Bold Moves: Take Back Your Power, Reclaim Your Peace, and Live Happy on Purpose

By Sandy Wardenburg

We all experience people and situations that somehow, at some point, lead us to a place of questioning our self-worth. The reason it feels so unfair is because it is." So begins Sandy Wardenburg's book-and her life. Living through rejection, isolation, and decades of narcissistic emotional abuse by her mo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stonebrook Publishing
• Release date: Dec 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781955711197

Sandy Wardenburg

Sandy Wardenburg (Waggett) is a Certified High-Performance Coach and a Certified Maxwell Leadership Coach. Her purpose in life is to be fully present with gratitude and joy; to learn, give, impact, connect, and role-model living every day to the fullest, so she can inspire other souls to live their best lives, act boldly, be better, do better, and feel beautiful and strong.

Book preview

Sandy uses her own experience to help you make bold moves from toxic relationships to create a new confident and happy you. A must-read that gives an 8-step guide on how to do it.

—Tina Corner Stolz

Founder and Author of Sit Down! Cash In! and Speak Up!

A CEO Guide to Peer Groups and Your Seat at the Table:

How to Create and Run a Peer Advisory Council

"Bold Moves is a powerful book! So many people feel powerless, and Sandy offers tools to help guide you to a new life space, one where you set the agenda—not in aggression, hate, or fear but in confidence, compassion, clarity, and love. Sandy gives you a glimpse of her own personal journey that completely transformed her life. If you want to reclaim your life, this is a must-read!"

—Sheree Keely, LCSW

CADV (Citizens Against Domestic Violence)

Executive Director

"Your life is meant to be lived by you, for you. In Bold Moves, you will learn how to take back control from people and circumstances that are forcing a life you neither want nor deserve. Sandy’s book is the field guide to fulfillment, happiness, and empowerment. Now is the time for your first bold move—after all, your life is your life."

—Mike Michalowicz

Author of Get Different and Profit First

"This book is a hot air balloon ride! Do you have a toxic relationship in your life? Sandy takes your hand and guides you (with worksheets and checklists), so you can begin living your best life. Get your joy back and tame the imposter. Sandy rips off the bandage and gives you permission to say NO!

Let Sandy be your pilot. Read this book and get your BOLD MOVES on. Get healthy, fearless, and happy on purpose. You only have this one short life. You can’t dream big enough. Isn’t it time you danced too?"

—Dr. Tom Hill, Co-Author of

Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneurial Soul

and Blessed Beyond Measure

If you want to take back the power in your life, this is the book for you. As someone who coaches and speaks about living with intention and choosing the life we want to live, I confidently promise that this book is the catalyst to you living your best life—your happy life—on purpose. Sandy gives you insights and concrete guides that will cultivate your courage, so you can start making bold moves that will transform your life. The empowering action steps she provides are innovative and effective. Invest in your life on purpose, read this book, embrace your journey, and BE happy on purpose.

—TJ Sweet, MHA,

BBCS Certified Life Coach and Motivational Speaker

CEO, NeverStop LLC

Author of Practice Gratitude: Find Joy and Grateful Leadership

"In Bold Moves, Sandy has so many great life lessons to help us take control of our personal choices. As she masterfully outlines each step to not only dig deep to discover what needs to change, she also answers the question, ‘Great, but how?’ I love the practical, thought-provoking exercises that help ‘empower you to enforce your boundaries with kindness, love, and calm.’ By intentionally doing what Sandy suggests, I truly believe you’ll be able to take control of the life you always dreamed of living."

—Derrik Kassebaum, Co-owner of Cosmos Corporation

Author of Live and Let Go

WOW! Sandy’s writing is powerful—raw, emotionally inspiring, and thought-provoking. I found myself relating to situations as a child and young adult who was figuring out life and overcoming feelings of being captured by the control of others (whom you love and respect). Sandy breaks it down step by step with confidence and a plan that will work if you own it, speak it out aloud, and repeat. This isn’t a one-and-done deal . . . it is life-changing!

One of the biggest challenges in society today is that we don’t talk straight. Our conversations are either charged with emotion and spewed with anger, or we dance around the subject. Sandy allows us to laser focus on the challenge and builds confidence in our ability to sever! Highly recommend this for families, leaders, and people who value relationships!"

—Rick Morris

Command Sergeant Major, US Army Retired

"I highly recommend adding Bold Moves to your reading list and as a ready reference for use on regular occasion. Sandy has done a superb job capturing the difficult relationships we all have and by using very clearly stated life experiences, she offers a way to make the relationships tolerable. I find her writing easy to follow and her solutions well thought out. As she notes, they are difficult but achievable. This is where other life skills books come up short because their solutions focus on the ideal versus the real.

Bold Moves can be the tool and inspiration for people to break free from bad relationships or other life situations that have left them miserable. Everyone will gain inspiration and new life skills by reading this book."

