Latest / The Diva Details / Midlife Reset: From Crisis to Clarity
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Diva Details.
- 0:03Welcome to the Diva Details, where bold, confident women
- 0:08embrace life unapologetically. From love and
- 0:11sex to wellness and reinvention, we keep it raw,
- 0:16real, and powerful. No filters, no limits,
- 0:20just fearless conversations to help you thrive.
- 0:23Let's dive in with Diva Mia.
- 0:30Well, this is Diva Mia. Today I want to talk about something that I think
- 0:34we have been taught to look at completely backwards, which is midlife. For years,
- 0:38women have been sold this idea that our 40s and 50s represent some kind
- 0:42of slowdown or decline. Our bodies change, relationships change,
- 0:46our kids grow and our careers shift, hormones change.
- 0:49But what happens is we change in a way that I don't think
- 0:54we actually recognized. Sometimes marriages end, sometimes careers end,
- 0:57but we look around at life and we've spent decades
- 1:01building and we realize that even what we thought was possible
- 1:05may not be. And because maybe their path changed.
- 1:09So let's look at society because society has created
- 1:14a term for it called midlife crisis. But what if it's not
- 1:18a crisis? What if it's just clarity into what you're looking for? What if
- 1:22As a woman, you become in your 40s, 50s, 60s,
- 1:25et cetera, stronger because you finally had enough experience
- 1:30to understand who you are. You've had enough experience to know what you want
- 1:33and enough confidence to stop apologizing for it. And then enough
- 1:37urgency to stop wasting your time. Today we're talking about the midlife
- 1:41reset. We're not going to call it a crisis. We're not trying to become 25
- 1:45again. We don't want to desperately hold onto some type of
- 1:49past. We want to embrace who we are today. We're going to love
- 1:52who we are today because intentionality and deciding what
- 1:57the next version of your life is going to be takes a little bit of
- 1:59effort and focus because your 40s, 50s, et cetera,
- 2:03don't have to begin— be the beginning of your decline. I can tell you,
- 2:07I've got some friends that are in their 70s and they're competing in bodybuilding competitions.
- 2:11I know people that are resetting their entire world at
- 2:1550. It might be the beginning of your strongest decade yet. You aren't starting
- 2:19over. One of the biggest mistakes we make during major life
- 2:22transition is telling ourselves that we have to start all over again.
- 2:26Maybe you broke up with a man, maybe you got a divorce,
- 2:29maybe your kids left home and you might be a widower,
- 2:32but you're not starting over. You're not, because you have so much experience
- 2:36now. There's an enormous difference from starting over at 25 just to
- 2:40beginning again in your 50s. You might have had enough energy
- 2:44and ambition, but you probably didn't have the perspective that
- 2:48you have today. Or the knowledge. You hadn't experienced enough failure in
- 2:52your 20s to really know what you wanted. Now you've survived disappointment.
- 2:56You've learned what people deserved access to and which people don't.
- 3:00You hadn't learned how expensive bad decisions can become. And you
- 3:04also hadn't figured out which battles mattered and
- 3:07which ones weren't worth fighting for, or 5 minutes of your time.
- 3:11Now you know. You've loved people. You've lost people.
- 3:15You've trusted people and trusted the wrong people. You made mistakes.
- 3:18And suddenly you have succeeded at things you once thought were impossible.
- 3:22You've survived situations that younger you would never have survived or
- 3:27would have been terrified to even face. This isn't baggage. This is data
- 3:31and data collection. I've talked about data collection quite often. And in midlife, you have
- 3:34a lot of data that you've collected. Midlife gives you something that your
- 3:38younger youth could not give you. It's perspective.
- 3:41And perspective can become an incredible advantage if you actually use
- 3:45it. All the failures were actually true lessons. There's another transition
- 3:49that happens around this age, and that doesn't get discussed very much,
- 3:52but for decades, women are often defined by their roles. We were
- 3:56daughters and then wives and then mothers, sometimes employees and business
- 4:00owners or caregivers, but we spend so much of our time being something
- 4:04for somebody else that eventually a very simple question becomes
- 4:08surprisingly difficult. Who am I? When I'm not taking care of
- 4:12everyone else, who am I? That question can feel very uncomfortable.
- 4:15Who do you wanna be? But it's one of the most important questions you have
- 4:19to ask yourself. What do you like? What do you want? What does your ideal
- 4:22day look like? And what does your ideal body feel like? You need to determine
- 4:26how you want to live. You need to determine what you want and which people
- 4:30you want to have around you. You get to choose. You get to create a
- 4:34life that you dreamed about on your terms.
