Yes, I finally put my thoughts onto paper…a thought I had over 20 years ago while I was studying electrical engineering at Clemson University has come to fruition. The purpose of my book is to help you get to your best self. It is designed to help you see that, most of the time, what holds you back from being the you that you want to be are the things that you need to discard and do without. The painful disappointments, dealings, and doubts are all weighing on your shoulders and preventing you from standing tall, shaking it all off, and striving forward. With various insights and best practices, along with room to capture your reflections and next steps, this book is designed to be a constant resource that you need to reference/work through on an ongoing basis. I am aiming for a digital launch on June 2nd, so stay tuned and look out for a purchase link!
To give you a little insight into my work, I have a chapter in the book that focuses on seeing the positive side of no longer being affiliated with the doubts you experience on a regular basis. Here is a sneak-peak for your review.
“Doubt is a personal reaction to internal and external forces. Did you have that guidance counselor who insisted that if you are a person of color, you needed to attend a Historically Black College or University because you owed it to your ancestors, and you would not fit in at a predominantly White school anyway? Or that grandmother who told you that girls should be seen and not heard, so keep your opinions to yourself? Or that teacher who insisted that no boys would like you if you seemed too smart because you answered all the questions in class? Having experienced all of these encounters at some point in my youth, I can tell you that each statement chipped away at my confidence just a little. I started questioning my plans for college, pressing pause on my voice before making comments, and limiting the number of times I would answer questions in class. Those hesitations, although small, kept me from being my authentic self, and that caused even more doubt to creep in.
One day, my favorite teacher pulled me aside and asked why I wasn’t participating in class the way I used to. I told her what the other teacher told me, and she was appalled. She took me by the shoulders, looked me in my eyes, and said, “Paulette, your authenticity is your superpower.” I immediately embraced this statement and decided to take her words to heart. I doubled down on my college choices, voiced my opinion without being asked, and started raising my hand in all of my classes (even in the class taught by the teacher who made me doubt myself). Fast forward: I live by the daily mantra, which I say out loud every morning when I wake up, “I am fabulous, and I can do anything.”
Do you spend a large portion of your day beating yourself up regarding all the things you struggle with or all the things you think you are not capable of achieving? Do you also doubt yourself constantly because you truly believe that you are not worthy of the blessings and opportunities that come your way? Lastly, do you think you are an imposter, in the sense that you are working in a position that you are unqualified for, and you have an irrational fear that you will be fired every single day? If you doubt yourself to this level, you may not have room to comprehend much else each day. But where does your doubt come from? If you had an experience while you were young, it could have been traumatizing enough to carry over to your adult years. However, if the experience was more recent, it may be lingering because it was so unexpected that you were unable to digest it properly and move forward. Either way, you will need to find a way to get over these doubts so you are capable of empowering yourself to achieve the things you need to, without second-guessing yourself AND without relying on any outside persons or forces to do this for you.”
Want to read what I say next? Like I said earlier, stay tuned and look out for a purchase link for my first book!