February 11, 2025 • 34 mins
In today's episode of the School of Midlife podcast, we challenge the conventional notion of a "midlife crisis." Host Laurie Reynoldson dives deep into why the term "midlife crisis" is outdated and doesn’t serve the high-performing women navigating midlife today. Rather than viewing midlife as a crisis, this episode reframes it as an incredible opportunity, a reset, and a turning point.
We discuss:
- The origins of the term "midlife crisis" and how it was initially framed around men’s career and mortality concerns.
- The different emotional experiences men and women face during midlife, including identity shifts, caregiving roles, and societal pressures related to aging.
- Why we should stop using the term "crisis" and start viewing midlife as an opportunity for reinvention.
- How societal expectations, especially for women, have historically contributed to feelings of dissatisfaction or anxiety, and how we can take control of our own narratives in midlife.
- Key questions to ask yourself as you enter this new chapter, including how you define success and what your best life truly looks like.
This episode encourages listeners to embrace midlife as a time for growth, change, and intentional decision-making, rather than a time of crisis. Let’s dive into the idea that midlife is not a period of difficulty but an opportunity for self-discovery, empowerment, and redefining our future.
LINKS + MENTIONS:
Free LIVE Training from the School of Midlife
Ep. 101: Striving vs. Thriving in Midlife: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living
📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter
👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
📩 Email Laurie
💻 Website
On Instagram
On LinkedIn
Work with Laurie
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
In this week's episode of theSchool of Midlife podcast, I'm
talking all about why there isno such thing as a midlife
crisis.
And I'm giving you somedifferent language to use to
talk about your midlifeexperience that will completely
change the way you live throughyour midlife years So let's get
started.
(00:21):
Welcome to the School of Midlifepodcast.
I'm your host, LaurieReynoldson.
This is the podcast for themidlife woman who starting to
ask herself big life questions.
Like, what do I want?
Is it too late for me?
And what's my legacy beyond myfamily and my work.
Each week we're answering thesequestions and more.
(00:43):
At the School of Midlife, we'relearning all of the life lessons
they didn't teach us in schooland we're figuring out finally
what it is we want to be when wegrow up.
Let's make midlife your bestlife.
Hey friends, it's Laurie.
Welcome back to another episodeof the School of Midlife
podcast.
I am thrilled to have you heretoday.
(01:06):
In today's episode we're goingto talk about midlife crisis.
I've been posting a lot onsocial media and I've just been
thinking a lot about this wholeidea of a midlife crisis and if
you've been around me much atall, you know that I don't
believe in the idea of a midlifecrisis, and I'm going to spend
(01:29):
some time in today's episodewalking you through explaining
why I feel that that is true,that there is no such thing as a
midlife crisis, that it's abunch of BS.
I guess I should start bysaying, in In response to a
number of the posts that I'vebeen doing lately on this very
(01:51):
topic, I've had women say, Oh,but you just don't know what I'm
going through.
I'm 100 percent going through amidlife crisis.
And I would say, if you'resomeone who finds herself in
that position, Two things.
Number one, if you're going tofight for your limitations, if
(02:12):
you're going to fight for yourlimitations, if you're going to
fight for your limiting beliefsin this case that you are having
a midlife crisis, then you getto keep your midlife crisis.
Because anything that we fightfor, any limitations that we
want to fight for, you get tokeep them.
So, if you're the type of personwho just has a whole list of
reasons why this is what'shappening to you, then
(02:33):
congratulations, you get to keepit.
If, and, and, and I will, I'll,I'll go one, So if you are
someone who feels like you'rehaving a midlife crisis and
you're looking for all sorts ofbits of information or proof
(02:56):
that what you are thinking istrue, then you're going to find
an infinite number of ways toback up your case, whatever
you're trying to prove.
I, I'm hopeful, after listeningto this episode, that you will
agree that there is no suchthing as a midlife crisis, that
midlife is more of anopportunity.
(03:17):
And hopefully if you are someonewho finds herself feeling like
you might be in that position ofa midlife crisis then you can
look at it a slightly differentway and hopefully find your way
out of the position that youseem to find yourself in.
So I want to start by just levelsetting here and giving a little
(03:41):
bit of information about thiswhole idea of midlife crisis.
The term actually was firstcoined by.
A Canadian psychoanalyst namedElliot Jacques in 1965, so not
even that long ago, even though1965 feels like it was like 30
years ago, it was actually 60years ago, but, so he, he was
(04:05):
writing this paper where hediscussed What he called a
crisis of the middle life,because what he was seeing in
men between 35 and 40 is thatmen were experiencing this deep
sense of dissatisfaction oranxiety about their life in
particular context to theaccomplishments that they had
(04:27):
made in their life up untilthen, and during that time.
So when men were in that 35 to45 period, and remember this is
in 1965, so men weren't livingas long, um, at that time, but
because they were having thiskind of dissatisfaction of where
they were in their life and inparticular their professional
(04:53):
life at that time, he noticedthat they were starting to
reevaluate their life goals andthis coincided with questions
about mortality and success andwho they were as a person and as
a father, not only in theirfamily, but in their community.
So, I mean, it's very, veryconsistent with a lot of the
(05:18):
same questions and issues thatwe continue to grapple with as a
society.
As humans, high performinghumans, we still are having
those questions, right?
Am I enough?
Have I done enough?
What have I accomplished?
Why don't I feel so happy aboutmy life?
Why, why is this, like, thisdeep sense of dissatisfaction or
(05:42):
anxiety?
Why, why am I experiencing that?
And again, it, it originallyapplied to men.
And then in, we'll, we'll callit kind of the late 20th
century.
In the 80s, more in the 90s.
Psychologists then startedlooking at how a woman's midlife
experience, we'll call it anexperience and not a crisis, but
(06:05):
how women were experiencing thismidlife angst differently than
men.
So women, had similar feelingsof dissatisfaction, but instead
of framing them relative tocareer and the professional
accomplishments, they were moreoften framed around identity
(06:28):
shifts, particularly as itrelated to transitioning from
caregiving roles of say, raisingyour children into taking care
of your aging parents thephysical changes related to
menopause, and then becausewomen were going back into the
workforce in the 80s and 90s,some of them were navigating
(06:51):
some career changes.
But again, Most of what womenwere experiencing were related
to identity shifts.
Who am I now that I'm midlife?
And this was particularly truegiven the societal expectations
and the values that we place onyouth and appearance and
traditional gender roles.
