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Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

A few months ago, a relatively new friend who is also a professional coach offered to introduce me to her boss. We were out bowling with a bunch of friends and chatting about life. She knew that her company, which provides leadership coaching to professionals in the restaurant industry, was on the verge of adding several new coaches to their team, and she wanted to help me get a foot in the door. It was so kind of her to offer, and I was very grateful.

But immediately, a wave of imposter syndrome washed over me. I could feel my eyes involuntarily widen, as I stumbled through my response. I didn’t want to appear ungrateful, but I also didn’t want to blow our friendship by blowing this opportunity. Thankfully, I was able to overcome it and take the meeting.

I started working with her company this month.

My story turned out great, but many people find that imposter syndrome robs them of huge opportunities. I just took an ICF continuing ed course this week in which the teacher shared about a meeting with Bono that she skipped because of imposter syndrome! She totally blew the opportunity to work with him because she felt like such a fraud. (As a huge U2 fan, it pained me to no end hearing her talk about that experience!)

“Imposter syndrome” refers to a psychological phenomenon where individuals doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud or feeling inadequate, despite evidence of their competence. People experiencing imposter syndrome often believe that their success is due to luck or external factors rather than their own abilities, and they constantly worry about being discovered as a “fake” or “imposter.”

Imposter syndrome can affect people in various areas of life, including work, academics, and personal relationships. It is more common among high achievers, perfectionists (I’m looking at you, Enneagram 1s), and individuals who experience pressure to meet high expectations. While anyone can experience imposter syndrome, it is particularly prevalent among women and minority groups, who may face additional societal pressures and stereotypes.

Can you relate to any of the following?

  • Persistent self-doubt. Do you ever feel like you’re not as competent or intelligent as others perceive you to be, despite evidence to the contrary?
  • Fear of failure. Are you ever afraid of making mistakes or failing, because it might confirm your belief that you’re not as capable as others think?
  • Downplaying your success. Do you minimize your achievements or attribute them to external factors, luck, or the work of others, rather than acknowledging your own skills and efforts?
  • Overworking and perfectionism. Do you feel the need to work excessively hard and achieve perfection in order to prove your worth and avoid being exposed as a fraud?
  • Difficulty accepting compliments. Are you prone to dismissing or minimizing praise, or feeling uncomfortable or unworthy when receiving recognition for your accomplishments?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you likely suffer from imposter syndrome.

Overcoming imposter syndrome can be a gradual process, and it’s important to be patient with yourself. But it is possible to do it! Here are some tips for where to start.

First, recognize and challenge negative thoughts. Be aware of the self-doubt that arises and scrutinize its validity. Look for evidence that supports your competence and achievements.

Next, reframe failure. Instead of viewing failure as a confirmation of your inadequacy, reframe it as a learning opportunity and a natural part of growth and development.

Seek support and share your feelings. That ICF course I mentioned earlier was such a blessing, because once the teacher shared so vulnerably about her own history of imposter syndrome, others shared about theirs as well, and pretty soon, we all realized we were not alone! Talk to trusted friends, family, or mentors about your struggles with imposter syndrome. Sharing your experiences can provide validation and support, and others may be able to offer perspective and reassurance.

Set realistic goals and expectations. This is a great way for a coach to help! Work with your coach to acknowledge that perfection is unattainable and set realistic goals for yourself, and be sure to celebrate your progress and small victories along the way.

Practice self-care. Take care of your physical and mental well-being by engaging in activities that bring you joy and relaxation. Be sure to prioritize practices such as exercise, adequate sleep, and mindfulness.

Remember that imposter syndrome is a common experience, and you are not alone in feeling this way. With time, self-reflection, and support, you can develop a more realistic and positive perception of your abilities and accomplishments, and next time Opportunity knocks, you’ll be ready to greet her, welcome her in, and confidently move forward in the direction she leads!

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Christy Tennant Krispin (ACC) is a professional coach helping people lead more effectively, work more efficiently, and live more joyfully. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo by Rach Teo on Unsplash

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

P.S.A.: Coaching is Not Counseling

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about professional coaching is that it is synonymous with counseling. In fact, that’s partly why I offer my first meeting at no charge; I want to be sure that there is clarity around what coaching is and isn’t, and that we both understand the expectations of our time together before a client invests any money in the process.

(Another reason is that I want to be sure our personalities are a good match. Trust is vital in coaching, and it’s important to gauge chemistry before going deep in coaching.)