- 4:37And if there's things you haven't done yet, maybe traveled, started a business,
- 4:41gone to different places. Maybe the biggest question is nobody
- 4:45else's opinion matters now. So what will you do now? That's where the
- 4:49reset happens. That's where the reset begins. You know, it's, it's not a new
- 4:53wardrobe or a new relationship or in a dramatic announcement
- 4:57that you're going on a trip on social media. It starts with just knowing
- 5:00yourself. It's a reset, a reset of who you are
- 5:04and letting the old version of you go. You have to allow yourself to change.
- 5:08And sometimes letting the old version of you, it feels like a death because growth
- 5:12requires something that sounds simple, but it can actually be incredibly difficult. It feels
- 5:16like you're— the old you is dying and you're creating a
- 5:19new you. Sometimes we stay loyal to the old versions of ourselves way longer
- 5:24than we need to. Maybe you always, you've always been the accommodating
- 5:28one, the people pleaser, the dependable one, the person that never says
- 5:32no. And now you want to choose a different path. Now,
- 5:35instead of making everyone else happy, you want to make yourself happy. And there's
- 5:39nothing wrong with that. If you stay because and work because everybody
- 5:44realizes you're not a quitter. That's not a way to make yourself happy if
- 5:48you're miserable. Women who tolerate things because we don't want to disappoint
- 5:52others is not a good way to live. At some point you have to ask,
- 5:55is this actually who I am or is this simply who I've trained myself to
- 5:59be? Did I people please and take, put up with things I should never have
- 6:02allowed in my life? Did I allow little things and turned into big things because
- 6:06I allowed it? There are habits that helped us survive earlier periods of our lives
- 6:10that may no longer serve us. Growth isn't always about adding adding something.
- 6:14Sometimes it's about subtraction. In fact, this month is my
- 6:18month of no. I just recently went through a breakup and I
- 6:21have decided that this month I'm just saying no. Everybody's been coming at me
- 6:25with new requests because they heard that I was single. My month is my month
- 6:28of no. I just don't want to do anything else. I'm doing plenty of things
- 6:33that I like to do. Whenever anybody asks me to do something else
- 6:37or go on a date, this is my month of no. I just want to
- 6:38take time for me. If I can say no to all the other little things
- 6:42that everybody wants me to do and just be myself, it's a much healthier
- 6:46relationship for me because I need to take time for me. And there's
- 6:50nothing wrong with that. You'll find that you'll have fewer unhealthy relationships
- 6:55when you have a month of no. Fewer excuses and no reason to impress
- 6:59people. We only have one life. So when you waste it with the wrong
- 7:02people, the people that don't treat you with respect
- 7:05or treat you well, you're wasting your time and valuable
- 7:09energy. The fewer people that you let into your life, the less energy you
- 7:12have to expend on people that don't deserve it. Maybe a
- 7:16few more boundaries might be good as well, because when we have boundaries, we do
- 7:19protect ourselves better. The other thing is your body is changing, but it's not finished.
- 7:24You've got decades more to go in midlife to have such
- 7:27a fun body. Because yes, bodies change and our hormones change
- 7:31and muscle mass may decline, but it doesn't have to. Your sleep
- 7:35can change, but it doesn't have to. You can improve all of this because you're
- 7:39Metabolism, body composition, it's changed, but it's just different. It doesn't
- 7:42mean it's done. It actually means that the decades you became far more
- 7:46intentional about your health. Now you have to focus on your health, but that's okay.
- 7:50Maybe exercising in your 20s was bouncing around. Now it's lifting weights
- 7:55and walking or doing yoga and strength and exercise
- 7:58and stretching. All of those things help with your energy
- 8:02and your independence. You may want to travel now.
- 8:05Pick up your grandchildren. If you have to carry your own damn suitcase,
- 8:09there's nothing wrong with being alone. If you decide that that is the way you
- 8:13want to go, you get to choose. Don't let anybody stop you.
- 8:16And a lot of women at this age start new businesses. They write a book,
- 8:19they reach out to family and friends, and they travel around.
- 8:22There's nothing wrong with any of that. And yes, you can still look incredible.
- 8:26You can look better now than you did in your 20s or 30s.
- 8:29There's nothing exclusive about being 20 versus
- 8:32being 50 that says you can't be in the best shape of your life.
- 8:35The goal is to build a body capable of carrying you through the next 60,
- 8:3870 years. Yes, I said 60 or 70 because we're all going to live
- 8:42over 100. At least we hope so. So you might as well work on your
- 8:46body now if you haven't done so already. But dedication will become
- 8:50your superpower because you can. Here's something I've learned about reinvention.
