Constant Change and Evolution: PYL In-Flight: Jun 26, 2024
Welcome Back My Evolving Passengers:
I spent over two hours cleaning my Solutions2Projects email box and folders. I confess that I am one of those people who uses their email folders to store communications and files and over the last 19 years since I started my consulting company, I’d amassed quite a few emails. I didn’t set up to spend yesterday afternoon doing this, but once I got started, I started to review, delete, and then delete some more.
Do I really need former client emails from 2008? 2015? Or even 2020? The answer is no. And I don’t need the client files, both digital and physical, from projects going back to 2005 when I first started consulting. It’s time to move on.
And yet it’s really hard to let go of what I’ve been really good at for the last 25 years. It’s what’s defined me professionally, and personally and not necessarily in a healthy manner.
I love how Gen Z refuses to make their jobs their whole personalities. As kids of GenXers, I think they’ve watched us bust our butts and still not get rewarded professionally the way that previous generations were rewarded, and they refuse to play by the same rules in the workplace, and in life. We can learn a lot from them.
We GenXers were called slackers by our parents and the generation before them (the Silent Generation). We didn’t deserve this label and still don’t. For an undersized and often overlooked generation, it’s surprising what we get blamed for.
Last week a new friend hosted a book club party for Piloting Your Life and invited me, as the author, to be a part of it. It felt so good to be back discussing, in person, all things women and aging. I have missed doing these kinds of events that get women talking about things they wouldn’t otherwise talk about; this makes all of us feel less isolated and alone in our experiences. (Let me know if you want to host a book club party of your own for PYL or a PYL house party for your friends! Have passport, will travel.)
We are coming up on five years since Piloting Your Life was released and I haven’t given up on my quest to share what I continue to learn about the menopause journey and why we women should be celebrated and embraced, not dismissed, as we turn 40, 50, 60, 70, and beyond.
With our experience, wisdom, and collective desire to make the world a better place for all, I want to see all of us reject the patriarchal social expectations, support other like-minded women, and get loud about it.
This will mean change, constant change, as we iterate and attempt to not just rediscover who we were before we adapted to what was expected of us, but to take some risks, try new things, and discover who we are meant to be.
Yesterday my CoStar was, “Accept yourself as being exactly the way you are supposed to be in this moment.” I needed to see this. I am often critical of myself in all aspects of my life, constantly demanding that I be better, look better, never actually reaching whatever moving target I’ve established for myself.
But these two things can be true at the same time: we can accept who we are now, and we can continue to evolve. We are dynamic. The world we live in is dynamic. Everything is constantly changing and evolving, and therefore, so must we, but without the harsh criticism, too-high expectations, and judgement.
I am absolutely loving that every day right now is completely different. I love working with Zeke on Zeke and Terri Adventures with the ambitious travel and video schedules, and constant learning associated with all of it, including social media, marketing, branding, writing, promotion, and so much more. There’s no denying that it’s a lot but I’ve not felt this alive in a long time.
I’m back at the airport (SFO), this time solo, as I wait for my flight to Boise, Idaho to spend some time with my cousin who is recovering from cancer surgery and treatment (she’s 100% cancer free!). As she’s gone through this experience the last 10 months, I regularly remind myself of how precious life (and our health) is, and how fortunate I am to be healthy and to have the means to do what it is that I am doing. None of this is lost on me.
If anything, her health journey has further motivated me to take advantage of all that my life has to offer, not holding back on what I do, say, try, and reject. I’m trying on new and old things and accepting what I like and passing (for now) on what I don’t like or what doesn’t really work for me.
Some things are just on hold like PYL #2, my research project, and creating an online version of the Stanford Continuing Studies course I taught this past spring. Our youngest is home for the summer and they are our priority as we await their departure for a year abroad beginning in August. Plus, we have weekly videos and content to get out for Zeke and Terri Adventures. Oh, and Jacqueline and I are in conversation about rebooting Piloting Your Life the podcast.
I used to be afraid of being considered mediocre and at 54, I have no desire to ever be stagnant. I’m not afraid of either…I don’t care enough about what other people think and the list of things I want to do keeps growing. There are endless opportunities for change and evolution.
Just how I like it!
If you are holding yourself back from change and evolution out of fear or some limiting belief, see what you can do to let some of that fear go and take a single step. You never know where that first step, tentative or bold, might take you.
Let me know how it goes so I can cheer you on from afar, as loudly as I can.
May you find peace, acceptance, and love today as you navigate being human.
With much love and gratitude,
Terri
This week’s song: Changes by David Bowie
Journal prompt / reflection: What do I want to change in my life? Is there something I can do today that will get me started on the path to making that change a reality?
What I’m Reading: I’m re-reading The Bookbinder by Pip Williams which I first read and enjoyed last summer. With so much change and new things in my life right now, I take comfort in reading books that I’ve read at least once before. Plus, it’s in my Nook library and easy to access from all of my devices. I also love how this book is focused on a group of women, a sisterhood, that supports one another.
terrihansonmead.com
Piloting Your Life (the book)
Terri Mead YouTube Channel
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