It’s important to understand that coaching is not counseling. Both are personal growth services, and at times, there might be some brief overlap in an individual session. But I emphasize the word “brief.” It’s important that a coach stays in her lane and sticks to coaching.

So what’s the difference? Well, in counseling or therapy, you spend a lot of time processing your past and seeking to discover how you got where you are so that, with the assistance of a mental health professional, you can address personal, social, or psychological problems and difficulties. Counseling is an invaluable service that helps people grow and change, and I am grateful for the time I have spent working with some excellent counselors and therapists over the years.

With coaching, on the other hand, you are looking almost exclusively toward the future, identifying goals and working with a professional on the tangible, practical steps necessary to achieve those goals.

Coaching is very action-oriented, while counseling is often more reflective. Again, you will likely spend some time with your coach doing reflective work, particularly if you are stuck on something and struggling to figure out why. But you won’t stay in that reflective space for long. If you have multiple sessions with the same goals, and you find that you are unable to move forward on the action steps you identified in a session or series of sessions, it might be time to re-evaluate whether coaching is what you need.

Occasionally, when I am working with a client, it becomes evident that what they would benefit from most is counseling. In those cases, I do my best to gently encourage them to pursue that route. If I know my client is also seeing a counselor, I might say something like, “That would be a great topic to address in your next counseling session!” If my client is not seeing a counselor, I might say, “We’re starting to veer into the counseling lane, which is outside my skillset or qualification. Do you have someone to connect with so you can dig deeper into that topic?”

Coaching is an invaluable relationship that leads to more clarity, empowerment, and equipping for tackling life’s tasks and goals.

Curious to learn more? Want to see if coaching might help you move toward where you want to be? Click here to schedule a consultation and first session at no charge. I’d love to see how I can support you in reaching your goals.

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo: Canva

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

James Corden’s Life Lesson

April 28 marked James Corden’s last night as host of The Late Late Show. While I’m not a regular viewer, I have enjoyed catching highlights over the years on YouTube. Corden brought a lot of joy and delight to his audiences and his guests, from the highly entertaining “Carpool Karaoke” (featuring the likes of Adele, Elton John, Lizzo, Barbra Streisand, and even Michelle Obama), to the many “Crosswalk” musicals he staged.

But I want to draw your attention to why Corden decided to leave his successful show, which by all accounts was going very well, at this time, because it is so relevant to my work with my clients.

Corden said to Drew Barrymore last January, “One day I was filming on a Sunday and I came downstairs, it was about 6 a.m. and my son, who was 10 at the time, was sat on the stairs and he said, ‘Are you working today?’ and I said, ‘I am,’ and he said, ‘I thought, well it’s Sunday,’ and I said, ‘I know, buddy, but this schedule’s just all over the place. We just got to get it done because we only have a tiny amount of time before we have to go back and do the show,’ and his face just kind of dropped,’ Corden recalled. ‘I got in the car and I called my wife Jules and I said, ‘I’ve realized, best case scenario, we have six more summers where Max even remotely wants to be around us, and I cannot waste another one.'”

BOOM. I talk a lot about “seasons of life,” and this is a perfect example of how Corden identified the season he is in, and that guided his decision. In this season of life, time with his children is the highest priority. As he said, a time is coming soon when his kids will not be living at home. Once he realized that his work, as gratifying and successful as it was, was causing him to miss out on time with his children that he would never be able to get back, “the truth is it became a very easy decision.”

Identifying our priorities is key to designing a life of intention that is in alignment with our core values. Once we have identified what is important now, decisions become, in the words of James Corden, “very easy.”  

COACHING QUESTION

What’s important in your life now, in this season? What decisions will become easier when you filter them through that priority?

This article first appeared in my May Newsletter. To receive future newsletters, sign up here.

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo courtesy CBS.com.

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

Declutter Your Home, Declutter Your Mind

Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed by clutter?

My family does a lot of hosting and entertaining, and one of my (bad) habits whenever we have folks coming over is to “corral” any clutter in my house. I grab a laundry basket and walk from room to room collecting things that are out of place. Then I stick that basket in an out-of-sight place (sometimes under the very table serving as a food buffet!) or in my husband’s office or even in the basement, and then I forget about it for a while.

And by “a while,” I mean a few months or even years!

Corralling clutter is not the same as decluttering. I recently heard this quote by Peter Walsh, and it really resonated with me: “Clutter isn’t just the stuff on the floor. It’s anything that gets between you and the life you want to be living.” I want a simpler, more streamlined home life, and for me, that starts with a less cluttered life—in both hidden and public spaces.