(07:12):
And, I mean, obviously I don'thave to tell you that our
society places a I mean, I mean,all we have to do is look at
television shows and movies and,and even protagonists and books
and see that.
The younger, prettier, skinnier,the young woman is, by and
(07:38):
large, given much more time andattention than women in a
certain age, right?
I mean, once, once we get pastour 20s and 30s, then in many
cases, and this is changing, butIn the past, in many cases, once
we aged into our 40s and 50s andbeyond, it was almost like we
were washed up, that we were, wewere not good for anything.
(08:01):
Um, I, I would say we, it waschanging, although I'm thinking
back to a couple of commentsmade like during the election
season, in particular, J.
D.
Vance's, comment that, and thisis not trying to get into
politics at all, but this issomething that he said, that,
that midlife women andgrandmothers in particular,
(08:22):
their whole role should be tofocus on helping raise their
grandchildren.
Which, agree or disagree, I, Ido not agree with that.
It just seems to be another wayin which in our society we try
and keep women in certainsocietal roles and expectations
and if you've been around herefor a while then you know that
(08:42):
I, I don't subscribe to thoseroles or those societal
identities.
Psychologists have also foundthat there seem to be, along
with this, the shift inpriorities in midlife, the
emotional and the psychologicalexperiences of men and women in
midlife, they're a littledifferent.
(09:02):
So the focus of midlife, let'scall it angst, let's dispose of
the word crisis, but men inmidlife, most of their feelings
of an ease or angst, They'reassociated with career
achievement and their questionof have I done enough?
Have I achieved enough?
(09:24):
Where am I?
In relation to other men in mycareer of my age, how am I
comparing to what they havedone?
Men also experience the whole.
How can I reclaim my lost youth,right?
So that's why we see them havingaffairs with younger women, why
(09:45):
they buy the sports car, whythey start dyeing their hair or
they take testosterone, they,they hit the gym, but how, how
can they How can they appearyounger?
How can they reclaim, almostlike their glory days?
How can they get back to whothey were in high school and
what they look like in college?
(10:06):
And so this whole idea thatthey're young and virile and
They're a catch, right?
So, so men, that's the focus ofwhat they go through in midlife.
And women, on the other hand,they're more likely to focus
again on their identity,particularly because they're
transitioning through theseroles related to caregiving and
(10:30):
menopause and, and, and careerchanges as well.
But also they tend to experienceIt's more emotional distress
tied to empty nest syndrome,when the kids are grown and
flown, changes in theirphysicality brought on by
menopause, and then of coursethe societal pressures regarding
(10:55):
their age.
And we, we talked briefly aboutmovies and books and.
How women just get aged outearlier.
Men seem to and this is based onstudies, but they seem to
experience a It's a moreintense, outwardly dramatic
crisis, and because we can seetheir impulsive behavior, we can
(11:15):
see them stepping out with theiryoung secretary, we can see them
buying the new sports car, wecan see them dying their hair,
and that contrasts with Womenwho internalize it way more when
they start questioning theirrole in society, when they start
considering their personalgoals, when they, they deal with
(11:37):
anxiety about aging.
About who they want to be, abouthave they done enough, about are
they running out of time, aboutwhat is their legacy beyond
their family and their career.
So whereas men, you can reallysee it from the outside, women
it's more of an internal feelingand experience.
(12:01):
So with that background.
I want to talk about why I don'tthink there is any such thing as
a midlife crisis and actuallythere is some research, fairly
recently, say in the last 20 30years, that Some psychologists
and researchers have actuallychallenged the idea of this
midlife crisis, saying it'seither an oversimplification of
(12:24):
what is going on in midlife, toother people agreeing that it's,
it's a myth.
And instead of midlife beingmarked by turmoil, As suggested
by the term crisis, it's reallyshould be viewed more as a
period of personal growth,emotional regulation, really
(12:48):
aging into and stepping into theperson who You, you have always
wanted to, to be, to become, Iof course agree with those
psychologists and researcherswho, who think that it's really
a myth, that it's, it's not athing at all.
It's more of an opportunity andwe're going to talk about that a
little bit more as we get intothis episode.
(13:12):
Okay.
So Why don't I think that theterm crisis is what we should be
calling what's going on inmidlife?
Let's start with the definition.
By definition, a crisis is aperiod of intense difficulty,
trouble, or danger.
I don't know about you, butturning 40, turning 50, that was
(13:33):
not difficult, troublesome, ordangerous.
Aging is a privilege, right?
I mean, it's so much better thanthe alternative.
I think we should all be able toagree that Aging into our 40s
and 50s, 60s and beyond, thatmight feel like, Oh, you know,
it might give us a little pauseand think, Oh my God, what have
I done with my life?
(13:54):
What am I going to do with mylife?
But it's not a period of intensedifficulty, trouble or danger.
It's just not.
The fact that you have anotherbirthday to celebrate, the fact
that you are moving into a newperiod of your life.
That is not a crisis.
That is not difficult.
It's not troublesome.
It's not dangerous.
(14:15):
It simply is a new period oftime that you're aging into.
It's not a crisis.
I think a couple of ways that wecould talk about it differently
would be to talk about themidlife opportunity.
Opportunity is defined as a setof circumstances that make it
possible to do something.
So many of us as we age intomidlife, we have this incredible
(14:37):
opportunity to do something moreor different with our life.
It's more of an opportunity thana crisis.
It's more of a turning pointthan a crisis.
A turning point is defined as a,a point.
Whether.
I think we can all agree thatthere is some sort of a turning
(15:01):
point that all of us experiencein midlife, whether that is
trying to figure out who we areonce the kids leave, whether
that's trying to determine whatdo we do next after we've
reached the pinnacle of ourcareer, whether that is a focus
on, how do I want to live thesecond half of my life that is
either the same or differentthan what I did before?
(15:24):
But we've got this opportunity,we've got this incredible
turning point where importantchange can occur.
We could also talk about it as asweet spot.
Midlife being this optimum pointor combination of factors or
qualities.
Related to that is the idea ofan inflection point and that is
a time of significant change ina situation or a turning point.
(15:47):
So we already talked aboutturning point but again it's
this idea that It's a period oftime where things are changing
and if we are paying attentionto the midlife lessons that we
should all be learning, thatsignificant change can be very
intentional.
Instead of prior changes in ourlife which we have just allowed
(16:10):
to happen to us.