- 8:53Motivation is very overrated because it's wonderful when it
- 8:56shows up, but it doesn't always show up. So dedication and discipline does.
- 9:00And there will be mornings when you don't want to exercise, but you got to
- 9:03go anyway. There's mornings where you don't want to work on your business, but you
- 9:06got to do it anyway. And I always say, do the most difficult thing first
- 9:09so you get it out of the way so it's not weighing on you the
- 9:11whole day. Your strongest decade won't be built by what
- 9:15you do when you're motivated. It's gonna be built by what you do when you're
- 9:18disciplined and consistent and showing up every day,
- 9:21because that's what dedication is. And one advantage of getting older is that
- 9:24hopefully we've learned something about our younger selves and
- 9:29we, that we didn't used to fully understand is that time is going to pass
- 9:32anyway. You might as well use it. To your benefit.
- 9:35You can spend the next 3 years thinking about changing your life, or you
- 9:38can get started today and spend the next 3 years actually
- 9:42changing it. Either way, 3 years from now is going to happen. So you get
- 9:46to choose. If you could look back at yourself 3 years from now and say,
- 9:50oh my gosh, look at all the accomplishments I made. Why don't you look forward
- 9:53and say, what do you want to be in 3 years? What do you want
- 9:56to be in 6 months? There's a tremendous amount of freedom that can come with
- 9:59midlife. You start realizing how much of your younger life was spent
- 10:04asking for permission from people that didn't have power over
- 10:08you. You cared more about people that approved of you,
- 10:12that something might be too embarrassing or you're judging.
- 10:15I think women in our 40s and 50s, we're empowered. We are ourselves.
- 10:19And if people don't like it, they can move on. If someone treats you badly,
- 10:23leave. You don't need to stick around. And then when you go back to thinking
- 10:27about yourself, you know, you get to wear whatever dress you want. You get to
- 10:29dress however you want. Take that trip, go back to school, build some
- 10:33muscle, start dating again. I mean, there are so many people out there
- 10:38to date that you don't need to be single if you don't want to.
- 10:40And then reinvent yourself, whatever you want to do. Your life does
- 10:44not require approval from anyone because you deserve
- 10:48time for you because you've done a lot for others for a very long
- 10:51time. Women are unique with this. Yes, men do things for women as
- 10:55well, but We are the primary caregivers of our children.
- 10:58In general, when we're the primary caregivers, we're giving, giving, giving,
- 11:01giving. It's about time you start giving back to yourself.
- 11:05And here's the other thing that's truthful. Relationships are going to change when you
- 11:08start to know yourself. When you know you are in a relationship, you may accept
- 11:12relationships based on potential. If you're uncertain about yourself,
- 11:16you may see in the other person their potential and hope
- 11:19that they will grow into it and stick around probably for longer than
- 11:23you need to. You see what someone could become. You imagine what the relationship
- 11:28could be, a future with that person, but you explain away behavior
- 11:32just because you're focused on the future instead of the person standing in front
- 11:36of you. You allow things, disrespect and disloyalty, to occur for
- 11:40no purpose because midlife should teach you to pay attention to reality
- 11:44and what is and who they are. Does this person bring you peace or
- 11:48chaos? Are their actions consistent with their words? Because so many
- 11:52people will say one thing and do something completely different. I must say,
- 11:55you need to respond, and when you feel something is off,
- 11:58believe it. Even if you can't put your finger on it, it may be telling
- 12:02you something is wrong and you may need to do further investigation.
- 12:06Do they take responsibility for their actions or are they always blaming someone else or
- 12:10something else? I will say people that constantly make excuses and are constantly complaining
- 12:14about other people, you have to be a little wary. Knowing yourself means knowing
- 12:18what belongs in your life and what does not. You need to eliminate
- 12:22things that don't belong there because you have such limited time. A reset can't
- 12:26just be about what you've learned. It can't be just about what you're leaving.
- 12:30It needs to be a new vision. You need someone or
- 12:33something to be moving towards. So this is goal setting as
- 12:36well. Think about 5 years from now, not vaguely, but truly picture
- 12:40it. Think about 1 year from now. What do you want 1
- 12:44year from now? How, how does your body look? Where do you live? What do
- 12:48you do every morning? What lifestyle do you want? What do your finances look
- 12:51like? And do you have a relationship or are you alone? Some people prefer
- 12:56to be single, then they don't have to deal with the stress of their partners.
- 12:58And what will you no longer tolerate? Tolerate in your life. If you've been through
- 13:01a divorce or are a widow or been through some relationships that
- 13:05where you tolerated things that you didn't like, what would you change?
