If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it too late for me to...?” the answer’s NO, and The Uplifters will prove it to you. 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.
September’s episodes are all about new beginnings. We kicked things off talking about ending the last thing well, because that’s the first step to starting the next thing.
Listen to today’s episode with Jennifer Shay Carta if...
There’s something you want to start, but you don’t feel qualified to do
You fantasize about starting a new career even though your current gig is pretty ok
You feel like you need permission from gatekeepers to share your creative work
You don’t have to have gone to school to achieve something you want to do. Growing up, it was ingrained in me that “school” was the only pathway to “make it,” and I learned later in life that that is not the case.
Jennifer Carta spent decades getting really good at bringing other people’s words to life, building a career most actors only dream of, with Broadway runs in Side Man and Proof.
Acting was the thing she’d always been good at, the thing people book her for, and the thing that paid her rent.
In midlife, she decided, like so many of us, that she was tired of bringing other people’s worlds to life, and decided to create her own.
Jennifer didn’t have any of the credentials she thought a “real” writer was supposed to have. But, she had an idea she couldn’t get out of her head. The result is What Happened to Annabel Taylor, a gripping psychological suspense novel about memory, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
So many of us are trained to believe there’s only one door to the thing we want, and if we don’t walk through it on schedule, we’ve missed our shot. Jennifer’s story is proof that the door can show up decades later, looking nothing like what we expected, and still be really enriching.
What the research says
Psychologists find midlife women to be uniquely capable of embracing what’s called “possible selves,” visions of who we could become next, and research shows we’re actually better equipped for identity pivots later in life. We carry more wisdom, intention, and, crucially, less ego threat than we do at 25.
Her Courage Practice
The practice that stood out to me was Jennifer’s refusal to force her new creative impulse into an old, familiar shape. She had every reason to assume this idea was another screenplay, since that’s the only form she knew how to write in. Instead, she let herself notice that it felt different, and she respected that difference instead of steamrolling it. I weirdly equate this to gluten-free bread. Sometimes the thing you loved isn’t a good fit anymore, but you can find something that meets the same need without hurting you. Jennifer found her gluten-free bread in the novel form, and it gave her back a version of creative expression she thought she’d lost for good.
4 Ways Jennifer Shows Us How to Build Our Courage Capital:
She wrote with zero expectations attached.
She chose self-publishing on purpose, not as a fallback.
She’s learning to hold both praise and criticism and choosing to keep going rather than letting either make choices for her.
She’s slowly claiming the identity of a “writer”.
Lift Her Up:
The best way to support Jennifer is to read or listen to What Happened to Annabel Taylor and leave a review.
Then, if you love this episode, listen to Mandy Fabian, who nominated Jennifer and introduces this episode.