Or changes that we have made inour life because we felt like we
should do them that they wereexpected of us that we were just
kind of following the adultingsuccess playbook in exactly the
way that we were supposed to goto school, get a job, get
married, have a family, buy ahouse, all of those things.
(16:37):
And midlife is a time when a lotof us step back and say, well,
that success checklist, theadulting playbook that I was
given of all the things I shouldbe doing, that, that's not
working for me anymore.
What do I want to do different?
In midlife and beyond.
And so that's when we see thisidea of an inflection point, a
turning point, a period of timeof significant change.
(17:01):
And finally another way we couldthink about this is a reset.
To reset means to set againdifferently.
So if we are trying to dosomething different in our life,
in the second half of our life,then we should look at midlife
more as a reset and not acrisis.
with those definitions in mind,hopefully I have convinced you
(17:25):
that Midlife is not a crisis atall.
It's, it's more of anopportunity.
It's a reset, a turning point.
However you want to define it.
But it's, it's much more of agift than this almost scarlet
letter branding that, oh, I'm inmidlife and you know, life as
I've known it is just, it's alldownhill from here.
And I 100 percent do notsubscribe to that.
(17:48):
In fact, in my opinion the termmidlife crisis it's society
speak, and when I say societyspeak, I mean white man society
speak for a point in a woman'slife where she starts choosing
herself first and foremost inher life.
When she starts making decisionsthat put herself first, that,
(18:10):
that make her the lead characterin her own story.
And you might be out therethinking, well, of course, we're
the lead character in our ownlives, but not every woman lives
that way.
What I mean by that is for manyhigh performing women, we feel
like we have to not only achievein the workplace, but then we
(18:34):
also have to come home and takecare of absolutely everything.
At home, we've got to be thebest mom, we've got to be the
best wife, we've got to makesure that the house is always
clean, the bills are paid, likeall of the traditional female
caretaking roles in the home.
We have those, we still claimthose, but in addition to that,
we still have to go out and makethe money to help pay for the
(18:59):
lifestyle that our families havebecome accustomed to.
And for many women, they want tobe able to work outside of the
home.
Certainly, they understand theprivilege and the opportunity of
staying home full time, takingcare of kids, raising them up,
that, that is very important towork, but for many women, it's
(19:20):
not enough, and in our society,a lot of times, we tend to judge
women Hell, I mean, let's justcall a spade a spade.
We judge women whether they stayhome and take care of their kids
full time, or we judge themwhether they go to work and
leave their kids either inschool or if they're not old
enough to be in school yet, weleave them with a nanny or a
(19:43):
caregiver or we take them todaycare.
So we're judging womenregardless of the decisions that
they make.
Which means, to me, you betterfigure out what it is you want
to do and stop worrying aboutwhat anybody else thinks about
you because they're gonna judgeyou anyway.
So, isn't it more important, andisn't it in fact most important,
(20:05):
that You take control of what itis you want to do in your life
and just assume that thenaysayers, the judgers, the
people who have an opinion aboutyou that is somehow different
than how they would do it,they're going to do that anyway.
So we might as well do thethings that feel right to us,
that feel important to us.
(20:27):
circling back.
I think this whole idea of amidlife crisis, particularly as
it relates to women, it's whenwomen started inconveniencing
the men in our lives.
It was different in the 50s andthe 60s and the 70s, when women
were staying at home and takingcare of the home and then the
husband would come home fromwork and it was all, Hey, honey,
(20:49):
I'm home.
I'm thinking, Hey, Especiallyof, like, the Brady Bunch.
I was a huge Brady Bunch fan.
Did you see that several yearsago on HGTV, they did a whole,
story on redoing the house thatthe Brady Bunch was filmed in?
I just, I always wanted to livein that house, and I loved the
idea of three boys and threegirls, and then they had that
(21:13):
cool Jack and Jill bathroombetween their bedrooms, and I
just thought that the Bradyswere so cool.
I loved everything about them.
But for the most part, Carolstayed home during the day.
And Mike, Brady, comes home as,you know, from his, his
architecture practice.
Also had a very cool office inhis own home, at the base of
(21:34):
those really cool stairs in thathuge living room.
You know what I'm talking about,right?
But he would come homeessentially and be like, Carol,
I'm home for the day.
And, you know, she would givehim a hug and a kiss and ask him
all about his day and make surethat Alice was working on dinner
so that they could have dinner.
And it's different, that wholeidea is different than how
(21:59):
things are in reality right now,which is most women are also
working outside of the home,which means when they get home,
they're just as tired, they'vehad as just as long a day,
they've been dealing with thesame sort of mental issues and
highly Taxing emotional issuesat work, but unlike men, when
(22:22):
women come home, men are like,Hey, I'm home, feed me, make me
happy.
Women are like, and now I'm homeand now I get to start the
second half of my day, which istaking care of my family.
And for me, the reason that Ithink this term of midlife
crisis, particularly as itpertains to women, has gained so
(22:43):
much traction is in ourrelationships, by and large, the
women have still carried thebulk of the caregiving, the
hometending responsibilities, inaddition to going to work.
But now they're finally saying,This traditional separation of
work and home, and ourresponsibilities at work and
(23:06):
home.
That's no longer working for me.
And when she does that, the manin the relationship, the
husband, the spouse, all of asudden is like, Well, what in
the hell is going on?
I don't feel like I'm the mostimportant person in your life
anymore.
I don't feel like I'm the centerof attention.
I don't feel like you are payingas much.
(23:27):
Attention to me as you didbefore.
Okay, I feel like you're goingcrazy.
I feel like you're not actinglike yourself.
What is going on?
You must be having a midlifecrisis.
It's just easier for the men inparticular to say, you're not
acting like yourself.
Something's wrong.
I feel like you're, you're goingcrazy.
(23:47):
You must be having a midlifecrisis.
It's easier for them to say thatthan to look inside and do some
deep internal introspection andthink, huh, I wonder why she's
feeling like that.
I wonder what about our homesituation or our relationship or
the rules that we have come tolive by in our relationship, why
(24:11):
aren't those working for heranymore?
And it's been a very convenientexcuse.
High performing women are.
Historically, bad at setting andholding healthy boundaries
because we want to make surethat everyone around us is taken
care of.
We want to make sure thateverything around us is taken
care of.
And we are often times quick tostep in to address issues,
(24:34):
problems, struggles of otherpeople.
Take those away, carry those onour back so that they don't have
to.
We want to make everything astidy and convenient for the
people around us as we can, andwe do, and we have done that for
years.
