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"I
guess the most important lesson Karen has
taught me is balance, I can love my work,
but be flexible to make it most satisfying
for me.
I would highly recommend Karen to anyone who
is stuck & doesn't know where they are
going. Spending time with her is an
opportunity to re-evaluate & have the life
you deserve."
G.E. Battersea |
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Midlife Coaching
Midlife
- crisis or opportunity?
Midlife…so when exactly did that happen?
Somehow it seemed to just creep up on you when you weren’t looking but here
you are, in midlife. We all travel a unique journey to arrive at this phase of
our lives and yet often experience remarkably similar feelings as we enter the
uncharted and often rocky terrain of midlife.…..mood swings, hormones all over
the place, physical changes and identity limbo, to name but a few!
And yes, you’d be right in
thinking that this description shares more than a passing resemblance to another
of life’s major transitions – adolescence. I suspect the memories of that time
can probably make you cringe even now as you recall experimental attempts to
morph from child to adult!
Identity challenges are not the preserve of the adolescent!
 It’s
no coincidence that midlife was called ‘the second puberty’ by
psychiatrist Carl Jung. In the blink of an eye, having fast
forwarded a few decades, we find ourselves at midlife experiencing
very similar feelings once again, back in that unsettling limbo,
struggling to figure out who we really are or where to go from here.
So, are
we talking midlife crisis you may ask?
Well, midlife is often described in terms of a
crisis, when really it’s more of a perfectly predictable process
whereby people ‘of a certain age’ look around at their lives and ask
the simple but profound question:
Is
this
it.....?
There are of course the much satirised
ways of trying to answer this question - the impulse purchase of the
Harley Davidson or the jettisoning of established relationships for
the thrill of the new. Yet these too are symptomatic of a yearning
to address or reclaim something in our lives - even though we might
not be clear on what that something is or the best way to get it.
 Now at midlife we arrive at our own
half-way house- a natural place to linger for a while and take
stock. Part of this self reflection forces us to acknowledge that,
like it or not, our time is limited and not full of infinite
'tomorrows'. So it's really no surprise that this brings with it a
new awareness of just how precious our time is and leads us to the
next big question:
How
do I want to spend the rest of my life?
 If the answer to this question was as simple as it looks then the
midlife metamorphosis would be a painless process. More often, the
shedding of one skin as we outgrow our former selves can be fairly
traumatic as we mourn the ending of one life stage whilst searching
to find our own sense of purpose for the next. What goes on in
the cocoon of change may not be pretty but the results however, can
be pretty stunning!
There is
another way.
There's no doubting that midlife can be a major crossroads in a
woman's life -
there's
certainly no turning back and the way forward often looks unclear.
But far from being a time of doom and gloom,
midlife no longer signifies a time of diminishing opportunities. On
the contrary.... midlife is a time when many find themselves
on the threshold of opportunity and emerge from this transitional
period to embark upon unexpected journeys of renewal.
Until now, life has been crammed with far too much to do to be
unduly perturbed by any thoughts of the
future. Along the way various dreams and goals may have been
silently filed away in a ‘manyana’ box …well, many see midlife as
the perfect opportunity to open up their manyana box,
reconnect with their long forgotten dreams and make new, authentic
choices about how they wish to spend their time.
Two long
term American studies
suggest that decisions women make as they enter middle age,
determine their happiness years later. If you’re feeling overwhelmed
by the seeming enormity of the changes ahead, regardless of whether
you're in your thirties, forties, or fifties,
I urge you to consider coaching as an investment in yourself and
your future.
As a midlife coach I offer you a safe,
nurturing environment in which to:
-
take stock in order to make considered decisions
-
clarify your goals for
the future
-
redefine
success in your own terms in ways
that are naturally compelling and personally meaningful
-
align the way you
spend your time with what’s important to you
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