If you feel “stuck” in a situation that appears to be beyond your control, these stories will show you how others have coped with crisis and uncertainty, made tough choices and positive changes in order to find deeper meaning and satisfaction in their relationships and learned to live with purpose every day. Rarely do we find a book that addresses so many different challenges.
Life Choices does this in a powerful and inspiring way. This book is about experiences, the people who lived them, and how they created successful lives. From values and self-fulfillment to legacy, this book offers new resources for people who have tough choices to make every day.
Filled with wisdom and love, this book is a soothing companion for anyone searching for the courage to make a choice to change his or her circumstances. These authors and their stories prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that success belongs to everyone, no matter where they come from or what has happened to them. They are living proof that miracles can and do happen. You can be one of these people. You can navigate through difficult times and find your pathway to the life you choose to lead. Put the strength of others to work for you. Courage is not the absence of fear or pain. Courage is taking the steps to move through it.
Authors appearing in Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths
include:Aimmee Riley
Andrea Chestnut
Anne Abernathy
Anne Dreyer
Bob Walker
Charlotte Foust
Dan Roberts
Deborah Clark
Dr. Casey McNeal
Edie Raether
Elle Swan
Ginette Bedsaul
Jennifer Joseph
Jennifer Tarlin
Jesse Ferrell
Judi Moreo
Karen Phillips
Mary Monaghan
Nancy Todd
Rev. Cattel
Sandra Gore Nielsen
Sandy Kastel
Sherial Bratcher
Stephen Philpott
Susan Haller
Vickie Lane
Read Excerpts from Life Choices! My life had fallen apart in front of my eyes. Our beautiful home with swimming pool and guest cottages was repossessed and I moved to a tumbledown house with rotting floorboards and broken windows with no money to fix it up. I had barely enough money to buy food, surviving on cheese and crackers. Things could not get any worse, or so I thought. I was wrong; it could definitely get worse…
Mary Monaghan
New Beginnings
If you have never been fired, you are missing out on one of life’s universal defining moments that has the potential to set great transformation and growth into motion. It can also be a devastating blow that serves up the dreaded crippling sucker-punch from your blind spot. Your attitude and how you respond to this defining moment will determine which paradigm becomes your reality…
Jesse Ferrell
Defining Moment: You Are Fired
I’m an intelligent person, with rights, and a caring mother ― and I don’t believe in “no choice.” I had read and learned all that I possibly could about leukemia, and my questions were on point, but the doctors had no answers, just the same protocol, no matter what effect or circumstances. Nor did the doctor look my child in the eye as he talked over him to a woman, who his tone indicated, would realize her place and unquestioningly follow his direction. He was incensed that I would question his judgment…
Nancy Todd
Playing the Hand You’re Dealt
This was my first encounter with ‘classes,’ the have’s and have not’s … and my brother and I were warned NOT to go beyond the barriers of Second Class. First Class was strictly forbidden!
Anne Dreyer
Class is A Choice
My purpose in this writing is not to tell you yet another story about how adversity ends in happiness. My purpose is to share with you the formula for creating your own successes. You are also a survivor. Everyone is a potential survivor. You may have a specific story (or stories) of survival, pain, loss, or love and heartbreak, or your story may be one of general survival ― the overall struggle associated with living in a troubled world, with loneliness, the search for the meaning and purpose of life, feeling overwhelmed and powerless, as though you don’t live your life, instead your life lives you!
Dr. Casey McNeal
The Circle of Influence
Walking across the hall to the family room, I sunk into the big sofa against the window. A feeling that everything was going to be alright came over me as I soaked up the warmth from the sun’s last rays, closed my eyes, and let my thoughts drift back to another time when a young woman made a decision that would change her life and mine forever…
Sandy Kastel
Detours
Great! Here I was by myself in this hospital room and I had no idea what to ask the neurologist. I felt like I needed to ask something intelligent at this point. Then I remembered watching Days of our Lives on television. Yep! I asked the only “intelligent” question I could think of … the one I had heard them ask on the show. “If it’s a tumor … is it operable?”
Karen Phillips
7 Keys 2 Success
During this time, I caught the manager and a couple of the other branch employees embezzling from the company. They were terminated and I became the manager. I proceeded to work all hours trying to figure out what was going on in the financial side of things and what we really did as a company. I started sleeping in the recliner in my father’s old office. This went on for about six months. Everything finally came to a head; was I going to run this part of the business or sell it and go to college?
