The Next Act
Into our 50s & beyond - are we just getting started?
“It’s time to start playing out all the dreams you have been creating in you head.”
Giving up the rat race, stepping away from a career that dampens your soul each day, and striving for the opportunity to recreate ourselves in our 50s, 60s and beyond, is something that is never too late to embrace. Who is to say you are too old, or it is too ridiculous to consider it an option? If I have learnt one thing, especially over the last 20 years, it’s that you get one go to live life well. And if you choose not to take the opportunities when they arise, who knows if you will get the chance again. Many of us have lost family and loved ones ways too early, or witnessed life-changing accidents that create sliding door moments that change everything forever.
The time is now - and I think our 50s, 60s and beyond have become a period of awakening - the start of a new chapter, instead of the final act.
Recently I’ve had the pleasure of many gorgeous 1:1 sessions with creatives in the UK, and also in the US, Australia, Canada, France, and Italy. It is time that I find incredibly rewarding and forming those connections with like minded souls who are wanting to unravel and push the next stage of their life and creative journey, is a privilege. There is a something very special about being trusted to share in the process of someone choosing to open up to you. It’s often emotional unpacking why we hold ourselves back, and hearing the conversations turn from worry, nervousness and lack of self-belief, to a determined commitment to bring to life the ideas percolating in their heads - is a gift.
There used to be a job for life but now multi-faceted and multi-directional is the new black. Gone are the days where you took a linear career path from university to retirement. Pivoting is becoming more usual, and having various revenue streams is now the norm - not only to earn a living, but also to satisfy the craving to create.
My own personal desire to grow and open up new creative paths was about the need to push my own curiosity and to try all the things that I knew marked the next phase of my own creative journey. Bringing all the various facets together, celebrating the crossovers, wanting to connect the dots - share the learnings and offering others a chance to also dream big and stop procrastinating.
The procrastination is nearly always about fear not laziness when wanting to break free, and I know from all the amazing creatives I have helped, the energy, commitment and hours dedicated are not the issue. It is usually about the fear of not believing you should have a chance to play at the table.
Who says we cannot pivot, change direction, reinvent our creative self. And when we commit to looking inward, and reflecting on what it is we want from our short life, we can more easily step into the shoes of acting out what it is we have been hiding away, rather than dreaming one day we will become it by chance.
It’s a subtle shift but an important one. The person who takes beautiful images is a photographer; committing to writing each week means you are a writer, the artist who paints on their kitchen table each week, is an artist - we just have to give ourselves permission to step into that world, own it and have the courage to say it out loud. Live the dream, believe in the skill set, stop watching your life from the wings of your own play.
I am not trained as a business coach, but I have had a rich and varied work life that has spanned successful careers in retail, sales, marketing, and agency life, before pivoting to antiques, interiors and my work now in journalism, styling, design, consultancy, and books. It sounds like a lot of different facets, and it is. There have been times when I would have never said out loud that those multi-faceted skills were mine. Too embarrassed to think people would think that I was in no way qualified to have a second career, let alone announce myself as any of those things.
But over time I have learnt to let go of that - and am now comfortable in my own skin. With that pivoting has also come great empathy - and I think maybe it is why some people have reached out because I have experienced life on both side of the tracks, and know how it feels to get started, to have been through the highs and low, self doubt and worry.
These connections and conversations shared with others start the awakening of new chances, new ways of living, new mindsets - encouraging you to break free, to trust, to try, and to indulge your innate desire to become the person you knew you were destined to be. Not simply thoughts written down in a million notebooks, forgotten and never realised.
In our 50s and 60s the journey doesn’t necessarily become easier, but it becomes more fulfilling and liberating to say ‘yes’ to trying, rather than forever wondering ‘what if’.
Retirement for many of us is a word that has no permanent place, and the thought of it has us running for the hills, ready to unleash our creative desires and bring them forth into the world. For me my creative life and my home life are intertwined - and I love that both are equally important. It doesn’t have to all be about earning a living, it is as much about feel enriched with what you do and who you surround yourself with, in the pursuit of those passions.
It’s scary being brave - saying I want to change, step away from the day-to-day, and the corporate world, to do your own thing. But once we decide, to take our first steps, to reach out for help, and talk ideas through - we create a path to begin a new journey, and the overwhelm starts to fade.
So if you are on the fence thinking you are not good enough, not brave enough, not talented enough, change the dialogue with yourself and start to share and bring your own story to life. When you begin to vocalise your feelings and thoughts out loud, begin to hear the nerves in your own voice and the butterflies in your stomach, you will start to release the demons, and send your ideas out to the universe. It will also make you feel a lot lighter for declaring it all a possibility.
The nerves you thought were the problem - the ones that have made you doubt, cry and give up, have actually also been firing your adrenalin, getting you ready, preparing you, helping you grow, propelling you forward. They have showed you how much you indeed really want the change.
To live well we need to be stimulated, to have a sense of purpose and a passion to begin and end each day. Entering our 50s and 60s does not mean you have to slow down, to act your age - however society deems we should at these ages. I think it’s actually more of a sudden revelation that we are all just finding ourselves, with time to rethink how we want to live our lives, and in a way that makes us truly happy.
The reality is most of us are still growing up and reconnecting with parts of ourselves - that maybe just got lost along the way.
I’m sending my letter to you early this week, instead of on Sunday, as I am off on a trip with my daughter. I am so excited to have a few precious days with her, and to discover a city that I have wanted to visit for years. Have a gorgeous weekend too when it arrives. With much love Ali x x
My new Substack, For The Curious - is a place for all those who are curious to learn more and keen to bring their own creativity to life. I hope signing up and coming on this journey with me will encourage you to seize your dreams.
As a lover of storytelling, words and images, I am excited to be able to communicate and share with you in a longer form way, as an extension to my instagram feed, and am grateful for those supporting me with a paid subscription. After having worked in interiors and many related fields for over 20 years, since leaving the corporate world, I am looking forward to sharing many of the valuable things I have learnt, and have helped me pivot since starting my own company; along with insights, learnings and creative direction, that I hope will inspire you too.
Thank you for this Ali. Thank goodness attitudes are changing. Turning 50 is now the key to unlocking new opportunities and finally feeling free.
Thanks JP - it really is! Feels an age when so many opportunities present themselves and we no longer hold ourselves back. X