you’re doing. Guess what I’m doing as well?” To just keep saying “I can.”
I think that’s amazing, and the information and how you’ve presented yourself in this interview, other people are going to find very inspiring as well. For that, we thank you so very much, Lanie, for agreeing to take part in this Project.
Lanie: Toni, it’s been a great pleasure. I’ve really enjoyed the time.
Toni: Thank you, Lanie. Take care of yourself, and I hope we speak again soon.
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For more information about Lanie Adamson: www.LanieAdamson.com
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