We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Pasour. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine below.
Katherine, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from my background as a farm girl and from family dynamics. My father was retired military, then a farmer, often a hard and angry man who expected perfection from his children. I’m the youngest of five. My mother was a school teacher, mild mannered and very kind. Both parents expected us to do our best and work hard.
I grew up as an over-achiever, striving to do my best at everything, perhaps to please my parents, but then the trait became ingrained and I still carry the over-achiever mentality into my retirement years and my writing. I retired in 2015 as a college professor and administrator, having worked my way through four academic degrees and 40 years of teaching.
My hard work ethic extends into all I do. But another legacy from my father is my fear of not having a voice. He was very authoritarian and dominated my mother and all his children. We didn’t have a voice. One of your questions we could choose to write about was “being the only one in the room.” Because of my upbringing, I often felt very alone, my escape was reading–and to learn as much as possible about whatever I happened to be involved in. It was not until my graduate work toward a PhD that I began to feel confident in speaking out about my views, even if those views weren’t always the concensus of the room. I hadn’t felt I had a voice as a child, but as a college teacher and administrator, often in a room full of men, I learned to consider my words carefully, study as much as possible about an issue, and speak out on what I felt strongly about (in a respectful and confident manner).
While this sounds as if I’m mixing two of your questions–I am, but it was my upbringing as a quiet, shy and hard-working farm-girl, that provided me with the skills to serve as a Dean, supervising a large number of faculty and students, and work cooperatively with so many, while being a good listener, treating others with respect and compassion, and being able to make the tough decisions and carry through when settling conflicts.
My legacy from my mother is serving others.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My career has been in education: first as an elementary physical education teacher and coach. Following the completion of a PhD, I became a college professor, working with students who planned to be teachers, and teaching research and writing skills to honors students. I also served as Dean of the College of Health Sciences at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina.
I retired in 2015 and began to focus on writing with a goal to help others. As a wellness advocate, my first book, Honoring God with My Body: Journey to Wellness and a Healthy Lifestyle, focuses on providing practical advice, achievable goals, and encouragement to guide readers to make healthy lifestyle choices.
My second book is Stay the Course: A Devotional Handbook to Survive and Thrive in Your First Year of College (and Beyond). Based on my years of mentoring beginning and continuing college students, this book covers a plethora of challenges students face in college and provides strategies to help student navigate the pitfalls, temptations, and problems they will encounter in the exciting, and often terrifying, adventure of college. Both books are available from all major booksellers.
I blog weekly at katherinepasour.com on faith, inspiration, wellness, and the lessons nature teaches us. I’m a regular contributor to Refresh Bible Study Magazine published by Lighthouse Bible Studies and have written numerous articles for a variety of online publications.
As I mentioned earlier, I received the gift of service to others from my mother. I’m deeply involved in church and community activities which allow me to help others in need. I facilitate Bible studies in my community and I am a regional speaker with Stonecroft Ministries.
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?
Three qualities which have gotten me where I am:
1. A hard work ethic–which comes together from a determination to do my best and never give up on the goals I set.
2. Being a good observer–being aware of what is going on around me. And perhaps one of the most important skills a person can have–I’m a good listener. Always look at the big picture–imagine what your actions, or the decision you make will look like when put into action. As a teacher, I was good at making an advanced judgment on how my plan would work when put into action.
3. Be kind. Even when we have to be tough, we can cushion the pain with kindness, respect, and compassion,
We gain respect from others by our hard work (we should exemplify what we expect from others). Think before we speak. If what we are about to say is going to cause pain to another, increase the conflict of a situation, or is not needing to be said at all, consider a better way to say it (or not say it at all).
We get better by practice. Analyze ourselves and our actions–what do we need to change to be a better person? We can only change ourselves. We can’t change others (even if we think we can–others have to make their own decisions about change).
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Number 1 challenge–too many responsibilities
As usual, I have too much on my plate. I keep my grandchildren 3 to 4 days per week. I blog weekly. I support other bloggers and authors by reading and responding to their work. I’m active in my church and have many roles to fill. I’m trying to do some much needed repairs on my house. I have animals and a small farm to look after. Whew! I’m just too busy.
This is not a new circumstance for me–I’ve always taken on a lot of tasks. To cope now, I have scaled back on reading material from other authors and have backed away from revising a manuscript that I thought was ready for publication, but now needs revision based on an agent’s feedback. But I’ll admit that I want to get that book ready.
I cope with a busy lifestyle by maintaining a healthy diet, exercising, and taking opportunities to join together with family and friends for some social time. It is important, no matter how busy we are, to take care of our bodies, physically, emotionally, and socially. We also need to feel we have a purpose in life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katherinepasour.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherinepasourauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinepasourauthor
- Twitter: https://x.com/KatherinePasour
Image Credits
Katherine Pasour (snapshots)
Morgan James Publishing (book covers–provided for publicity purposes)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
