Valorie Burton - Successful Women Think Differently: 9 Habits to Make You Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient

Valorie Burton is a certified personal and executive coach who has served hundreds of clients in over 40 states and seven countries. She is founder and director of The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute and the author of six books on personal development. She is deeply committed to helping people be more resilient so they can thrive in life and work, be more productive, and live with balance and purpose.

To learn more about The CaPP Institutes coach training and corporate training programs, visit www.cappinstitute.com

I am so grateful for the opportunity to do the work that I am called toinspiring women to live more fulfilling lives. It is my divine assignment in life, one that I could not do alone. I want to acknowledge those who have helped get this book into your hands.

To the dedicated team at Harvest House, thank you so much for your enthusiasm and belief in me and my workespecially LaRae Weikert, Bob Hawkins, Jr., and Kathleen Kerr.

To my family, especially Johnny Burton, Jr., Leone Adger Murray, and Wade Murray. I am so blessed to have your love and never-ending support. I love you with all my heart. An extra thanks to you, Mom, for fostering my love of books and writing before I was even old enough to go to school. My writing career did not begin with my first book, but with our bedtime stories and letters to Grandmama and Grandaddy.

To my assistant, Erika Davis, for keeping me on track. Thank you for your dedication, organization, and positive attitude.

To Andrea Heinecke, Oscar Turner, and Gregory A. Campbell, thank you for your belief in me and stretching me to go to new levels with my work. I appreciate you.

To God, for inspiring my passion for helping people be resilient, happy, and purposeful. Thank You for yet another opportunity to inspire women to live fully.

Has your life become too normal?

Without even realizing it, you may be one of the millions of people whose definition of normal has evolved with our changing culture. Sadly, what has become normal in our societylike working long hours, piling up debt, or shying away from relationshipsoften leads to unhappiness, brokenness, and high stress.

Join Valorie Burton as she encourages you to:

Question what has become normal in your life

Set new personal norms that nourish you and your family

Resist the temptation to follow the masses onto lifes hamster wheel

Raise your standards and renew your faith in what is possible for your life

Hear Gods voice guiding you on the unique path He has for your extraordinary success, purpose, and fulfillment

By radically rejecting the norm, you can make a true impact on the world and experience a life of biblical wisdom and prosperous living!

Get Unstuck, Be Unstoppable

Happy Women Live Better

Start Here, Start Now

To learn more about books by Valorie Burton or
to read sample chapters, log on to our website:

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Key Lessons

Optimism is a key to reaching high levels of success

Adopt a growth mindset rather than a fixed one

Take notice of your thoughtsand adjust them as needed

C ecily struggled with her weight for several years before her doctor gave her a serious wake-up call: she was prediabetic. She needed to lose 40 pounds and maintain a regimen of exercise and a healthier diet. The mid-afternoon vending machine runs for Little Debbies and potato chips would need to stop. So would the couch potato habits and all the excuses for why she didnt have time to exercise. But every time Cecily talked about doing better, her thoughts and subsequent words looked something like this:

Ive tried before and failed. Whats the point of trying again if the same thing is going to happen? Its a waste of time. I just need to accept that Im a big woman. My mother is big. My sister gained weight after 30. Why should I think I can be any different? Healthy food is bland. I dont want it. And Im embarrassed to work out in public. I dont want people staring at my flabby, overweight body. I cant do this.

With these thoughts, Cecily set out to do what the doctor suggested. As you can imagine, her efforts were short-lived. Her counterproductive thoughts overpowered her intentions. Actions follow thoughts, and counterproductive thoughts will always send you in the opposite direction of your goal.

Think back for a moment to a recent failure. Maybe it was a relationship that went south or a promotion you were denied or a decision that got you into hot water. Or maybe it is something simplera test you failed or that 21-day diet that youd already given up on by day two. Got a failure in mind? We all have them. Now, answer this question honestly and without too much thought: Why did you fail? Jot down the first things that come to mind. Just a short bullet-pointed list:

Did you write down your reasons? If not, dont skip that part. Write it down.

Its a simple exercise, but noticing how you think about failure can tell you a great deal about how high you will ascend on the success ladder. Numerous books will tell you that to be successful, you should simply emulate successful people. It can be tempting, then, to observe a woman who has achieved success, whether in her relationships or finances or health or work, and take notes about the steps she took to get to her destination. Why is it, then, that you can take two women with very similar backgrounds, education, and experience, and one excels while the other languishes? Why does one clear the hurdle when she faces it and the other trips and falls flat on her face, never to get up again? Why does one set big, compelling goals while the other settles for far less than she seems capable of?

Many of the answers to these questions cannot be found by simply observing the steps each woman chose to take. The more important insight is to understand what caused one of them to take those stepsto even think to take those stepswhile the other did not. The edge the successful woman has over the average is in her thought processes. It is not external, but internal. Sometimes it is learned through experiences and parental examples. However, some aspects of the thought process come very naturally to you. You are either more optimistic or pessimistic in your thinking. Although you may naturally lean in one direction or the other in the face of a challenge or opportunity, an optimistic thinking style can be learned.

Let me be specific about what I mean by these two terms. The hallmark of a pessimist is that she tends to believe negative events in life will last forever, will impact everything she does, and are all her fault. But when faced with similar circumstances, the optimist believes just the opposite. She sees the event as a temporary setback, believes it is limited to this specific instance, and doesnt blame it all on herself. Instead, the optimist sees all of the external circumstances that contributedother people, poor timing, and even Gods will.