There are so many benefits to decluttering our spaces! In fact, a study by Princeton University found that our environment can positively or negatively impact our ability to complete tasks as well as our overall mental health.

If you experience anxiety, difficulty with focus, lack of productivity, and even trouble addressing your own physical health goals, clutter may be playing a big role in that struggle. When we begin to declutter our physical spaces, we often find that our mental spaces become clearer as well!

But where do we begin?

This podcast by decluttering expert Katy Joy Wells is one of my favorite go-to’s for inspiration on truly, actually decluttering (as opposed to just hiding my clutter), and this episode was particularly helpful to me recently as I began to tackle some of the hidden clutter in my home. In it, Katy describes her “SPACE” Method of decluttering, which I find so helpful.

Here is the breakdown of the SPACE Method:

S—Setting Your Physical Limitations

P—Purpose

A—Assess the Item

C—Choose

E—End Cycle

Listen to this episode to hear the full description of each step, and give it try.

But remember: the most important thing when it comes to making any change in life is consistency! Nothing works if we don’t do it consistently.

If you wonder what I’m up to this weekend, now you know 🙂

I hope you find this as helpful as I did!

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

Christy K. Health

The Power of a 5-Minute Walk

At the end of 2022, I took one group and several individuals through a process I call “Year By Design.” (In 2022, it was called “2023 By Design.”) This process involves walking through six steps to identify what you want to do differently in the year ahead and what steps to take to make those changes.

It’s no surprise that one of the goals common to several of my clients was to address their physical health. From wanting to lose weight to wanting to gain strength, integrating more physical exercise was top of mind for these busy adults in various stages of life. But the hardest part about starting a new exercise routine is, well, starting a new exercise routine.

For one client in particular, starting felt particularly insurmountable. Due to some physical illness she had been dealing with, she had gained a lot of weight. And the social isolation of the pandemic had left her feeling paralyzed to move forward. She had totally psyched herself out. She had gained so much weight and fallen so out of shape, she didn’t even know where to begin.

She was totally stuck.

Working with my client, we had to deal first with her mindset. Peeling back the layers of shame, disappointment, overwhelm, and despair, we recognized where her thoughts had totally sabotaged her progress. We then began to break the seemingly impossible tasks of losing weight and getting back in shape down into very small, very bite sized pieces.

We had to recognize the importance of right now.

As I do often with my clients, we looked to the Serenity Prayer, which encourages us to be at peace with the things we cannot change and to be empowered to change the things we can.

So the question we kept coming back to was, What can I change today to move closer to where I want to be?

This question became the catalyst for a mindset shift that helped my client move from paralysis to progress. By focusing not on the enormous task of losing 100 pounds, but rather on being fully present to herself today and focusing on what she can do today, she was able to take the next necessary step.

And to begin with, the next necessary step was a five-minute walk.

Because of the pain in her knees caused by her rapid weight gain, my client could not go for the long walks she thought were necessary to make real progress on losing weight. So she just stayed put. But when we broke her exercise goals down into tiny next steps, suddenly things seemed much more realistic.

She took the five minute walk.

And she felt like a new person.

The five minute walk turned into a ten-minute walk, which grew into a fifteen-minute walk. Eventually, she was able to walk for thirty minutes, and that is where she is now—walking for thirty minutes several times each week.

Her progress is slow, and that can be discouraging at times. But by staying focused on today, and what you can do today to move toward your goals, she will stay empowered. You can’t change the scale (or the bank account, or the team dynamics, or whatever) today, but you can do something today that will change these things for your Future Self.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a particular goal or change you want to make, try this approach. Ask, What can I change today to move closer to where I want to be? Break the task into tiny next steps. And see where that takes you!

Coaching Question of the Day

What is one thing I can change today to move closer to where I want to be?

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo by Hayley Murray on Unsplash

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

Be The Friend You Wish You Had

My eldest daughter moved away to college last fall. I tried not to give her too much advice—I’m navigating that tricky space between being a caregiver and being a cheerleader as my child moves from adolescence into adulthood. But I did give her one piece advice that has been really important to me over the years:

Be the friend you wish you had.

This concept is based on the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated. It’s so simple, yet so hard for some to embody. Some of us long for rich, meaningful, deep friendships, but we struggle to make it happen.

If you are someone who finds friendship hard to come by, here are a few tips for building true friendships.

