As we head towards midlife a question that can arise for ourselves is “what am I going to do with the rest of my life?” In this blog, I am going to talk about 4 questions you can ask that can help you discover the answer!

I have recently spent some time thinking about my vision and mission for my coaching biz. What struck me was how the vision I have for my coaching, and the mission I feel it has, is so entwined with my own personal vision and the way I want to live. The two are intrinsically linked.

Basically, a vision board is exactly what it sounds like - a collection of pictures, words and visual representations of what you want to do, have or be in life. The idea is to bring whatever is on your vision board to life. It’s a bit like a visual wish list.

I’m writing about the things its good to remember in this stage of life as well as sharing some tips on how to make this chapter a bit easier to transition through. We have G standing for going for it, glasses and girlfriends and H standing for hormones, holidays and humour in this article.

What does the term “age gracefully” mean to you? For me, there are a couple of explanations that spring to mind. Firstly, an image of a lady of a certain age in twin set and pearls, sipping a cup of tea (in a cup and saucer) and fulfilling societal expectations (imagine the Queen in The Crown).

This is Part 3 in my series Midlife An A-Z. I am not ignoring the negative but also highlighting the positive and hopefully the amusing along the way too.

In this second part of my A-Z of Midlife I am covering the letters C & D. I think I’m getting it in the right order! Part 1 covering, A & B can be found here. C is for Courage Confidence and Comfort. D is for Doubt and Dance.

Today is the first in a series of blogs I’m writing - an A-Z of Midlife. Focusing on the positive but not ignoring the negative and with hopefully a side of humour thrown in along the way😀. I’m going to break it down into a series of articles, otherwise you’d never make it to the end!

We hear a lot of talk about confidence, increasing our confidence, boosting our confidence but what does that actually mean? The dictionary defines confident as “feeling or showing confidence in oneself or one's abilities or qualities” and as “feeling or showing certainty about something.”

Sometimes I feel the phrase life purpose can be quite an intimidating phrase – as though we need to find “the” purpose, the one and only purpose for our whole lives. It can apply a pressure that doesn’t need to be there.

That word fine – what does it actually tell us? Not a lot – it’s a bit “comme ci, comme ca” but that sounds much more interesting (probably because I’m English😂). Fine tends to be a stock answer to any question beginning how are – you, things, life.

It’s January 2022 and where do you want to be – other than out of lockdown, obviously? It would be so easy (and understandable) at the moment to feel like life is on hold. To feel that there’s not a lot of point in planning, setting goals, making changes you want in life.

This is something I’ve adopted over the last few years. Adopting the phrase "say yes be brave" as a mantra really worked for me. It would pop into my head when presented with opportunities and helped transform my default answer from ”no” to “yes”.

What actually is life-coaching?

“life-changing”, “encouraging”, “nurturing”, “motivating”, “inspirational” – words my clients have used and, I would echo those from my own experience of working with a coach. Life-coaching is a way of helping people make change in their life – it helps change and transform mindsets and become aware of what may hold you back in getting to where you want in life. 

I used to blame everything on how I felt about my body and weight, BUT in reality that was not the case. Yes I lacked body confidence and spent 30 years + on the diet roller coaster and this obviously contributed to my lack of confidence and low self-esteem but other things had too.

2020 has been a year hasn’t it?  Global turmoil and uncertainty.  It’s certainly been a year of change and totally unexpected.  When we entered a new decade there was a lot of talk of 2020 being the year of 2020 vision and in many ways it has been – but I doubt in the way any of us envisaged. How are you feeling about moving towards 2021 or are you not wanting to look ahead yet?

Can you find the courage? Something a bit different from me for this post. I wrote this after coming off a phone call that involved me taking a big step, an investment in me. I hope the sentiment resonates for you too. When you take the step /the leap the knock on effects can be amazing.

.I used to compare myself a lot but through reaching a place of confidence and self-acceptance this had greatly diminished. However, over the last couple of months I found myself comparing to do with my coaching business. Not constantly but on a few occasions. Was I comparing myself to people at the same stage of business as me – no – but to people who have been doing this longer than me – even if only a year or 2.  .What does comparison actually achieve?

There is a lot written about the importance of self-love but the idea of loving yourself, loving your body can seem unreachable to some people.  If you feel you cannot love yourself yet, can you like yourself just a bit more?

Start with liking yourself a bit more.

Whilst love is the goal how about starting with appreciating yourself a bit more, accepting yourself a bit more, reaching a point of feeling neutral, if necessary just tolerating yourself a bit more – a first step.

So why do so many of us struggle with a lack of confidence?

Whether that be confidence with our bodies, Confidence over what other people think of us, how we’re perceived , meeting new people, showing up online. First off it’s not our business what other people think of us – so long as we’re not running around the world being a complete **** we have very little control over it.