Living Your Truth In Midlife
Hot Takes From My Conversation With Susan Yeagley & Kevin Nealon
Get out those golden sh*t shovels as we discuss following our passions, facing our fears, and trying new things in the second half of life. You have to believe in yourself so you don’t end up with regrets….what’s the worst that could happen if you fail? These are some hot takes I had during my conversation with Susan Yeagley and Kevin Nealon.
Susan and Kevin have been married for almost 20 years and are both successful actors. Kevin started his career in stand-up comedy on SNL and went on to star in Weeds, and now his own show Hiking with Kevin. Susan started her career in the film Almost Famous and went on to appear in many famous television shows, including Parks and Recreation and Everybody Loves Raymond.
We are talking about finding the sweet spot between living our truth, showing up for others, learning to be okay with rejection, and following our passions while facing our fears. Let’s start digging!
Your Truth
Living our truth and staying true to who we are isn’t always easy, especially nowadays with social media being a major presence in our lives. What we share on social media can be amplified and has the feeling of being looked at under a microscope. So, how can we stay true to ourselves in a world like this?
How to start living your truth
Speak the Truth. Stick with your principles and have a desire to always speak the truth. Susan said, “I would speak the truth, and I would live freely, and I would love who I love, and not listen to other people's opinions, but just follow my own guidance. Even if it's hard, even if it doesn't make sense to others, I would live in a space of truth.”
Show Up. Showing up…it can mean a million different things. Showing up is crucial. You need to show up for yourself, your friends, and even acquaintances. Showing up for others and the myriad of emotions they might be feeling. Sometimes it's just listening and nodding your head so they know that you're listening. You also need to show up for life, even if it's not exactly what you’re expecting it to be. By just showing up, it can lead to something unexpected and possibly even bigger than you could imagine. Put yourself out there, throw some sh*t at the wall, and see what sticks…you might be surprised.
Follow Your Passion. Before you can recreate yourself, you have to follow your passion. Start to follow what you enjoy doing most when others aren’t watching. Stop and think about what you like to do in your free time. No need to be perfect here. You are just figuring out the essence of who you are and where you are going in your second half of life.
Dealing With Failures
We all deal with failure in different ways. If you’re looking at recreating yourself, you will experience failures and rejection..it’s just part of it.
So what can we do?
Learn to face rejection head-on. There will be times when we are told “no” or that we aren’t the right fit for something. It’s okay to experience that feeling of failure. Pull your sh*t back together and keep going. Face your small failures and develop the grit muscle to go back at it again. Someday there will be a “yes” that comes your way.
Face your fears and figure it out. We are in this stage of recreation and figuring out what the second half of life is going to look like. You need to find things that scare you and before you know it, they won’t be so scary anymore.
Put yourself in an uncomfortable position to grow. Find a new way to be challenged. We don’t grow from a place of comfort. Take a risk and be courageous…you have to trust yourself and believe in yourself.
One of Susan’s last pieces of advice for recreating ourselves is to spend a week and figure out what you do when you’re not trying to earn money. What are your passions? What do you like to do when no one else is watching? Do you do something for fun? Figure this out and you may be well on your way to living your truth in midlife.
We dug deep in this conversation and looked at all the ways to recreate ourselves in our second half of life. We can learn to live our truth by speaking the truth, showing up for others, and finding our passion. While going through this change we’ll have to deal with failures…it’s just part of it. But, if we learn to face rejection head-on, face our fears, and put ourselves in a position to grow we will be thriving in no time.