Creating Major Change And Reinventing Your Life During Middle Age And Beyond
You're not alone in wanting to challenge yourself in order to grow
My wife and I are planning to go to the beach today. While there, I will interview her about our move to Spain and so much of what it entails.
It's important to front and center her experience in this major life change we're going through together. Because—even though we're going through it together—we'll experience parts of it differently personally, professionally, emotionally and logistically.
Some particulars of my wife’s situation heading into and beyond the move:
She has a 21-year old daughter, who will remain in California.
She has worked in the same industry for the last 25 years.
For the last 15 years, she has owned her own business in that industry.
She will transition to an entirely new career that will require further education and—similar to what she did when she started her current business—building from the ground up.
It doesn’t take much poking around Substack and other corners of the internet to see that the idea of people reinventing themselves—particularly at midlife—resonates. Some people do it out of necessity. Others by choice. Quite a few, a mix of both.
Whether you have hit rock bottom and hate your life, have a life you’re pretty much to totally okay with or fit somewhere in between, there’s a common thread to changing your life, which might include moving abroad, as you enter and cross middle age.
The challenge carries the prospect of helping you maintain and expand your mental and physical capacity and vitality as you grow older. Some people bask in the glow of finding a seemingly comfortable place in life after years of hard work. Others seek what I am starting to view as a hybrid version of settling down. Where you thoughtfully cherry pick elements of comfort at the same time as you seek what you anticipate to be productive discomfort.*
So—I look forward to posting an installment or three later this week and probably next where we explore elements of the move from a perspective I am simply unable to provide.
A move that is officially less than six months away. We’re flying one way to Barcelona on January 2, 2025, before taking the train to Valencia on January 6, 2025.
Welcome to all the new subscribers from the last week or so. In case you missed it, here’s a look at some of what we’ve done over the last several weeks.
*Thanks to a great San Francisco native (my daughter) for turning Melisse and I onto the Yes Theory YouTube channel. I highly recommend it and always try to keep one of the primary mottoes—Seek Discomfort—in mind as I move through life.
That’s a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge from our week in San Francisco last month.
Moving to a foreign country where you don't know anyone is the best way to feel like a kid again.
There will be times where you want to get something done and the language barrier challenges you to the point of laughter. It's a humbling experience I'd recommend to anyone.
Maybe will see you in Barcelona before you make your way down to Valencia!
“Some people bask in the glow of finding a seemingly comfortable place in life after years of hard work. Others seek what I am starting to view as a hybrid version of settling down.” - This is where I hope to be soon within the next 3 months as I wind down a good but uneventful and generally unsatisfying career and discover and rediscover passions new and old. I don’t want to be looking back and regretting what I didn’t have the courage to do from the weight of obligations and responsibilities. There is still time and as they do in Spain, time to take the bull by the horn ( or at least tease it carefully with a red cape)!