If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it too late for me to...?” the answer’s NO, and The Uplifters are about to show you why. This space is for purpose-driven women who want to do big, brave things in the second half of their lives. I’m your host, Aransas Savas, and I’ve spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching.
In this week’s mini episode, you’ll meet Angela Burk. She spent three decades scaling companies and leading large teams. Like so many of us, she was an “execution machine” for everyone else. Meanwhile, she was managing a marriage she suspected wouldn’t last, navigating hormonal shifts she didn’t understand, editing away the parts of herself that made her feel like herself, and ignoring her own needs entirely.
After leaving her marriage and her job and retiring for a hot minute, she set out to find the answers to all of her questions about midlife. The result is A Real Girl’s Guide to Midlife. It blends her story with stories of other women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and insight from the psychologists, coaches, and counselors she interviewed.
Over and over, she heard from women who had internalized the message that their happiness needed to come last and that wanting more was wrong. The antidote, she says, is small, consistent acts of telling the truth to yourself. It’s noticing when you’re saying yes to something you want to say no to. It’s declining invitations simply with the word NO (or “I’m not available” if you need a bit more cushion). She now describes herself as “radically self-possessed.”
Lift Her Up
Grab her book: Real Girls Guide to Midlife. Find her on Substack at realgirlsguidetomidlife.com and on Instagram @realgirlsguide55. Support her by actively engaging in the conversation. Comment. Disagree. Share what resonated. “We cannot gatekeep the good, the bad, or the ugly,” she said. We have to talk about it all!
