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    Redefining Success
    Redefining Success
    Redefining Success
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Redefining Success

    By Landon Winstead

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever had a dream dashed by a challenge or mental illness? Have you ever felt like giving in or gripped by fear that all is lost? Have you defined success in your life or have you let others define it? Have you failed to meet someones expectations? Success can be defined in many different ways. Or success can be redefined based on current circumstances. Part I of this book is about my struggle with mental health issues that challenged a dream and required me to redefine success for my life. This book takes you through my journey and also provides tips for succeeding in aspects of everyday life. In my work as a Peer Support Specialist I have encountered consumers who have been committed to the largest forensic state hospital in Texas. Many of them have been convicted of crimes. The mental illness these consumers experience and the crimes they have committed are only part of who they are and do not define them as a person. They have dreams like anyone else. Their dreams may be on a different scale. For them, success may come in small steps toward wholeness and reconciliation with self and society. My job is to instill hope in their lives as someone who has been through the mental health system and who has emerged from the other side experiencing recovery. Part II of this book is a collection of inspirational devotions on the topic of success in different practical areas. Some examples include success with anxiety, success with depression, and success with loneliness. They are each based on the Christian Scriptures and are filled with an abundance of relevant illustrations. Anyone who has wondered about how their faith is related to real life will be able to identify with these inspirational pieces.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInspiring Voices
    Release dateDec 6, 2011
    ISBN9781462400386
    Redefining Success
    Author

    Landon Winstead

    Landon Winstead was born and grew up in Wichita Falls, TX. He graduated Cum Laude from Texas Christian University obtaining a BA degree in Religion-Studies. He then graduated with distinction from Texas A&M University in Commerce obtaining a MS in Community Counseling. He has worked in the public and private sector in church ministry and counseling agencies. He has had sermons published in various Journals. He is married to Ann Gerard and they have an adopted daughter from China. He is Peer Support Specialist for North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.

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      Book preview

      Redefining Success - Landon Winstead

      REDEFINING

      SUCCESS

      LANDON WINSTEAD

      inspiringvoicesblack.ai

      Copyright © 2011 Landon Winstead

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      Inspiring Voices

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.inspiringvoices.com

      1-(866) 697-5313

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4624-0037-9 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4624-0038-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943550

      Printed in the United States of America

      Inspiring Voices rev. date: 12/1/2011

      Contents

      FOREWORD

      PREFACE

      -PART ONE-

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      -PART TWO-

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      EPILOGUE

      THE AUTHOR

      FOREWORD

      By

      James E. Snowden, Ph.D.

      I have known Landon Winstead in a professional capacity since the mid-1990s. I very much appreciate the trust in me he has shown by giving me permission to acknowledge that professional relationship. I am truly honored to be asked to write this foreword to his wonderful little book. His request to write these words suggests to me that he has found value in our work. I certainly have – and especially as I have read this remarkable little book, have come to know that his investment in our work has been fruitful.

      In our work together, we have often spoken of reframing or giving a different meaning to some experience or situation both in his past and in the present. Thus, his theme of redefining success speaks to the power of that approach for him – and we both hope, for many who read this work.

      Landon struggled to find success for many years, until he came to realize that his definition of success was the problem, not his failure. By coming to give what he had accomplished as much (and possibly more) power than what he had not yet accomplished, he found a confidence in himself that had been eroded away by his years of allowing the expectations of others, at least as he perceived it, to define success for him. This renewed confidence led to renewed energy and that has allowed him to gain a new sense of meaning and purpose for his life. As a result, he has approached his new job as a peer specialist with a sense of potential success instead of what had come to characterize his work life, and indeed his life in general, a sense of potential failure. What this transition in thinking has taught him, he can now offer others through his job and many others through these pages. Through this powerful new way of thinking, readers of this little book may find, as Landon did, an expectation of success instead of a fear of failure. It is his hope, and mine, that healing for many whose hope has dwindled may be found in these pages.

