Articles by Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC on ArticleSnatch.com

Feeling Like A Fraud: Living With Imposter Syndrome

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:55:25 -0500

A former colleague of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. 55 years young and the president of a marketing company, to the outside world she is the epitome of health and success. When she was first diagnosed she chose not to disclose her medical condition to her staff and peers out of fear they would see her as less capable. I write this with nothing but respect for her many and varied accomplishments – I know how hard she’s worked to get where she is today. She’s a fighter. She’s ambitious. She’s also an imposter. What I mean by “imposter” is that she feels like an imposter. Despite all the accolades from her peers; despite all her skills and abilities, and her meteoric rise within the company, in her mind she believes it’s only a matter of time before everyone discovers that she’s “faking it.” Rather than offering assurance, each new achievement and subsequent challenge only serves to intensify her ever-present fear of being found out. There’s a name for this phenomenon: Imposter Syndrome. **End Summary** Topics: executive women]]> imposter syndrome]]> business]]> career women]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> As Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky LLC, Evelyn's coaching practice specializes in helping high-level women executives 40 and older who want to achieve a more sacred kind of success. She is currently writing a book about women navigating in and through midlife. Evelyn is a speaker, consultant, published author and poet, and wayward traveler. Visit Evelyn at www.evelynkalinosky.com

Turning Point

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:48:16 -0500

A recent survey of midlife women conducted by More magazine revealed some interesting (and not surprising) results. When asked to define the most important aspects of a great job, in addition to a good salary and benefits, midlife women told More they need: Meaning – to feel that they’re contributing positively 98% A job in a growing field with a bright future 89% A high level of freedom or control 87% A job that’s appropriate for a woman over 40 79% A chance to work a flexible schedule 73% I know these elements are certainly essential to me. One of the main reasons I took the leap to become an entrepreneur in midlife was to fulfill many of these same outcomes, although my career path is a bit different than the norm, since most of it has been based on doing work that enabled me to feel I was contributing positively, and that generally took priority over salary and benefits. As I’ve gotten older I’ve decided that I need more of a merging between money and meaning, and have learned that it’s possible, even necessary, to have them both as front line goals. **End Summary** Topics: career]]> women]]> transition]]> midlife women]]> encore career]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC, is Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky, LLC a coaching practice that focuses on the needs, concerns and issues facing C-Suite and senior-level women executives 40 and older. By combining the power of self-discovery and purpose with concrete strategies, Evelyn enables her clients to create a life as unique as their fingerprint. Evelyn is currently writing a book about women navigating through midlife, and is a speaker, author and poet. Visit her at www.evelynkalinosky.com.

It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:18:09 -0500

I threw myself a pity party all last week because I had to cancel my trip to Orlando where I was scheduled to be on an expert panel speaking to my peers in the coaching industry. This cancellation came right on the heels of another business conference I had to forgo – both due to an ongoing health problem that has a tendency to flare up at the most inopportune times. Since discovering two years ago that I have a chronic, progressive disease with no cure I’ve had my share of pity parties, but I always manage to keep them fairly brief. I don’t want to be one of those guests we all hate who hangs around long after everyone else has left the party – even if it is my party. I literally set my kitchen timer for 15 minutes to cry, whine, complain, kvetch, etc. At the end of 15 minutes I pick myself up, dust myself off and go back to the business of living. Getting really sick was the wakeup call of all wakeup calls. **End Summary** Topics: life]]> women]]> health]]> midlife]]> career]]> identity]]> challenges]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> As Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky LLC, my coaching practice specializes in helping C-suite & senior-level women execs 40 & older achieve a more sacred kind of success. For these women, the desire to play a bigger game requires a strong profit motive, but making money is no longer the goal. The goal is a search for significance, a journey to uncover the wealth of the self, a rite of passage to their highest purpose, & to a life that is as unique as their fingerprint. www.evelynkalinosky.com.

A Search for Significance

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:10:50 -0500

While working on developing products and services for 2010, it occurred to me that I needed to ask a number of questions of the women I serve or hope to serve before I can create a telecourse, e-book, or any other product that is spot on. So I began to do just that, and have spent the past couple of months talking with women all across the corporate spectrum about their pain points, their challenges, their goals and passions. I wanted to get a better handle on what ignites a fire in the belly of a high-achieving, soul-driven midlife woman, and I wasn’t disappointed. Everyone I talked with was wonderfully open, unreservedly frank, and touchingly vulnerable. While these women may have taken any number of divergent paths as a result of choice or circumstance, there are a number of places where these various paths intersect, and when standing on that sacred ground, their voices sound particularly unified. **End Summary** Topics: midlfe career women]]> career]]> career change]]> authenticity]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> As Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky LLC, Evelyn specializes in helping high-level women executives 40 and older achieve a more sacred kind of success. For these women, the desire to play a bigger game requires a strong profit motive, but making money is no longer the goal. The goal is a search for significance, a journey to uncover the wealth of the self, a rite of passage to their highest purpose, and to a life that is as unique as their fingerprint. Visit her at www.evelynkalinosky.com.

