Take Steps to Reignite Yourself After 50

In March 2018, we planned a girls’ trip to New York City with another friend. We were working in executive positions in different cities at the time. It was going to be a long weekend filled with laughs, good food, and adventures. 

The trip was all that, but it was also a turning point for us upon reflection. Our long conversations over wine were consumed with talk about burnout, the challenges of managing people, abuse in the workplace, and whether we were living our best lives. We needed this time to decompress and deeply share our challenging experiences and process these with other like-minded women in the same life stage. 

We recognized our careers were at a tipping point. Was the goal to keep climbing the career ladder at the expense of our personal lives, social lives, and families? By the second glass of wine, the conversations dove more deeply into our dreams, desires, and how we wanted to live the next half of our lives. Each of us expressed a longing for something more than the current state. At the end of the weekend, we realized we all needed to make different types of changes to move in the direction of our dreams. The spark was lit in New York City. 

Fast forward to 2020. We now lived in the same city and met regularly to envision Rumblings. We knew we weren’t alone facing midlife career, personal, and family transitions. We heard from other women our age who were struggling with the same challenges. 

The common thread we were all experiencing was an internal RUMBLING that something needed to change to live our best lives through midlife and beyond. 

The change is different for everyone. For some, it’s a career change, to start a business, or leap past fear and take on a new challenging position. For others, it’s traveling more, moving to a new city, finding new rewarding volunteer opportunities, or creating a life that aligns more closely with personal values.

Whatever your dreams are for reinvention, go for them. We’ve never looked back, and even with the ups and downs of starting a business, we know we’re on the right path—slower than we hoped, yet moving in the right direction. 

These six actions helped us leap past our fears to start creating the life we envisioned.

Embrace a learning mindset. We thought we needed to know everything about starting a business for too long before we leaped. After a year of talking about beginning, we realized we had to stop talking about it and do it. In July 2020, we launched our website and built a community through social media. The most important thing we needed was an open and learning mindset.

The reality is you’ll never be fully ready, know everything, or have the perfect plan. Be willing to leap and learn. Ask questions of others who have reinvented themselves. Learn from their experiences. Open up to learning from women younger and older than you. 

Leap past fear. Change is scary, but what’s more frightening is living a life not aligned with your values and dreams. It was challenging to start something new, put ourselves out there, not know whether midlife women would engage with us, and not feel perfectly ready when we did. And, the fear creeps in regularly when we try something new (like producing a fashion show!) or discuss something that feels vulnerable (showing our faces or sharing our personal stories).

But, the rewards have come on the other side of fear. So leap, friends, leap!

Forgive each other and ourselves. When you forge into something new, you’ll make mistakes. We certainly have —lots of them, to be honest. Early on, we made a pact to accept that we will make mistakes, laugh at them together, support each other through them, and move on quickly. This pact has worked for us and has helped us realize mistakes are our lessons, they’re inevitable, and they’re part of the process of living forward.

Be kind and forgive yourself and others as you move along your path.

Ask for support and be supportive. Reinvention takes support. We have called on friends and family to support our efforts to build Rumblings. In return, we make an effort to promote other midlife women reinventing themselves. These women have taught us so much as we’ve learned their whys for reinvention, seen their actions, and witnessed their successes.

Don’t be afraid to ask for support. Share your dreams and audacious goals. Ask other like-minded midlifers for help.

Be consistent. Consistency has been our biggest lesson and the action that continues to move us towards our goals. It sounds too easy, but in reality, it can be challenging. We need to remind ourselves frequently to break down tasks and take action every day. When we do, we see progress and change.

Change and reinvention are not easy. You have to stay focused on your why and take steps every day towards your dreams. It’s the daily steps that create progress. 

Practice self-care. To live your best life requires you to be at your best. Take care of yourself. Sleep. Eat well. Move. Meditate. Take time for yourself. For years, we put ourselves last as we built our careers, raised children, and cared for parents. We put off medical appointments, didn’t exercise, and reached for convenient food.

