Chandler - Reinventing Yourself

Praise for Reinventing Yourself

"Reinventing Yourself is written forcefully, but with great humor, There wont be many books in the coming years that are met with as much enthusiasm as his book.

Colin Wilson, author of The Outsider and Alien Dawn

If you want a book that develops your hidden potential, look no further, Steve Chandlers Reinventing Yourself is it!

Danny Cox, author of Seize the Day and
There are No Limits

20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

How to Become the Person Youve Always Wanted to Be

Steve Chandler

Copyright 2017 by Steve Chandler

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

REINVENTING YOURSELF, 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

TYPESET BY PERFECTYPE, NASHVILLE, TENN.

Printed in the U.S.A.

To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP Data Available Upon Request.

The story of who I was... was just a story

When I was in fourth grade, a bunch of girls passed around a note telling people not to be my friend, which started years of being teased and bullied. I made that mean I was unlikable.

At 10 years old, I was diagnosed with depression, put on Prozac, and told I had a chemical imbalance that I would need to be medicated for just like a diabetic would take insulin. I made that mean I was broken.

During my teenage years I had a series of unrequited crushes and lack of friends. I made that mean that I was alone and not desirable.

Throughout school I was a straight-A student, always at the top of the class. My teachers gave me lots of validation for that. My parents were very proud of me. And everyone told me that I would be very successful. I made that mean that my sense of worth came from my intelligence and what I could achieve.

All these things started forming the story of who I was, and I made choices that supported that story. Since I believed on some level that I was unlikable, broken, and undesirable, and that my worth came from achieving, I became addicted to being the best. I was incredibly driven. It is truly amazing how feeling like you have something to prove to the world will drive you.

By the age of 25, I was the youngest female agent in the highly competitive field of Hollywood. I was making money, going to all the best parties and events, and hob-knobbing with celebrities. Not to mention making a great salary for someone just a few years out of college.

There was just one problem: The same me was still there no matter how much money I made, whom I dated, or what external goal I could accomplish. And I really didnt like the me that I was. My drive came with intense self-criticism. My I-have-it-all-together exterior masked massive insecurity.

And I kept hoping that something or someone outside of me would occur that would finally provide me with the fulfillment, peace of mind, happiness, and love that I craved.

But that didnt exactly happen....

Everything came crashing down around me at 26 when in a span of eight months I resigned from my fancy career because I just could not take the stress anymore, but it only threw me into a deeper depression because my role as a successful agent had become my identity and source of self-worth. Then I went into massive debt, got diagnosed with an un-diagnosable auto-immune disorder on top of the depression I was still on medication for, and also became suddenly estranged from my family. But the one thing I clung onto was my fianc. He was the answer!!! He was my salvation!! Sure, I had lost a lot but now I was going to be a wife. Great! That could be my new identity. And this was reassuring until six months before our wedding he dumped me cold turkey.

I felt like a total victim. One night I sought comfort on my cold tiles of my bathroom floor asking, Why is this happening to me?? When I heard myself ask that question it suddenly dawned on me.... Wait a second. I am the common denominator in all of these situations. So if I had something to do with creating them, perhaps I have influence on how to change them.

And that is when my life shifted from one of a victim to one of an owner. I stopped asking Why is this happening to me? and started asking Why is this happening for me? What can I learn and how can I shift it? As I started asking those questions, I began the process of reinventing myself. Dropping the old stories that were holding me back and creating similar undesirable events in my life. I began to take responsibility for myself. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I began to change my beliefs about myself and life in general.

Consequently, my entire life did change. Today I experience those feelings of fulfillment, peace of mind, happiness, and love that I craved because I generate them from the inside. I have been off anti-depressants for nearly a decade and do work in the world that I absolutely love. I have an amazing connection with my family and a group of friends that I call my soul family.

I am not special. I have no super powers. I just realized that the most powerful choice we have is how we define ourselves.

Since this book has landed in your lap, that is the powerful choice that is in front of you right now.

How do you want to define yourself?

Do you want to continue to believe an old story about yourself? Do you want to continue to wait for someone else to change or someone to come along on a white horse and save you from yourself? Do you want to continue to blame your parents or society for why you dont have what you want? Do you want to continue to believe that its too late or too hard to go after your dreams?

Even if you are tempted a tiny little bit to say yes to anything of those things, Steve Chandler will lead you to take charge of your life in this book by shifting from victim to owner. He will inspire you to reinvent yourself and show you that its actually not as hard as you think (or as youve been making it).

I hired Steve as my coach three years ago and he challenged me to get out of my comfort zone in terms of my business. In just one month, he helped me change my entire business model. He saw that I was playing too small and reminded me of a possibility that was more powerful than my fear of making changes. Sure, I was scared, but Steve reminded me that courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is feeling the fear and moving forward anyway.

And Steve will do the same for you in this book. In his strong and playful way, he will shine a light on the blind spots that are keeping you stuck in an old paradigm. He will teach you how to truly see yourself and the power you have over your own life.

Get ready because it is time for you to stop playing small. It is time for you to get out of that old, comfy story about who you are. It is time for you to be a loving leader in your relationships and career. It is time for you to go after those dreams and goals that you have been too afraid to pursue. It is time for you to free yourself from the prison of a constructed identity that is not true.