Stephen Philpott
Life of Success on My Own Terms
Instead of achieving “normal,” I was learning to love my quirks and differences, and my life was becoming better and better. I was learning to embrace the feeling of being a stranger in the world. I was learning to be an observer experiencing life rather than being attached to it. I was learning to love where I came from and live life to its fullest, to understand we’re all one and on the same path to ultimate inner peace and happiness. I was learning forgiveness and understanding for myself and others. That released the chains of resentment and bitterness that were holding me and allowed me to have more love, compassion, and understanding of people. Even though I treasure my talent as a singer, I treasure these gifts of love, understanding, and compassion more…
Jennifer Joseph
Follow Your Heart
I am often asked the secret to our marriage. It’s no secret that good friends like to laugh, companions like to talk, and lovers like to love. It is helpful if you choose to smile, if you choose to listen, and if you choose to remember the good times, and not the hard times, when he reaches for you. Indeed, if you choose to remind yourself how lucky you are he still reaches…
Sandra Gore-Neilsen
A True Love Story
I was horrified. I gave a speech, a lecture on right and wrong, the rule of law, and the fairness of our situation. The audit was bogus, illegal, and strictly a grandstanding bureaucratic tactic. “We don’t need a politician,” I recall saying. “We need justice.”
To my everlasting regret, I refused to make that campaign contribution. It was the biggest mistake in my life…
Dan Roberts
George, Martha, and I
There were about twenty of us gathered beside the track. A luge coach standing up on the track wall asked anyone who wanted to try it to take a step forward. Immediately, eighteen people took a step back. There I stood, along with a lone fireman from Maryland. While we hadn’t taken a step back, we hadn’t actually stepped forward either. We slowly turned and looked at each other and said, “Why not?”
Anne Abernathy
Why Not?
I’ve always been involved in raising funds for breast cancer research. Both my aunt and younger cousin have lost their breasts to the disease, so I wanted to help in whatever way I could. Every fundraiser I saw for “the cause” I could be counted on to support. I knew there was a possibility that genetics might mean I needed to be careful, but I never really worried. I felt like I helped “the cause” so I was safe. I should have paid more attention to what the message was behind “the cause,” instead of just raising money for them.
“Yes, it’s cancer.” I heard those words come over the telephone on August 28, 2006…
Victoria Lane
Yes, It’s Cancer
I drove up the road and into the heart of downtown Seattle, wondering just how to find a shelter to go into. My daughter, seeing folks laughing on the street corner said, “People are laughing, Mom. I didn’t know people laughed in the city; I thought everybody just hurt each other.” My son’s observation about “life on the outside” was the number of signs telling people what to do and when to do it. “No Parking, No Stopping, No Walking.” A telling statement to the neurosis we had just abandoned. The lady at the “cheap” motel looked at us, our car full of stuff, and our eyes tired, and gave us an incredible deal on the room. I got out the phone book and started to make calls…
Susan Haller
Life Forced
Where was the beauty and the peace in me? Everything felt like war. Over the course of the next two years we had to let go of our home. Our life savings and retirement savings were gone. My time was spent in appointments with doctors, physical therapists and lawyers. I could not work and was in tremendous pain. My husband worked day and night taking care of me, Michael, handling the household chores and working to pay the bills. All the things we had built financially for twenty years together had disappeared. I felt quite lost and abandoned by many, and especially God…
Ginette Osier Bedsaul
An Enacted Miracle
I have been severely overweight my entire life. As an adult, doctors categorized me as morbidly obese, defined as being one hundred or more pounds overweight. Since early childhood, I have been on multiple diets. I tried everything, but was not successful in losing weight. Each year I grew heavier, I became more hopeless. Eventually my body began to break down from years of obesity, and I developed serious health problems, such as type II diabetes. I was hoping I would be able to lose this weight on my own…
Jennifer Tarlin
A New Life
I had to sleep on a pull-out couch with my two brothers. We hardly had anything to eat and life became even harder, because my mother had three more children. Moving there simply continued the nightmare I had already been living. I had no friends because we moved around so much, I was embarrassed because my clothing was so ragged, and I had a lot of health issues because of the lack of food.
