Perhaps I've given away my age by using the
word "Nifty". Yes, I am rapidly approaching the half-
century mark. Egads that sounds old!
Yet, I've heard it said that 50 is the new 30, and 70 is
the new 50. Whoever said this must have hit that half-
century mark too! But it's true, we have the technology
to keep us surviving longer and for many, the passion
to keep us thriving longer.
But also, we face much greater uncertainty. There are
illnesses that strike young and strike hard. There are
natural disasters, wars and terrorist acts that
inexplicably wipe out lives too soon. No one can say
for sure what our future holds.
Each of us has the choice to live life while we have it
to the fullest, to see the beauty in every day, to be a
beacon of light and love spreading joy to those in our
midst. That's having a quality of life that sings!
Admittedly, this is hard to do if you are lost in a web of
confusion, stuck in a cycle of recrimination about past
choices, or feeling powerless to change the
circumstances of your life. When the gap between
where you are and where you want to be seems too
great, the tendency is to get caught up in a cycle of
negative expectations and to live a life of "quiet
desperation".
Whether you are 30, 50, 70 or 90 you always have
choices. I see stories all the time about women in
their nineties working toward a college degree, writing
a first book, or even going skydiving! There's no such
thing as being too old to embark on a new and
exciting direction for your life.
So if you are nearing 50 like I am, celebrate!! Life is
not half over. Life is opening to a vast new array of
choices and opportunities.
I embarked on a massive overhaul of my life just six
years ago. I left behind seventeen years in high-tech
marketing to become a life and career coach. I
married my new husband three years ago. I wrote and
published my first book. I moved from the frenetic
pace of life in Silicon Valley to the peaceful and
relaxed pace of Santa Barbara. I've been able to use
the adversities of my life to help and inspire others to
make productive change. I can't wait to see what the
next six years hold!
The life I lived at 40 and the life I now live at 50 bear no
resemblance to each other.
Where are you now and where would you like to be in
five or ten years? You don't have to know how you
would get there. That's not important right now. You
don't even have to know exactly what you'd be doing.
Just focus on the quality of life you'd like to create for
yourself. Get very clear about how you'd like to feel
about your life, how you'd like to feel about who you
are being and what you are doing, how you'd like to
feel about the people around you and how you'd like
them to feel about you.
Once you reconnect with what you truly value and
enjoy most in life, you can begin to imagine your life
as a vivid reflection of these values. The amazing thing
is that once you gain this awareness of what will bring
you this quality of life, you'll find you won't have to wait
five or ten years to get it. There are small things,
incremental changes you can make to feel better
about your life right now.
As Stephen Covey says, you want to "begin with the
end in mind". You never want to embark on change for
the sake of change, because too often that just leads
you from the frying pan to the fire. Embark on a path of
change to get where you truly want to go. This usually
requires some self-discovery work because often in
our busy lives, the truth of our deepest desires tends
to be buried deep within.
In celebration of my 50th birthday, and because I want
to get to know more of you who are reading my
newsletter, I'm making you a special offer of $50 for a
50-minute self-discovery session with me by
telephone. Normally, my fees are $190 an hour. This
offer is valid for orders placed by May 27, 2007 (my
50th birthday!). I'll be conducting these coaching
sessions throughout May and June.
Once you place your order for the phone session, I will
send you a questionnaire to complete and send back
to me via email. Once I receive your completed
questionnaire, I'll contact you to schedule an
appointment. I look forward to getting to know you and
helping to launch you on the path of a new and
exciting direction for your life.
