By Paula Beck

Dr. Nathaniel Williams knows about overcoming adversity. He also knows that everyone has the potential for success and personal fulfillment.

After losing his mother at the age of five, Williams became a ward of the New York City foster care system. Despite this, he realized at the age of 12 that he wanted to be a CEO. After receiving a bicycle as a gift, he recognized that he needed to work hard so that his whole life wouldn’t be spent waiting for handouts. He worked diligently toward success earning a Master of Human Services (MHS) from Lincoln University and later went on to receive three additional degrees including a Doctorate of Education from Fielding Graduate University.

In 1993, Nathaniel Williams founded HumanWorks Affiliates (which has its headquarters in Bethlehem) where he now helps others to make positive changes in their own lives.

Although not everyone has lost a parent, everyone has experienced some type of challenging life event, perhaps even several. These events create habits, behaviors and mental roadblocks that stand in the way of wellness and personal growth. Working hard to become educated definitely played a big part in Dr. Williams’ success, but it wasn’t the only factor. Dr. Williams believes he never would have been able to achieve the level of success he found if he hadn’t been able to consciously come to terms with the events of his past. Once he decided to re-frame his challenging life event, he was then free to achieve his goals and enjoy the life he wanted for himself. And he firmly believes that others can do that, too.

While Dr. Williams has been providing one-day training workshops in the Lehigh Valley on a variety of business-related topics, he wanted to design a program with an even greater impact, a program that focused on wellness, one that was “a comprehensive opportunity for people to learn about information that can change their lives in a compact period of time,” something that would inspire change from within. “The purpose of success is to ultimately be and do well,” he says. As a result, The Absolutes of Success Series Weekend Transformation Program was born.

The program addresses eight domains of life: health, education, personal development, financial, environment, family/friends, spirituality, and recreation and is designed to give participants the tools to remove the hurdles that have prevented their success in the past.

Dr. Williams will lead the seminar along with psychologist, Craig Piso, Ph.D.. “Craig and I complement each other well. Attendees will have a chance to meet with both of us formally and informally before the weekend is over.”

Dr. Williams says that the reason most people are not finding success is because “they stand in their own way. More importantly, they don’t realize they are standing in their own way. People can not really separate wellness from true success. Wellness is a journey. We often move down the road of wellness, run into a ditch, and can’t find our way out for a while. If we recognize that we will need to climb some steep hills along the way, getting to the top will be that much more glorious. However, we must recognize the journey will begin anew. We won’t stay at the top forever and we won’t stay in the ditch.”

Change is often the hardest thing to do because it requires the heavy lifting of issues and courageous conversations about assumptions and assertions. This is challenging, Dr. Williams says, because we normally hide behind issues, assumptions and assertions.

Dr. Williams offers the following 10 steps to begin one’s own personal path to wellness:

Respect – Respect yourself and others, recognize equality.

Maturity – Be rational and mature in your choices.

Responsibility – Be responsible through empowerment & accountability.

Principles and Practices – Be prompt, pristine, and use particular methods to reach goals.

Recognition – Understand what it takes and become inspired and appreciative because of this knowledge.

Balanced Decision Making – Satisfy all eight domains of life when making decisions.

Renewal – Be aware and take an inventory so you can move forward.

Affordability – Re-frame challenging events so you can afford the life you want.

Resilience – Recognize that life is a journey and we must get back up differently whether we succeed or fail.

Embrace Reality – Accept your current existence but move toward the life you desire.

Overall, if there were one piece of advice Dr. Williams could offer, it would be this: “Take time for yourself – it is a wonderful investment in your future. You can’t do for others what you haven’t done for yourself.”

For further information on The Absolutes of Success Series Weekend Transformation Program, visit www.absolutesofsuccessseries.net. For further information on Dr. Nat Williams and HumanWorks Affiliates, visit www.nj-williams.com or www.embracingyourreallife.net.

Paula Beck is a freelance writer from Whitehall whose work has appeared in The Express-Times, Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal, and the Morning Call. She was on the HumanWorks Affiliates team while the Absolutes of Success Weekend Transformation Program was being developed.