Permission & Steps to Rewrite Your Midlife Story
top 10 tips
We are digging deep with our golden sh*t shovels to talk with Dara Kurtz all about giving ourselves the permission we need to rewrite our story. In midlife, there are a lot of ups and downs and Dara is going to help us dig our way out.
Dara is a blogger, podcaster & three-time author, who recreated her life at 42...after being diagnosed with breast cancer and losing her mom to breast cancer. She decided to leave her twenty-year career as a financial advisor and begin pursuing her longtime passions.
We’re going to follow Dara’s footsteps and learn to dig deep and find a way to pursue our true passions in life and enjoy every second while doing so. It’s time to live in the present ladies!
Dara’s Top 10 Tips to Rewriting Your Story
Give yourself permission to believe in your story. It will take a lot of patience and working on yourself. Dara’s story may be relatable to some as having cancer or other diseases run in your family. However, we need to learn to live our lives and try to stay away from the fear of the unknown. It will take a lot of work and taking it one day at a time, but this is your life and this is your story that you get to write.
You are your own person. Don’t compare yourself to others. Just because other people are doing things doesn’t necessarily mean that those things work for you. Learn to be comfortable being yourself and don’t pretend to be something that you aren’t. When you give yourself permission to be your authentic self it’s so empowering.
Just try. Give yourself permission to just try. We all have to figure out what it is that we want and we can’t do that until we give ourselves the space to try new things.
Figure out what works for you. Of course, there are things that we all have to do that we just don’t want to. But if there's something you really don't want to do, and you don't have to do it, then don't do it. I know I just say f*ck it.
Make the most of every opportunity. Are you currently in a career that seemingly checks all of the boxes? You're financially stable and you are in a career that society deems successful…you’ve made it. But you feel like something is still missing. Do you have the chance to make something of a different opportunity or do something that lights your soul on fire? If so, have the courage to take that next step.
Be willing to try new things and put yourself out there. You can easily ride out the second half of life staying in your comfort zone. Or, you can ask yourself, what do I want to try that looks fun and exciting? All you have to do is try. You don’t need to attach it to success. You don’t have to have it all figured out or know what the outcome is going to be to have the courage to give it a try.
Constantly remind yourself what your “why” is. Your “why” might not be the same as it was a few years ago. We are constantly changing and evolving. Try making a list of things that you enjoy doing and things that you’ve always wanted to try. Think of all the excuses you could make not to try and then commit to trying at least one thing on that list.
Be open to hearing the word no. What’s the worst that could happen? If there is something that you really want to do go fu*%ing do it! Someone tells you no…so what? The world is full of SO many opportunities! No matter what you do at any stage of your life you’re going to hear the word no from time to time. Learn to understand that no is just a word and it just wasn’t meant to be. It’s not always about you or anything you did. Also know that not everyone’s going to like you…and that’s ok.
Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Why do we think we need to be perfect all of the time? Every single successful person you look at has had a sh*t ton of failures, but of course, they don’t talk about them. You don’t know about their failures and there’s no way that people who are successful got to where they are without a few bumps along the way. The difference is they didn’t give up. They pushed through their mistakes, learned, and kept growing.
Consider talking to a counselor or a coach. We all have things that we can work through to get to know ourselves and to grow and be a better version of ourselves.
Things are constantly changing in midlife and we might have lost a little bit of ourselves along the way. It’s time for your midlife remix! Follow some of Dana’s tips to find your why, own who you are, and give yourself permission to make a few mistakes along the way. This is your story and you get to make the rules.