And so what happens in midlifeis when we, we get to midlife
and we think, you know what,this is no longer working for
(24:55):
me.
I'm exhausted.
The roles I have played, I'mconfused about who I am because
the kids have left the house.
My parents need my help.
My spouse still wants my fullattention.
And I don't even feel like Iknow myself anymore.
To address that, then we startsetting some boundaries.
(25:15):
And we start holding them.
But because those boundarieshave never been a part of our
relationship up until thispoint, then all of a sudden the
people around us, they feel likethey're getting pushback.
They feel like we've changed.
They feel like that we're notacting like ourselves.
And instead of addressing theissues in the relationship, the
problems with communication, thestruggles that women are having
(25:38):
on an emotional level, insteadof doing that, then we just say,
as a society, she's having amidlife crisis.
But I want to flip that, and Iwant to give you permission to
step Into this idea that midlifeis an opportunity, that it's a
beautiful reset if you take it,that it's a turning point.
(26:00):
If you want it.
If you get to midlife and youstart feeling angsty, you, you
start feeling like, wow, I'veworked my ass off to get to this
point.
I felt like once I got tomidlife, everything would feel
wonderful and great and I'dfinally know what I wanted to do
with the second half of my life.
(26:21):
If, if you are at that point andyou're experiencing any of that,
then I would say you're exactlywhere you need to be.
You are not having a midlifecrisis.
You are just at this Turningpoint in your life, where you
can either continue to keep upthe appearances that you have up
until now, you can stay in theroles, keep the responsibilities
(26:47):
in your relationships exactlyhow you have until now, you can
hang on to those identities ofhow you have until now, you can
hang on to those identities ofcaretaker, chief problem solver,
busiest person in your family,taking care of everyone else.
You can, you can decide thatyou're going to continue to do
(27:08):
those things in the same waythat you have before.
Or, you can see midlife as thisopportunity, this turning point,
this reset when important changehappens.
It's a turning point, right?
It's when you get to decidewhat's important for you in the
second half of your life.
(27:29):
And that gets back to the threesimple principles that I talk
about all of the time.
Which is, what is it you want inlife?
And when I say that, it's notwhat have you been conditioned
to want, not what you wereraised to want, not what your
parents told you to want, notwhat society tells you to want,
but what is it that you actuallywant?
And how do you define success?
(27:51):
Society tells us that successis, is related to our job title,
how many zeros we get on ourpaycheck, how many material
items that we accumulate over alifetime.
That could be your definition ofsuccess, but my guess is your
definition of success issomething more along the lines
of doing what you want, when youwant to do it, with whom you
(28:15):
want to do it.
It's really that simple.
Having the freedom and clarityto.
And I would say, you know what,no, I'm not going to continue to
work to earn a certain title orearn a certain paycheck when
that no longer aligns with myvalues and how I want to live my
life.
We talked about this a littlebit on last week's episode.
(28:38):
This whole idea of how do youknow when enough is enough?
How do you know when it's timeto step back?
Like you don't have to continueto strive because you already
have everything that you need.
That is absolutely tied with theidea of how do I define success?
And how can I live my life as asuccess in the way that I think
(29:01):
of success?
And then the third principle isknowing what your best life
looks like.
Because you can't make midlifeand beyond your best life if you
don't know what it is.
If you don't know what it isthat you are trying to create in
your life, it's like trying toput together a puzzle and having
(29:22):
no idea what the done puzzlelooks like.
It's like trying to recreateyour favorite dinner.
Your favorite meal from thatsmall restaurant in Florence,
Italy.
And you don't have a recipe.
it's like visiting your bestfriend in her new city without
(29:42):
having an address or a GPS toget you to her new house.
how do we get from where we aretoday?
How do we relate to living ourbest life and the life that we
want to live if we don't knowwhat that looks like?
If we've never stepped back andtaken the time to understand
what's important to me?
What do I value?
And then creating a life thatcenters on those principles.
(30:07):
What do I value?
What do I want?
How do I define success?
So, when I think about midlife,I think about it as this
incredible opportunity.
What about you?
Does it feel like an opportunityto you?
Does it feel like a burden?
Does it feel exciting?
Does it feel draining?
Do you, do you get anxious in anexcited way?
(30:28):
Or do you get anxious in a verydisquieting, uncomfortable way?
Because you get to choose that.
If you're someone who doesn'treally know what you want the
second half of your life to looklike.
You, you know that you're havingsome feelings of angst.
You know that you're not livingWith the feeling of fulfillment
(30:50):
or satisfaction or maybe evenhappiness that you expected to
even though you have everythingyou always thought you ever
wanted Right the life thatyou're living right now you
dreamt up the Ten year oldtwenty year old you thought if
you could only get to this pointyou would be living the dream
And a lot of us did that and weare living the dream and it's
like well what the hell now thisdoesn't feel like I thought it
(31:12):
would.
If you're feeling any of that Iam hosting a training this week
to walk you through more indepth on the three simple
principles that every midlifewoman needs to know to walk you
through.
Skip the midlife crisis tocreate her best life and midlife
and beyond.
I will include a clickable linkin the show notes and would love
(31:34):
it if you were able to join usfor that.
I'm going to end with this ideathat the words we use to
describe ourselves and our livesare very important.
So if we want to continuefeeling like midlife is a
crisis, Then that is exactly howwe're going to approach it
(31:54):
because we're telling our brainthat that's what we think
midlife Means to us that it's acrisis.
It's this period of intensedifficulty or trouble or danger.
It's something that we don'twant but if we flipped those
words and we say, you know whatmidlife is an opportunity It's
this sweet spot.
It's a reset.
It's a turning point Then, Ipromise you, your midlife
(32:16):
experience is going to be much,much different and likely better
than what you've beenexperiencing before, just by
changing the terminology thatyou're using to describe
midlife.
I'd love to hear from you.
What do you think?
Do you agree that midlife is acrisis?
(32:37):
Do you agree that midlife issomething other than a crisis?
Take a screenshot of thisepisode.
Tag me on Instagram.
Let me know your thoughts.
Is it a midlife crisis?
Is it something else?
I'd love to hear what you think.
Thanks so much for being heretoday.
As always, I am so grateful thatyou come each week and spend a
(32:58):
little bit of your time with meto talk about things that really
matter to midlife women so thatwe can together live our best
life in midlife and beyond.
I'll see you right back herenext week when the School of
Midlife is back in session.
Until then, take good care.
Thank you so much for listeningto the School of Midlife
podcast.