  1. Initiate. Are you waiting for someone to invite you to lunch or out to do something? Be the change you long for. Invite them! Someone has to get the ball rolling. Don’t sit around waiting for someone else to take the first step. Pick up the phone, send a text, reach out.
  2. Listen. I can’t overestimate the importance of being a good listener in friendship. My best friendships are ones where we trade off listening to one another. Sometimes I do most of the talking, and sometimes I do most of the listening. If you want to be a good friend, cultivate the skill of being a good listener. (If this is something you struggle with, here is a “cheat sheet” for becoming a better listener from Harvard Business Review.)
  3. Give Advice Sparingly (and ask first!) This kind of goes along with being a good listener, but try to resist doling out unsolicited advice or feeling like you need to be your friend’s problem solver. Often times, people just want a sounding board. But if you do feel the need to offer advice, get permission first. “Is this something you’d like some input on, or did you just want to process?” is a good question to ask.
  4. Maintain confidence. A strong friendship demands trust, and nothing breaks trust faster than repeating something that was shared with you to someone else. Even if the person did not explicitly say “don’t tell anyone, but…” err on the side of caution and maintain your friend’s privacy. Be someone people know they can entrust their most vulnerable selves to.
  5. Reciprocate. While I advocate for initiating in friendship, it’s also important that a friendship be mutual and reciprocal. Be mindful of who is doing most of the initiating. If it’s always you, and the other person never reciprocates, they might not be as interested in close friendship as you are. Move on.
  6. Make time. Relationships take time! Block out time in your weekend for plans with a friend. Share an article you think they might find interesting or shoot them a text asking about something you discussed last time you spoke. “How did it go with ____?” tells them you were listening and that you care about them.
  7. Be intentional. Friendship, like any relationship, requires maintenance. Being a good friend requires intention and consistency.

To have a good friend is to have a real gift, indeed. While friendship certainly comes more easily to some than others, these tips can help you foster deeper friendships and be the friend you wish you had!

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

What Does a Life Coach Do?

What does a life coach do? It’s a question that many people have asked at some point in their lives, and ever since I began my career in coaching, it’s a question I have faced many times.

It can be hard to find the right words to describe the role of a life coach, but recently, while I was on a long road trip with my family, it occurred to be that a life coach is basically a GPS app for your career, relationships, or personal development in general. Like a GPS device, a coach helps you figure out where you are now, where you want to be, and what specific steps you need to take to get there.

Sometimes, I’ll be talking with someone about coaching, and they will say, “So it’s like… counseling?” It’s a fair question, but it’s important to make the clear distinction that coaching is not the same thing as counseling. A life coach is different from a therapist or counselor, because they do not diagnose clients or treat mental health conditions.

A therapist might help someone who has anxiety, but a life coach will help someone who wants to quit smoking or who wants to improve their relationships with their children or spouse by identifying what they want and how they’re going to get there.

A therapist will listen to what you say and help you sort out your emotional responses; a life coach will help you take action on what you want and need, based on the information that comes out of that conversation.

A good way to think about it is that a counselor listens, while a coach, well, coaches. A counselor helps you look back and process things from your past that are affecting your life in the present. A coach helps you identify where you are, where you want to be, and how you’re going to get there. Both are supportive, caring professionals who want to see you succeed; the main difference is that a counselor helps you work through why you may feel stuck, while coaches focus on helping clients move forward toward the future they envision for themselves.

If you are interested in seeing whether working with a coach would be helpful for you, I’d love to chat! Set up a free Initial Coaching Conversation starting here.

There is still time to register for tomorrow’s webinar, “Putting Technology in its Place!” Click the image below for more information and to sign up.

Christy K. Tools for Personal Growth

How to Get Better at Saying “No”

Saying “no” is really hard for some people, especially those of us who are bent toward connections. We fear that when we say “no,” we might disappoint someone. Or we might miss out on a cool opportunity. Or we might burn a bridge.

But the ability to say “no” is an invaluable asset. It contributes to better boundaries, better time management, and better mental health.

A question I like to ask my clients is, “By saying ‘yes’ to that, what are you saying ‘no’ to?” When we consider that we have limited resources of time and energy, we realize that we need to be selective about what we say “yes” to. There are only so many hours in the day, and if we aren’t intentional about our commitments, we can find ourselves spending our limited resources in places that don’t really matter to us, without anything left for the things that do matter.

With that, here are five tips for getting better at saying “no.”

1. Identify Your Priorities and Filter Requests Through Them

Two things happened in 2021 that helped me reprioritize my life in 2022. First, my dad was diagnosed with a “rare and aggressive” cancer called angiosarcoma. And second, my eldest daughter graduated from high school.

