All-around Success

By Sonia Baeriswyl

“Be careful of what you wish for; you might not love it when you get it.” This is a statement that we hear all the time. We have seen a lot of people who this statement manifested in their lives. We have seen that lovely young girl of eighteen who just went on a first date with her significant other, but along the line, what she had been waiting for so long to get wasn’t what she wanted. We have seen that young man who spent so many years in school to get an engineering degree only to abandon it to pursue a career in music. We have seen that politician who struggled so much to be elected to an elective position, only to resign on their first day in office. It happens all the time, most times, we get we want, and we realize that what we have been yearning for all along weren’t exactly the things we wanted. Sometimes, what we have been yearning for are indeed the things we want, but because of our human nature which always seeks for more, we begin to look back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sonia Baeriswyl
• Release date: Mar 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781310965630

Sonia Baeriswyl

Sоnіа іѕ a buѕіnеѕѕ аnd lіfе соасh, аn еntrерrеnеur, рhіlаnthrоріѕt аnd Lіfе аnd Buѕіnеѕѕ Strаtеgіѕt. Shе ѕреаkѕ frоm thе hеаrt wіth wаrmth. Hеr unіԛuе gіft іѕ tо ѕреаk аnd соmmunісаtе wіth thе hеаrt оf еасh реrѕоn аѕ іf thеу wеrе unіԛuе. Sоnіа hаѕ rіѕеn bу dеlіvеrіng a hіgh еnеrgу mеѕѕаgе whісh tеllѕ реорlе hоw tо ѕhаkе оff mеdіосrіtу аnd lіvе uр tо thеіr grеаtnеѕѕ. Sоnіа hаѕ lеаrnеd frоm hеr оwn lіfе аnd bу hеlріng оthеrѕ. Shе іѕ rеаdу tо tаkе уоu оn a jоurnеу thаt wіll сhаngе thе wау уоu ѕее аnd thе wау уоu wоrk

Book preview

All-around Success

Twelve Foundations To Build Upon To Achieve All-around Success

Smashwords 2018

Índice

Índice 2

Introduction 4

Chapter One: Self-awareness 8

What is self-awareness? 12

Chapter Two: Growth mindset 28

What growth is and what is not 31

Why you need growth in your life 34

What is growth process? 35

Chapter Three: Constant Learning? 47

What happens when we stop learning 54

How to Cultivate a Habit of Learning 59

Chapter Four: Intentionality – a great pillar of success 70

Chapter Five: Healthier Relationships 76

Ten People to Avoid on your path to success 85

Chapter Six: Better mental, physical health 91

How improved physical and mental health impacts our success 92

Chapter Seven: A Liberated Mind 97

Tools used to manipulate us to attract negative energy 100

Practical guide on stepping into your power 109

Chapter Eight: Prioritize and execute 113

Chapter Nine: Adaptability 122

Chapter Ten: Humility 130

Chapter Eleven: Assume responsibility 138

Changing your blaming habits 143

Wrap Up – Always give thanks 144

Introduction

Be careful of what you wish for; you might not love it when you get it. This is a statement that we hear all the time. We have seen a lot of people who this statement manifested in their lives. We have seen that lovely young girl of eighteen who just went on a first date with her significant other, but along the line, what she had been waiting for so long to get wasn’t what she wanted. We have seen that young man who spent so many years in school to get an engineering degree only to abandon it to pursue a career in music. We have seen that politician who struggled so much to be elected to an elective position, only to resign on their first day in office. It happens all the time, most times, we get we want, and we realize that what we have been yearning for all along weren’t exactly the things we wanted. Sometimes, what we have been yearning for are indeed the things we want, but because of our human nature which always seeks for more, we begin to look back.

I once read Camara Laye’s African Child. It is an excellent autobiography by all standards, and I enjoyed reading the book. Because of the way I enjoyed the book, I started digging deep to catch up on events in the life of the author after he left Guinea for France. I would later learn that in France, his money got exhausted while he was still trying to acclimatize to the new environment. Consequently, he had to work in a car factory to meet his needs. In a sequel to African Child, he recounted his experiences on how he got bored after getting to France, and how the life he envisaged to live in France wasn’t what he seemed to be living. He wanted to go back to Guinea, his land of strange spiritual traditions. At the same time, he also wanted to get the degree that took him to France. His story is another perfect example that depicts the fact that what we get may not always be what we want. He would later rediscover himself and used his lonely moments to pen his experiences as an African child who lived in a small Guinean village. His book, the African Child, came as a result of that self-discovery. He would later move back to his home country to contribute to politics in the land.

