Meet IBDE Graduate, Monica Kriese of Salmon Arm, British Columbia

People today are consumed with being successful. They measure their success by how much money they make or how many prized possessions they own. Still, there are those who define success in a different way, and Monica Kriese is one of those.

Success for Monica is about abundance. However, abundance isn’t about money. It is about the quality of her life, how she is living her life, and other aspects of her life. It means enjoying a comfortable lifestyle, making time to spend with family and friends, as well as time with herself, all while maintaining a rewarding career. Monica feels fortunate she has found this balance. She sees far too many people who get so caught up in their work that they lose sight of what is really important, which Monica identifies as working to live and not living to work. 

Throughout the 1990s Monica had a demanding but highly rewarding career in marketing. However, as a single mother of an infant son living with a complex mental illness it became more difficult over time to meet the demands of her career. There never seemed to be enough time to complete her client projects and there was no time for self-care. The many interruptions to attend to her son’s challenges—appointments, meetings, and his growing inability to attend daycare due to the complexity of his disorder—repeatedly took her away from work. Still, Monica managed to get by under these circumstances, but just barely.

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