Are you living on purpose?

Weeks 35 & 36, Midlife Journal Guide

My morning yoga can become just another chore. But when I do it with purpose and passin I enjoy it more….. with some kitten help!

Have you noticed something burning in your belly, smouldering perhaps, brewing, and you don’t think it’s peri-menopausal indigestion?  It could be an exciting side affect of this unique and extended midlife - a wonderfully new emerging space that I see developing in this extra 20/30 years of midlife we are so lucky to be able to enjoy. 

I call it re-purpose-ment. 

Sometimes even, a re-fine-ment. A redefining of ourselves at this new age and stage, whatever that happens to be (because we are always in a new age and stage).

Younger for longer, we have an extra two or three decades of midlife. For women in particular there is also a peri and post-menopausal renaissance. For the entirety of human history, women have been mostly valued for their role as breeders. Once this function was done, they were desexualised, devalued and fecked into the corner to knit.  Now we get to live vibrant and valiant lives in our own right, in a time when, perhaps after decades of caring for others and feeling responsible for everyone’s happiness, we get to invest real time and energy on caring for ourselves and making ourselves happy. (What a revelation!). 

Repurposement means you get to love (or accept) the roles and responsibilities you have, AND seek new ways to purpose yourself. To live on purpose as much as with purpose.

It’s not always easy. Your mile-a-minute midlives can throw quite a few curve balls your way - divorce, care overwhelm of kids and parents, loss, and of course ageing in an age of anti-ageing propaganda which isn’t easy, because, you know, biology. Your days can also be exhausting, constructed of a series of tasks and chores to get through, rather than moments of time to experience.

This crucial midlife repurposement can happen in your career, relationships and hobbies when you still feel young and relevant enough after the soul-shattering years of juggling perhaps career, family and home.  AND most importantly, it can happen with you. Your own sense of yourself.

Now there is this time where we still have time to take all that experience, and re-evaluate what’s important, now, at this age and stage of your life (whether that’s your 40’s, 50’s or 60’s), after all the loss, learning, laughing, loving and living.

Life used to have one straight trajectory but now we have possibilities and opportunities to mix it up, change it up, press refresh, at any time. And to enjoy the everyday.

I like to call this pulling at the threads of your life. You take the bits that worked, the parts you like, the intrinsic things you are good at, the zones that you bring to the table with flair, the passions that may not have been related to a career, the things that make you angry but perhaps issues such as climate change, misogyny, fat-shaming, seal-slaughtering - it can be anything that lights you up, things that make you yearn to learn more - fitness, nutrition, dance, darts, sea swimming, astronomy, astrology… whatever your stars, whatever brights your sky, pull them all together. In this journalling journey you have looked at your strengths, reconnected to (or discovered) your values. When did you make mistakes and why?  Pull it all together, and look at how to weave those threads into something new.  

That’s what you’ve been doing with this journaling. 

Let’s not forget life experiences.. the things you didn’t know, couldn’t know when you started your original career path. 

They might not just be issues, subjects, topics, fields, or creative expertise. They may also be the things you have learned about yourself through work, parenting, care roles, life events, hobbies, and challenges. The things that come naturally - leadership, adaptability, seeing round corners, problem solving, empathy, being a safe space for people to open up, campaigning, collaborating, emotional intelligence.

And in a time when the word ‘purpose’ is bandied around as if everyone has to find a way to save the world, I believe that you also just need to find the purpose in each day. You need to savour the passion of non-distraction, even if that’s something fairly mundane like making the dinner, to do it with attention. Where you decide on prioritising your day, as well as the priority of the day.

Your purpose is you.

Your passion is for your life in all its mundane minutia.

Your priority is becoming.

For those of you newly following me on Your Midlife Matters (thank you for being here!) I’ve already explained how this year-long Midlife, redefined Daily Journal Guide adventure with yourself will work in Power is in Your Hand. You can start this journalling guide at any time of the year because it’s not date related: The daily prompts from Weeks 1 to 34 are here.

For ALL my lovely subscribers there is my free Midlife Daily Journal Template in my previous post here which you can use as a guide each day - and what I personally use every day.

For just €5 per month, this Midlife Daily Journal Guide (and lots of other content and discounts on coaching) is for my paid subscribers.

So let’s get into the prompts for Week 35 and 36 of your journaling journey.