It means so much to have youhere each week.
(33:20):
If you enjoyed this episode,could you do me the biggest
favor and help us spread theword to other midlife women?
There are a couple of easy waysfor you to do that first.
And most importantly, if you'renot already following the show,
would you please subscribe?
That helps you because you'llnever miss an episode.
And it helps us because you'llnever miss an episode.
(33:43):
Second, if you'd be so kind toleave us a five-star rating,
that would be absolutelyincredible.
And finally, I personally readeach and every one of your
reviews.
So if you take a minute and saysome nice things about the
podcast, well, that's just goodkarma.
Thanks again for listening.
I'll see you right back here.
Next week when the School ofMidlife is back in session until
(34:05):
then take good care.
In this week's episode of theSchool of Midlife podcast, I'm
talking all about why there isno such thing as a midlife
crisis.
And I'm giving you somedifferent language to use to
talk about your midlifeexperience that will completely
change the way you live throughyour midlife years So let's get
started.
(00:21):
Welcome to the School of Midlifepodcast.
I'm your host, LaurieReynoldson.
This is the podcast for themidlife woman who starting to
ask herself big life questions.
Like, what do I want?
Is it too late for me?
And what's my legacy beyond myfamily and my work.
Each week we're answering thesequestions and more.
(00:43):
At the School of Midlife, we'relearning all of the life lessons
they didn't teach us in schooland we're figuring out finally
what it is we want to be when wegrow up.
Let's make midlife your bestlife.
Hey friends, it's Laurie.
Welcome back to another episodeof the School of Midlife
podcast.
I am thrilled to have you heretoday.
(01:06):
In today's episode we're goingto talk about midlife crisis.
I've been posting a lot onsocial media and I've just been
thinking a lot about this wholeidea of a midlife crisis and if
you've been around me much atall, you know that I don't
believe in the idea of a midlifecrisis, and I'm going to spend
(01:29):
some time in today's episodewalking you through explaining
why I feel that that is true,that there is no such thing as a
midlife crisis, that it's abunch of BS.
I guess I should start bysaying, in In response to a
number of the posts that I'vebeen doing lately on this very
(01:51):
topic, I've had women say, Oh,but you just don't know what I'm
going through.
I'm 100 percent going through amidlife crisis.
And I would say, if you'resomeone who finds herself in
that position, Two things.
Number one, if you're going tofight for your limitations, if
(02:12):
you're going to fight for yourlimitations, if you're going to
fight for your limiting beliefsin this case that you are having
a midlife crisis, then you getto keep your midlife crisis.
Because anything that we fightfor, any limitations that we
want to fight for, you get tokeep them.
So, if you're the type of personwho just has a whole list of
reasons why this is what'shappening to you, then
(02:33):
congratulations, you get to keepit.
If, and, and, and I will, I'll,I'll go one, So if you are
someone who feels like you'rehaving a midlife crisis and
you're looking for all sorts ofbits of information or proof
(02:56):
that what you are thinking istrue, then you're going to find
an infinite number of ways toback up your case, whatever
you're trying to prove.
I, I'm hopeful, after listeningto this episode, that you will
agree that there is no suchthing as a midlife crisis, that
midlife is more of anopportunity.
(03:17):
And hopefully if you are someonewho finds herself feeling like
you might be in that position ofa midlife crisis then you can
look at it a slightly differentway and hopefully find your way
out of the position that youseem to find yourself in.
So I want to start by just levelsetting here and giving a little
(03:41):
bit of information about thiswhole idea of midlife crisis.
The term actually was firstcoined by.
A Canadian psychoanalyst namedElliot Jacques in 1965, so not
even that long ago, even though1965 feels like it was like 30
years ago, it was actually 60years ago, but, so he, he was
(04:05):
writing this paper where hediscussed What he called a
crisis of the middle life,because what he was seeing in
men between 35 and 40 is thatmen were experiencing this deep
sense of dissatisfaction oranxiety about their life in
particular context to theaccomplishments that they had
(04:27):
made in their life up untilthen, and during that time.
So when men were in that 35 to45 period, and remember this is
in 1965, so men weren't livingas long, um, at that time, but
because they were having thiskind of dissatisfaction of where
they were in their life and inparticular their professional
(04:53):
life at that time, he noticedthat they were starting to
reevaluate their life goals andthis coincided with questions
about mortality and success andwho they were as a person and as
a father, not only in theirfamily, but in their community.
So, I mean, it's very, veryconsistent with a lot of the
(05:18):
same questions and issues thatwe continue to grapple with as a
society.
As humans, high performinghumans, we still are having
those questions, right?
Am I enough?
Have I done enough?
What have I accomplished?
Why don't I feel so happy aboutmy life?
Why, why is this, like, thisdeep sense of dissatisfaction or
(05:42):
anxiety?
Why, why am I experiencing that?
And again, it, it originallyapplied to men.
And then in, we'll, we'll callit kind of the late 20th
century.
In the 80s, more in the 90s.
Psychologists then startedlooking at how a woman's midlife
experience, we'll call it anexperience and not a crisis, but
(06:05):
how women were experiencing thismidlife angst differently than
men.
So women, had similar feelingsof dissatisfaction, but instead
of framing them relative tocareer and the professional
accomplishments, they were moreoften framed around identity
(06:28):
shifts, particularly as itrelated to transitioning from
caregiving roles of say, raisingyour children into taking care
of your aging parents thephysical changes related to
menopause, and then becausewomen were going back into the
workforce in the 80s and 90s,some of them were navigating
(06:51):
some career changes.
But again, Most of what womenwere experiencing were related
to identity shifts.
Who am I now that I'm midlife?
And this was particularly truegiven the societal expectations
and the values that we place onyouth and appearance and
traditional gender roles.
(07:12):
And, I mean, obviously I don'thave to tell you that our
society places a I mean, I mean,all we have to do is look at
television shows and movies and,and even protagonists and books
and see that.
The younger, prettier, skinnier,the young woman is, by and
(07:38):
large, given much more time andattention than women in a
certain age, right?
I mean, once, once we get pastour 20s and 30s, then in many
cases, and this is changing, butIn the past, in many cases, once
we aged into our 40s and 50s andbeyond, it was almost like we
were washed up, that we were, wewere not good for anything.
(08:01):
Um, I, I would say we, it waschanging, although I'm thinking
back to a couple of commentsmade like during the election
season, in particular, J.
D.