- 13:09And then reverse engineer who you are in the future and see
- 13:14what steps you need to take to magically get that to happen. Because what will
- 13:18happen is if you start making steps to your future self, you might be
- 13:21surprised. You might get there before you think. If you're listening to this and thinking,
- 13:24oh my gosh, Oh, where do I start? Let's start with the 5 areas.
- 13:28The first one to think about is your body. Our body and our minds are
- 13:31very strongly tied together, but let's think of our body. What do you need to
- 13:34change so that in 5 years you're stronger, you look better,
- 13:38and you look the way you want to look? And then move on to your
- 13:41mind. What are you still believing about yourself that isn't serving you? Is there something
- 13:45like a limiting belief or something that you would change about your mind?
- 13:48Is there some education you need to take? What would you change about your mind?
- 13:52And then your relationships. Who deserves more of your time and who deserves less?
- 13:55If there's someone that's making you uneasy or bringing you chaos
- 13:58or just giving you anxiety, maybe that's not the right relationship for
- 14:02you. And then your purpose. What do you still want to build, create, and experience
- 14:06or contribute to the world? Because we have a lot to contribute in our 50s.
- 14:09We're not done yet. And then your environment. Does your current life
- 14:13support the person you're trying to become? If it does, choose one measurable action
- 14:17you can take in each area. If you choose an action to
- 14:20take in each area, not 50, just one, Or every 3 months you do another
- 14:24action in each area because transformation isn't usually one massive decision.
- 14:28It's usually a bunch of small ones repeated until you look— your
- 14:31life completely looks different. Little baby steps, if you will. The woman you're
- 14:35becoming is incredibly powerful and you're reaching the point where you know yourself. So stop
- 14:39chasing people. Stop trying to convince people to
- 14:43be loyal to you or respect you. If they don't, let them go and
- 14:47don't shrink yourself to fit into a relationship. You know, when you're
- 14:51in a relationship and if you start to minimize yourself, that's probably a sign that
- 14:55that relationship is not the best one for you because you can't
- 14:59confuse attention with love because a lot of people will give attention and
- 15:02not really love you. And that's true. And sometimes love
- 15:06isn't even enough. So just because someone's busy, that doesn't mean you're being
- 15:10productive. So realize just because you're busy and working hard,
- 15:14how productive truly are you? Can you be more productive and more focused?
- 15:18Eliminate the social media crap. The social media stuff
- 15:21is a very big distraction and it'll take you from your common purpose or your
- 15:25purpose that you want to grow into in your life and you'll become much more
- 15:28selective where your time goes. We do have less of it now. We're getting closer
- 15:32to our expiration date, whatever that date may be. So focus your time
- 15:36where it's most valuable because eventually you understand that something
- 15:40completely changes how you live is that time is the one thing you cannot earn
- 15:43back. Money can be replaced, careers can be rebuilt, but you can't
- 15:47get the time back. Relationships can change. They can fall apart, they can get back
- 15:51together, but homes and time is the one thing you don't have.
- 15:55But you cannot purchase another Tuesday from 15 years ago or
- 15:58reset stuff. Once the time is spent, it's gone and you
- 16:02can't get it back. It's not depressing, it's empowering because that forces you to ask,
- 16:06what deserves the rest of my life? So maybe you're 50,
- 16:0955, or 60, and maybe your life looks nothing like
- 16:13you thought it would be. That's okay because that means the story's not finished.
- 16:16You're allowed to change the plan, restart, Be ambitious,
- 16:20get healthier, stronger, and live longer. What you have allowed in your
- 16:24life, you don't have to allow anymore. You can want more or want less,
- 16:27and you are allowed to build a completely different life than the
- 16:31one you imagined when you were younger. So just realize midlife
- 16:34isn't about desperately trying to hold onto what you used to be. It's about finally
- 16:38having enough experience to intentionally decide who
- 16:42you're gonna become. So don't ask yourself whether your best years
- 16:46are behind you. Ask a better question. What could I build with
- 16:50the next 10 years if I stopped underestimating myself? If I
- 16:53let fear go away and I just went for it? Because your
- 16:57strongest decade may not be the one already lived. It may be the one you're
- 17:00walking into right now. This is your midlife reset, and this time you
- 17:05get to build it knowing exactly who you are. This is Diva Mia. Stay strong,
- 17:09stay glowing, and have a wonderful life. I'll see you
- 17:13next time. Thanks for tuning in.
- 17:16Like, subscribe, and drop a comment. We love hearing from
- 17:20you. Visit thedivadetails.com to connect.
- 17:24See you next week for more.
- 17:30Diva Details podcast and website are intended solely for informational and entertainment purposes. The content
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