As we’ve built Rumblings, we’ve reprioritized ourselves alongside our ambitions. Our dreams matter. We matter. But, only we can take steps to take care of ourselves. No one can do it for us. We’ve realized that we feel better when we do this and do better.

Now is the time. Prioritize and take care of YOU. 

Reinvention is a continuous process. We’ve learned a lot and realize how far we’ve come as we reflect on that New York City weekend. We’re making progress on living the life of our dreams, and it’s exciting. We still have things we’re working on—confidence, focus, and vulnerability. We acknowledge the challenges ahead of us and reflect on these same actions as we discuss how to move past them.

It’s not too late to pursue your dreams and desires. 

Let’s reignite, reinvent, and RUMBLE through midlife together. 

Read more about how turning 50 inspired Rumblings and advice from other midlife women on how they reinvented themselves. 

5 Ways to Reinvent Your Career

​And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom - Anais Nin

Today’s midlife women came of age during an era where women were told they could have it all; family, career, and fulfilling life where they could shape their destiny and choose their path. 

Many women chose to work. Others worked out of necessity, decided to work at home, or returned to work when children were school-aged. For decades women balanced work and life, leaned in, advanced in careers, and entered their 50s thinking it would be their time. 

Midlife is a time of transition. Children are leaving the nest, careers are peaking, and there is more time to focus on what is essential. It is a life stage when men are at the peak of their careers and earning potential. However, what women encounter is a society that expects us to remain ageless. We experience gender ageism in the workplace. Regardless of our prior accomplishments, we face a society that finds countless subtle ways to tell us we’re not as relevant, not as attractive, and less deserving.

It’s natural and normal to feel unsettled with a desire to explore what’s next. These internal rumblings can also come with inner self-doubt and negative self-talk — “I’m too old,” “I don’t look like I should,” “I’m not seen or heard.” Many midlife women feel stuck even though we have decades left to work, live well,  and flourish. 

Women also describe lacking authentic and deep connection with other women, feeling burned out, exhausted, and disappointed at a time that is supposed to be the pinnacle of their lives.

Women have been trying to live up to an unrealistic standard for too long, and as a result, they feel they’re climbing a mountain but never reaching the top. Sound familiar? The good news is that you can define what will come next. You don’t have to succumb to societal norms of acceptable and how we should age. If the original path no longer contributes to how you want to live your lives, it’s time to find a new one. 

We’ve spent the last year speaking with amazing midlife women who felt that same rumbling and have reimagined their lives and reinvented themselves to design a path for themselves that is more aligned with their values. They’ve reinvigorated their careers, built businesses, or taken risks to create a life to live well and flourish. 

Read their advice and listen to your inner RUMBLING. You can take steps to align your career with your values to flourish through midlife.

Define your universal skills. You have learned many things from your prior roles as mother, sister, daughter, aunt, caretaker, homemaker, and career woman that you bring to the table. You’ve balanced many demanding tasks and been successful at them. For example, women have a unique ability to context switch. It means you can switch between multiple unrelated tasks and improvise as you do it. 

You have superb negotiation skills from your personal, volunteer, and professional lives that you can use in any situation. You have negotiated salaries, employee engagement, bedtimes for a 3-year-old, rules for teenagers, daily living capabilities with aging parents, and everything in between.

You are resilient. You’ve successfully navigated every challenge that has come your way. You know your strengths, and you’ve learned how to either overcome, mitigate, or ask for assistance in areas of weakness. 

Write down the skills you possess that are universal to any situation and how you can use them. Ask friends and family what they think your strengths are and add them to your list.

Choose your core values and purpose over societal pressure. Consider what is most important to you. What are your core beliefs? What are your values? What is most important to you in the future? 

Have those values and beliefs been aligned with your decision-making? For example, have you made career or life choices that are in line with your values and best interests, or have you made sacrifices to put the interests of others first? 

Answering these questions provides an opportunity to be thoughtful and intentional about your importance. For many women, it can be about supporting and empowering others. It can be about giving back to the community and making a difference in the lives of others. 

