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Are You Stretching Yourself In Midlife?

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Are You Stretching Yourself In Midlife

I had to laugh to myself when I began to write this. Sometimes I feel as though the only thing that’s stretching in midlife is my waistline, and the elastic waist pants that I wear to accommodate it.

Can you relate?

But in all seriousness, what came to mind when you read this title?

Did you assume that I was asking if you’ve been doing yoga or some other form of exercise?

While you want to be stretching your body in midlife, what I’m referring to here is…

Are you stretching yourself outside of your comfort zone?

Midlife poses plenty of opportunities for feeling uncomfortable, but it’s important to be intentional about stretching yourself.

“The magic happens outside of your comfort zone.”

You may have heard this before, but in midlife this is an important concept to embrace.

In order to make midlife your best life, you have to learn to be comfortable with the changes that you are experiencing. These changes stretch you out of your comfort zone and are a normal aspect of your midlife years.

Embrace The Changes

What if instead of resisting change you embraced it? In other words, what if instead of feeling like change is happening TO you, you started believing that it is happening FOR you.

When you start believing that your circumstances are there to BENEFIT you, you step into the flow and life begins to get easier.

Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge

What got me thinking about STRETCHING is that I joined Kelly McCausey’s 2019 Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge for the month of September. For 30 days, I’ll be challenged to STRETCH myself to create more content for my business than I otherwise might.

One of the benefits of having a coach, is having someone who encourages you to STRETCH your limits beyond what you believe is possible. That’s the thing about our minds, we tend to limit ourselves and do less than we are actually capable of.

In the Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge, Kelly gives you challenges that you are encouraged to complete. Each participant earns points for each challenge that they complete, and in the end there are prizes.

Woohoo, I love me some prizes!

And when I create more content that supports you to love your midlife years, you have more resources to help you make midlife your best life.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Can you see how stretching yourself can make your life better and bring you greater happiness?

Here is an exercise to begin STRETCHING yourself.

Stretching Exercise:

  1. What’s a BIG dream or goal that you have that you have yet to realize? Write it down.
  2. Decide when you’d like to have this BIG dream or goal manifest itself in your life and write that date down.
  3. Now make a list of all of the steps you would need to take to make this happen. And yes, I want you to write them down.
  4. Get busy and begin working on your BIG dream using the steps that you wrote down in #3!

Complete this simple exercise by answering the questions and writing down your answers. When you write down your goals and the steps you need to take to make them happen, it’s easier to stay focused and you are more apt to realize your dreams and goals.

BIG Dreams Get BIG Results

Did you notice that I used the word, BIG when I described your dreams and goals? That’s because it’s your BIG dreams and goals that will stretch you out of our comfort zone. When you choose your goals, make sure you choose something that stretches you AND is also doable.

When you reach your goals you will feel proud of yourself. This in turn benefits your self-esteem. Yay!

Keep in mind that while it’s never too late to go after your BIG dreams, it will be easier if you begin today, rather than putting them off for another 10 to 20 years. These are your midlife years, remember! 😉

3 MUST DO’s To Love Your Midlife Years

For additional support on making midlife your best life, download my 3 MUST DO’s To Love Your Midlife Years. It’s free and it will help you gain clarity on how to love your midlife years.

Join The Challenge

If you’re a business owner who wants to be challenged to create more content, join me in Kelly McCausey’s 2019 Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge. It would be fun to cheer each other on as we reach our business goals together.Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge

Endless Opportunities

There are so many opportunities in life to STRETCH yourself to grow, and as a midlife woman now is the perfect time.

Whatever area of your life you decide to stretch yourself in, I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment below on what you think of the idea of stretching yourself and how you plan to stretch yourself in midlife.

With love,

Julie

Welcome To Midlife…Now What?

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Remember when you were a teenager and adults in their 40’s, 50’s and beyond seemed OLD? Yes so do I, but here we are. We are now one of them.

If you are in or reaching midlife, you have joined the ranks of women with raging hormones, tipping scales and energy levels that are dropping faster than the ball in Times Square on New Years Eve. Your kids may have flown the coup and if your husband is still around, you may hardly know him or even like him. Yikes!

Sound familiar?

Don’t fret however, as you are not alone. You may have the desire to be unique, but when it comes to reaching midlife and doing what’s necessary to avoid a midlife crisis, YOU are one of many.

How did this happen you ask?

It was easy. You were living life in a whirlwind and suddenly POOF.

Something CHANGED.

Life Is A Changin’

Change, those illustrious circumstances that race in like the Tazmanian Devil, cause you to feel frantic, then leave you heaped in a pile not knowing what happened, nor what’s next.

