Kathy Caprino's "My 52 Mistakes" Project - Mistake #52

Hi, I'm Kathy Caprino. I am the president and founder of Elia Communications, which is a women's career coaching and marketing consulting firm dedicated to helping women achieve breakthrough, to create life and work as they truly want it. I am here talking today about my 52 mistakes, which is a social media and research project on the top mistakes we think we've made in our lives and what we've learned from them and how they've helped us grow, grow. So you can check out my top 52 mistakes on my blog@eliacommunications.com blog and I'm here today talking about what I consider the most serious mistake I've made in my life. And it's actually number 52 on my full list. But last but not least, I really do think it was the most impactful one. And here it is, mistake number 52. It's about not understanding until my 40s that I'm special, unique and powerful and that I in fact can make the difference I long to in my life and in the world. So there it is. That's the one, that's the one that's held me back the most. So briefly about that mistake. Those of you who know me, no, I had an 18 year corporate career. On the outside it looked very successful. On the inside it was not really. Very early on I began not to like my work. The environments I worked in were toxic, the politics were crushing. But I really felt that, are you kidding? Is this really what I'm going to be focusing my professional energies on? I felt so disconnected to it, it felt meaningless to me. It wasn't exciting, exciting, it wasn't purposeful, but I didn't do anything about it. I kept going and I think it was around the money and the success and security of a corporate job and a high level title. I just kept going. I kept going and the challenges became bumpier and they became full blown crises As I approached 40 from chronic illness in the form of tracheitis. I had that for four years, every three months to crushing competition, financial traps, discrimination, harassment. You know, I really faced it. I faced the 12 hidden crises that working women face today. And you can read all about that in my book, Breakdown, Breakthrough. So I really felt like having a really exciting, passionate career wasn't in the cards for me, that I was going to struggle. For me it was going to be about struggle, toughen it out, hard work. And I really think that I didn't feel worthy of having a career that was knock your socks off exciting. So there it was I settled for less until after 9, 11 and a brutal layoff. That was it. I said, I'm not feeling like this one more day. I'm reclaiming my life. I'm taking control and it's going to be what I want it to be. And why not, you know, I'm worth that, really. So that was the key mistake. Waiting, waiting, waiting to understand that everything I am, all the learning, all the mistakes, all the imperfection, all the brilliance, maybe all of the achievements, they all come together to make me who I am and there is a purpose for me in this world. How do you get there? You have to, number one, believe there is, number two, understand that you're worthy of it. And you have to get on the path to figuring out how is it that you really want to be of service in the world? How is it that you want to make your mark and then get on the road to it? And interestingly, yeah, you're going to be terrified. It's going to be scary. You're not going to want to step up to it because it's very frightening to step up to that expansive vision. So what? You have to do it. If you want to make your mark on the world in a different way than you are, then the learning I share with you is don't wait. Do it today. Get on the path, because your mark is waiting to be made. So there it is. Thanks for letting me share that. Please keep your comments and your thoughts coming. Email me, add your comments to the blog and share this. Would you please share this as a link social media via email with your friends, colleagues, your family, please. Let's get this going. Let's share our top mistakes and the amazing lessons we've learned from them. Thank you so much. I look forward to next time with you. Until then, many happy breakthroughs. Bye bye.