Both of these events served as wake-up call. In them, I realized that I won’t have my dad or my kids here forever. This season of life, with my mom and dad living down the road and my kids living in my house, are just that—a season. And as I did my year-end assessment and prepared for 2022, I recognized that I needed to make some changes in order to make the most of my time with my parents and my children while I can.

These priorities—time with my parents and my kids—have shaped many of the decisions I’ve made, and they have freed me to say “no” to things that would displace them from my schedule. Identifying your priorities can do the same for you.

2. Design Your Schedule Around Your Priorities

When you clearly identify and define your priorities, you can filter decisions through them, bringing clarity to when it’s appropriate to say “no.”

Time with my parents when my kids are there is very different from time with them alone, so I created a work schedule that allows me to spend time with them every Friday while the kids are in school. I go to the gym and, on my way home, stop in at their house. Mom makes coffee and often has something freshly baked, and we sit in the kitchen and talk for an hour or so. It has become a highlight of my week. Saying “no” to certain work opportunities, which would involve less flexibility and require me to work on Fridays, has allowed me to say “yes” to spending quality time with my parents each week.

Likewise, wanting to be with my kids more has helped me say “no” to things that take me away from them on a regular basis. They are in school Monday-Friday for seven hours, so I really only have between five-six waking hours with them each day. During those hours, we have extracurriculars, homework, piano practice, household contributions, play dates, and things like meals and showers. When you really think about it, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for meaningful conversations or going out for “special time.”

By blocking out my working hours, evenings with my kids, and Friday mornings with my parents, I am invariably saying “no” to “calendar creep” — less important opportunities that would take me from what matters most to me in this season of life.

3. Resist Trying to Squeeze Things In

“I already have plans” is a perfectly acceptable reason to say no to something. Never mind the fact that your plans are to go to bed early, clean out a closet, or take a walk. Some people think if they don’t have a “legitimate” conflict, they need to try to squeeze things in, saying things like, “I can make that work.”

I encourage people to remove “I can make that work” from their vocabulary. Instead of squeezing things in, pursue a schedule that contains white space, and protect that white space as if your life depended on it! We can all use a bit more breathing room, and white space allows for that.

4. Give Someone Else the Ball

I’ve always been someone who had a high capacity for leadership and service, which naturally meant that I had positions of leadership in just about everything I was involved with, and I volunteered every time a need arose. But just because you can lead something doesn’t mean you should. Once I became more selective about the commitments I made, I made room for others to lead and serve. And it felt great.

Some people have no problem saying no, and God bless ’em! But for the rest of us, it’s a skill that takes honing. While we may indeed disappoint someone, or we may in fact miss out on a cool opportunity every now and then, I’ve learned that as we get better at saying no, we experience more fruitfulness in the areas where we have said an intentional “yes,” leading to a life marked by flourishing rather than frustration.

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Christy K. Finances

My Tips for Getting Out of Credit Card Debt

The year I turned thirty years old, I had approximately $12,000 in credit card debt. I had gotten my first credit card at nineteen, meant for emergencies. But my first “emergency” came a few months later during a visit to New Orleans when I was on tour with a theater company.

I wanted to buy gifts for my family.

But I had no money.

So I used my brand new credit card!

Later that same year, I needed a new vacuum cleaner. I had just moved into my first apartment, and I was making enough to pay my rent, utilities, gas, and grocery bills, but I didn’t have any extra for things like vacuum cleaners.

Or eating out.

Or a new outfit for my friend’s wedding.

Or… the list goes one.

In a matter of months, I had accrued a few thousand dollars in debt, but each month I was only able to pay the minimum payment on my bill. And over the next ten years or so, those few hundred dollars turned into twelve thousand dollars, as I added things like plane tickets, college text books, Christmas gifts, and retail therapy to the bill.

Can you relate? Most Americans can.

But the year I turned thirty, I decided enough was enough. This was going to be my year of getting debt free.

And I did! Over the course of about eighteen months or so, I paid off my credit card, and in the seventeen years since, I’ve managed to maintain my status of being credit card debt-free.

Here are my tips for getting out of credit card debt, based on what worked for me.

