#Morethandone: A Guide to Living Now as the Woman You Aspire to Be

By Dawn Towne

Have you ever measured the distance between who you are now and who you want to become?

Sometimes the gap appears immeasurably wide, but #MORETHANDONE captures the distance—and gives you a blueprint to bridge it.

Dawn Towne, who specializes in helping women launch entrepreneurial dreams, outlines the steps you need to take to:

overcome fears that are holding you back;
change the conversation taking place in your mind;
move from being broken hearted to healed;
discover the good that can come from regret.

Throughout the book, she shares how cultivating a rich relationship with the Lord can help you achieve your dreams. By allowing God to enter the scene, you can craft a narrative better than even the best scriptwriter could imagine.

Own your story and all that has happened. You are a woman of wisdom! Refuse to allow regret to overshadow even one more day of your life. It starts with being #MORETHANDONE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664217140

Dawn Towne

Dawn Towne is an author, speaker, marketing strategist and Realtor. She has worked with global companies like Orascom and Re/Max and is a repeat speaker at Live Your Purpose events. She specializes in helping women market themselves fearlessly and effectively, leave their 9–5 job and launch entrepreneurial dreams. She lives in the beautiful Midwest with her husband and four children. Visit www.dawntowne.com, email [e-mail], or visit her on social media @dawntowne on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to learn more.

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Copyright © 2021 Dawn Towne.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1713-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1712-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1714-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020925435

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/21/2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Day 1: Dear Fearful,

Day 2: Dear Brokenhearted,

Day 3: Dear Hopeless,

Day 4: Dear Regretful,

Day 5: Dear Misunderstood

Day 6: Dear Body-shamer,

Day 7: Dear Defeated,

Day 8: Dear Desperate,

Day 9: Dear Depressed,

Day 10: Dear Inner Critic

Day 11: Dear Shamed,

Day 12: Dear Stuck,

Day 13: Dear Undefined,

Day 14: Dear Undecided,

Day 15: Dear Hidden,

Day 16: Dear Doubtful

Day 17: Dear Insecure,

Day 18: Dear Disappointed,

Day 19: Dear Self-Hatred,

Day 20: Dear Betrayed,

Day 21: Dear Friend,

PREFACE

Have you ever measured the distance between who you are now and who you want to become?

Sometimes the gap appears immeasurably long. #MORETHANDONE captures this distance.

What happens when we get lost in the story of our lives because all we can see is the headline, and all we can hear is the roar of the crowd judging a story for which they have no context? We live afraid. Afraid of only being identified by the headlines of our own stories. It is in the battle between these two worlds—who we were and who we’ve become—and, in the parallel between the headline and the story that God enters the scene in ways we can never anticipate, crafting a better narrative than the greatest scriptwriters and best-selling authors from the beginning of time. I have found Him to write the most beautiful stories out of the ugliest of tales.

My own story has had its share of dark and painful moments. It was, in fact, out of one of the most traumatic experiences of my life that this book was born. I had been paralyzed with fear due to over three years of harassment by someone I once knew. The threat of what this person might do to me regularly hung in the air, taking a toll on my health and draining my mental, emotional, and physical energy. I was exhausted.

In 2019, I invested in ninety days of coaching by Relentless Winning Mindset coach Marie Cochran.

In those ninety days, the fear that held me paralyzed for three years was slowly released like an overly aired-up balloon slowly leaking out air and eventually falling in a lifeless heap on the floor.

All glory belongs to God alone who knew I needed Marie in my life to help me take my power back and let fear take a back seat to something much bigger—my life, my destiny and ultimately, the purpose that God has laid on my heart to fulfill.

How was I able to turn it around? This book will walk you through how I went from a woman filled to the brim with fear, to a woman who, with the strength of Christ, began to become fearless in the face of fear.

The time line of my life holds a division line between two points—before fear (BF) and after fear (AF). Before fear, I was contained, kept my thoughts and opinions to myself, lived small, and kept small to remain at peace with everyone in every situation. After fear, I began to step out and put myself out there, caring less about ways that others might judge me. After fear, I began taking risks.

Now, I’m not talking invest all your money in the stock market risks or walk on the edge of a cliff just for the thrill of it risks. My risks involved putting myself out there more, being more vocal, and sharing my opinions, thoughts, even parts of my story, not just in person but to a bigger audience online.

The season of my life where fear had the lead role in my story was filled with deep fear and deep pain. But learning to trade fear for faith and freedom has allowed me to realize that the calling on my life and what God has put on my heart to share is more important than what someone else would threaten to do to me and how others may or may not negatively perceive me. I found freedom when I chose to move beyond fear—specifically, the fear of others.

My own journey through fear has revealed the importance of letting go of the outcome. For me this has meant walking forward into what God has called me to, even when I don’t know whether things will work out, and when the outcome is unknown. It’s been an intentional choice to trust my Father over anything else.

Where would I be now if I had not chosen to push past fear?

I believe I would still be scared, living crowded and contained in a small studio apartment with fear as my roommate. And let me tell you, fear is a big roommate. Fear takes up a lot of space, leaving little room for anything else. Fear does that. It’s pushy, bossy, and intimidating. If you give it an inch, it will take a mile. Fear will completely take over any space it occupies. It’s one of those masses that covers, infiltrates, and coats everything it contacts, and before you know it, your world and the glasses through which you view life now have a fear filter. You might as well add it to the list of Instagram filters you can use. Only fear comes as an automatic filter, trying to take over everything it touches.

If I had not chosen to push past fear, I would not have written this book. Or told you the scary story behind what #MORETHANDONE means to me.

I would have let the situation I was living with remain bigger than the dreams and goals I had for my life.

Maybe you’ve had your own #MORETHANDONE moment. Maybe you too have wondered if you’re more than just the headline in a story.

But if you’re ready … #MORETHANDONE was created for you.

I pray that God speaks to you through this book, bringing freedom in places where fear has set up camp, kept you imprisoned, and fed you lies that made it hard to see anything else aside from the fear.

You may not know it yet, but you are more than a headline in a story. There is more in your name. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my #MORETHANDONE moment, and I am ready to walk with you through yours!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to my parents for being the people in my life who have shown me what never giving up looks like. I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without your parenting and prayers. I have always been able to go to you with anything. Your constant support and encouragement is a lifeline. Thank you.

Thank you to Marie Cochran, the lady that walked into my life in June 2019 and changed it forever. I didn’t know it the day we had our first conversation, but I was at a crossroads. Everything I was going through at that time was pushing me to take a hard left and continue on the path of fear and anxiety. I was being railroaded down a lesser path, into a ditch like a car that had gone off the side of the road and needed a tow truck to be pulled out. You were the voice of reason and inspiration that woke up the side of my brain that had decided that fear was just what I had to accept. Our conversations where you challenged my thinking and got me out of my own head