Wise Words from the Midlife Explorers at Wisdom Vault

AUTHOR

Pod O’Sullivan is the host of the Don’t Let the Old Man In podcast. His thoughts on living gracefully (and disgracefully) in the second half of life at The Wisdom Vault, are wellworth a listen

Source:      The Wisdom Vault – Home

6 moves to make your midlife pivot stick

1. Pause to Reflect
   Your next job shouldn’t be a reaction. Ask: What do I want my days to feel like, now? What values have become non-negotiable, now? What is most important to me, now?
2. Audit Your Energy
   List what energises you vs. what drains you. Burnout often hides in plain sight, camouflaged as productivity. Cull activities and indeed friendships that drain your energy. Some people may no longer serve you and / or you can see them in a limited manner so as to suit you.
3. Rediscover Your Storytelling Power
   In a world of AI and automation, emotional intelligence, judgment and lived wisdom are irreplaceable. As Stephen Keys wrote in “AI, Laser Scarecrows, and the Art of Staying Useful After 50 ”, “The machines are coming. But so, what? They can’t laugh. They can’t give meaning. That’s our job. Keep learning. Keep evolving. Keep showing up”. As a 50+ year old you bring years of experience to the table that is valuable. Tell that story.
4. Consider a Side Hustle First
   From coaching to consulting to importing bike parts, mid-career side hustles are exploding. The Economic Times recently profiled six fast-growing gigs that require experience over youth. In Sydney James, who recently left his high paying and pressurised corporate role in the pharmaceutical industry found himself retraining to become a paramedic and loving that role. But on the side, he started up a small consultancy to offer his expertise in Commercial Excellence, his prior role in the pharmaceutical industry, to SME businesses, who could not afford to hire a full-time expert like him.
5. Talk to a Coach or Mentor
   You don’t need therapy (though that’s fine too). You need someone to hold a mirror to your blind spots and help craft a plan. Everyone benefits from the process of coaching purely because our brains react to questions being asked of us, that we did not expect to be asked (i.e. from someone else).  It allows us to articulate out loud our challenges but often find solutions to the same ones, often for the first time, in a safe space.
6. Build Psychological Safety Around You
   Surround yourself with people who let you be real. Dr Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor and author of The Fearless Organisation, note in an interview on The Leadership Diet podcast that ‘flourishing only happens when fear is absent’. Fear is the Enemy of Flourishing and the hope for men above 50 is that we learn to live the second half of our life, on our own terms, i.e. we flourish.