Midlife Transition â A âDo Overâ For Women?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:21:13 -0500

Someone asked me the other day why I refuse to refer to the transition that occurs for most women in midlife as a “crisis.” While it’s true that the word “crisis” means a crucial or decisive point or situation, or a turning point, it also has about it an air of instability and upheaval. There’s a negative connotation to the word, which perpetuates the stereotype of women being emotional and irrational. While both men and women experience the inevitability of midlife, it’s largely women who are branded with the super-charged “C” word. I’m more comfortable with “midlife transition” or “midlife awakening” or any phrase that allows women to embrace in a more positive way what it means to age. Midlife transforms you from the person you were to the person you were meant to be. It’s a new birth, a new beginning, an opportunity to pursue dreams and goals that were neatly tucked away in the “someday” file we kept in the back of our minds while we raised our children or launched our careers, or both. It’s like an automatic “do-over” when you hit midlife (not that we’d necessarily want to redo our lives up to this point). **End Summary** Topics: midlife]]> women]]> boomers]]> aging]]> career]]> transitions]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> As Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky LLC, Evelyn specializes in helping C-suite and senior-level women executives 40 and older achieve a more sacred kind of success. For these women, the desire to play a bigger game requires a strong profit motive, but making money is no longer the goal. The goal is a search for significance, a journey to uncover the wealth of the self, a rite of passage to their highest purpose, and to a life that is as unique as their fingerprint. www.evelynkalinosky.com

You Are Not Who You Were, Only Older

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:36:19 -0400

I turned 50 this past December, and guess what? My life isn’t over. I didn’t slide down that slippery slope of aging I kept hearing about. If anything, the most amazing thing happened. I woke up. I have morphed into my authentic self like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. I was as surprised as anyone to experience this awakening, since I believed much of the rhetoric that abounds about decline, depression, and despair being hallmarks of aging. I felt that angst in my 30s, but throughout my 40s and marching into a new decade I began to feel a different mantra struggling to the surface. This mantra said “You are not who you were, only older.” It wasn’t until I turned the corner on 50, however, that I let that mantra break free with all the strength of a gale force wind. I began to seek out other women in midlife to find out if I was the lone wolf experiencing aging as a rebirth. I didn’t know what to expect, but what I found in talking with women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond is a collective commonality. **End Summary** Topics: midlife women]]> positive aging]]> transitions]]> boomers]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC, is Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky, LLC a coaching practice that focuses on the needs, concerns and issues facing C-Suite and senior-level women executives 40 and older. By combining the power of self-discovery and purpose with concrete strategies, Evelyn enables her clients to create a life as unique as their fingerprint. Evelyn is currently writing a book about women navigating through midlife, and is a speaker, author and poet. Visit her at www.evelynkalinosky.com.

Identity Theft: 5 Ways Career Women Can Deal With Professional Identity Loss In Retireme

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:33:02 -0400

When Brenda retired from her high-level corporate job at the age of 57, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She got up each morning at 6:00 a.m., as she had done for the past 26 years, put on a suit, ate a quick breakfast, and slipped out of the house as she’d always done. Only now she had nowhere to go. For the first few weeks she wandered around aimlessly, not able to talk to anyone. Starbucks became her home-away-from-home as she spent hours each day at a table in the corner by the window watching the world go by around her. A member of the Baby Boomer generation (women born between 1946–1964) Brenda is part of a tribe of women who were the first to enter the professional world in large numbers, and are the first to encounter the hazards surrounding retirement. Defining themselves largely through their careers, they have challenged traditional models at every stage of their lives, and are now being challenged by their own negative stereotypes about retirement. **End Summary** Topics: career]]> women]]> loss of identity]]> transitions]]> retirement]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC, is Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky, LLC a coaching practice that focuses on the needs, concerns and issues facing C-Suite and senior-level women executives 40 and older. By combining the power of self-discovery and purpose with concrete strategies, Evelyn enables her clients to create a life as unique as their fingerprint. Evelyn is currently writing a book about women navigating through midlife, and is a speaker, author and poet. Visit her at www.evelynkalinosky.com.

Finding Personal Meaning Is An Inside Job: 5 Essential Competencies Women Need To Tackle To Successf

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:22:11 -0400

For women, the second half of life brings with it many career choices and questions. For some women, continuing in a current career doesn’t fulfill personal, spiritual or financial needs as it once did. For others, re-entering the workforce has become a necessity due to the changes in the economy. In either case, a ReCareer may be the answer. What is a ReCareer? According to Dr. Richard P. Johnson, nationally renowned expert on maturing adult development and founder of ReCareer, Inc. it is: “Personally authentic work that feeds your mind, your heart, and your spirit.” Women at midlife who are “seekers” want something deeper out of life. They want more personal purpose, more meaning, and want their efforts to align more closely with their core beliefs. They seek a more authentic way of living. To these women seekers, who may be 45, 55, 65 or older, age holds no meaning. What does hold meaning for them comes from work and interactions that renew their life purpose, revitalize their passion, reignite their soul, and reinvigorate their inner desires. One of my closest friends is a seeker. **End Summary** Topics: recareer]]> midlife women]]> boomers]]> transitions]]> career]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC, is Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky, LLC a coaching practice that focuses on the needs, concerns and issues facing C-Suite and senior-level women executives 40 and older. By combining the power of self-discovery and purpose with concrete strategies, Evelyn enables her clients to create a life as unique as their fingerprint. Evelyn is currently writing a book about women navigating through midlife, and is a speaker, author and poet. Visit her at www.evelynkalinosky.com