Don’t Sweat the Change: What’s Juicy about 50?!

Last spring while on a speaking tour with Kim Serafini and Annette Symn, I was having a conversation with an Executive Business woman from Australia and she made the comment that in the business world, your professional life is over at 50. My immediate reaction was perhaps naive as I said: Are you kidding? That’s not the story for me.

Here’s my tale of mid-life. At 50, many of us are just getting started! Mid-life is such a vital time. And, mid-lifers can offer wisdom and guidance that only comes from REAL life experience. We have a level of compassion and a sense of priorities and commitment and discipline that are something that youth cannot boon. I’d say that the next twenty years could be the most productive time of our lives as we consider it with intention and directed life purpose. With an empty nest and a full set of wings that already know how to fly—the best is yet to come!

Here’s what’s juicy about being 5o…

Sex is great but sunsets are sexy, too. Laughter is just the best thing ever. (I cross my legs when I get the giggles or sneeze in the middle of a crosswalk.) Things that use to bother me for weeks roll off in a few hours or days… I don’t have time for petty things to slow my traction. Time is precious. I walk fast instead of run, but I see the trees instead of the trail. I spend time with friends that I could travel with endlessly. I’ll walk Paris or Barcelona in a day and love my aching feet. Shopping for one special thing that I know I can find room for is a treat. Spoiling grandkids in every way brings me so much joy. Seeing my girls happy makes my heart sing. Doing squats and lunges and pleas and pilates make me feel strong. Downward dog feels like good posture. Dancing naked in the bathroom to Pandora and moving like a goddess. Meditating for five minutes dropping in as if it were an hour. Staring at the sea with nothing on my mind. Painting a blank canvas with the full expression and no expectation. What’s juicy about being 51 is I still feel 25… (well, maybe 35) but I have the wisdom of my years of experience. I trust in humanity although I’ve learned the hard won lesson of discernment and due diligence where people are concerned. I’m unapologetically me musing into this decade with a spirit of adventure, and it’s going to be quite a ride… even if it begins with a colonoscopy.

So much of life becomes about the story we engage in. The stories from our past. The present story. The future trip and our dream story. What you believe is what you will see. Tell yourself that life is about unveiling the next gift and living it as if it is a raging adventure —- a love affair that is passion filled with all the good stuff! At 5o, life is far from over and we are more like fine wine than anything else. It all just gets better with age —- that’s the story I want to share.

Join us on our Don’t Sweat Sisterhood call this Thursday. It’s all about “the Stories We Tell Ourselves.”