There are many instances of people all over history who almost felt what they got weren’t the things they wanted. We could go on and on telling many stories of them. Sometime in the past, after the close of work on a Friday evening, I was bored at home and decided to take a walk. I had barely worked less than four years after college, and I was already bored with my job and my career. I wanted something more; I wanted something else. It happens to the most of us. After getting that dream job, some years down the line, we want something else, we get bored with the job and want to pursue something entirely different

That was my case; I was taking a walk that evening when I saw two homeless people begging. I remembered that sometime in the past, I was in lack like those homeless people. I remembered some of the promises I made to myself in my days of financial lack. I remembered I had told myself that I was going to travel the world, visit natural sceneries, help as many people as I could, and make sure that I put a smile on the lips of people. The smile that was not abundant on my lips as a kid was what I resolved to put on the lips of others. But that evening as I was taking a walk, I realized that it was going to be difficult to accomplish all of that.

While a part of me wanted to be all out helping, traveling, seeing new places, another part was keen on rising through the ranks in my career. They were two clear opposing voices in my head. Each wanting to take the center and dominate. Like many others, I wanted to quit my job and travel, help people, live a silent life. However, deep down, I knew it was practically impossible to do all of those without money. Like Camara Laye on those lonely moments in France, I looked at the end and redirected myself on a path of self-discovery and self-awareness.

While Laye was going through those difficult times, he recognized that there were more he could do asides bemoaning the sharp culture change and he worked to calm the conflict in his head. He opted to follow through, having the end in mind. Similarly, that evening, I recognized that in pursuing more excellence in my career, I would one day become more successful and be able to not only help the needy and those in pain, but I would also be doing it in grand style. Then I set out on a path of self-discovery and leveraged so many pillars of success which helped me achieve all-around success. And today, after many years of pursuing excellence and reaching a certain level of success, I have been able to reconcile the two voices inside my head and get them to work together. First, I started by discovering what it was that I wanted – I saw that there were many things I wanted. I worked to prioritize them, and what I got was a thriving career and at the same time a life of looking after others, inspiring them to do more, and helping them bring out the best in them.

In this book, I want to talk about many foundations of success that you can build upon to not only achieve your major desires but to also achieve an all-around success. When you achieve all-around success, you are not abandoning some of your dreams or aspirations for the others. Instead, you are reconciling all of them through prioritization and achieving them one after the other. Let’s dive in.

Chapter One: Self-awareness

Someone once said, and I quote, there are times you look in the mirror, and all you see looks like all you’d ever become. Yes, we all have that time we looked in the mirror, and the person we saw in the mirror wasn’t the person we have been dreaming of becoming. To some people, it is usually a time to reflect on their lives and have a rethink. To some others, it is typically a time to remain in the state of inertia, and to others, it is usually a time to become self-aware and take actions to change their lives.

In all my books, I usually tell my stories, even though it may not inspire everybody, there are still a few people out there who may pick up one or two things from my stories. When my parents migrated to France, shortly after World War II, life wasn’t so fair to us. Because of my dad’s inability to get a good job, and the other vicissitudes of life, he got himself deeply involved in drinking and living a reckless life.

Those days, living in my family house was like living in a circus. There were always circus fights to watch, only that the fight weren’t between Gladiators or slaves. They were between my parents. Truly, my childhood wasn’t the best to relive. Every day, I would look myself in the mirror (albeit an invisible one), and a lot of thoughts would run through my mind. Those times, I would ask myself, Who am I, and how do I fit into this world? Those moments of deep reflection helped a lot to discover who I was and who I would later become.

Today, when I look back, I am grateful that by divine providence I was able to discover who I was at an early age in my life. That is not a privilege that many people enjoy, hence, it often seems that something is lacking in their life.

How was I able to discover who I was and the person I was meant to be? Through self-awareness. You might have heard the term being thrown around many times, and must have been wondering what it means. Rest assured, it is the first we’ll be talking about in this book.

Self-awareness is a topic that is so dear to my heart. Hence I love talking about it. It is something that has been a significant source of growth for me. Many of us have different levels of awareness, and it is because of these our different levels of self-awareness that some of us go on to live purposeful lives and some others don’t get as lucky.

I am among the many people who believe that self-awareness is something that we need to have a successful relationship, have successful careers, and be better people. There