One very clear memory was a time when I went to a new school, I was given a pencil. It was so special to me because it was one of the few gifts I ever received and it was brand new. I really treasured that pencil … it had an eraser that had never been used…
Sherial Bratcher
Creating My Dream Life
Everybody knew what was going on, but nobody spoke about it. Being female made me the center of attention for my father. Not in the loving, caring, protective sort of way little girls deserve to experience. My father was the one I needed protection from. When I was nine years old, I got up enough nerve to tell my mother what had been going on…
Andrea Chestnut
A Better Way to Live
Personal loss and tragedy creates an entirely different set of circumstances, completely changing the picture of your world. My mother’s death was such an event. Her death was the most devastating experience of my life. Of all the things I imagined about my life, I never thought she would not be here with me. I made the decision not to keep trying to kill myself after my mother died. I was not trying to slit my wrists, but I was participating in a series of events that had suicidal tendencies. I was developing a pattern of reckless behavior. I was making poor choices. I was so lost, I missed her so much, and I wanted to die…
Deborah Clark
There’s a Story for That
I had nowhere to go but back to my family who couldn’t provide for me before. Now I was coming back and bringing another mouth to feed as well. I can’t tell you how many times I was told I couldn’t make it. Most people around me told me to give my baby to my husband’s family. I refused as I knew no one could take better care of her than me. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I absolutely knew in my heart that I could…
Aimmee Kodachian
Finding My Purpose
When opportunity knocks, do you open the door ― or complain about the noise? Opportunity is often a matter of perception. Within our vision of the world is the image of ourselves. It may seem like some people have all the luck; they are randomly chosen. Yet, often luck is not random at all, but a time when preparation and opportunity come together…
Edie Raether
When Opportunity Knocks
No one would have thought such a minor incident would have had such a profound effect on a child. Some fifty-five years later, I can still see the sun reflecting off the new white paint. I can almost feel the breeze. In my darkest moments I can clearly hear the stern, commanding voice of the wrinkled old lady as she leaned into my face and said with a sneer, “You can’t go in. You’re much too small.”
Charlotte Foust
Invisible
We always have choices. Do we imprison ourselves, creating shackles around our heart, mind, or bodies? What we do with our choices can lead to freedom or imprisonments. Whether we are speaking of political freedoms, attitudinal freedoms, physical freedoms, or most importantly our spiritual freedoms, each time I give out a penny, or pay with any Lincoln money, I send a silent prayer and intention…
Rev. Cattel
The Mystical Hand of Freedom
There were warning signs all along my fall into darkness. Like most people, I looked the other way. One of the first signs was the fact that I always made sure I had alcohol in my house. It was as necessary as toothpaste, paper towels, or laundry detergent. And the best part was I, like most people, could purchase all of my “necessities” from the same store. This was a very convenient way to lose control without ever noticing. Yet, losing control was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It expedited my demise and prevented me from dragging my self-destructive behavior into this decade…
Elle Swan
The Best of You
After what could have been no more than fifty feet, the tunnel narrowed dramatically until I could no longer swim. The tunnel had silted in and I had to crawl along the bottom. I moved slowly, searching ahead with the beam of my underwater light until the scuba tank on my back scraped the top of the tunnel and became tangled in rocks and sea plants…
Bob Walker
What Was I Thinking? Confessions of an Avid Adventurer
We were late arriving in Sun City and had missed most of the show. We made our way into the showroom in our traveling clothes, just in time to see Julio sing his last song. Marty was very upset. The tickets had cost her a lot of money and she had really wanted to see Julio’s show. Not knowing who he was, but being from Las Vegas, I said I was sure that we’d be able to go backstage and meet him. So we marched up to Stage Door 4 where a group of ladies were screaming and jumping up and down. I walked right to the front of the crowd with Marty in tow, presented my Las Vegas modeling agency business card to the security guard, and said, “Please tell Julio that I’m here.”
Judi Moreo
The Choice That Changed My Life Forever
Praise for Life Choices!
