Designing Your Destiny by Debra Conoyor

About the book

Why create a new self-help book such as Designing Your Destiny? According to the National Institute for Mental Health studies, seventy to eighty percent of all visits to the doctor are due to stress-induced illnesses. Another significant fact is that an estimated twenty-five million Americans are currently taking antidepressants to lift their spirits. In terms of unions, fifty percent of every first marriage ends in divorce and sixty-five percent of second marriages disintegrate as well. We can only speculate how many couples remaining together are in rewarding relationships. These grisly statistics clearly indicate that millions of people could benefit from innovative strategies to enhance the quality of their lives.

With this in mind, Designing Your Destiny was created as a nonfiction self-help guide to inspire, encourage, educate and enlighten its reader by focusing on the underlying psychological causes that guide one's behavior. It also provides distinct techniques that people throughout the ages have used to overcome their obstacles. This book demonstrates how to design and build your destiny by using a comprehensive approach. It begins this process with Section I, by strengthening the bedrock of your foundation, with an emphasis on self-esteem, confidence and the power of conviction. How you view yourself, your capabilities and the impact you have over your life is crucial to starting and successfully completing every design.

Following Section I are three additional sections that will help you understand what building materials to use for succeeding in business, relating successfully to others, reducing stress and taking better care of your self. At the conclusion of each chapter Designers' Notes summarize the salient points and some chapters include drafting table exercises to complete which facilitates the learning process.

This information is provided through a format of compelling stories that serve as your blueprints. These examples are gleaned from my personal interactions, or through over two years of researching famous personalities. The primary difference between those people who've already designed the destiny, as opposed to those who haven't, is that most individuals don't have a clear understanding of what's motivating or sabotaging their efforts or what steps to take. But you will. In these thirty-four chapters specific techniques will be disclosed to you. You won't just learn of a hypothesis that may or may not prove to be beneficial; you will learn what has historically been proven to work. Some built a business the world will never forget, while others built unforgettable relationships. But in every case, they designed the life they were meant to live. If they can do it, so can you!

About the author

Although I was designing multi-million dollar projects as president and Director of Marketing for my own engineering firm, I was ready to yank my hair out. Smiling I could usually fake, but laughing was out of the question. The good news is that during this fifteen-year tenure, I learned something very valuable. I noticed that architects and engineers devoted more time and effort to designing shopping centers and restaurants than we do designing our own precious lives. Their degree of accuracy is phenomenal because they utilize specific methods that are proven to work. This led me to believe there must also be precise techniques that individuals use to garner the life they envision. However, while I was searching for solutions, I couldn't find one source, a holistic approach, with answers to my own questions such as, "How can I improve my relationships?" Why didn't I land that deal?" "Why is peace of mind so elusive?"

Therefore, I decided to write the book I needed to read. For over two years I sifted through ancient and current civilizations to determine what secrets others discovered to design monumental lives. In the process I realized that their success was never an accident. Every one of them applied unique formulas to design the life they were meant to live.

Since I've always been fascinated with the underlying psychological forces that govern human behavior, I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. I'm currently doing what I love most by writing and inspiring others to design their destiny. I reside with my husband, my son and five delightful cats in the St. Louis metropolitan area.