Vance's, comment that, and thisis not trying to get into
politics at all, but this issomething that he said, that,
that midlife women andgrandmothers in particular,
(08:22):
their whole role should be tofocus on helping raise their
grandchildren.
Which, agree or disagree, I, Ido not agree with that.
It just seems to be another wayin which in our society we try
and keep women in certainsocietal roles and expectations
and if you've been around herefor a while then you know that
(08:42):
I, I don't subscribe to thoseroles or those societal
identities.
Psychologists have also foundthat there seem to be, along
with this, the shift inpriorities in midlife, the
emotional and the psychologicalexperiences of men and women in
midlife, they're a littledifferent.
(09:02):
So the focus of midlife, let'scall it angst, let's dispose of
the word crisis, but men inmidlife, most of their feelings
of an ease or angst, They'reassociated with career
achievement and their questionof have I done enough?
Have I achieved enough?
(09:24):
Where am I?
In relation to other men in mycareer of my age, how am I
comparing to what they havedone?
Men also experience the whole.
How can I reclaim my lost youth,right?
So that's why we see them havingaffairs with younger women, why
(09:45):
they buy the sports car, whythey start dyeing their hair or
they take testosterone, they,they hit the gym, but how, how
can they How can they appearyounger?
How can they reclaim, almostlike their glory days?
How can they get back to whothey were in high school and
what they look like in college?
(10:06):
And so this whole idea thatthey're young and virile and
They're a catch, right?
So, so men, that's the focus ofwhat they go through in midlife.
And women, on the other hand,they're more likely to focus
again on their identity,particularly because they're
transitioning through theseroles related to caregiving and
(10:30):
menopause and, and, and careerchanges as well.
But also they tend to experienceIt's more emotional distress
tied to empty nest syndrome,when the kids are grown and
flown, changes in theirphysicality brought on by
menopause, and then of coursethe societal pressures regarding
(10:55):
their age.
And we, we talked briefly aboutmovies and books and.
How women just get aged outearlier.
Men seem to and this is based onstudies, but they seem to
experience a It's a moreintense, outwardly dramatic
crisis, and because we can seetheir impulsive behavior, we can
(11:15):
see them stepping out with theiryoung secretary, we can see them
buying the new sports car, wecan see them dying their hair,
and that contrasts with Womenwho internalize it way more when
they start questioning theirrole in society, when they start
considering their personalgoals, when they, they deal with
(11:37):
anxiety about aging.
About who they want to be, abouthave they done enough, about are
they running out of time, aboutwhat is their legacy beyond
their family and their career.
So whereas men, you can reallysee it from the outside, women
it's more of an internal feelingand experience.
(12:01):
So with that background.
I want to talk about why I don'tthink there is any such thing as
a midlife crisis and actuallythere is some research, fairly
recently, say in the last 20 30years, that Some psychologists
and researchers have actuallychallenged the idea of this
midlife crisis, saying it'seither an oversimplification of
(12:24):
what is going on in midlife, toother people agreeing that it's,
it's a myth.
And instead of midlife beingmarked by turmoil, As suggested
by the term crisis, it's reallyshould be viewed more as a
period of personal growth,emotional regulation, really
(12:48):
aging into and stepping into theperson who You, you have always
wanted to, to be, to become, Iof course agree with those
psychologists and researcherswho, who think that it's really
a myth, that it's, it's not athing at all.
It's more of an opportunity andwe're going to talk about that a
little bit more as we get intothis episode.
(13:12):
Okay.
So Why don't I think that theterm crisis is what we should be
calling what's going on inmidlife?
Let's start with the definition.
By definition, a crisis is aperiod of intense difficulty,
trouble, or danger.
I don't know about you, butturning 40, turning 50, that was
(13:33):
not difficult, troublesome, ordangerous.
Aging is a privilege, right?
I mean, it's so much better thanthe alternative.
I think we should all be able toagree that Aging into our 40s
and 50s, 60s and beyond, thatmight feel like, Oh, you know,
it might give us a little pauseand think, Oh my God, what have
I done with my life?
(13:54):
What am I going to do with mylife?
But it's not a period of intensedifficulty, trouble or danger.
It's just not.
The fact that you have anotherbirthday to celebrate, the fact
that you are moving into a newperiod of your life.
That is not a crisis.
That is not difficult.
It's not troublesome.
It's not dangerous.
(14:15):
It simply is a new period oftime that you're aging into.
It's not a crisis.
I think a couple of ways that wecould talk about it differently
would be to talk about themidlife opportunity.
Opportunity is defined as a setof circumstances that make it
possible to do something.
So many of us as we age intomidlife, we have this incredible
(14:37):
opportunity to do something moreor different with our life.
It's more of an opportunity thana crisis.
It's more of a turning pointthan a crisis.
A turning point is defined as a,a point.
Whether.
I think we can all agree thatthere is some sort of a turning
(15:01):
point that all of us experiencein midlife, whether that is
trying to figure out who we areonce the kids leave, whether
that's trying to determine whatdo we do next after we've
reached the pinnacle of ourcareer, whether that is a focus
on, how do I want to live thesecond half of my life that is
either the same or differentthan what I did before?
(15:24):
But we've got this opportunity,we've got this incredible
turning point where importantchange can occur.
We could also talk about it as asweet spot.
Midlife being this optimum pointor combination of factors or
qualities.
Related to that is the idea ofan inflection point and that is
a time of significant change ina situation or a turning point.
(15:47):
So we already talked aboutturning point but again it's
this idea that It's a period oftime where things are changing
and if we are paying attentionto the midlife lessons that we
should all be learning, thatsignificant change can be very
intentional.
Instead of prior changes in ourlife which we have just allowed
(16:10):
to happen to us.
Or changes that we have made inour life because we felt like we
should do them that they wereexpected of us that we were just
kind of following the adultingsuccess playbook in exactly the
way that we were supposed to goto school, get a job, get
married, have a family, buy ahouse, all of those things.
(16:37):
And midlife is a time when a lotof us step back and say, well,
that success checklist, theadulting playbook that I was
given of all the things I shouldbe doing, that, that's not
working for me anymore.
What do I want to do different?
In midlife and beyond.
And so that's when we see thisidea of an inflection point, a
turning point, a period of timeof significant change.
(17:01):
And finally another way we couldthink about this is a reset.
To reset means to set againdifferently.
So if we are trying to dosomething different in our life,
in the second half of our life,then we should look at midlife
more as a reset and not acrisis.
with those definitions in mind,hopefully I have convinced you
(17:25):
that Midlife is not a crisis atall.
