Originally from Germany, Monika moved after high school to the US to play volleyball for a university team. After an uncomfortable start at one college, she graduated from another with a summa cum laude and was accepted with a full scholarship to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. After graduation, she worked for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
But she felt there was an inner urge that there was more than settling for a job she was not completely passionate about.
So she quit that career-aspiring job with the World Bank and went to pursue her dream to become a professional cyclist while going for a Sports degree at the University of Minnesota.
But during this time, she realized that professional cycling is not what she wanted and she had trouble finding a suitable career in sports.
To return on the “right career track”, she applied to any job everywhere and got accepted to a prestigious consulting firm as IT management consultant. She worked first in Switzerland and then Australia.
But while now financially secure and on the path she was supposed to be on, the very same urge as two years earlier emerged in her wanting more from life.
She studied the world map looking for that place she would love to live. She packed her bike and flew with a one-way ticket to Malaga, Spain, where she decided to become the first woman to cycle the entire three-week long Vuelta de Espana just hours before the all male professionals did it.
It was a decisive moment of whether to stay in her comfort zone or to take a huge leap outside of it and face her fears of failure and pursuing something that seemed beyond her limits.
We talk diversity, decisions and doubts. How to make your own goals, leaving out the opinions and fears of others and how to accept when a decision you made is not serving you anymore.
I encourage you to take on the #challengecatie with me. It’s really quite an exciting one that involves nothing more extreme than sitting with a pen and paper and facing your lifetime of decision making.
Watch Monika’s TEDx talk here.
IG: @rad_monika