Thursday, April 30, 2009

Who Are You & What Are You Supposed to Be Doing With Your Life?

CHICKS ROCK! wants to highlight Kristina's work by re-posting an edited version of a review of her talk Who Are You and What Are You Supposed to Be Doing With Your Life?, originally written by Sophia Karwowski for Manhattan WCO Center.

Kristina Leonardi is founder of The Women’s Mosaic. She is a career/life path consultant, speaker, seminar leader and expert in the areas of women, diversity and personal growth.

Join her for Who Are You and What Are You Supposed to Be Doing With Your Life? this Saturday, May 2. RSVP to see her speak Tuesday, May 5 when she presents: What Now? Turning Job Loss into Opportunity.



On September 4th, many women (and a few men, too) came to the Manhattan Open Center for an event held by Kristina Leonardi, Founder and Director of The Women's Mosaic. She presented a talk entitled "Who Are You and What Are You Supposed to be Doing With Your Life?" an attempt to equip attendees with the tools to apply their unique talents and passions to their professional life in a practical way. Leonardi shared these life lessons in a friendly, non-judgmental way, relating to the people in the crowd as equals with stories and anecdotes from her own varied and non-conventional career path. She explained how she managed to incorporate skills and contacts gleaned from each point in her varied resume into her founding and development of The Women's Mosaic.

Leonardi repeatedly stressed the importance of people who wish to make career changes to examine what they truly want without the distraction of outside influences. For example, she said, family members and friends often persuade a loved one to refrain from making drastic alterations to their lifestyle without meaning to be harmful. Many people claim they want to "help others" in their work but often don't realize this type of work can be harmful if they don't already have a stable self-image in their own life. The only way a person can get to know their true preferences, Leonardi stated, is by spending more time alone and learning to appreciate their own company.

Another neglected aspect of the path to a fulfilling career, said Leonardi, is the recognition and acceptance of one's own unique strengths. Many people have not yet identified the specific talents they possess and that have the potential to empower them in their professional and personal lives. Paying attention to repeated compliments from others and re-visiting one's childhood quirks can offer strong hints to hidden talents that people didn't allow themselves to recognize. The most useful life lesson to come out of this self-search that people should always remember, Leonardi told the audience, is to "do what you love and the money will follow."

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