The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Nutrition’

Today, we present the second part of Carolyn Barber’s interview. As I was reviewing Carolyn’s interview, and assuming the role of an objective bystander (Carolyn is a friend), relationships are important to her and she nurtures them. Do you appreciate and nurture the people in your life? You will also notice that wanting a partner to share her life with is a recurring theme. Do you value your significant other, or do you take them for granted? Take time today, to let them know how much you value and care for them, it’s important.

Her formula for success is “doing the best you can with what you have,” reminded me of Duke Redbird’s formula for success, “when you get what you want.” And my mind was transported to my blog post Who You Gonna Call When You Need a Backer because I talked about having the character MacGyver from the hit TV show of the same name on my team if I were in a tight corner because he was always able to work with whatever he had to find a very workable solution. How about for today, we worked with what we have instead of lamenting over what we do not have. Incidentally, Carolyn and Duke are around the same age. And the tagline for MacGyver is “His mind is the ultimate weapon.” Isn’t that a great tagline?

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a 70-year old, single woman living in Riverdale, Toronto. I have a part-time business in nutritional counseling that I started when I was 62 after retiring early as a nutritionist in public health. My career is a fairly important to me and it takes up a couple of days of my life. I am quite involved with my church and it’s a big part of my life and friendships. And perhaps the main reason for me being at the church is the community that it offers to me aside from the spiritual aspect which would be secondary for me. My family of three kids and four grandchildren are also really important to me. I am also a very active person. My favourite outdoor activities are camping and canoeing together. I also like biking and hiking, and for indoors, my passion is cooking. I am quite interested in the art scene in Toronto: opera, theatre, and music of various sorts such as the Toronto Consort. I keep quite busy.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

When I find that my personal and professional lives are not integrated, I am not happy, so I go back to journaling and list making. And, I spend more time thinking about spiritual issues, meditating, and this helps me to get back on track. Being outdoors also helps me to have the will to get my head on straight.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

A lack of a partner.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Be true to your feelings about things.
2. Pay attention to things that excite or madden you because they are important to who you are, and helps you to clearly see who you are.
3. Exercise is important. When I am fit and active, it gives me more confidence to go ahead and get organized in my life. Without fitness, I would have to completely revamp how I do things.
4. Create friendships, invest in them and honor them.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Because I live alone I tend to find activities which involve friends, might be around going to music concerts, talking, or eating.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Writing, journaling and networking with people in my field.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

I don’t have one, I have never thought of it.

How do you define success?

Knowing that you feel passionate about something that you love and acting on that passion.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Success is doing the best you can with what you have.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Get the proper credentials that are recognized by the people who care about them. Set goals, both personal and professional. I got a notebook and started writing and making lists, what I wanted, what I would try to do in a year, and they were fairly sketchy, but I achieved them. Pay attention to trends, I have always done that even in my work in public health, I would get interested in a new trend like environmental nutrition, and I spoke about it at a conference once. Another trend was multiculturalism and nutrition, and at one point I found Public Health Multicultural Nutrition Network, and we met and talked about foods from different cultures back when the Canadian Food Guide was all about Canadian food.  I am not sure why I latched on to those things, I am not sure what happened, I just thought because there weren’t many talking about it I could be at the forefront and be seen as a spokesperson, and that actually put me in good stead and helped me to move ahead. Also going into complementary nutrition was an odd thing to do but I sort of enjoy those trends, I don’t know why.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Pay attention to what you really enjoy in that field, try to get good at it, try to learn as much as you can about a certain segment and try to specialize to some degree. If you discover something that you find fascinating, explore it because that’s how you make contacts and that’s how you’re seen to be passionate, and this is where I think that you can sell yourself the best.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

1. The first one is Adelle Davis who is in my field and wrote books back in the 60s on alternative nutrition. She was at the forefront of the alternative nutrition field. I would ask her what convinced her that this was the right way to go, and I would like to know about some of her success stories and ask her for advice on how I was proceeding in my career.
2. Henry David Thoreau who wrote the books on living in the wilderness and what you can learn from the experience. A lot of my deepest feelings came from being in the wilderness. I would ask him when did this urge to live on his own and explore his spirituality through living in the wilderness started. I am always interested in beginnings, the roots of things, the little things that happened that helped to shape you.
3. The third person is Jesus because I think that he would be so approachable. I want to know about his teenage years, what happened there, how he spent that time.
4. I would like to meet Pema Chödrön, an ordained Buddhist nun who has a centre in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Canada. I like her books especially The Places That Scare You. I like her because her writing is about ordinary life, the simple things that happen in your life are important, and they are all worthy of thinking of, perhaps honoring more. I think the biggest lesson that I learned from her is honoring more the hard times you have, the black spots that you have because they teach you things.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

