Become You by Toneka R. Etienne, Ph.D. Virtual Tour and Giveaway

 

 

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.

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 

Toneka R. Etienne will be awarding a signed copy of Become You to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a signed copy of Become You to a randomly drawn host. Please use this rafflecopter code on your post:




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