David Bernard-Stevens
If I were to tell you today who I am, I would say I am curious, compassionate, kind, respectful, inclusive of all, transparent, and accountable.
If I were to tell you who I was 7 years ago I would have said, "I am an American, a Nebraskan, married/divorced/re-married, pilot, author, former Senator, former National Teach of the Year Finalist, holding a Master's Degree in Leadership, a father of two sons, and a risk-taker.
The difference is stark, isn't it! ;-) The first one is who I am deep within my spirit, and the latter represents all the titles the world gave to the things I had done.
I have worked on assembly lines, construction (I was terrible), fast food chains, grocery stores until finally working in the halls of National politics, the classrooms of our nation's public schools, the halls of Congress, the legislative chamber of Nebraska, and leader of a business organization.
I have had extremely tall "highs" and incredible deep "lows." My journey has taken me from Nebraska to Washington, D.C., back to Nebraska, to California, South Korea, Jamaica, the Middle East, to finally Africa. Along the way, I discovered how to create a life of meaning and joy. I found the power which had always been within myself but unseen and untapped.
Most of my writings are my attempts at guiding others to discover for themselves their own power so they too can create lives of meaning and joy...no matter WHAT the world throws their way. I write of the concepts and thoughts I had never been taught and, how they created a path for my own growth and becoming a leader of myself.
My path is not your path for you have your own trail to blaze. What I hope to do is get you to think differently... to see what has always been there, but your mind has ignored. To give you ideas concerning how and why your brain thinks the way it does, why you react the way you do, and how to change it all if you wish.
I will guide, but the rest will be all up to you, which the way it should be. We are the ones who create our experience of life and the reality we live in. We are the ones who determine how we feel, how we will think, and the behaviors we choose to show.
You have great power, whether you believe it or not. YOU are a human being born to create and to have meaning and joy every day. Moreover, if you ignore much of what you have been taught, you can discover just how beautiful life can be with all the good and bad things the world will throw your way!
My first book, "A Leader Within" was self-published with little input. Admittedly, I learned a lot, and there are numerous minor "glitches" in the writings. Yet the concepts are sound and the guidance clear. It is a book of thoughts (musings) about life and how what we have been taught is woefully short of what we need to know to live our lives to the fullest.
My second book, "A Leap of Faith," is about my own journey from being a successful but depressed Senator to eventually traveling to Kenya to finally create the life and become the person I knew I needed to be. It consists of a series of letters to my sons. They explain both the "whys" and the lessons learned. It is my way of guiding them, and you, in the hope that all will create the life each deserves.
Too many of us exist and react to all things that come our way. It is time we all learned how to respond to create the life we were always meant to have. Care to know more? ;-)
