Reinvent Yourself After 50

Did I ever tell you I (Dawn) spent 8 years as a Productivity Coach?

I tell you this because this time of year is like the Superbowl for Productivity Coaches (or any type of coach, really). This is the time when we start to look at the year ahead as a fresh slate. For some, it’s resolutions and vision boards. For others, it’s a few ideas typed into their notes app or maybe a new habit. 

As humans, we are hard-wired for personal development. 

I’m no different. I love all the planners, whiteboards, and goal-setting apps. I’m competitive as heck (not always my best quality) and spent years striving for the next promotion, the next client, the next rung on the ladder of the American Dream. 

Then, one day, something surprising happened. 

I woke up one day and all my ambition just went… poof! It was gone. I had no drive. I didn’t know if it was the pandemic, or age, or walking through the most difficult season of my life. I didn’t know where my ambition went or if it was ever coming back. I tried, and failed, to “reignite that inner fire” as if it were a blown-out pilot light. I could not. 

All I wanted to do was grow flowers and refinish furniture. 

So why am I telling you this?

Because I’ve been thinking a lot about reinvention at this stage of life. I hear the word reinvention and I think of something that’s broken or falling apart. But I’ve learned over the last few years that reinvention is more than that. It’s the shift that occurs externally (kids moving out, careers ending, relationships changing) and internally (our wants and needs change). Like the tectonic plates that shift beneath us and cause the ground to shake. 

Like it or not, we’re all reinventing at this stage of life.

It’s not always a choice, but it is always an opportunity. 

Matt and I have reinvented twice in the last twelve years. (We just posted a video about it that you can watch here). Here are a few things we’ve learned along the way. Maybe you’ll find them useful in your own reinvention.