Ready to Start Again?
Are you feeling like things are winding down and you can just coast? The kids have graduated, you have the house to yourself, and you finally turned your daughter’s room into a cozy guest room/reading room. This could be the perfect time to downshift and take it easy. But what happened to those dreams you had in your 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s? You might have lived out some of them, but I’ll bet this could be the beginning of a beautiful chapter instead of the last chapter of your book.
Whether you learn how to speak Italian on Duolingo so you can speak with the locals in Tuscany or you finally try Pickleball, life is too short to be a spectator. Life is meant to be lived fully.
If you’re letting fear stop you and you like the same old same old, that’s one thing. Maybe you feel like there's too much to learn, or you’re waiting to be “ready.” Sometimes you have no choice and a life event happens - death, divorce, job loss - and you’ve got to step up.
Don’t let your limiting beliefs, fear, procrastination or overwhelm stop you!
Most importantly, don’t let your age stop you. There are so many people who found success later in life. Toni Morrison was 40 when she wrote her first novel, 56 when she won the Pulitzer Prize and 62 when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Martha Stewart was 41 when she wrote her first book, “Entertaining,” and seven years later she developed Martha Stewart Living. Julia Child was 50 when she published “The Joy of Cooking.” You get the point. Don’t ever let your age prevent you from sharing your gifts with the world.
When I turned 60, I didn’t know what to expect. And when it happened, I celebrated it and had a great time with my friends. And then I started to feel a little lighter. I realized I have 60 years of life and experience that has made me who I am. I am finally comfortable being myself. It is so freeing. Instead of feeling older, I feel more alive than ever!
What would happen if you thought of your age as an advantage? I’m so glad I traveled a lot when I was younger and took lots of different classes in college. I lived in 4 cities before I settled down in a small, rural town. I was a stay at home mom for years, but now our son is looking at colleges and things have lined up in my life, so I can coach. All of my life experiences led up to this beautiful time in my life.
Stay Open
One of the best things about being an entrepreneur for the first time is that I am constantly learning: I have learned a lot about marketing, sales, and social media, for example. One of the biggest challenges is finding a balance so I am not working all the time. That didn’t happen when I was working in a cubicle.
There was a time when I was working in a cute little bookstore, taking graduate courses, and volunteering at an art museum. It was such a cool mix of learning and growing - and healing from a break-up. I loved living in my little carriage house apartment and walking on the country roads. I hurt and then I healed. I wouldn’t give up that experience for the world. I ended up not going to graduate school. The good news is I still like to poke around in bookstores, and learn, and go to museums.
Are you ready to make some changes?
If you take a long hard look at the various areas of your life, are there some areas that definitely need improvement? How much better would you feel if you made a commitment to yourself and prioritized what matters to you? The first step is to recognize where you are now. You can’t determine where to go if you don’t know where you are right now. What if you started now?
What can you do to improve how you take care of yourself? Is it for your health, career, finances, or something else? You are an amazing woman and your time is now. What will it take for you to take the next step? It’s time to take care of your self.
