Why Midlife Magic?

Midlife gets bad press. Its branding is terrible. This is understandable from many perspectives. It’s not an easy life stage as I opened with in my first newsletter. The challenge is real.

Why then have I called this newsletter Midlife “Magic”?

There are two key reasons:

• To remind each one of us personally of the innate hope and possibility for positive change, growth and transformation within our tricky midlife experience.
• To influence businesses and employers to develop and invest in their midlife people to realise the truly remarkable potential that resides within them.

Ultimately, I'm here to shift our narrative on, and experience of, midlife into an empowered stance that acknowledges difficulty AND intentionally generates flourishing for all in this life stage.

Change, growth and transformation

While the age range of midlife is subject to academic debate, it is generally understood as our early 40s to early 60s. This ‘middle’ period of our lives can herald great change, growth and transformation. I’ve witnessed this with my clients, experienced it in my own life, and read volumes of research and story about it.

Many of us will be familiar with the use of the butterfly metaphor to describe the metamorphosis available to us in this transitional period.

While any metaphor has its limitations, the pure magic of a hungry leaf-eating caterpillar with its six little legs and ten stumpy prolegs, morphing into a gooey mass within a chrysalis chamber, from which emerges a beautiful creature with wings that can actually FLY and POLLINATE, is utterly inspiring.

The maturation of the human life might be less morphologically dramatic than our butterfly friends, but the metaphorical message is clear: great change is possible as our true nature emerges with the passage of time.

For the midlife woman in leadership, this change can involve claiming yourself, living into what you know leadership to be for you, and sharing your wisdom with those that will follow you in an ever-evolving workplace and world. Your leadership in an organisation, or your own business, can go to a profound new level because you are clear, authentic, and have found the courage to be wholly you.

Businesses and employers

Businesses and employers, are you ready to nourish and facilitate the realisation of this vast midlife potential? Do you have the learning culture and systemic agility to retain and apply the energy and capabilities that could be released?

Your midlife leaders may need support to move from conventional to post conventional stages of development as their meaning-making shifts and priorities change. Your midlife employees may discover latent leadership capacities they didn’t know they had that now want expression. Others may not aspire to leadership but want to grow into their unique midlife contribution to the business.

Just imagine the people, culture and bottom-line benefits that could be generated by your midlife leaders and employees “butterflying” in your organisation through your intentional support, as they grow and release their magic.

What's YOUR midlife magic?

Whatever capacity you are reading this newsletter in, pause for a moment and identify one thing that you find magical about YOUR midlife. It might be something you appreciate about your midlife or who you are becoming in it, a personal or leadership quality that now shines through, something you’ve created, or what you’ve come to know. Pop your midlife magic in the comments. In the sharing of it, together we can generate a lot of reasons to relish midlife and create a future guide for ourselves and others to find the magic when it seems elusive.

OR email me at [email protected] if you'd prefer privacy and I'll read and respond with gladness.

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?? Hello, I'm Amanda Muckalt, and I specialise in helping midlife women in leadership to thrive in change. If you want coaching support in your leadership, you can DM me or e-mail me at [email protected] to find out more about one of them or book in.

If your organisation wants help with midlife coaching, designing and facilitating midlife masterclasses, and creating environments where midlife people can thrive, DM me or e-mail me at [email protected] and we can arrange an initial call.

?? Everyone is welcome in the Midlife Magic newsletter. While written for midlife women in leadership as my main client base, specialist area, and authentic lived experience, everyone is free to subscribe, read, comment. Whoever you are, if there’s something here that makes your life and leadership more joyous, impactful and easy, then we’re all winning.