Transforming & Beating the Odds (+Giveaway!)

I’m thrilled to participate in a sweepstakes sponsored by Investigation Discovery’s new series Surviving Evil, which premieres Wednesday August 28th at 10/9c only on Investigation Discovery

I recently rebranded my coaching business to be geared toward women who want to positively transform themselves. They say to “do what you know” and I know transformation…(sidebar: who is this they that we always refer to?)

The old Dani was a druggin’ drinkin’ party girl with no responsibilities other than to find the next bit of fun.  She was reckless and didn’t think ahead. However, she transformed into a student, 9-5er and then into an entrepreneur and now mother. It’s crazy how life swirls all around like that. If you have a vision and you’re willing to put in the required effort, you can beat whatever odds are against you, and transform into whoever you want.

I breezed over that transformation in one sentence as if it was easy, but it was actually quite a feat for me. Leaving behind the partying and recreational drugs wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I was never an addict so I didn’t have a dramatic TV-style detox and withdrawal to go through all shaking, crazy-eyed and sweaty. It just took consistent effort to make the healthier choices each day. And lots of courage to leave certain “friends” behind.

But returning to school, and going full time while working full time was really taxing. I went back to school the year I should’ve been graduating. I watched my friends graduate and start cool new jobs while I was taking econ 101. I graduated at 25 (which, looking back now, is still “young”). You often hear the advice that you should stay in school because “if you drop out you’ll never go back.” And if you look at the odds, it’s true….but hey, I’m all about beatin’ them odds whenever I can!

IDTV’s new show Surviving Evil is all about beating odds too. But it’s way more dramatic and amazing than my little stories above. The stories in the show tell of people who faced real evil, and survived.

 Do tell: Who or what gives you the courage to face your fears/challenges in life?

Answer below, and each comment will automatically be entered to win a $500 SpaFinder gift card!

This sweepstakes is sponsored by Investigation Discovery’s new series Surviving Evil, premiering Wednesday, August 28 at 10/9c. Told in their own words, victims reveal how they fought their attackers and survived against amazing odds. Learn more at InvestigationDiscovery.com/SurvivingEvil and empower yourself with five life-saving tips at IDFiveToSurvive.com.

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1.   Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

2.   Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

3.   Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

4.   For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 8/14/13-8/28/13.

Be sure to visit the Investigation Discovery: Surviving Evil brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ true stories of courage and survival and find more chances to win.