Second Breaks

If I were ever granted a do-over, one thing I would do differently is to take my well-being seriously. Sadly, my well-being did not show up on my list of priorities when I was in my 20s, 30s, or even early 40s. In fact, I had previously confessed that the stupidest thing I ever said was, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Thankfully, some level of wisdom prevailed and I no longer think that way. Somewhere...

In "Life is in the Transitions," Bruce Feiler writes about life quakes — those times in our lives when we have a massive burst of change that lead to a period of upheaval, transition, and renewal. Following the extensive research he conducted, Feiler concluded that, on average, we go through three to five of these events in our lives. And the average length of a life quake is 5 years. What happene...

As we get older, there's a tendency to recognize fewer and fewer personal milestones. As my guest, Dara Goldberg, pointed out, "It's as though once we hit midlife, all growth has stopped."  But by not marking and celebrating milestones, we are, in effect, supporting the prevailing narrative out there that we disappear as we age, that it’s all downhill from here, and that everything good is in our...

We’ve all heard about stories. Storytelling is having its heyday. Everyone is invoking the word so much so that it’s beginning to lose its meaning which is what happens when everyone and their uncles use it in every conceivable way. But the way Ronna Detrick talks about our stories — those stories that have shaped our lives — is in a different category altogether. Ronna is a coach, writer, and spe...

Most of the time, we try to plan for change rationally and meticulously. We think about what we want to do, where we want to go or end up, and how we want to go there. But there’s something to be said about serendipity. For opening ourselves to discovering a path we didn’t even know was a possibility. For holding plans loosely and setting a different intention than simply to arrive at our original...

Those of us who are parents will be familiar with the mélange of emotions that comes when it’s time for the kids to leave the nest — whether that’s to college or to begin their adult life away from us. In this episode, I talk with transitions life coach Karen Herbert to explore how parents can best manage themselves during some of the most challenging feelings of empty nesters, and most importantl...

The idea of seeking and getting help has become more acceptable in society, in general. More people today are open to talking about their experiences. And the stigma for getting professional help has greatly been diminished, if not entirely eliminated. There has been an explosion in the field of coaching over the last few years. And the result of all these newly-minted coaches is that getting coac...

Change, as we all know, is the one thing that’s constant in our lives. Fellow midlifers will likely agree with me that change doesn’t stop when we reach midlife. If anything, it feels as if we’re dealing with change all the time. Some of these changes we deliberately introduce into our lives, such as when we intentionally change our lifestyle or eating habits, for example. Many of the changes are...

We are at the tail end of this series of episodes where we’ve been looking into the topic of Un-retirement. And to close the series, I invited my friend Mary Beth Simon, whose post-retirement plans you heard about in a previous episode. I sat down with Mary Beth to chat and compare notes about life post-retirement. Since both of us did end up starting small businesses of our own, we talked a littl...

Many midlifers plan on starting a business post-retirement. Starting a business of any kind is always going to be a climb. There’s usually a significant learning curve involved. And when you’ve been an employee most of your life (and don’t have any business experience) this learning curve can be even steeper. I say this not to discourage anyone but to highlight the importance of doing our homework...

This episode is part of the special series on Un-Retirement. Damion Lupo is a bestselling author in personal finance and money thinking, host of the Financial Underdogs podcast, owner of 30+ companies, and founder of his own martial art – Yokido®. If there was one thing I remembered about our conversation, it was that Damion explained why he hated the word retirement . As I revisit this episode no...

This episode is part of the special series on Un-Retirement. Autumn Witt Boyd is an award-winning intellectual property lawyer who works with online business owners to protect their brand, content, and business. When it comes to intellectual property and business strategies, Autumn is known as a thought leader in the online business community. She speaks frequently at conferences, seminars, and wo...

This episode is part of the special series on Un-Retirement. Michael Zipursky is the CEO and co-founder of Consulting Success. He’s kinda like a consultant for consultants. He helps business people run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. But more importantly, he specializes in helping people transition into a successful consultancy (or simply find more success as a consultant) by le...

