RTDM: LCDR Elizabeth Kiessling
LCDR Elizabeth Kiessling
Attorney, U.S. Navy JAG Corps
Kingdom of Bahrain
We want to get to know you! Briefly tell us about yourself: Where you came from, where you've been and how you're living your dream?
My family moved around for my mother’s work, and so I feel like I have several hometowns. I spent the most time in southern California and North Carolina – I’m an East AND West coast girl. After undergraduate school, I went to law school and then commissioned as a judge advocate in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps. Since then, I’ve served in Rhode Island, California, Hawaii, Washington, DC, and (currently) Bahrain. I absolutely love what I do – I get to be a small part of supporting the world’s most powerful and respected navy.
How do you define success?
Doing something you love and that makes a difference, and doing it to the very best of your ability.
What did it take to make your dream happen and when did you know you had arrived?
I don’t know that I’ll ever feel that I have arrived – as soon as I accomplish one goal, I have my eye on the next. Perpetual personal and professional development is so important to me.
What are you most proud of? Go ahead, boast a little!
How hard I am constantly pushing myself to get better, both personally and professionally. It’s amazing and exciting to me to look back and see how far I’ve come.
What was your biggest obstacle/fear and what was your turning point?
A crippling fear of public failure haunted me for years. Instead of challenging that fear, I played it safe, never speaking up, never sharing my ideas, never risking being wrong. I vividly remember a point several years ago when I felt I had stalled professionally, and I thought to myself, If I don’t believe in myself and my ideas, why should anyone else? I realized that I was never going to get to where I wanted to go without having faith in myself and forcing myself out of my comfort zone. I began deliberately challenging myself to step outside of what felt safe. It was terrifying – and so necessary to build my confidence in myself.
What’s the best advice you’d give to a younger you?
Don’t wait around for someone to do something about issues you care about – take charge and take action. Trust yourself.
How do you stay motivated and purposeful when you feel overwhelmed?
Reminding myself why I do what I do always helps keep me motivated and purposeful. So does reading biographies of people I admire who changed the world.
Tell us a time when a perceived failure was actually a blessing in disguise or served you in a surprising way.
I played soccer in college, and failed the first fitness test of my freshman year in spectacular fashion. I had never failed at anything athletically before that, and remember being shocked and devastated. When I reflected on it, the fact was that I had simply not prepared – I had been sure my natural athleticism would carry me through as it always had. That failure was a game-changer. It forced me to learn to set goals and work hard to reach them. By the way…I dominated the next fitness test.
What is your favorite vice/guilty pleasure/strange habit? Come on now, we all have them!
I love live music, and spend a ridiculous amount of money on front section concert tickets. Also, artisan dark chocolate.
What's the smartest investment you’ve made for yourself?
The sun and the sea recharge me, and so I take at least one trip to a warm beach every winter. This year I went to The Bahamas; last year I went to Hawaii and Key West. It’s a time for me to unplug, rest, and refocus on my goals and myself.
What’s MOST important to you right now?
Figuring out who I am as a leader. I’m blessed to have a number of extraordinary role models I’m constantly learning from, but I have to regularly remind myself that I’ll never be them – nor do I want to be. I want to become the best version of me, but I’m still figuring out what that means.
Share 1-2 books you've given as gifts:
“As a Man Thinketh,” James Allen “Just Kids,” Patti Smith
What have you learned to say no to?
People, things, and events that distract from my happiness or personal and professional goals. So many things compete for our attention. I try to focus the bulk of my time on things that make me happy or make me better.
What's something most people would never guess about you?
I have been a strict vegan for more than 5 years. It’s one of the best things I ever did.
Follow Elizabeth:
http://www.jag.navy.mil/index.htm