It's, it's more of anopportunity.
It's a reset, a turning point.
However you want to define it.
But it's, it's much more of agift than this almost scarlet
letter branding that, oh, I'm inmidlife and you know, life as
I've known it is just, it's alldownhill from here.
And I 100 percent do notsubscribe to that.
(17:48):
In fact, in my opinion the termmidlife crisis it's society
speak, and when I say societyspeak, I mean white man society
speak for a point in a woman'slife where she starts choosing
herself first and foremost inher life.
When she starts making decisionsthat put herself first, that,
(18:10):
that make her the lead characterin her own story.
And you might be out therethinking, well, of course, we're
the lead character in our ownlives, but not every woman lives
that way.
What I mean by that is for manyhigh performing women, we feel
like we have to not only achievein the workplace, but then we
(18:34):
also have to come home and takecare of absolutely everything.
At home, we've got to be thebest mom, we've got to be the
best wife, we've got to makesure that the house is always
clean, the bills are paid, likeall of the traditional female
caretaking roles in the home.
We have those, we still claimthose, but in addition to that,
we still have to go out and makethe money to help pay for the
(18:59):
lifestyle that our families havebecome accustomed to.
And for many women, they want tobe able to work outside of the
home.
Certainly, they understand theprivilege and the opportunity of
staying home full time, takingcare of kids, raising them up,
that, that is very important towork, but for many women, it's
(19:20):
not enough, and in our society,a lot of times, we tend to judge
women Hell, I mean, let's justcall a spade a spade.
We judge women whether they stayhome and take care of their kids
full time, or we judge themwhether they go to work and
leave their kids either inschool or if they're not old
enough to be in school yet, weleave them with a nanny or a
(19:43):
caregiver or we take them todaycare.
So we're judging womenregardless of the decisions that
they make.
Which means, to me, you betterfigure out what it is you want
to do and stop worrying aboutwhat anybody else thinks about
you because they're gonna judgeyou anyway.
So, isn't it more important, andisn't it in fact most important,
(20:05):
that You take control of what itis you want to do in your life
and just assume that thenaysayers, the judgers, the
people who have an opinion aboutyou that is somehow different
than how they would do it,they're going to do that anyway.
So we might as well do thethings that feel right to us,
that feel important to us.
(20:27):
circling back.
I think this whole idea of amidlife crisis, particularly as
it relates to women, it's whenwomen started inconveniencing
the men in our lives.
It was different in the 50s andthe 60s and the 70s, when women
were staying at home and takingcare of the home and then the
husband would come home fromwork and it was all, Hey, honey,
(20:49):
I'm home.
I'm thinking, Hey, Especiallyof, like, the Brady Bunch.
I was a huge Brady Bunch fan.
Did you see that several yearsago on HGTV, they did a whole,
story on redoing the house thatthe Brady Bunch was filmed in?
I just, I always wanted to livein that house, and I loved the
idea of three boys and threegirls, and then they had that
(21:13):
cool Jack and Jill bathroombetween their bedrooms, and I
just thought that the Bradyswere so cool.
I loved everything about them.
But for the most part, Carolstayed home during the day.
And Mike, Brady, comes home as,you know, from his, his
architecture practice.
Also had a very cool office inhis own home, at the base of
(21:34):
those really cool stairs in thathuge living room.
You know what I'm talking about,right?
But he would come homeessentially and be like, Carol,
I'm home for the day.
And, you know, she would givehim a hug and a kiss and ask him
all about his day and make surethat Alice was working on dinner
so that they could have dinner.
And it's different, that wholeidea is different than how
(21:59):
things are in reality right now,which is most women are also
working outside of the home,which means when they get home,
they're just as tired, they'vehad as just as long a day,
they've been dealing with thesame sort of mental issues and
highly Taxing emotional issuesat work, but unlike men, when
(22:22):
women come home, men are like,Hey, I'm home, feed me, make me
happy.
Women are like, and now I'm homeand now I get to start the
second half of my day, which istaking care of my family.
And for me, the reason that Ithink this term of midlife
crisis, particularly as itpertains to women, has gained so
(22:43):
much traction is in ourrelationships, by and large, the
women have still carried thebulk of the caregiving, the
hometending responsibilities, inaddition to going to work.
But now they're finally saying,This traditional separation of
work and home, and ourresponsibilities at work and
(23:06):
home.
That's no longer working for me.
And when she does that, the manin the relationship, the
husband, the spouse, all of asudden is like, Well, what in
the hell is going on?
I don't feel like I'm the mostimportant person in your life
anymore.
I don't feel like I'm the centerof attention.
I don't feel like you are payingas much.
(23:27):
Attention to me as you didbefore.
Okay, I feel like you're goingcrazy.
I feel like you're not actinglike yourself.
What is going on?
You must be having a midlifecrisis.
It's just easier for the men inparticular to say, you're not
acting like yourself.
Something's wrong.
I feel like you're, you're goingcrazy.
(23:47):
You must be having a midlifecrisis.
It's easier for them to say thatthan to look inside and do some
deep internal introspection andthink, huh, I wonder why she's
feeling like that.
I wonder what about our homesituation or our relationship or
the rules that we have come tolive by in our relationship, why
(24:11):
aren't those working for heranymore?
And it's been a very convenientexcuse.
High performing women are.
Historically, bad at setting andholding healthy boundaries
because we want to make surethat everyone around us is taken
care of.
We want to make sure thateverything around us is taken
care of.
And we are often times quick tostep in to address issues,
(24:34):
problems, struggles of otherpeople.
Take those away, carry those onour back so that they don't have
to.
We want to make everything astidy and convenient for the
people around us as we can, andwe do, and we have done that for
years.
And so what happens in midlifeis when we, we get to midlife
and we think, you know what,this is no longer working for
(24:55):
me.
I'm exhausted.
The roles I have played, I'mconfused about who I am because
the kids have left the house.
My parents need my help.
My spouse still wants my fullattention.
And I don't even feel like Iknow myself anymore.
To address that, then we startsetting some boundaries.
(25:15):
And we start holding them.
But because those boundarieshave never been a part of our
relationship up until thispoint, then all of a sudden the
people around us, they feel likethey're getting pushback.
They feel like we've changed.
They feel like that we're notacting like ourselves.
And instead of addressing theissues in the relationship, the
problems with communication, thestruggles that women are having
(25:38):
on an emotional level, insteadof doing that, then we just say,
as a society, she's having amidlife crisis.
