Uncovering Your Personal Pathway to Greater Success Continued...

These are the questions of personal introspection and self-acceptance. If you have not already done so, now is the time for some genuine moments of self-reflection. I know, self-reflection is not always easy, but if your are going to accomplish the level of professional success that you desire; or ever enjoy a fulfilling personal life, without question, knowing, understanding and accepting yourself is a must.

An honest examination of your feelings, attitudes and beliefs, especially about yourself, is fundamental to a woman’s continuous growth. I have come to realize that searching your heart and gaining a deeper understanding and acceptance of what is found there is key to unlocking all of your infinite possibilities.

While education and personal experiences are critical to personal success, without a true sense of self, it can be extremely difficult for a woman to recognize and harness her innate potential or professional opportunities.

Women, in part because of our nurturing natures, tend to spend tremendous amounts of energy getting to know others and learning about aspects of other people’s personalities, motivations, and particularly their needs; only to put very little emphasis on becoming comfortable with ourselves. Until we as women learn to celebrate and honor ourselves, the ability to fully experience joy in our lives and our work becomes severely compromised.

As women, we must have the courage to travel down the path to greater self-discovery, for as we journey, we are certain to uncover the personal treasures awaiting us in the vast garden of life. Knowing, accepting, and loving self are critical elements in creating the life that you desire, finding the inner peace that you seek, and achieving the level of professional and personal success that you crave. There are so many treasures buried inside of your soul, but it is up to you to uncover them, release them and share them with the world.

Our childhood experiences, family and friends serve to shape our earliest views of the world, but it is up to us to use these events to construct our own personalities, our own value systems, and our individual attitudes. A woman must grow to define and accept herself because if she does not, she will be prone to constantly attempt to be what others say that she should become.

Every woman must come to a point where she rejoices in her many gifts and talents, even as she acknowledges and perhaps struggles with the traits and habits she earnestly wants to change.
From my own journey to greater self-acceptance came my book, “A Woman’s Guide to Soulful Living: Seven Keys to Life and Work Success.” In it, I share seven key attributes that in my work with women and girls in the United States and the Caribbean, have proven to be critical for success in a woman’s seven circles of life. A woman’s seven circles are the physical, spiritual, career, social, mental, family and financial aspects of her life.

Choosing to become your authentic self is the foundation for a joyous life and greater personal contentment. Learning to like yourself, honor your body with whatever imperfections you have chosen to claim, and relishing all of the elements that uniquely define you are the greatest gifts you can ever give to yourself.

Once you decide to step into and get comfortable in your own skin, this self-acceptance enables you to better create a vision for your life. For you see, a woman’s foundation for achieving work and life success, inner and outer peace, comes from the gifts of self: self-acceptance, self-love, self-discipline, self-worth, self-confidence, self-motivation, self-care and self-growth.

Knowing who you are makes it so much easier to decide where you want to go in life and just how you are going to get there. Sadly, if you do not know who you are, you may try to become what others tell you to be, or be unclear about how to use your talents to bring more personal and professional fulfillment into your life.

So on a daily basis, ask yourself, “Who and what am I becoming?” This simplistic self-assessment is critical to uncovering your personal pathway to greater success. Be certain that you clearly understand that what we get out of life is ultimately linked to who we think we are as a person.
Remember, with a positive attitude and faith as your foundation; your goals and dreams as your compass; your persistence and commitment as your fuel, there is nothing that you cannot accomplish once you truly embrace yourself and resolve to heed the divine urgings of your spirit.

You Can Become Unstoppable!!!

Napoleon Hill, best known for penning the book, Think and Grow Rich, spent his life studying personal achievement and the principles of success. Hill’s work is considered the cornerstone to what has become the modern field of motivation. Hill’s more than fifty years of research is the basis for much of the self-improvement literature on bookshelves today.


Of particular interest is Hill’s notion that ninety-eight out of one hundred people fail to achieve their desired level of personal achievement. If Napoleon Hill’s findings are correct, this means that only two percent of the population go on to accomplish their sacred and innermost dreams; only a few make it into the 2% Club.

