Become You
by Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D.
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GENRE: Self-Help, Personal
Development
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BLURB:
Ready
to create lasting transformation in your life? Become You reveals a practical
lifestyle blueprint for the modern day woman. Begin your deep dive
transformation by turning an honest, but loving mirror on your belief systems,
habits, and spiritual life. This book will help you create a balanced lifestyle
so that you can passionately pursue your goals and dreams without losing yourself
in the process.
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Excerpt :
I started working on my PhD in the fall of 2007.
My husband and I had secured new full-time
jobs and moved to metro Atlanta one month
earlier, with our eight-month-old daughter in
tow. From the outside looking in, this goal
looked like a pretty lofty one, working on a doctorate
degree while working full time and fulfilling my roles as
wife and mother to a husband and a young infant. But for
me, those first two and a half years of coursework were, for
lack of better words, a piece of cake. I had a certain
mindset, a focus that was unshakable. I also had this
unexplainable confidence about myself, which proved to
give me an advantage at the perfect time.
Approximately two and half years into my program, I
traveled to Minneapolis for a residency, during which we
were encouraged to begin the search for our dissertation
chairs.
The dissertation, an extremely long piece of writing
with lots of research, usually required to obtain your
doctorate degree, was the final piece of the puzzle to
complete my doctorate. There are several procedures and
processes in place to walk you through the creation of this
extensive body of research. The first step is to secure a
dissertation chair, or someone who takes the responsibility
of guiding you through the process. I quickly perused the
list of potential professors who shared similar research
interests with me and settled on one name. She was not
only an accomplished researcher, she happened to be the
Dean of the School of Psychology.
I signed up to have a one-on-one consultation with her
during the residency, knowing that this would be my time
to pitch her my research proposal and ask her if she would
be my chair. I sat down in front of her, full of excitement,
and proceeded to tell her my research interest, African
American mothers and daughters. Looking back, I really
had no idea what I was talking about. I could barely
articulate to her what my research ultimately entailed, but
one thing I emphatically stated to her, “I have chosen you
to be my chair.” She laughed, and I’m sure she was taken
aback, since students do not typically tell professors what
they’re going to do. But I had an undeniable confidence in
myself and knew that, with her in my corner, I could get
this degree completed. She gave me a tentative yes and
required me to submit a proposal to her that evening. I
spent at least three hours that night working on it, but
once I submitted it to her, the deal was sealed, and the
rest
is history.
Just two short months later, that undeniable confidence
was no more, and I was stuck. Two and half years of
coursework had culminated in me standing at the bottom
of yet another mountain, the dissertation. The U.S.
Department of Education has estimated that the average
doctorate attrition rate is between 40 to 50 percent. Of
those 40 to 50 percent, African Americans earned only 6.1
percent of the doctorates awarded in the 2006 – 2007
academic school year, despite making up 13 percent of the
population. Can you see how the odds were stacked
against me? Of course, knowing all of this information
prior to beginning my doctorate journey didn’t exactly help
me,
and I reached a point that everything camecrashing down.
I was completely overwhelmed. Fear inevitably set in.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D., is a Psychologist,
wife, mother, Huffington Post contributor, and creator at www.tonekaetienne.com. Toneka is a self-love advocate encouraging women to balance
their daily lives with the ambition to continually pursue their dreams. Her
calling is to fully support women as they call soulful purpose and intention
into their life and business connected to their deepest and most authentic
selves. When she’s not holding sacred space for women’s transformation, Toneka
can be found doing her favorite things: spending time with her husband and two
daughters, traveling, reading, connecting with like-minded visionaries, and
looking for divine inspiration.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tonekaretienne
Instagram: instagram.com/tonekaetienne
Twitter: twitter.com/tonekaetienne
You can purchase Become You on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Become-You-Transformational-Blueprint-Your-ebook/dp/B0161KQ15A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1444856045&sr=1-1&keywords=become+you+by+toneka
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Toneka R. Etienne will be awarding a signed copy of Become
You to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour
a Rafflecopter giveaway