—Tod Bunting, Major General (retired), USAF, Kansas NG

Adjutant General of Kansas and Director of

Emergency Management 2004-2011

"Self-worth is the foundation of a successful life or career. Socrates said that one must ‘know thyself.’ Sandy well describes how toxic family relationships can make your life miserable and take you down. She helps you to learn about who you are and the bold moves you need to make to take control of your own life.

—Dick Smith

9th Command Chief Master Sergeant of the

Air National Guard

"Bold Moves is the answer. So many teens and adults have faced struggles and hurdles that have left scars. Without solutions, our dream of who we thought we would be—happy, successful, and confident—is in question. Bold Moves guides us to change the trajectory. One of the best reads. A book for everyone."

—Missy Martinette Pinkel

Studio M Publishing, Publisher, Owner

"Sandy really gets to your soul with this inspiring guide for never giving up on success, peace, happiness, and joy. Making BOLD decisions, having confidence in yourself, and then acting on those decisions makes all the difference for a joy-filled life

I love her honest, raw stories that led her to make big, bold decisions to either sever relationships or set boundaries to live boldly in life. I highly recommend Bold Moves."

—Heather Hall, Councilwoman

Kansas City, Missouri

"Our soul is made up of our mind, emotions, and will. Do you ever feel your soul is under attack? This attack on the core of who we are can lead us to toxic relationships, self-limiting beliefs, self-pity, unworthiness, confidence issues, and feeling like an imposter. It’s a mountain so hard to conquer that many of us simply ignore it. Sandy is the guide who has been up and down that mountain several times. She has traveled the path herself and, in this book, will walk you up those difficult trails to conquer the mountain.

Sandy opens her heart and lays herself bare for the sole purpose of helping people who have been wounded in so many ways, just because we’re human. As she says in Bold Moves, we only get ‘one precious life,’ so why do so many of us resign ourselves to living it in misery? Yes, the mountain in front of us is large. The journey will be arduous at times, but also thrilling, empowering, and amazingly freeing. Take the journey with the guide who has been there. Take the journey of Bold Moves and your story will be epic!"

—Chris Schneider,

GM Lake TV and Veteran Broadcaster CBS,

ESPN, Prime Sports

Author of Angel Dreams and

Starting your Career in Broadcasting

Text Description automatically generatedLogo, company name Description automatically generated

A STONEBROOK PUBLISHING BOOK

©2022 Sandy Wardenburg

This book was guided in development and

edited by Nancy L. Erickson, The Book Professor®

TheBookProfessor.com

All rights reserved. Published in the United States

by Stonebrook Publishing, a division of Stonebrook Enterprises, LLC, Saint Louis, Missouri. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from the author.

Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

Library of Congress Control Number: xxxxxxxxxx

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-955711-18-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-955711-19-7

www.stonebrookpublishing.net

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This Book Is Dedicated First to You, My Reader.

Go to www.HappyOnPurpose.com to experience this book with me as you read it.

We get this one short, beautiful life.

It’s time to make bold moves.

Second, to My Beautiful Niece, Ava Wardenburg.

May you carry courage, confidence, generosity, strength, and joy into your high-school years and throughout your entire life. You are the most beautiful soul I know.

Third, to Allen Stotts.

My dearest friend and the catalyst to the courage I needed to share what’s in these pages.

Thank you for that gift.

And Last, but Not Least,

To My Coach And Friend – The Great Dr. Tom Hill,

author of Blessed Beyond Measure, Living at the Summit, and co-author of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneurial Soul.

You inspired and challenged me to make bold moves, and I will be forever grateful.

I love you.

Contents

Preface

1 Make Your First Bold Move

2 Never Stop When You’re On a Roll

3 From Toxic to Tamed

4 Step Into the Power of Your Confidence

5 Don’t Foster the Imposter

6 Not Everyone Is Out to Screw You

7 Cry Ugly – Laugh Big

8 Don’t Be the Kink in Your Own Hose

9 Unleash Your Inner Freak (When It Serves You)

10 Throw Confetti for Yourself!

11 Hey, Overachiever!

12 You Can Win With a Shitty Hand

13 AMP IT UP!

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Preface

Sandy, I don’t even know who you are anymore. You’ve lost your soul.

As I stood at the foot of her hospital bed after an emergency heart surgery that saved her life, my mother said these words to me in her most hateful tone. The specialists had just put twelve stents in her heart to keep her alive.

I looked at her with a blank stare. Tears welled in my eyes, and my throat closed. I had no words. I felt broken from the years of her passive-aggressive narcissistic treatment. This one hurt the most.

I turned and left without saying a word. My mother wanted to cause me pain that day. She went for the jugular. She attacked the one thing that means the most in my life—my spirit.

Driving back to the hotel room, I sobbed. It was a brutal and ugly cry that originated from the depths of the soul that I’d supposedly lost. The physical anguish made me nauseous, and it brought me to my knees.

That was five years ago.

Never again. That night I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, Why am I allowing this in my life?

When attacked or manipulated by