Author: Valorie Burton
Submitted: December 15, 2020
Tell us a little about yourself. I help readers find joy and resilience while navigating the challenges of modern life. I am founder of the Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute and have written more than a dozen books on personal and spiritual growth. My unique combination of research, faith, and personal transparency inspires action and delivers practical tools to find fulfillment and purpose in work and life. I love getting people unstuck so they can be unstoppable in every area of their lives. I am a wife, mom and bonus mom to a son and two bonus daughters.
What was your motivation behind this project? My motivation for this project started with my own feelings of "mom guilt". I really thought I was alone but when I began speaking about it to other women, especially at my speaking engagements, there was an overwhelming response of people connecting with this same struggle. I decided it was something I wanted to overcome and through the process I wanted to take what I was learning and teach it to other women so they too could overcome their feelings of guilt.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? From this book, I hope people will be able to distinguish between authentic guilt and false guilt. Authentic guilt is when you've actually done something wrong and there's steps we need to take when that is the case. With false guilt, rather than doing something wrong, it's the feeling that you've done something wrong but unfortunately you can react in exactly the same ways as if you were actually guilty. This type of guilt is a tool of the enemy to get us to live in condemnation, to get us to make decisions that are not based in what God wants but based in the sense that we owe or need to overcompensate, that we've never done enough, that we need to do more or better, and it's a never-ending cycle that leaves us exhausted and depleted.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I finally let go of my guilt! I feel lighter and in the process I also developed a way to coach yourself through the guilt. Watching other women use this process and coaching other women through this process showed me that this method I have come up with actually works and that is really exciting for me!
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I definitely feel led by the Holy Spirit in the things that I write, but there are people I have looked up to over the years from the time I started writing 20 years ago such as John Maxwell, Lisa Bevere, Beth Moore, TD Jakes, Shaunti Feldhahn, Dr. Richard Carlson and others. One of my favorite artists is Yolanda Adams. I love her music and her spirit.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: Our team created a 6-part book club and video study to go along with the book. When you buy the book you will get a free audio training and you can download the video study to do with friends, or on your own, but this is a great study to do with friends or a small group. I also offer a free "how to coach yourself" course that you can sign up for on the website as well.