This revelation is both shocking and sad. Shocking because two percent is such a small segment of humankind, and sad because this could mean that millions of people live a life of despair, dissatisfaction and disenchantment.

The good news is that while achieving your dreams may take some work, everything that you desire is certainly within your reach. In his work, Hill studied the world’s greatest achievers, finding a number of common factors. Hill identified seventeen principles of personal achievement that helped many dare to dream, spread their wings and go on to soar. The first principle, although simple, appears to be earnestly pursued by so few. Yet, this characteristic has been found to be the basis for any personal or career success one hopes to achieve.

Think about it, if you get into your car without a destination in mind, where will you end up…almost anyplace. If you go into the grocery stores without a list, what will you buy…almost anything and definitely more than you intended. Both of these examples point to valuable food for thought, without direction and focus we flounder. Thus, the building block, the foundation that Hill found so critical to living our best lives, to achieving personal satisfaction and success is PURPOSE.

What is purpose? Purpose is intent, goals, a target or a personal aim. Purpose is identifying exactly what you seek to achieve and then developing a plan to make it happen, a plan that includes persistence, persistence and more persistence.
If we take the time to honestly assess our lives, most of us have put our dreams on the shelf to collect dust; most of us have simply decided to give up, instead choosing to settle for whatever comes our way.


If you want more out of life, rarely is it ever too late to refocus and redefine one’s priorities. To do that, it all begins with specifically defining your goals, and then allowing those goals to become your personal mission. Developing your goal plan is not an impossible task; matter of fact, it mostly just takes commitment.


To begin, simply get yourself a journal and decide to get busy going for your goals. How? Use this seven-step process to get started: Know what you want and identify your goal (s) by writing them down; Write down the benefits of achieving the goal including why this goal is important to you; Set a deadline for achieving the goal by specifying a date; List both the resources you already have and obstacles you need to overcome to accomplish your goal; Identify the people and groups you need to work with to reach your goal, Develop a Plan of Action to reach your goal, and then implement your plan with tenacity.


As you work on achieving your purpose, review your goals often. Adjust deadlines as needed and make new goals as you achieve goals on your list. Always view obstacles as opportunities for personal growth; and remember the most important thing is to always persist. Refuse to give up; and choose to become unstoppable.

Cynthia Kersey, in her book Unstoppable, researched the characteristics of unstoppable people. At the top of this list was that unstoppable people, “Devote themselves to their true purpose.”
The importance of purpose cannot be stressed enough. Purpose will help you focus your time and energy, purpose will help you to develop expertise in your areas of interest, purpose will help you persist in the face of obstacles, purpose will help you remain determined when people try to discourage you; and purpose will help you to achieve the inner peace that our spirits constantly seek.

Diana Ross and Ray Charles were both told by teachers that they could not sing and needed to find other careers; market researchers told Sony’s chairman that the idea for a walkman to play music would never sell; the founder of Federal Express was told that there was no market for such delivery services; and Barbara Smith tried out three times before finally being accepted as a model for the Ebony Fashion show. B. Smith as we know her, refused to deviate from her dream, choosing to wade through a sea of challenges before going on to become the first woman of color to appear on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine.

At birth, divinely we are given at least one talent, often more. The difficult part of life’s journey is discovering what that talent might be and then deciding to use that talent in a purposeful manner that brings us personal joy.

Our ideas and dreams are messages sent to us by our spirits in an attempt to help guide the personal seeds that we sow. Most times we let fear of failure, self-doubt, and past experiences keep us from answering these wake-up calls; wake-up calls that are indeed spiritual awakenings beckoning us to step through the gateways which lead to our unique personal opportunities.
Refuse to go through life sleepwalking, and instead choose to live your life filled with purpose. Commit to finding purpose for your life and you will become unstoppable!!!

Contact Information: Dr. Anita Davis DeFoe, President/CEO The Afia Development Corp. 10690 NW 28th Place Sunrise, Florida 33322 (954) 747-9482

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