Why I Wrote "Shine Brighter" (And Why It Almost Didn't Happen)
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Why I Wrote "Shine Brighter" (And Why It Almost Didn't Happen)
I'm sitting here with an advance copy of my book Shine Brighter in my hands, and honestly? Part of me still can't believe it exists.
Not because I doubted I could write it, but because two years ago, I was in no condition to write anything at all.
I was broken. Completely, utterly broken.
And if you're reading this thinking, "That doesn't sound like the Laura I know" — well, that's exactly why I had to write this book.
The Day Everything Fell Apart
Spring 2023. I'd taken my son for neurofeedback therapy to help with his anxiety and ADHD. The practitioner, also a trained therapist, gently suggested I get tested too.
"Oh Laura, I am so sorry to share this news with you," he began, and my stomach immediately clenched. "Not only do you have anxiety off the charts, but your brain waves show you are not finding rest during the day or at night. You also show the brain wave patterns of ADHD."
The diagnosis was a triple threat: severe anxiety, chronic sleep disruption, and ADHD.
I dropped to my knees in that clinic and sobbed. This kind man offered me a hug, and I melted into his embrace, tears streaming down my face.
The data confirmed what my body and soul had been whispering for years, but I'd been too busy performing success to listen.
For months, I'd been swimming upstream against everything. Going through the motions with my family, but never fully present. Achieving professionally but feeling completely disconnected from any sense of purpose or joy.
I looked successful on paper. Inside, I was dying.
The Book I Never Planned to Write
I didn't set out to write Shine Brighter. I set out to get unstuck.
What started as my personal therapy — journaling my way through the wreckage of my performance-based identity — slowly became something bigger. As I began sharing pieces of my story, I realized I wasn't alone in this quiet epidemic of high-functioning burnout.
The emails started coming from people like you:
"I feel like you're describing my life exactly."
"How did you know what I was going through?"
"I thought I was the only one who felt this successful and this empty at the same time."
Through my two decades in executive recruiting and over 30,000 interviews, I've seen this pattern everywhere. The most accomplished people are often the most disconnected from themselves. They'd mastered the art of doing, but forgotten how to simply be.
Who This Book Is For
Shine Brighter isn't for people who want to do more. It's for people who are exhausted from doing everything "right" and still feeling wrong inside.
It's for the executive who looks impressive on LinkedIn but feels disconnected at home.
It's for the high-achiever who's built a beautiful life but doesn't feel present in it.
It's for the leader who's tired of performing strength and ready to find real power.
It's for anyone who's ever asked themselves, "Is this it? Is this what success is supposed to feel like?"
You know who you are. You've checked all the boxes society handed you — career milestones, family responsibilities, community roles. From the outside, everything adds up. But inside, there's this quiet ache that whispers, "Something essential is missing."
You're not broken. You're just misaligned.
And that misalignment? It's not a character flaw. It's an invitation.
My journey from that neurofeedback clinic to writing this book wasn't linear or pretty. It involved therapy, deep spiritual work, countless conversations with God, and slowly — so slowly — learning to trust my own inner wisdom again.
I had to face some hard truths:
That I'd built my entire identity around external achievement.
That I'd been carrying generations of "achievement addiction" – patterns passed down through family lines that equated worth with productivity.
That I'd been so focused on being everything to everyone that I'd forgotten who I actually was.
The real transformation began when I started asking different questions:
Instead of "How can I achieve more?" I asked "Who am I when I'm not achieving?"
Instead of "What do I need to do?" I asked "What does my soul need?"
Instead of "How can I be successful?" I asked "How can I be present?"
These questions led me to a profound realization: I am not what I do. I am not my achievements. I am not my revenue numbers.
I am love. I am joy. I am essence. I am the story that's unfolding.
What Changed Everything
There's a scene in the book where I describe finding an old eulogy I'd written for myself years earlier during a workshop. In the middle of my darkest burnout, I stumbled across these pages that described the woman I wanted to be remembered as — alive, joyful, present, loving.
Reading that eulogy, I realized the woman I'd described felt like a complete stranger. That's when I knew something had to fundamentally shift.
The practices that emerged from that reckoning — what I now call the 4 A's Framework (Awareness, Attitude, Action, and Alignment) — literally saved my life. They helped me remember who I was beneath all the doing and achieving. They cracked open my performance prison and led me home to myself.
Why Now Matters
We're living in a time when the old models of success are crumbling. The pandemic showed us what happens when we stop long enough to actually feel what's going on inside. Many of us realized we'd been running on empty for years, calling it ambition.
The next generation is watching. They're looking at our version of success and saying, "No thank you." They can see our quiet desperation, even when we think we're hiding it well.
But what if there was another way? What if success could feel as good on the inside as it looks on paper?
That's the possibility this book explores. Not by rejecting achievement, but by redefining it. Not by doing more, but by becoming more of who you already are.
The Truth About This Work
I want to be honest about something: this book isn't going to tell you to quit your job or blow up your life. Some people need radical external change, but most of us need something quieter and deeper.
We need to come home to ourselves right where we are.
Shine Brighter emerged from the messiest, most vulnerable season of my life. It contains the frameworks that helped me stop performing and start living. The gentle disruptions that taught me the difference between achievement and alignment.
But here's what makes this different: I'm not writing from a place of having it all figured out. I'm writing from the ongoing journey of becoming. This book is my way of saying, "You're not alone in this. There's another way. And we can figure it out together."
An Invitation to Remember
Your future self is calling you home. The version of you that feels aligned, energized, and authentically powerful… they're not waiting for perfect circumstances. They're waiting for you to remember who you are and choose to live from that place.
Because here's what I know for certain: the world doesn't need another version of you trying to be perfect. It needs you…fully, authentically, brilliantly you.
Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is simply stop pretending everything is fine and start telling the truth, even just to ourselves.
Your light is already there. This book is just here to help you remember how to let it shine.
With deep belief in your magnificence,
Laura