DOWAGIAC — Wearing a formal white hat and white satin gloves, Mary Catherine “Caterina” Casto greeted the Dowagiac Rotary Club with a $10 bill Thursday afternoon.

She asked the crowd who would like the $10. Voices murmured, but Rotarian Matthew Cripe was the first to say he wanted the money. Casto handed him the cash.

“What did Matt do differently from the others who said they wanted it?” Casto asked the crowd. “He took action.”

Casto wears many other hats, in addition to the one she wore at Rotary. For more than 30 years, she has been a counselor. She is also a speaker, weight loss and balance expert, and authored a book titled, “Eight Weeks to Bliss: A Proven Wellness Program with Life Changing Results.” She also has spent eight years studying metaphysics or the spiritual study of energy.   

Dowagiac District Library Director Matt Weston said he met the author as she is a regular patron of the local library.

During the program, Casto referenced a quote she loved and had written on the board.

“If nothing changes, nothing changes,” she read.

Casto said one of her joys is helping people transform and find bliss, something she defines as being happy for no reason at all.

While Casto said she usually works nationally, she was honored to be at the Rotary meeting.

“For me, my goal is to have people have peace in themselves,” she said. “The way I do it is by helping people become balanced physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.”

While at her summer home in Sister Lakes, Casto has been doing lots of writing.

On Thursday, she passed out “bliss journals” to help Rotarians discuss the necessary steps for them to achieve their goals and ambitions in 2020.

Casto said about 92 percent of people fail their new year’s resolutions. She studied the 8 percent that fail.

Casto admitted to having failed in her personal life, as well. There are two goals she has not mastered, she said.

“I wanted to learn magic from a book, which I did not,” she said. “I speak a little of 11 languages, and I could not get Russian or German, so I kind of gave up on that.”

Through her research, Casto has discovered five steps to help people reach their goals, including writing the goal down, making a commitment, having an accountability partner, staying focused on the target and staying motivated.

“I believe this is the one where most people get stuck,” Casto said of motivation. “Have you ever started out doing something, and then you just lost your motivation?”

Rotarians nodded their heads in agreement.

Casto said using the five steps and keeping a bliss journal of individual progress can help people accomplish more goals. She also said writing down daily goals in a planner can help, too.

“My goal this year is to help other people accomplish their resolutions,” she said. “Ask the simple question: is this going to bring me closer to my goal or farther away?”