We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Purple Life. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Purple below.
Purple, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I keep a praise folder. I’ve done this since I started my first job. Working in Marketing in NYC can be very demoralizing. At my first job I rarely heard if I did something right, but if I did something wrong it was all I heard about. As a result, I started writing down any time someone complimented my work so when those feelings of inadequacy would bubble up I could read the praise in my folder and remember the truth: I am capable. I’m good at my job. And that helps me beat imposter syndrome.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m “Purple” and I’ve written at APurpleLife.com for almost a decade about my journey to and now through early retirement. I’m a black woman who worked in marketing and retired at 30 in October 2020. I did that by job hopping to triple my salary in 9 years and using domestic geo-arbitrage to decrease my spending while increasing my standard of living. I’m currently in my fourth year of traveling the world while living a nomadic life and enjoying hobbies such as birdwatching, stargazing and writing.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the three most impactful skills of mine that helped during my journey were: 1. Organization
2. Perfectionism
3. Interview Skills
I’m organized in every aspect of my life (even my personal calendar in retirement is beautifully color-coded) and that really helped me be on top of my game in my fast-paced profession. Perfectionism was also helpful in making me great at my job, but it was actually also a detriment because it meant I could never turn my brain off. I was always working or thinking about work because everything had to be perfect. That didn’t help me maintain a healthy balance, which is one of the reasons I wanted to retire early. And finally, interview skills were key for my journey because I had 6 jobs in 9 years and that’s what allowed me to triple my salary during that time, which obviously helped me save a lot.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The book Your Money Or Your Life by Vicki Robin completely changed how I think about money. It made me realize that every dollar I spend is actually spending the life I traded for that dollar and that makes each one so much more precious.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://apurplelife.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/apurplelife
Image Credits
A Purple Life
