Rocket Fuel After Forty: Igniting Your Next Chapter

This is your Women Over 40 podcast.

Welcome to Women Over 40, the podcast where we celebrate the vibrant, bold, and endlessly capable women who know the best is yet to come. Today, let’s dive straight into the heartbeat of reinvention—the journey of pursuing new passions after forty.

Reinvention at this stage isn’t just possible, it’s powerful. There’s something uniquely liberating about reaching this age. The expectations that once boxed us in—career, lifestyle, relationships—they start to matter less than the call inside to finally ask, “What do I want now?” Take Susan Lister Locke, who was nearing fifty when her world shifted gears. After a career in retail and raising kids on Nantucket, Susan made a pivotal decision: she drew up honest lists of what she liked, what she didn’t, and what she truly wanted. This clarity led her to embrace real estate and, more importantly, nurture her artistic soul. By boldly pursuing jewelry making, she found her creations selling in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and high-end boutiques, proof that following dormant passions can lead you somewhere extraordinary.

Across the world, Shinde from India found herself grieving at the start of her forties, believing her curiosity was gone. What brought her back was a rekindled connection with creativity. By tending to family plants, experimenting with houseplants in coconut shells, and delving into Japanese plant care, she turned curiosity into a thriving business. Now leading Ashokvatika Nursery and presenting at business collectives—Shinde discovered that curiosity is sometimes all you need to find joy and purpose again.

We can’t talk about reinvention without highlighting legendary examples. Toni Morrison wrote her first novel at forty. Vera Wang was in her forties when she revolutionized bridal fashion. Ariana Huffington redefined digital media at fifty-five with the launch of The Huffington Post. Then there's Lao Gan Ma’s Tao Huabi, who at forty-nine turned a beloved family chili oil recipe into a global household name. These women remind us that success does not come with a deadline.

But reinvention doesn’t require fame. Maybe your path is smaller, more intimate, but no less vital. Maybe you, like so many I’ve coached and interviewed, feel that familiar stuckness—questioning your old patterns and searching for what makes you come alive. True transformation starts with vision: Get clear on what you want, examine where you’re stuck, and give yourself the grace to grow slowly. Your skill, wisdom, and resilience at this point in life are not a liability; they are rocket fuel.

Start small, if you need to. Take one class, join a new group, experiment with a passion just for the joy of it, as Susan did. Let your curiosity guide you, as Shinde did. Seek sisterhood, mentorship, and connection—because while this journey is yours alone, community accelerates the transformation.

Choose yourself, unapologetically. Reinvention at forty and beyond is not an act of rebellion—it’s an act of self-love. Your next chapter is yours to design, and it might just be the best one yet.

Thank you for tuning in to Women Over 40. Subscribe for more inspiration and real talk. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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