But I want to flip that, and Iwant to give you permission to
step Into this idea that midlifeis an opportunity, that it's a
beautiful reset if you take it,that it's a turning point.
(26:00):
If you want it.
If you get to midlife and youstart feeling angsty, you, you
start feeling like, wow, I'veworked my ass off to get to this
point.
I felt like once I got tomidlife, everything would feel
wonderful and great and I'dfinally know what I wanted to do
with the second half of my life.
(26:21):
If, if you are at that point andyou're experiencing any of that,
then I would say you're exactlywhere you need to be.
You are not having a midlifecrisis.
You are just at this Turningpoint in your life, where you
can either continue to keep upthe appearances that you have up
until now, you can stay in theroles, keep the responsibilities
(26:47):
in your relationships exactlyhow you have until now, you can
hang on to those identities ofhow you have until now, you can
hang on to those identities ofcaretaker, chief problem solver,
busiest person in your family,taking care of everyone else.
You can, you can decide thatyou're going to continue to do
(27:08):
those things in the same waythat you have before.
Or, you can see midlife as thisopportunity, this turning point,
this reset when important changehappens.
It's a turning point, right?
It's when you get to decidewhat's important for you in the
second half of your life.
(27:29):
And that gets back to the threesimple principles that I talk
about all of the time.
Which is, what is it you want inlife?
And when I say that, it's notwhat have you been conditioned
to want, not what you wereraised to want, not what your
parents told you to want, notwhat society tells you to want,
but what is it that you actuallywant?
And how do you define success?
(27:51):
Society tells us that successis, is related to our job title,
how many zeros we get on ourpaycheck, how many material
items that we accumulate over alifetime.
That could be your definition ofsuccess, but my guess is your
definition of success issomething more along the lines
of doing what you want, when youwant to do it, with whom you
(28:15):
want to do it.
It's really that simple.
Having the freedom and clarityto.
And I would say, you know what,no, I'm not going to continue to
work to earn a certain title orearn a certain paycheck when
that no longer aligns with myvalues and how I want to live my
life.
We talked about this a littlebit on last week's episode.
(28:38):
This whole idea of how do youknow when enough is enough?
How do you know when it's timeto step back?
Like you don't have to continueto strive because you already
have everything that you need.
That is absolutely tied with theidea of how do I define success?
And how can I live my life as asuccess in the way that I think
(29:01):
of success?
And then the third principle isknowing what your best life
looks like.
Because you can't make midlifeand beyond your best life if you
don't know what it is.
If you don't know what it isthat you are trying to create in
your life, it's like trying toput together a puzzle and having
(29:22):
no idea what the done puzzlelooks like.
It's like trying to recreateyour favorite dinner.
Your favorite meal from thatsmall restaurant in Florence,
Italy.
And you don't have a recipe.
it's like visiting your bestfriend in her new city without
(29:42):
having an address or a GPS toget you to her new house.
how do we get from where we aretoday?
How do we relate to living ourbest life and the life that we
want to live if we don't knowwhat that looks like?
If we've never stepped back andtaken the time to understand
what's important to me?
What do I value?
And then creating a life thatcenters on those principles.
(30:07):
What do I value?
What do I want?
How do I define success?
So, when I think about midlife,I think about it as this
incredible opportunity.
What about you?
Does it feel like an opportunityto you?
Does it feel like a burden?
Does it feel exciting?
Does it feel draining?
Do you, do you get anxious in anexcited way?
(30:28):
Or do you get anxious in a verydisquieting, uncomfortable way?
Because you get to choose that.
If you're someone who doesn'treally know what you want the
second half of your life to looklike.
You, you know that you're havingsome feelings of angst.
You know that you're not livingWith the feeling of fulfillment
(30:50):
or satisfaction or maybe evenhappiness that you expected to
even though you have everythingyou always thought you ever
wanted Right the life thatyou're living right now you
dreamt up the Ten year oldtwenty year old you thought if
you could only get to this pointyou would be living the dream
And a lot of us did that and weare living the dream and it's
like well what the hell now thisdoesn't feel like I thought it
(31:12):
would.
If you're feeling any of that Iam hosting a training this week
to walk you through more indepth on the three simple
principles that every midlifewoman needs to know to walk you
through.
Skip the midlife crisis tocreate her best life and midlife
and beyond.
I will include a clickable linkin the show notes and would love
(31:34):
it if you were able to join usfor that.
I'm going to end with this ideathat the words we use to
describe ourselves and our livesare very important.
So if we want to continuefeeling like midlife is a
crisis, Then that is exactly howwe're going to approach it
(31:54):
because we're telling our brainthat that's what we think
midlife Means to us that it's acrisis.
It's this period of intensedifficulty or trouble or danger.
It's something that we don'twant but if we flipped those
words and we say, you know whatmidlife is an opportunity It's
this sweet spot.
It's a reset.
It's a turning point Then, Ipromise you, your midlife
(32:16):
experience is going to be much,much different and likely better
than what you've beenexperiencing before, just by
changing the terminology thatyou're using to describe
midlife.
I'd love to hear from you.
What do you think?
Do you agree that midlife is acrisis?
(32:37):
Do you agree that midlife issomething other than a crisis?
Take a screenshot of thisepisode.
Tag me on Instagram.
Let me know your thoughts.
Is it a midlife crisis?
Is it something else?
I'd love to hear what you think.
Thanks so much for being heretoday.
As always, I am so grateful thatyou come each week and spend a
(32:58):
little bit of your time with meto talk about things that really
matter to midlife women so thatwe can together live our best
life in midlife and beyond.
I'll see you right back herenext week when the School of
Midlife is back in session.
Until then, take good care.
Thank you so much for listeningto the School of Midlife
podcast.
It means so much to have youhere each week.
(33:20):
If you enjoyed this episode,could you do me the biggest
favor and help us spread theword to other midlife women?
There are a couple of easy waysfor you to do that first.
And most importantly, if you'renot already following the show,
would you please subscribe?
That helps you because you'llnever miss an episode.
And it helps us because you'llnever miss an episode.
(33:43):
Second, if you'd be so kind toleave us a five-star rating,
that would be absolutelyincredible.
And finally, I personally readeach and every one of your
reviews.
So if you take a minute and saysome nice things about the
podcast, well, that's just goodkarma.
Thanks again for listening.
I'll see you right back here.
Next week when the School ofMidlife is back in session until
(34:05):
then take good care.
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com