There you were doing what any respectable girl would do; raising kids, running off to soccer games, minding the household, playing the good wife, punching the time clock and then BAM.

Midlife appears and you feel worn out, lost and empty.

But like I said, the good news is that you are not alone. And despite the changes and the challenges, your life is far from over.

In fact, this is your time to start livin’!

Picking up the pieces of change can be daunting however. And, where to begin can be puzzling. Let’s be honest, facing the challenges of midlife can be down right overwhelming, depending on your own personal circumstances.

This is where you may be a bit unique.

What’s Your Story?

Is your youngest starting high school or in their Senior year? Or is it that your youngest is college bound?

What about your marriage? Is it solid as a rock or built on quick sand sucking your happiness dry?

Have you gone through a midlife divorce and find that being a single midlife woman is not the cat’s meow?

What about your aging parents?

Have the roles reversed and you are now parenting your parents? You may even be a card-carrying member of the sandwich generation.

What about your career?

You may be feeling the boredom of doing the same thing for years and are ready for a change. And retirement might be just around the corner.

Perhaps you never had time for a career and you’re feeling the emptiness of unmet desires and still long to make an impact.

I could keep going, but what would be the point?!

You are officially a midlife woman feeling like the millions of other women in your age bracket and wondering, what’s next.

Opportunity Abounds

Yes, I know that it may be hard to believe that midlife is a time of opportunity, but it’s true.

Midlife gives you the chance to look in the mirror and reflect on where you’ve been and more importantly, where you want to go. Ask yourself, what are the goals and dreams that got tossed to the wayside while you were raising a family and taking care of everyone else?

That’s a BIG question and you’re not expected to be able to answer it in three words or less. Let’s face it, you are probably used to putting yourself last. You may not even know what your goals or dreams are.

That’s ok. You have time to figure it out. But don’t take too long, because midlife really can be your best life. There are so many opportunities, things to experience and most importantly areas for growth.

Growing vs Dying

Do you feel as if the only thing growing is your waistline? 😉

We’re not going to explore your health choices just yet. The growing that I’m talking about is what’s on the inside. It’s the growth that happens at the soul level.

If you’re not growing you’re dying, so what are you going to choose in your midlife years?

Here are some ways that you can start LIVING (and growing) in midlife.

If you’re feeling lost, lonely, empty, sad, discouraged, scared or any other negative emotion, the first step is to change all that.

Have you heard the saying, “what you put your focus on grows stronger in your life”?

Well regardless, it’s true.

1. You have to begin focusing your thoughts on how you WANT to feel as opposed to how you actually feel. I’m not telling you to ignore your negative feelings, but let’s face it, us women know how to get extra mileage out of our negativity sometimes, and this is not the time for that.

If you want to feel better, start focusing your thoughts on how you WANT to feel.

2. Next up is to decide what you want in midlife. Heaven forbid that you get what you want. 😉

All kidding aside, YOU have goals and dreams that you’ve yet to realize and now is your time to make them happen. You need to start by thinking about what those are. Then write them down in a journal.

If you’re like most, the negative voices in your head might rear their ugly faces and tell you that none of what you want is possible, but I want you to ignore those voices for now.

What do you want? How do you want your Next Chapter to read?

Some Ideas

Here are six areas that you can focus on to decide where your dreams and goals fit.

1. Relationships

2. Finances

3. Health

4. Career/Mission

5. Spirituality

6. Fun/Leisure

Now make a list of some of your dreams and goals that fit into these categories.

Even if you are clear on what you want in midlife, knowing how to make it happen can be a challenge.

Yikes! What are you supposed to do about that?

This is where my clients tend to get overwhelmed and stuck. They can get past the negative thinking and figuring out what they truly want, but HOW are they going to make it happen?

That’s where having a good coach or mentor is a game changer.

You may have gotten yourself to this point on your own, but getting yourself to where you want to go next doesn’t come naturally for most.

Remember the coaches and teachers that your kids had that helped them be the best that they could be at their game? What about your boss doing the same for you.

We ALL can benefit from having someone who motivates us, lifts us up when we’re down and most importantly, supports us when our friends and family don’t. That’s why I created my complimentary…

Midlife Momentum Session

During our 30-minutes together, I will help you get clear on how you can make midlife your best life!

We will explore what you want and what the best way is to make it happen.

This time is both complimentary and limited however, so click on the link and get started. You have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain!

I can’t wait to chat with you and until then… Get ready to LOVE your midlife years!

Midlife Momentum Session

With love,

Julie