It’s difficult for many women to focus on putting themselves first and discount any societal norms, but it’s crucial for finding meaningful work. If this is a challenge, ask yourself what matters more than money. Those are your values. 

Dream and design your path. Consider the course that keeps you closest to your integrity, values, and goals for your life and the future. 

What are the ways you can start to move towards that? It could be making changes to your current role, seeking new employment or career, taking on a side job, or volunteering. Where can you find other like-minded people with similar interests or who you can learn from? 

Networking and establishing connections with people you don’t know well is another universal skill that women possess. It is a great place to use those skills to meet new people and hone what unique gifts you have to offer. 

We have been amazed at how willingly other women have been to spend time with other women to share ideas, knowledge and magnify the voices of other women as they endeavor to design a new path.

Living from the inside out creates a foundation of health. It takes a foundation of good health to flourish after 50. Make your health a priority. It will support your self-confidence and help you feel connected while living genuinely from the inside out. 

It’s never too late to pivot. The science around aging and lifespan is evolving. We have been amazed and inspired by all of the remarkable women we’ve met who are continually learning, growing, and changing. 

Today, women who accomplish great things are more frequently in midlife and beyond. Fear is part of the equation, but courage is the calling to find clarity and purpose, and that belief is vital in the women we’ve worked with. 

You are not alone in what you’re feeling or experiencing. 

Women want to support other women in achieving their dreams. If the women in your life don’t support your dreams, seek out those who do. 

Striving to discover your remarkable and fulfilling midlife journey ensures your process will foster purpose, belonging, joy, and gratitude. It feels good!

Embracing and stepping in the beauty, liberation, and wisdom as you move into and beyond midlife empowers other women, young and older, to do the same. By tapping into your knowledge, experience, and wisdom, you engage with others differently and bring value to the people around you. 

Together we can change the way our culture views midlife and older women. We’re excited about midlife, the new things we’ll do, the risks we’ll take, and the women we’ll meet! 

Let’s reinvent, reignite, and RUMBLE through midlife together!

Together We Live Well and Flourish After 50

Thank you, friends! We are deeply grateful for you, our Rumblings' community, and we wish you a very happy, joyful, and reflective Thanksgiving day and long weekend, however you celebrate.

We’ll both be celebrating locally, but If you’re traveling this weekend, check out our Top Seven Tips for Successful Multigenerational Travel. Sometimes the biggest holiday stresses come from the expectations of family members and friends from different generations coming around the table together. Plan ahead, prepare yourself, and relish your time together. If we’ve learned anything over the last 20 months is that time together is valuable and something we won’t take for granted again.

We also plan to get out and enjoy the long weekend by doing a little shopping, decorating, and consuming lots of leftovers! Small business Saturday (November 27) is a great chance to support small local retailers in your area. We encourage you to seek out and support small women-owned businesses this holiday season. If you haven’t checked out our 2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Women which highlights gift ideas from small women-owned businesses, now is the time!

This is the time of year we prioritize time to pause, reflect, and celebrate our annual accomplishments, as well as strategize and plan for the next year. One annual ritual we’ve done individually and now as a business is setting one to three-word intention(s) for the year. Our Rumblings words for 2021 were learn, connect, and inspire. If you’ve never set your word(s) for the year, check out the process we use to choose our words. We’ll be going through this process in December to set our 2022 intentions.

We love hearing from you. One thing we’ve learned since we launched Rumblings is that many midlife women are looking for alignment between their professional or volunteer work, and their personal values. Two years ago, we were there too.

This rumbling often takes the form of wanting to start a new hobby, transition to a new job role, or jump into an entirely new career. We’ve been inspired by the midlife women we’ve met who have literally reinvented their career paths and are happier as a result. Whether you are just starting to feel a new rumbling that something needs to change or you’re ready to leap headfirst into a new career, read our most popular blog post of 2021—Discover How to Successfully Make Work and Life Transitions After 50.

Living well and flourishing after 50 is achievable! Together we thrive. Take a few moments this holiday season for you. Reflect, realign, and get ready to RUMBLE into 2022.

We look forward to RUMBLING right alongside you.