What's Holding You Back?
(For Women in the Second Half of Life)
A Special Kind of Stuck
When you reach a “certain age”, you start to experience a special kind of stuck. It’s a stuck that is surprising, painful, and can last way too long. Seemingly, out of the blue, we’ve become uncool, dated, and irrelevant. For no reason, other than successfully accumulated a number of birthdays. It should be a reason to celebrate, and maybe it still is for us. But, for others, we’ve become invisible.
In this brave new world, our old strategies for getting unstuck and moving forward don’t pack the same punch. So, we just try harder, push harder, and try to stay motivated by being mean to ourselves. If this works for you, great. If it doesn’t work, I’d like to offer that there’s another very effective way.
The way I recommend is slowing things down. In slowing it down, we see that it’s not just one thing big scary thing that needs to happen, but a series of things. This is very good news. You’re no longer trying to take a big, scary leap.
Steps become clearer and more doable. You stop wasting time and feel good about the moves you’re making.
Below are some resources to help you navigate The Messy Middle. In the top part, I share some context and some insights that will help you feel less alone. In the bottom part, there are a couple of exercises you can do to get yourself unstuck.
Here we are in the middle of life. No one said it would be easy, but they also didn’t warn us that it would be this messy. That’s because midlife has changed so much in recent years.
In the middle of life, we are informed by our past and, at the same time, wondering about where we’re going. It can be like holding onto two big, unmanageable ropes that are pulling us in two different directions.
Midlife needs a rebrand. It’s the only stage of life that comes with a warning label. Astrology provides an incredible amount of information to help guide your midlife journey. Here’s an overview that will make you feel so much better about the shifts you may be feeling.
This is a 14-minute guided meditation designed to help you access the future where everything has turned out just the way you wanted it to. Who better to advise you on this problem than you?
Work that will set you free.
If you’re feeling stuck and not sure how to move forward, here are some ideas that can get you unstuck. I return to them time and time again in my own life, and you can too.
You can easily create three versions of you, without the feeling of putting all your eggs in one basket. Then you find your way forward one step at a time. This is a creative and doable way to design your way forward.
Has the pandemic changed your values? Here’s a quick and easy way to re-evaluate by wandering around your house.
We're Not Alone
This can be a lonely time. There’s really no place to come together (especially these days) to connect and realize this is a shared experience.
The good news is that there are a bunch of us figuring this out. There are more conversations than ever before. I’ve been researching it and am sharing what I have found to be most useful.
I put this resource together to add my voice to this conversation. I’ve been going through this midlife thing and have had some tough times, and I’ve been figuring it out. It’s the main reason I became a coach – to help others navigate it, so they don’t fall in the same holes I fell into.
Have a look around. I hope there are insights here for you. Try some of the tools.
If you’d like to further discuss getting unstuck or if you have any questions about any of the tools, you can connect with me by email me at karen@karenharbin.com.
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