Recalibrate Your GPS and Set a New Direction

Are you feeling out of sync in your current positioning personally and/or professionally? Are the goals that gave you drive and direction at the beginning of your career losing lustre? Have priorities shifted over time? No matter where you are at this point in your life, it's never too late to recalibrate your GPS and set off toward new directions.

The secret to finding peace and purpose no longer lies in obtaining more, but rather reinventing our idea of success so that we can find internal contentment on our individual pathways.

In this post, I share insights and mini-strategies for long-term success specifically tailored towards women entrepreneurs and executives who are approaching the crossroads of 60 years of age and perhaps beyond. Join me to explore how breaking free from outdated expectations can lead us towards a life filled with greater joys and satisfaction.

If your drive is going nowhere, you feel like you are at a crossroads, or worse you feel like you are at a dead-end, now is the time to set a new direction and re-ignite fulfillment by re-evaluating your values and updating your identity. As you continue to read, consider the analogy of using current GPS technology. 

Values Change and Evolve to Align with a New Reality

Youthful ideals might not follow us or serve us into middle age and beyond. I remain curious and in awe as I observe the different generations developing and re-evaluating their values. I reflect on my own ideals and values through my development when I was their age. Our ideals and values were and are set on our varied realities, then and now. My current reality is significantly different from each phase in my personal and professional life.

A healthy positive attitude toward the current reality is to accept what is. Either be happy with what is, or do something to ignite change. Doing something to ignite change requires a shift that aligns with the direction in which we want to proceed. Sometimes the shift requires a little course-direction. If you have watched the movie "Apollo 13", you will appreciate how a "little course-direction" can make a big impact. Other times the shift requires a totally new direction. Can you recall a movie, a book, or a streamed series that demonstrates the latter? Many immigrant stories are great examples. Also, the BIG events that open the door for transformation: birthdays, illness, loss, etc.

The challenges in our personal and professional lives as we approach crossroads of age and other events that tend to knock us off course often dictate a totally new direction. A critical step in setting a new direction begins with updating our values¹ to reflect our current reality. 

Where Are You Now? 

Reflect on who you are in this present moment —what makes you “you.” How has this identity shifted from that of your younger self?

Reflection steps:

1. Ask yourself the following questions as you reflect on the following questions. As a "best practice", I recommend having a favourite photo of yourself from 10 years ago at hand. It's fun too!
   1. How have I grown in the last decade? What ignited my growth?
   2. To what extent would I want to trade places with who I was 10 years ago?
   3. How much do I romanticize my earlier years?
   4. Who do I think I want to become—and how close am I to becoming my ideal and best self?
2. Imagine yourself one year in the future. Everything has gone as well as you had planned and as you had hoped.
   1. What does that life look like?
   2. What kind of a person will you have become?
3. What is something small you can do to take you in the direction toward that better life, that ideal and best "you?"
   1. What do you need to do to show up for your BEST self?²

How Has Your Professional Life Steered Your Direction?

Whether or not you have been conscious of how work has become central to who you think you are, at this time in your life it is important to explore and identify your ideals at a deeper and multi-faceted level. Take practical steps on becoming and evolving. Tap into what motivates you and what drives³ you in the here-and-now to find passion and energy.  

This is deep personal work. As I have often expressed, this is not a weekend DIY project. Our inner work is a life-long investment. At times, when we are going deep, a trained and qualified coach can be critical. Choosing the best coach for you is a very personal decision – especially when you're paying to invest in yourself. This decision is so personal and critical to your success, that you want to find the best fit.

Hitting the Reset Button: Then the Ignition Button

Are you, like many of us, feeling "stuck" or in "neutral" in your current trajectory and ready to recalibrate both professionally and personally? If so, it's time to reprogramme your own internal GPS system to navigate towards new goals. Remember, every season is goal-setting season. The good news is that as an experienced entrepreneur or executive approaching or beyond the crossroads of 60 years old, you have an incredible opportunity ahead of you - one where self-discovery can help realize amazing potentials that were previously out of reach. Growing older brings wisdom we never expected; wisdom that can be used to reshape our professional (and leisure) lives more effortlessly than any other period in history! Let's explore recalibration through self-discovery and set a new direction for success.

Our destination is limitless possibilities.

References and Resources

1. When Your Values Shift , Encore Blog, November 11, 2022
2. Showing up for Your Best Self Encore Blog tag search
3. Understanding What Drives You, Encore Blog, November 18, 2022

Your Next Steps

• Explore the connections I make with this topic related to Optimism, Self-Actualization, and other areas of emotional intelligence. Contact with me on LinkedIn. Or click to Get in Touch. 
• Contact me to explore the opportunity to create your customized plan for your Personal Foundation supported by a professional coaching plan to develop personal best practices based on your values and principles.
• Receive Maestro's Encore blog in your inbox with VIP content and specific exercises, self-assessments, and self-assignments related to this topic and to accelerate your emotional well-being and resilience. Start with your 90-Day EQ Mini-Plan or the mini workbook Emotions Drive Performance: Triggers from Thinking to Results - Predispositions, Self-Handicapping, Self-Sabotage 

• Explore strategies for finding fulfillment after 60. Schedule a 30-minute complimentary call to explore possibilities. On this call, we will get acquainted and discuss what outcome is important to you. I will explain the application process for working with me and how we would work together. By the end of the call, you will have a "quick-win" action plan.