  1. Decide you’re ready to get serious about getting out of credit card debt. Thoughts lead to actions, so the first thing that needs to happen is a mindset shift. I remember distinctly where I was when I decided I was done carrying the albatross of debt around my neck. The shame of having spent so much money on interest was pretty intense, and for years, it was just easier to ignore my compounding debt and live in denial. And the credit card companies made it really easy! As long as I kept making my minimum payments, they would increase my limit every so often. It wasn’t until I decided enough was enough that I could start making progress on becoming debt-free.
  2. Consolidate your credit card debt into one place. This article from Forbes offers seven ways to consolidate your credit card debt. The way I did it was to open a new credit card with an introductory offer of 0% APR on balance transfers for a limited amount of time after opening the card. I transferred the balance on my existing cards. Then, I destroyed the new card, so I could not use it and increase the debt.
  3. Close existing credit card accounts. Once I had transferred all of my credit card balances to the new 0%APR card, I closed all of the accounts I had. Some people are afraid to do that, in case they have an emergency and need a credit card in a pinch. But I had the new account, and if I really needed to, I could request a new card. (Thankfully, I never did.)
  4. Earn more money. Credit card debt boils down to spending more than you earn. So, to get out of debt, you need to earn more money. When I decided to get out of debt, I was self-employed as a communication consultant. I loved my work and my clients, but in truth, I knew I could make more money as an executive assistant—a job I had all the skills for and knew I could do. So I went to a temp agency, took all of their proficiency tests, and began interviewing for executive assistant positions with a certain salary in mind. Within a few weeks, I had been hired as a temporary Executive Assistant to the CEO of Elizabeth Arden in NYC. After six months, I was hired permanently. My salary was twice what I had been earning as a freelancer, plus I had health benefits, a 401(k), and stock options. The job was not my passion—but I was grateful for the nearly two years I spent there.
  5. Pay more than your minimum balance. Once I started earning more money, I was able to make significant progress on my debt. Within a year, I had paid off the entire credit card debt, plus I had begun saving 10% of each paycheck.
  6. Live within your means going forward. In other words, don’t spend what you don’t have! Once I had paid off my debts and purchased a newer (used) car, which I also paid off quickly, I determined to live within my means going forward. This means not spending what I don’t have and going without rather than going into debt. About two years after I started working for Elizabeth Arden, I was offered a position with a small arts non-profit organization. The salary involved a 30% pay cut, but the work was much more meaningful to me, and by then, with no debt and a simple lifestyle, I knew I could afford to do it and still live within my means. I spent the next five years working for that organization, until I moved to Seattle to marry my husband and start my own business again.

Being free of credit card debt has made so many things possible. Without the burden of debt, you’re able to be more generous to others and to save and invest more in your own future. Before, it was all I could do to make my minimum credit card bill payments. Now, I can put my money to work for me.

One last thing: when I got out of debt, I was single. I realize that it’s much harder for people who have families, experience joblessness, etc. But it’s totally possible. Check out how this single mom paid off $35,000 in debt on a modest salary and went on to build her net worth to over $78,000.

It’s possible!

And you, too, can do it.

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Christy Tennant Krispin is a Whole Life Coach helping clients live more intentionally in alignment with their goals and values across all spheres of life. Schedule a free consultation with Christy here.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Christy K. technology, Tools for Personal Growth

Putting Technology in its Place (Upcoming Webinar!)

I am so excited to host “Putting Technology In Its Place” twice this month!

This webinar is aimed at helping you establish and maintain healthy tech habits in 2023. Over the past year, as I have worked with clients of all ages and backgrounds, a theme that has come up with many folks has been the effect of technology and digital media on our quality of life.

Don’t get me wrong: I love what technology and digital media makes possible! I’m an avid user of apps and streaming services. I appreciate how these things help me be more productive, connected, and entertained!

But left unchecked, there is a shadow side to technology as well. Relationships, job performance, mental health, and sleep are all affected by having an unboundaried, unintentional approach to social media and digital engagement.

In this webinar, I will address the why behind our use of digital technology, and then offer eight practices you can begin implementing immediately to develop healthy boundaries and put technology in its proper place!

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 – 12:00 PM (EST)

OR

Tuesday, January 31 – 8:00 PM (EST)

Putting Technology in it’s Place (January 24, 2023 – 12:00 PM EST)

A recording of the webinar will be available after the event for all who register! If you are unable to join live, you can access the recording later.

$19.00

Putting Technology in it’s Place (January 31, 2023 – 8:00 PM EST)

A one-hour webinar on establishing and maintaining healthy tech habits in 2023 + access to a recording of the event afterward.

$19.00

A recording of the webinar will be available after the event for all who register! If you are unable to join live, you can access the recording at a time that suits you.

Make 2023 the year you put technology in its place!