Authoring Your Life

Developing Your INTERNAL VOICE to Navigate Life’s Challenges

Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, Matthew Henry Hall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781579222710
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000980097
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Professional Development

Who am I? What do I want in relationships? How do I know what to believe? How do I manage the stresses of living?This is a guide to addressing life's challenges and competing demands. It will help you to reflect on the problems and setbacks you encounter to discover your own voice, uncover your authentic sense of values, build your confidence, and find meaning in your life. This is, however, far more than a self-help book; and it addresses multiple audiences.Because everyone's circumstances differ, and life is unpredictable, this book does not offer simplistic solutions and steps to follow. Instead, Marcia Baxter Magolda immerses you in the stories of thirty-five adults whom she has followed and interviewed for over twenty years. With her guidance, and using the self-authorship framework she has developed, you will recognize in yourself many patterns and parallels from the protagonists' stories of emotional and intellectual growth. By reflecting on these life stories, you will gain insights about your individual values and identity, and strengthen your sense of self-reliance to handle significant transitions and unexpected circumstances. In addition to helping you identify the phases of your journey to self-authorship, Marcia Baxter Magolda offers reflective exercises and questions to help you uncover your strengths and identify the barriers that may be inhibiting you from building the internal, psychological compass that will serve as the foundation for your journey. Offering advice on how to be "good company" for those who have set out on their journey to self-authorship, the book is also addressed to partners, family members, friends, teachers, mentors, and employers, so they can offer support to those that face these challenges.Finally, for scholars of adult development, this book offers the latest articulation of the developing theory of self-authorship.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Endorsements
• Contents
• List of Tables and Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Note to Readers
• Introduction
• 1 Challenges of Adult Life
• 2 Dawn’s Story—Bringing out the Truth in a Character
• 3 Mark’s Story—Developing a Spiritual Philosophy of Life
• 4 Kurt’s Story—Being True to the Man in the Glass
• 5 Sandra’s Story—Living Her Faith
• 6 Lydia’s Story—External Chaos; Internal Stability
• 7 Evan’s Story—Being the Best You Can Be
• 8 How to Be Good Company for Your Own Journey
• 9 Partnerships: How to Provide Good Company for Others’ Journeys toward Self-Authorship
• 10 Diverse Self-Authorship Stories
• 11 Mapping Your Journey
• 12 A Theory of Self-Authorship Development
• Longitudinal Study Methodology and Methods
• Notes
• Index