The Artist Way by Julia Cameron with its stepwise approach, and again it’s about honoring the childish side of yourself, to play, to have time that’s just for you, that’s not trying to be better, or doing your duties was a huge revelation for me when I saw how difficult that was to do.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

1. I would take a book on Buddhism like one of the Pema Chödrön books that I can keep on going back to because every time that I read those kinds of books I see something completely different and think that I have never seen that page before even though I have read it many times so I find new meanings in it which applies to everyday life and a desert island very well.
2. I would probably take the Bible because I don’t know anything about it. I never read the bible because it doesn’t mean much to me.
3. I would probably take a mythology book. I don’t read mythology but something with a lot of stories would go on forever and you would find new meanings and how it could apply to you is important to culture moving on.
4. I have been to Africa on a safari, so I would probably want a book on African animals so that I could remember that they exist, all pictures of things that wouldn’t exist on that island.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

I would probably take a CD of Sergei Rachmaninoff, classical music that has a lot of piano in it, it’s just beautiful.

I would take a recent movie Departures a fabulous movie.

What excites you about life?

One thing that I like about life is coincidences… they happen and seem mysterious… like when you meet someone that you are thinking of… and when something happens that dovetails with what you need. That excites me.

How do you nurture your soul?

I nurture my soul in the outdoors mostly, and I like being creative in my house, cooking and talking one-to-one with friends.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I would wish for a partner, whether it would be someone to live with, that I do not know, but someone that I felt that I could really share everything about myself.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I’m sharing experiences with someone who loves to be in an activity that I love.

What are five takeaways from Carolyn’s interview? In what ways can you apply Carolyn’s teachings to your life? In what ways are you similar to, and different from Carolyn?

Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

This week I present Carolyn Barber and as usual the interview will be in two parts. I have known Carolyn for about 13 years, but I learned things that I didn’t know about her while interviewing her. Think back to a time when you made a drastic change in your life, what happened to trigger that change?

Can you imagine being on a flight and told that there is a possibility that the plane will crash because the landing gear isn’t functioning? Carolyn was on such a flight, and nearly the entire flight, the passengers were going through crash landing drills. Some passengers felt they had lived a good life so dying would be okay, others were terrified and crying. Carolyn didn’t think they were going to die, but it made her think  about her life, and she realized that she would have to make drastic changes.

She was given a second chance, and she decided that she didn’t like her job, so she made a plan, and a year later she took early retirement , retrained and started a new career which she is still doing. Using Carolyn as an example, it’s never too late to try new things.

Carolyn talks about mentoring in the video below. I am experimenting and it’s a bit dark but you can hear what she says.

Interview With Carolyn Barber from Avil Beckford on Vimeo.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a 70-year old, single woman living in Riverdale, Toronto. I have a part-time business in nutritional counseling that I started when I was 62 after retiring early as a nutritionist in public health. My career is a fairly important to me and it takes up a couple of days of my life. I am quite involved with my church and it’s a big part of my life and friendships. And perhaps the main reason for me being at the church is the community that it offers to me aside from the spiritual aspect which would be secondary for me. My family of three kids and four grandchildren are also really important to me. I am also a very active person. My favourite outdoor activities are camping and canoeing together. I also like biking and hiking, and for indoors, my passion is cooking. I am quite interested in the art scene in Toronto: opera, theatre, and music of various sorts such as the Toronto Consort. I keep quite busy.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I do not have many typical days, I try to keep Mondays and Tuesdays for my business so I am often up around 7:00, 7:30 am. I use an auto share car to get to a Mississauga rehab clinic where I do nutritional counseling. After that I see private clients in my home. In the evenings I am often on the phone inviting friends to come over for dinner.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I think that a lot of my motivation comes from being active, keeping fit, going to the gym frequently, hiking and biking. I seem to naturally feel motivated in all aspects of my life, and my family and social life helps me to stay on track and the motivation just is there for me. It isn’t so often a problem.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I would have paid more attention to my unique interests in my work and even in my home life. I would have looked at the things that I like to do and treasure, honor and explore them more. I think your passions lead you deeper into activities.

