EXCERPT

The butterfly is a universal symbol for transformation.
Emerging from its cocoon
with beautiful, colorful, multifaceted wings,
the butterfly transcends limitations encountered in the past.
So it can be for us,
as we give wings to our dreams.

You’ve had thoughts and dreams about a new direction in life. Something calls to you. There is a relentless tug, a deep-rooted urge for something more, something better. You might be feeling you came here for a purpose, but what is it?

Perhaps your life has been thrown into chaos because a change was thrust upon you when you least expected it and you are feeling shell-shocked and confused. You have been grieving the loss of one dream, but you are beginning to have inklings of a new and better dream awakening.

Maybe it feels like you are standing at the precipice of what seems like the Grand Canyon. It is daunting indeed to look at the distance you must travel to get there from here. If only you had wings to get across to the other side to live your dream!

If you are experiencing turmoil in your life, take heart! Even though there seems to be a great divide between where you are today and where you want to be, you can take charge and transform your life. I know because I’ve been there and done that in my own life and I’ve helped many other women do the same.

What all dreams have in common is a desire to in some way improve the quality of our lives. The desire for a better quality of life is universal, yet few of us seem to know how to actually achieve it. The quest for quality of life, for work/life balance, for basic happiness and contentment with our lives can be an elusive and frustrating goal. Perhaps this is our modern-day Holy Grail.

Midlife crises used to be about men in their forties and fifties suddenly buying little red sports cars and reaching for youthful pleasures. In this equal opportunity world, the midlife crisis strikes women as often as men and what we are seeing is that a “midlife crisis” of burnout and confusion is hitting women as early as their thirties! We live our lives intensely. We all lament for more time in the day, more days in the week. If only we had the time, we’d find the way to start that new business, find our life partner, spend more time traveling to exotic places. If only we had more courage, we’d find the way to end a toxic relationship, change careers, write a book. If only we had the energy, we’d have a full, vibrant and joyful life!

All too often our important desires are relegated to the backburner. We live with our longings and frustrations for years on end without taking any significant action to satisfy the need. Why? Overwhelm, analysis paralysis, fear of the unknown, lack of focus, lack of time, confusion, and self-limiting beliefs are but a few of the forces that conspire to keep us stuck in our distress. It is sad that for many who have a dream of a better life, the journey ends before it has a chance to begin. But what if you could break through these obstacles and breathe life into your ideas, giving your dreams a place of honor and priority in your day-to-day life?

Give Wings To Your Dreams offers Seven Stepping Stones to guide you along your own personal journey from lost to found. These are stepping stones you can traverse at your own pace to make your journey manageable while you also attend to the demands of daily life. After all, you’ve still got bills to pay and laundry to do.

Transforming your life is not for the faint-of-heart! It is a journey that will require that you leave certain baggage behind, challenge old belief systems, and open to a new view of yourself. It will require you to believe that you can truly have what you want—and that you are worthy of having it! It will mean making a rock-solid commitment to yourself to follow your dream. And it will require patience and perseverance on your part as you plant the seeds of your future and nurture them to grow.

Depending on the magnitude of change you desire, you could experience results in a few weeks or months or it might take you a number of years to get where you want to be. It is important to gain a clear vision of where you want to go and then begin to take steps to achieve what you want. Even the smallest steps you begin today will give you momentum and the satisfaction that you are heading in the right direction. The good news is that baby steps over time add up to magnificent strides. We all have within us the power to spread our wings and fly to the destination of our choosing.

The purpose of this book is to illuminate the path that will empower you to create the quality of life you deeply desire! My intention is to give you tools to help you sort through options and obstacles and guide you to make powerful and productive life choices. The Seven Stepping Stones will propel you forward with confidence, clarity, and conviction and support you as you give wings to your dreams!

My Own Journey From Lost To Found
I came to this awareness of the Seven Stepping Stones offered in Give Wings To Your Dreams as a result of my own experience of traveling from lost to found. Today I am living on the beautiful California coast in Santa Barbara, working as a life coach, writing books, facilitating personal retreats, teaching workshops, and standing before large audiences giving inspirational speeches. I recently married a wonderful man who gives me his unconditional love and support and who adores my kids. My teenage boys respect and admire him and there is harmony in our home. I love my life. I’m feeling happy and fulfilled, doing work I love and making a difference. This has not always been the case. I went through an intense life upheaval on the way to living my dreams.

When I turned forty, I hit rock bottom and it was a long fall. I had reached the pinnacle of my career as a Silicon Valley marketing executive with worldwide responsibilities. It was exhilarating and exhausting. I was learning the ropes as a single mom as well, having recently separated from my husband of fourteen years. There’s nothing extraordinary about this. It was stressful and demanding and not too different from the life of most working mothers. It’s a tightrope act and as long as we don’t get hit with a hurricane-force wind, we seem to manage to stay upright.

But life happens and sometimes it’s not pretty. One day, a year or so into the separation from my husband, I returned late on a Sunday evening from a ski weekend in Tahoe. On Monday morning, I checked my voicemail from the office and found a message from my ten-year-old son. He and his younger brother had been staying with their dad in San Francisco for the weekend. Their dad was to have driven them to school on Monday morning.

I froze in stunned horror when I listened to the message, “Mommy, please come get us!” my son pleaded. “Daddy didn’t take us to school today. He’s been busy building a machine to make the little man in his head stop talking.” You should have seen me fly out the door and into my car. It was the longest hour of my life as I made the trip to San Francisco to get my kids out of there.

This was my rude awakening that something was seriously wrong with my husband. It was the beginning of a two-year horror show in which I became an unwitting central character. At first, I thought my husband had developed a mental illness or possibly a brain tumor. As his behavior became increasingly bizarre I learned that he had become hopelessly addicted to crystal meth, one of the most insidious, brain-frying, life-threatening drugs out there. He had become a danger to himself and others—particularly to my kids and me…