This episode is part of the special series on Un-Retirement. Mary Beth Simon retired from her long corporate career in December 2018. As planned, she started a consulting company in early 2019. Mary Beth is part of many Generation X and Boomers who aren’t interested in putting their feet up and playing golf all day post-retirement. She considers herself 100% retired from her corporate career, but...

IN THIS EPISODE: How Paula Adler discovered a path to a new career, following a rich and fulfilling corporate career The whole process - from the decision, to working through her fears, to facing the guilt and planning for her new life What it meant to leave a career she worked hard to build Her life and priorities after retiring from her corporate career ABOUT MY GUEST: Paula Adler is a certified...

ABOUT MY GUEST: Lisette Smith is the Chief Operating Officer and a senior advisor at The Advisory Group of San Francisco, an independent financial advisory firm that manages $1BN in assets. Lisette is a pioneer of the Midlife Gap Year concept as part of the financial planning process. She wrote the educational guide, The Midlife Gap Year: How to take a break and still feel financially secure to he...

Is your curiosity pushing you toward something you’ve never done before, where you don’t have a lot of relevant previous experience? Are you itching to start a project but you’re hesitating because it’s filled with uncertainty and there are so many questions you haven’t got answers for? I’m quite familiar with that scenario. Recently, I published the 100th edition of Midlife Cues .  This milestone...

ABOUT MY GUESTS: Today, Donna Bond is a Spiritual advisor, and a Business and Life coach. She is the author of Original Wisdom: Harness the Power of the Authentic You. But before she found this new path, Donna was near the top of her chosen career ladder in marketing. She had worked long and hard to attain that success and so it was not a small matter to deliberately leave it for something else ne...

A super short trailer that talks about what we cover here on the show - now that we've turned a new chapter! For the full backlist and show notes, head on over to http://secondbreaks.com Get full access to Shaping Life at loublaser.substack.com/subscribe

ABOUT MY GUESTS: James and Claire Davis are the husband and wife team behind the coaching and fitness company 38 Degrees North and the host of The Midlife Mentors podcast. Leveraging their backgrounds in psychology, coaching, and NLP, they have been helping midlifers make positive changes in their lives. I began the conversation with Claire and James with their personal love story in mind.  James...

IN THIS EPISODE: The reasoning and principle behind “stop fixing yourself” How to recognize the programming that leads us to think we are broken and need fixing What attachments are and how to spot them How to identify the conditions that we sub-consciously impose on our happiness ABOUT MY GUEST: Don Joseph Goewey is the director of the Center for Spiritual Exchange, the official archive for the w...

This is a short episode to give you a preview of what I've got cooking and the topics that we will be exploring in Season 8.  The new season starts on Thursday, February 3rd.  Get full access to Shaping Life at loublaser.substack.com/subscribe

Forget what so-and-so said about how someone of a certain age should look or sound or act or behave. In midlife, just as in every other phase of our life, "You Do You" is an awesome principle to follow. In this episode, I've distilled five principles for a well-lived midlife, gathered from my own research of midlife's twists and turns and deep conversations with other midlifers on the podcast. For...

IN THIS EPISODE: How Nancy Davis Kho executed her year-long project of writing one letter of gratitude a week What was hard, easy, and surprising about the project How we can start a similar gratitude project The project’s lasting impact on Nancy Nancy’s observations from her experience interviewing mid-lifers on her podcast ABOUT MY GUEST: Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose...

IN THIS EPISODE: What does it look like and how does it feel when we have our own back The three internal voices that we have Why the third voice – our biggest fan – is the one we really want to strengthen The role that self-loyalty plays when dealing with our inner critic Why Nancy avoids thinking “I deserve this” and how this thought-process may lead to false self-loyalty ABOUT MY GUEST: Nancy J...