If you’ve picked up this book, I am guessing you are someone who has a healthy dose of ambition and might even describe yourself as a masterful achiever. While you may be achieving a lot in your life, you may also be feeling overworked, exhausted, and a bit depleted from constantly striving and pushing to have, do, and be more.
Or are you a different type of achiever—a nurturing achiever who is there for everyone else—for her kids, her significant other, her family, and her boss or company? Do you love to help and support others to reach their goals and dreams, but you don’t do the same for yourself? If so, you may feel unappreciated, resentful, and honestly, unfulfilled. In the rare case when you do something for yourself, do you feel guilty for taking time away from serving others and find yourself apologizing for what you want?
Then again, you just might be the inspired achiever who now faces life alone or with a lot more freedom as the result of a major life transition such as divorce, a health crisis, or an empty nest. That kind of transition leaves us questioning life and how we will move on in this new phase that is different from what has been before. Are you thinking this time is for you, but it’s been so long since you did something for yourself that you doubt you can achieve what now calls you?
Maybe you are like I was, a differing blend of each of these characters at different points in life. The common thread with these different achievers is an underlying feeling of disconnection from some deeper part of self—the part that contains our unanswered callings. We are proud of all that we have accomplished, but find ourselves asking, “Is this all there is? What does true fulfillment look and feel like?”
These thought patterns ran subconsciously in my head for years, until it all bubbled to the surface of my life in unexpected ways. This book tells of my journey to answer these questions, the wisdom I gained, and my new approach to achievement that developed as a result of things “bubbling up.” Before I reveal what you’ll learn in this book, let me share a bit of my journey that led me to discover the amazing, energizing, path of achievement—Radiant Achievement. What started as a term to help me explain my inner and outer shifts has now become one of my life mantras. Mantras are words, formulas, or phrases we repeat frequently, that often become true.
Radiant Achievement stems from my life path as a young girl—it was how I naturally approached achievement in my youth. Owning my worth and listening to my intuition, bringing my inspired ideas to life—that’s who I innately was. As a young adult, I connected with and honored my callings to move across the country (heading west twice), to trade my corporate career for my soul calling as a coach, and to compete in fitness and figure competitions. However, somewhere in the process of becoming a wife, mother, and home-based business owner, I slipped into the unconscious, conditioned trap of needing approval from others, not believing I was enough, and denying my own Radiance. Each year of living this way took a bigger and bigger toll on me. My downward spiral of self-denial culminated in breast cancer and the end of my marriage. These jolting events awakened and inspired me to reconnect with my true essence, to honor my callings, and to rise in my Radiance. The changes and resulting joy, peace, and fulfillment have been astounding.
I am a walking, breathing, living testimony to the transformative power of Radiant Achievement. Now at age 58, I feel younger, happier, more hopeful, energetic, and excited for my life. I feel there is truly no limit to the happiness and fulfillment that is possible. I have a deep trust in myself and my journey. Living with this deep trust has brought me peace. I’ve enjoyed many synchronistic and serendipitous moments that have made me laugh and viscerally get that all of life is organizing around my success. I have been gifted an entirely new life, not by magic or luck, but by an openness and willingness to live from the inside out.