A Modern Take On The Midlife Adventure

Hi, I'm Karyn. When I hit midlife I was determined to not let “the fear that you’re past your best...that the stuff you’ve done in the past is your best work” be my reality. I decided to use my passion for health & wellness, longevity and purposeful living to seek out tips, life hacks, anything to help me navigate midlife successfully. I soon discovered that there's a wealth of knowledge out there. It just needs to be brought together. 

Voila -- welcome to Holos, a weekly newsletter for women adventuring through midlife. Filled with information and actionable tips for a healthy, happy and fulfilled life, each issue consists of a main article and two to three smaller pieces called Drips & Drops. I would love to have you join me and navigate this adventure together. We're nowhere past our best -- we're only getting started! 

From There to Here

I have had many roles in my life, a banker, a wife, a competitive athlete, a world traveler, a mom to three boys and most recently a CEO. When I stepped down at the end of 2019 after almost a decade as CEO of the Bay Area Discovery Museum, my mom had recently died, I was burned out from my job and I had 3 teenage boys growing up rapidly. I was 50 years old and found myself thinking, “now what?” Actually, my husband would say it was more like, “NOW WHAT?” How I view middle age is different from our mother’s generation. I have lived long enough to accumulate meaningful experiences (and maybe some wisdom). And without a doubt, I have greater courage and confidence from surviving this far! I don’t feel old and I have no plans to slow down (in my mind I’m still only 28) or coast towards the finish line. And, no, I am not going to trade in my old-school yahoo.com email for something hipper! 

But the question of “now what” needed an answer. I want to live an intentional, purposeful and joyful life and I need to be clear on what is most important to me. Only with clarity can I set meaningful, fulfilling goals and have the courage to take the risks to achieve them. 

Values

The first stop on my journey of self-discovery was a class offered by Stanford Continuing Education entitled Designing Your Next Life Chapter. I loved the idea of conceptualizing my life in chapters and have found this framework gives me permission to think flexibly and boldly about my future. Your values are at the foundation for the course. They are the stepping stones for identifying a specific vision and plan for your next five year chapter. At the end of the six week course, I was clear on the parameters for my next five years; I wanted to explore my passion for health & wellness and longevity, to run my own business, to connect deeply with others and to continuously learn new things.

Simultaneously, I enrolled in Discovering and Developing Your Core Values. This self-paced online course was created by Robert Glazer, the author of The Friday Forward, one of my favorite newsletters, and the book Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limit. His process is simple and unique. I answered six questions and used the answers to identify my core, non-negotiable values. Once I answered the questions, I grouped similar words and concepts from my answers to generate two to five word phrases to articulate my values. 

Robert believes your core values explain who you are, can facilitate decision making and should be measurable and actionable. He employs a unique set of questions to guide you and uses phrases rather than single words to articulate each value. His use of phrases is genius. Phrases enable you to articulate what you mean in a powerful and nuanced way rather than rely on individual words which can be interpreted in many different ways. 

Using this process I identified five core values. The three relevant to the creation of this newsletter are (i) Lifelong Continuous Learning, (ii) Health as the Foundation of Everything and (iii) Sharing What I Know. 

Redefining Success

In your 40s and 50s something makes you step back and question everything, including how you view success. Is it being spread so thin between work, kids, school / volunteer obligations, your role as spouse and friend, you simply don’t have time to chase after or live up to some arbitrary view of success? Or is it because you have a better sense of who you are by this point in your life? 

Anna Quindlen says, “If success is not on your terms - if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your own heart - it is no success at all.” I had wanted an MBA, to become a vice president at a big bank, to have the CEO title. But now at this point in my life I want something different. Something more than the title, the money, or the prestige. I want more connection, to have my work be intertwined with my personal interests and to create every day. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I’m going to! And if this resonates and you stick with me, we can do it together!

Parting Thought

Holos is the result of deep soul searching, my goal to live a purposeful life and my desire to share my learnings with like-minded women. Holos is the Greek word for whole, entire, complete. To think holistically is the key to living the healthiest, happiest and most fulfilled life possible. And this is the life I wish for both myself and you. 

I want to thank my husband, Geoff, and Alicia Morga at No. 8 Media as Holos wouldn’t have been possible without them. I also would love your help in spreading the word about Holos and would appreciate if you would forward this newsletter to at least 3 friends.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you. 

See you next week…