"This book is about ordinary people succeeding in extraordinary ways, turning tragedy into triumph, seizing the opportunity before it ceases to be one, getting up one more time than you fall. It is filled with creative ideas, strategy and inspiration in the form of life stories that just may strengthen your own resolve to follow the path of ‘Conquistador.’"Doc Blakely, CSP, CPAE, Hall of Fame Professional Speaker "Life Choices is a superb compilation of tales from people who overcame adversity and took control of their lives. The heartfelt stories prove once again what we can accomplish with prayer and a steadfast attitude to never give up."Peter Fogel, Speaker, Copywriter, Author
If Not Now… Then When? Stories and Strategies of People Over 40 Who Have Successfully Reinvented Themselves "The choices you made and the choices you didn’t have brought you to this point. Since our lives truly are what our choices make them, we have a vital interest in making better choices. Let the compelling stories in this book expand your awareness and help you choose the right path for your life."Jim Cathcart, Founder, host of www.Motivation.tv,
Author of fifteen books, including: The Acorn Principle "These stories will fill a void of despair with the light of the lives that surround it. Stories of strength, courage and endless faith. Do not pass go; go directly to the cashier and buy it."Manuel Diotte, Motivational Teacher and Author
Happiness Is A Pair of Shorts "The choices we make along life’s journey can either strengthen or weaken our inner foundations in which all character is built. This book gives first hand accounts of how we are all capable of making those choices that fortify our inner foundations, making way for a fortress of character. I recommend it to all who want to know how to transform “every” life experience into the building tools for such worth while construction projects."John Michael Stuart, MSW, Author, Perfect Circles: Redefining Perfection "This book draws from human experience that is alternately beautiful, miraculous and uplifting ~ and often all three at once. If you have ever asked yourself can I do this ~ and doubted that you could ~ you must read this book. The people here are real; their stories will answer your question with clarity and force: yes you can!"Gail Cohen, Author, Thinking Outside The Lines,
How To Reach Your Personal Best WOW! What an awesome reminder of the unseen, quintessential power living inside us! Thank you for sharing your life changing stories with us—it is warm, true and inspirational. It has given me the courage to embrace my “weakness” and my story…for it has made me realize that actually it is my strength!! Life is a Gift! And we get to unwrap it every day—if we choose to…Please choose to!!"Marisa Wollheim, Director, Hospice in the West,
Krugersdorp, South Africa "After reading the stories in “Life Choices” I was uplifted and encouraged. We all have challenges and circumstances in life that are overwhelming. However, we all have the ability to overcome the seemingly impossible of circumstances. By reading these stories you’ll be reminded of the inner strength we all possess and have the courage to evaluate your current situation and make a choice to follow the life you were meant to have."Peggy S. Vasquez,
Certified Executive Administrative Professional (CEAP)
Executive Assistant to the Laboratory Director
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory "At a time in our country when bleakness is prevalent, how uplifting to have a book which shares positive turning points in people’s lives. A most worthwhile read."Jack Sheehan, Author
Quiet Kingmaker of Las Vegas; The Class of ’47; Skin City "In strange and uncertain times, such as those we now live in, you will find hope and encouragement in this wonderful book."Patricia Fripp, Past President, National Speakers Association
Author, Get What You Want "So many of us have had situations that befall us and need to take comfort from the stories of others. Life Choices is a comfort and source of support for anyone facing a challenge."Susan RoAne
Keynote speaker
Author of Face To Face: How To Reclaim The Personal Touch in A Digital World
Judi Moreo is the author of You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion, and Power, and it’s companion, Achievement Journal. She is also the co-author and compiler of Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths (Turning Point International).
Judi is an award-winning businesswoman and motivational speaker. Her superb talent for customizing programs to meet organizational needs has gained her a prestigious following around the world. Her passion for living an extraordinary life is mirrored in her zeal for helping others realize their potential and achieve their goals. With her dynamic personality and style, she is an unforgettable speaker, inspiring motivator, and an exceptional life coach.
If you would like to find out more about the woman behind Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths, visit www.judimoreo.com. If you would like to find out more about the book, visit www.lifechoicesbook.com.
. Erica became a news reporter right out of college. She wrote for the Sacramento Bee, Santa Barbara News Press, and was the winner of awards for her journalism efforts. Erica left newspapers in 1990 and turned to a wonderful career in philanthropy. She started at Intel Corporation, helping give money and computers to schools, and developed Intel’s volunteer program at the Santa Clara, CA site. Erica rose to program director before leaving in 2004 to raise her family. She is now a happiness author and coach.
anthology to discuss her contribution.
by Michele Wahlder.
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