      Landon has written with courage as he has shared his own struggles and his open, uncensored style gives credibility to his words. These pages then are written not from the perspective of yet another self-help book by one who has studied and observed (and Landon does hold a Master’s degree in counseling), but more importantly, as one who has walked the walk through the dark times and who is now moving with confidence toward the light.

      It is my hope that those who discover and read this book will be encouraged to continue their journey and struggle to find healing for old wounds and hope for a different future. Through these pages, Landon offers a handhold, with a sincere wish that many will take his hand of encouragement, finding a renewed sense of success as possible, instead of the fear of failure as inevitable.

      Landon would be quick to tell you that although his spiritual life has been tested through his struggles, he has never lost his ultimate faith in a Power beyond himself. In the second part of this book, he acknowledges that Power, offering spiritual suggestions and Scriptural references that can strengthen and sustain. Though much of the second part was based upon sermons he prepared and presented in local churches, he does not sound preachy, nor does he offer simple solutions to complex problems. Rather, he simply speaks with a calm and confident voice of one who seeks truth and who has found much truth in the Bible and in other tenets of his faith.

      I am glad you have found this little book, and pray that your redefinition of success can be as powerful in your life as these pages document that it has been in his.

      James E. Snowden, Ph.D.

      Licensed Psychologist

      PREFACE

      If you asked ten people for a definition of success, you would probably hear ten different definitions. People have different levels of experience, education, employment, economic status, etc. One person’s story of success might be different than another’s. Redefining Success came out of my need to realign my expectations for what was happening to me on the pathway of life. You may be able to relate if you have had a dream dashed by something out of your control. You may be able to relate if you just think you didn’t live up to your potential, either defined by you or others.

      Part I of this book is about how my dream of success was dashed by mental illness and how I had to go about redefining success. It is a daily process for me and a struggle I deal with. There is mourning for what might have been and more realistic appreciation for what is.

      Mental illness is not the end of life. It strikes people unexpectedly when they are in the prime of life. Some are in their college years when they have their first breakdown. For some, it has been a constant struggle since they can remember, striking in early childhood. For some, it comes in the middle of a promising career.

      Part of this book is about the beginning of a new career for me as a Peer Support Specialist at North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, Texas. It is the only forensic maximum security state hospital in the state of Texas. I work with the people who have been determined to be the most manifestly dangerous in the state hospital system. Most of them have criminal charges pending until they can be found competent, and some have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

      Many of them also have dreams and stories of redefining success after a past and maybe a present they want to put behind them. Just because they are in a maximum-security setting does not mean they don’t have dreams. In fact, some have achieved great success in life, only to have mental illness hit them hard. One motivation for writing this book came from a consumer who wrote a short story about her life as part of drama therapy that was actually presented to the program she was in. It was titled, Creative but a Little Bit Crazy.

      Part II of this book is based on devotionals I have written about success with a Christian backdrop. Even though I am not an ordained minister, I have always been interested in writing devotionals on Christian topics and tying them to relevant issues in society, issues that both mentally healthy and ill people find themselves facing, like how to succeed with the past, anxiety, loneliness, depression, discontentment, intolerance, anger, prejudice, and doubt. They are all issues we face from day to day, and how we react to them can present either success or failure in our lives. Hopefully, readers will pick up on the tools recommended for anyone facing these issues and add them to their coping mechanisms when they face issues that determine the outcome of their lives.

      Landon Winstead, MS

      Wichita Falls, Texas

      October 2011

      Dedicated to Lanny and Mary Sue Winstead, my parents

      -PART ONE-

      Chapter 1

      THE EARLY YEARS

      I      was born on a Sunday, June 25, 1967 at a hospital in Wichita Falls, Texas while the sermon was being given at First Christian Church. Little did I know that this would predict much of my life, which revolved around the church. My grandfather was in his sixth year as the senior minister of the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., where President Lyndon Baines Johnson attended periodically. If anyone fit the definition of success it was my grandfather, George R. Davis.

      He was born into a poor family in a small town in Kansas. When he was twelve, he and his father were running to catch a bus when his father dropped dead. He worked three jobs just to help his family stay afloat. I assume he felt called to ministry, because he gave his first sermon

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