Rosie Baker - Mirrors & Windows

When women are asked to reveal their dreams, they are rarely asked how they will make them happen. As preschoolers, little girls are asked what they want to be when they grow up. High school teens are challenged to determine a university major by the age of seventeen, and young university girls are asked what they will do after graduation. Typically, women, including myself and others I know, are told in response to dream bigger. This raises the question: how do we make a dream a reality?

This question resonates with many of us, no matter what gender. Is it possible for everyone to make their dreams a reality, or do only a select, lucky few have success stories to tell?

I believe we all can make our dreams a reality. Ive included the success stories of others in this book, Mirrors & Windows, as reflections of who we can be. It starts with envisioning what we wish to accomplish. Then each day, we can practice a way to manifest and envision those dreams to make them a reality.

I started writing this book because I wanted to discover the power of vision and the power of putting this vision into practice. If we can change the way we think and what we think, we can open up endless possibilities. Part of envisioning is observing and learning from the stories of successful women who can serve as mentors for us all.

According to ForbesMagazine, mentoring has many positive benefits.

Mentoring expert Drew Appleby, PhD, professor emeritus at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, says, Mentors are crucial whenever people are faced with new phases of their career or life that require the development of new knowledge, skills or attitudes.

Forbes Magazine writes that, although it takes work and time, having a mentor is one of the most important things a person can do to enhance their career and professional life. When used correctly, mentoring can provide success to both the mentee and the mentor.

Weve all had people influence our lives and become role models and mentors. They might have been friends, family members, teachers, or even much-loved celebrities. I realize just how much I have been positively affected by role models and mentors throughout my life. This has made me ask an important question: do we need role models and mentors to be successful?

Identifying as a woman, I also wanted to explore stories of other females who dreamed and achieved success. In many of the stories I followed, the women did not have concrete role models or someone who physically resembled them in their targeted career field. Instead, they used windows to envision their futures, and they are now the mirror for others to reflect upon today. In this book, you will discover the stories of successful women like Sheryl Sandberg, Ashanti Johnson, and Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez-Serricchio (Dr. G), who all created their own visions or windows and were successful in doing so.

These womens success stories raised further questions for me. Are these inspiring, real women unique or part of a larger trend? Do they all share something in common? After talking to them and hearing their stories, I found something that changed the way I see the future of success.

I felt compelled to write this book because I wanted to explore the power of vision, which I visualize as windows, and the importance of having role models and mentors, or mirrors in our lives. My own experiences as a young woman going to university and beginning my career along with interviewing many successful women in this book have given me empowering insights.

Since the beginning of freshman year at university, I have been a writer in a nationwide club called Her Campus, currently with approximately 320 chapters in forty-four states and nine countries involving more than ten thousand contributors. Her Campus is an online magazine, and each chapter writes and uploads articles and performs many other activities like organizing campuswide events for International Womens Day in March every year.

Being part of this organization has allowed me to meet many amazing young women from my campus from all over America. Their drive and tenacity have inspired me and pushed me closer to achieving my goals.

This book should be read by those who are:

Currently in high school or university

Starting a career

Wanting a change in career

Inspired to achieve a dream or goal

Reading this book will:

Inspire you

Encourage you to embrace changes

Challenge you to set new goals and achieve them

Help you mirror the success of others

Assist you in the practice of envisioning in day-to-day life

Open you to insights to improve your mindset

It is my hope that this book will make a difference in the lives of all who read it.

One of my favorite quotes is from the Disney film Ratatouille, when Remy the rat says, The only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability. Change in our lives is inevitable as the days, weeks, months, and years pass. Yet we often find change difficult, and many of us may even hide or avoid certain things that we know will bring change into our lives.

Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD, neurologist, neuro-oncologist, and neuroscientist, explained that change is often difficult, whether were going on a new diet or starting a new job, because our brains are trying to protect us from something that could be dangerous. This is good and bad news. Its good news because we learn positive behaviors and remember them and bad news when we want to learn new behaviors.

When we change something, our brains think we could be doing something potentially threatening. From an evolutionary standpoint we develop these neural pathways to adapt to live, so when we encounter change, our brain shifts into a protective mode, said Dr. Sanam Hafeez, a licensed clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist.