Keep Your Eye on the Prize!-- A Young Person's Guidebook to Adulthood

Welcome to a peek at my first book, Keep Your Eye on the Prize! This is a young person’s guidebook to adulthood, containing the best psychological tools for dealing with life, like difficult people, finding a life that fits, and surviving hard times. This posting will give you some information on the book, which you can check out through my Website: www.barbaralongmdphd.com

INTRODUCTION—The Story Behind Keep Your Eye on the Prize!

In 2009, I was surprised and honored to receive a Hiram Hunn Award for over 30 years of service to the Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Admissions. After this, I decided to “give back” set pen to paper to write this book, which is targeted for parents and young people from age 15 through the 20s “and beyond,” as well as school and mental health counselors, clerical counselors, educators, and educational administrators. The book takes you through the transformational journey from adolescence to young adulthood, helping untangle this turbulent time, while providing helpful “tools” to make the journey easier. This non-academic guide selects from a universe of psychological principles distilling a few vital concepts that have been helpful to many young people. Illustrated with true stories, this pocket-sized guide is full of real life wisdom. An invaluable resource and book of wisdom

Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump, and father of a high school student himself, described Keep Your Eye on the Prize! as “Absolutely essential for anyone leaving home for the first time.  Avoid this book at your peril.  Read it, absorb it, and you’ll never be stupid again!”

TABLE OF CONTENTS:                                                                          

Forward                                                                                                            

Introduction                                                                                                   

Chapter 1: Your personal Prism and Type                                                        

Chapter 2: The Challenges of the Transition—
                        Trying Things Out and Managing Independence;   
                         Recognizing and Addressing Problems

Chapter 3: Adjustment & Transformation in the Journey of Life—Growing from “I” to “We”

Chapter 4: A Four Quadrant Model for achieving balance in life                 

Chapter 5: The Emotional Quadrant and the Process of Individuation        

                        The Soul and the Emotions—Happiness and Pain

                        The Psychological Tasks of Life

The Conscious and the Unconscious

The Role of the Defenses

Encounter With the Shadow

Falling in Love

                        Emotional Suffering—Anxiety, Shame, Humiliation, Jealousy, Envy, 
                                                            Anger,Rage

                        Humor

                        Forgiveness 
                        Loss

Chapter 6: Sisyphus and the Archetypal Problem of “Rowing Upstream”   

Chapter 7: The Miracle of Healing                                                                

Chapter 8: Synchronicity—a Miraculous Coincidence                                  

Chapter 9: Finding Your Archetype                                                              

Chapter 10: Confidence, Choice, and Self-Knowledge                                

Chapter 11: “Keep Your Eye on the Prize!”  

ENDORSEMENTS

“Absolutely essential for anyone leaving home for the first time. Avoid this book at your peril. Read it, absorb it--and you'll never be stupid again!”

Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump and parent of a high school student

“This is an outstanding book for students entering college. It spells out typical psychological and social problems, guides the reader to understand underlying causes and mental mechanisms and gives superb direction in dealing with these problems.  It is must reading for students and their counselors.”

Stephen Scheiber, M.D.

Past Executive Vice-President, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Past President, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, the profession’s oldest “think tank”

“Dr. Barbara Long’s book, Keep Your Eye on the Prize!, is a powerful addition to the literature. It provides a wealth of information for young people and those who counsel and interact with them. The book includes, as well as many other sections, a very understandable integration of psychodynamic concepts and real life experiences. Also a section on social networking and the Internet in today’s world is very important with an understanding of feelings and behavior as they relate to this area and the important need for boundaries.  The book has uplifting and valid information for all.  I strongly endorse it.”
            Marcia Kraft Goin, M.D., Ph.D.
            Past President, American Psychiatric Association

Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

“Keep Your Eye on the Prize! is an excellent guide for college-bound high school youth and their parents, but it also would be a valuable resource for educators and counselors.  It explains the psychological constructs associated with the transition from adolescence to young adulthood in a refreshing literary style that uses case vignettes and information tools accompanying each chapter.  I plan to add this “prize” to my library and anticipate I will be referring to it regularly.”

Beth Ann Brooks, M.D., M.S.A.

Professor and Associate Chair for Education

Wayne State University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences

Program Director, Psychiatry and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Programs, Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University

“Going off to college is an exciting, challenging and at times stressful life-changing event. It is a transition that requires learning new psychological and interpersonal tools. 

Barbara Long's Keep Your Eye on the Prize is a clear and well-written "toolbox" that parents will want in their children’s backpacks or e-book reader and that educators should share with their students.”

Jack Drescher, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, New York Medical College

President-Elect, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
Emeritus Editor, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health

“This book is a treasure during a hyper-uncertain time in a young person's life. It covers all the practical bases a student encounters as they enter and continue their journey throughout college. It is wise and eminently readable. Strongly recommended.”

Barrie Sanford Greiff, MD
Psychiatrist, Harvard University Health Services and Psychiatrist to the Harvard Business School, Emeritus    

"A great time was had by all who attended [the annual Harvard Club of MN send-off party]... We gave one of your books to [the host] and one to a [past President]. The others were glommed up instantly by some of the students. The others were left wanting... I'll have the MN Club send [more books] out to this wonderful crop of students. Thanks ever so much for sharing your writing capabilities and thoughtfulness in this great primer for the adolescent cadre/cohort."

Ray Payne, Past President of the Harvard Club of MN

“Barbara Long’s insightful book breaks new ground by examining the later years of adolescence and of early adulthood, rarely considered together. In today’s world, that passage is ever more complex and this work provides valuable insights, helpful reference materials, and compelling illustrations of the journey. Whether you are an adolescent, young adult, parent, educator, counselor, or clinician, you will be better informed, indeed strengthened, by this book.”  

Lance Odden, Headmaster Emeritus, The Taft School

“This good book written by Dr. Barbara Long is, in my opinion, is a most useful and practical guide for young people. It is hard to be a young person these days, so to have wise and caring words of problem solving advice available in a pocket guide is wonderful. I wholeheartedly endorse this inspirational work which I believe will serve young people and their parents quite well.”

Frank D. Millet

Director of Admission Emeritus, Milton Academy