What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Working with my clients I get very excited about nutrition, and I was amazed that I still maintain my passion for nutrition. Many times when I woke up in the mornings I thought for sure that my passion was gone, that I was no longer keen, but when I start talking to a client I have that interest again and I’m finding that stays with me which is a surprise and like a discovery.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

There is a lot of new research into holistic, alternative, complementary nutrition. It’s finding its way into the mainstream and that’s affecting my business, it’s improving my business.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

1. Age is a threat to how I handle my business and what I’d do in my business. I already see that my interests and passions change and my energy changes so I have to change with that. Age very much affects my life at this point in terms of what I would do in the later stage of my career.
2. How much money I have is another threat. Lack of money drove me into a career when most people would have stopped, and because I still need to look for money I have to find creative ways to get it. A lack of money has actually been a bonus to me because it helped me to move ahead.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I am a registered dietitian but I have training in complementary nutrition. There are very few dieticians in Toronto who have that training.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

I think that dietitians are not paying enough attention to the alternative stream, the complementary stream of nutrition, and I think that they are missing the boat because that’s where the clientele is going. I wouldn’t say they are doing something badly, but they are not using their full skills and they are not benefiting the clients as much as they could. I feel that I have an edge there.

Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it.

When I retired early from Public Health I had no form of income and I had to find something,  and how I resolved it was by really writing and reading books which I will talk about later. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a book that I’d recommend because it helps you to see who you are, honor who you are, and you get to see your entire self, your longings. Out of that process I got a notebook and wrote down the things that I wanted to explore, and I kept making lists and checking them off and forcing myself to do one thing every day and keep working away until a path emerged.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

1. Pay attention to the things that interests you, that excites you
2. Build on your strengths instead of thinking I’ll start a completely different career because the other one didn’t completely meet my needs
3. Plug away

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

I didn’t necessarily have one big break. Changing my career to me was a break and I’ve talked about that. But a recent break that I had was when I started working in the insurance field doing independent examination for nutrition claims, and that really happened through a chance piece of work that I got, and me researching what other opportunities were in that field.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

I would say that as a manager at Public Health, I didn’t feel that I excelled at being a manager.  I am not a very social person though I am great at one-to-one interactions. I got out of that because I thought that wasn’t my niche. And I ended up doing something that I like much better.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Not having a male partner in my life has been my biggest disappointment. It’s something that I think about every day. I keep working at meeting people. My husband died when I was 35 and I have not really had any long-term relationships since then except for a four-year relationship.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

I have never found any decision that was so difficult to make. They seem to just come to me. It’s quite natural for me to make decisions and I cannot think of any decisions that I really had to agonize over, but one would probably be to stop my work in public health. That happened when I was on a flight back from Newfoundland and there was danger that the flight was going to crash, luckily we landed up okay. But during that time I had some very difficult emotional times and I felt that I wasn’t getting everything that I needed out of my life and I had to make changes.

I started to think this isn’t the end of my life, I am not happy, and I had to change. So the next year I set my plan into motion and left Public Health.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. The plane I was on nearly crashed
2. My husband died when we were both young, in our thirties. He was a dominant person so I had to really learn to handle everything after his death, which I had previously unlearned
3. I grew up on a farm, which influenced my life in that I always saw myself as a working class person, and from that background I never saw myself as an elite and I was never comfortable in that environment. The way I was brought up was to be a good person, and it wasn’t about being the best you could be or be a success. So I was never taught that, “you must do your very best, I know that you are going to be something great.”  Sometimes when I have thought that I am doing really well here, I would often tone myself down and think “don’t think you are so smart.” I think that aspect of my upbringing has been a detriment to me at certain times, and a conflict

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Starting my business and going back to school at age 61

How did mentors influence your life?

I do not have a sense of many mentors in my life. I feel as if I have done a lot of things on my own. Obviously in talking to friends, I must have used them as sounding boards, but I was mostly on my own. In my recent years, there have been certain nutrition people who I look up to, and take the courses that they offer. Aileen Burford-Mason, a nutritionist is someone who I consider to be a mentor.

What are five takeaways from Carolyn’s interview?

Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.