More Heart, Less Hustle: Checking In.

That was the theme, the mantra, that I had stamped on 2024: More Heart. Less Hustle. This would be a year led by intuition, joy and connection.?

It’s the beginning of October (already?) and it felt like time to check in with myself on how that theme has unfolded—how I’ve engaged more heart, turned away from the hustle, and all that I’ve learned along the way.?

The Big Thing. Then The Bigger Thing.

I think more than anything else, what I’ve found is that leaning more into my heart when making decisions gives my planning, thinking, mindset, and my intuition a much bigger window to show up and guide me.

It’s a good thing too because 2024 has required intuition in a big way. I made so many decisions (decisions I had no idea I would have to make) that without a deep connection to my intuition, would have been so much harder in ways I can’t even imagine.?

And things got very hard for my heart this year. I thought the big heart kicker was Brené Brown's early summer announcement that she was selling the training rights for Dare to LeadTM to BetterUp which instantly changed my ability to offer the program that I love. The news was upsetting and unsettling, and it raised a lot of questions about what my business would look like going forward.

It turns out that was just the beginning of the hard things.?

On July 10, my younger brother Stuart, unexpectedly and tragically died after a decades-long struggle with addiction. How does one lean into their heart when their heart is shocked, broken, hurting?

My answer was to give myself permission to be with these emotions, and let go of feeling like I should be doing things to grow and improve my business.?

Interruption and the Gift of Tragedy

It wasn’t easy to be present to my family, to myself, and experience all of the feelings that come with grief. This meant giving my heart the full range from shame and guilt to shock and betrayal to disappointment and confusion. Mixed in was gratitude, love, joy, fulfillment. It’s all there, the beautiful and the hard.?

That’s a hell of a workout for the heart, but with it came something entirely unexpected (and welcome). It interrupted my pattern of hustling; of busyness and doing—always doing something, always creating something, always thinking about something.?

It stopped my worst instincts and gave me an extreme awareness that feels a little cliché. It sounds like this: “Diane, you've got this precious life. What do you want to be doing? Who do you want to be? What inspires you?”

This horrible tragedy has created a shift within me where I'm now open to saying yes to my wants rather than being hooked by what I “should” be doing, what I think other people want me to do, who other people need me to be.

And it's been interesting to notice how easy it is to—I will dare to say—let go of those expectations. Even more interesting is noticing the feeling that there's something else, something more that I am meant to do.

What I Really Want

I want to have conversations. Deep conversations. About the way midlife women are programmed by the world and how we navigate our mindset, our physical and emotional wellbeing, our purpose and how we show up as leaders.?

This phase of our life includes everything from identity shifts to role shifts, to body changes. Some of us find ourselves in jobs we’ve worked absurdly hard for, but we don’t actually enjoy doing them, while some of us feel like there’s so much we want to do but worry we don’t have any gas left in the tank. Let’s talk about that.

Let’s de-stigmatize it all, perimenopause and menopause, and start normalizing the conversation about the unique experiences and changes women go through in their 40s through their late 50s.??

I’m discovering an intense passion for supporting women as they find their power within it these changes. I navigated so much of it alone. What if none of us had to do that?

Back to the Heart

So, checking in on my year of More Heart, Less Hustle, what do I find? My heart is called to serve this community of midlife women. I'm going to do it in a way that feels easy and aligned and creative, and I want to invite you to join me in that exploration. This doesn't feel like hustle, it feels like purpose.

We're going to start with an event on World Menopause Day, October 18, 2024. We’re calling it the Inspiring Midlife Masterclass and it will run from 9:00-11:00amPT. I’ll be joined by the inimitable Katie Branter and we are going to have the conversation that I wish I'd been a part of years ago.?

Let's make our precious life all that it can be. And let's figure out what that looks like together.

Thank you for being part of my community. I've missed you. I'm back, with my heart and with you.