Mind the Gap: Your Life Can Be Dramatically Different in 1 Year

In today's episode, Laurie is catching you up on all of the exciting things going on at the School of Midlife! There's a new website, a new quiz, and a brand new signature program, the Gap Year. Your life can be dramatically different in one year, and Laurie explains how the Gap Year can help you make this year your best year yet!

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life Well, Hey friends, it's Laurie. Welcome back to another episode of the School of Midlife podcast. Today. It is just me. And. There, there has been so much going on at the School of Midlife that I feel like even though I talked to you every week on the podcast, I haven't really given you an update lately on. All the new new. Starting with, we have a brand new website and it is. Not only the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen. But unlike the last website. This one is so functional. Like you can find different things that you are actually looking for. You want to learn about coaching opportunities? There is a whole tab for that. You want to buy the new best life planner. There's a tab for that. You want to know about upcoming retreats, whether that's the fall retreat in Sun Valley or get this next year. We're starting a study abroad program with the School of Midlife. So we'll be going to Italy and Mexico. You can find out information there. With the new website also comes a podcast tab that you can literally click. The, I think it's called a widget. Obviously tech is not my strong suit, but you can click that and listen to any episode you want. They are all on the podcast page. You can sign up for the book club. New this week, you can actually take a quiz. Remember those quizzes in Seventeen or Cosmopolitan that we used to take. And they were just all of these really random personality quizzes. Well, this one is no different. This is, um, the School of Midlife identity quiz I don't know if you remember those high school archetypes, you know, the ones that seemed so important when we were growing up, but. With this quiz, where were we writing those? So it's time to dust off the yearbook, discover which midlife woman you're becoming. Whether that's the class president. The homecoming queen. The prom queen. Might be the cheer captain. The best part is, is none of those crazy yearbook photos, but it's a super fun quiz. The results are. They're equally fun because not only do they break down your personality type using these. It really is a personality quiz, even though we have kind of cutesy ended up with high school archetypes because it is a School of Midlife, but each result. You actually get a result packet when you're done and it has daily affirmations on it. It has things to look out for that could be a blind spot for your personality type. Your theme song. It's it's really an interesting little package that comes with it. So the quiz is super fun. Um, I will actually include a clickable link in the show notes. For that, and you can take the quiz and I'll be interested to find out what it is which archetype would, what personality you are. But as I was kind of going through this idea that I hadn't really talked about the new website. I also, it occurred to me haven't said anything about the new signature group coaching program for the school of midlife. And that is the Gap Year. Most of us think about a gap year is something that you do between high school and college or between college and real life like starting your job. Most high achieving midlife women. We did not take a gap year. They were, when we got out of college. Most people weren't going on gap years, unless you had. Uh, trust fund and you had a bunch of money to spend. And if that is the case, I hope you took a gap year, but for most of us, we didn't have that luxury. Right. We, we went to school, we earned our degree and then almost. It was like this race, you know, how fast can you graduate from college and get out and start making money? And I mean, so many of us heard our parents kind of talking to us, which was, when are you going to get a job? What are you going to start making money? So we were on this fast track of let's see how quickly we can get out of school. We can graduate. We can get a job, start earning money. Weil. And then once we're on the earning money track, it just seemed like, well, how can we do more of that? You know, get a promotion, take on more responsibility at work, maybe change jobs, but. There was never this opportunity to take a step back, and take a gap year. Now, I mean, gap years they are. I mean, they're not super common, but they're also not uncommon. So. The cool thing about the gap year is you can go for a year or part of a year and do something completely different then what you want to ultimately do for a job. You want to go to cooking school in France. Go do that. You want to internship at an engineering firm, even though you have no plans to go into an engineering field. Go do that. You want to travel to a country or several countries that you have never been to go do that. And it's this very experiential,. Hands-on in the moment learning situation where you learn so much more than anyone could ever teach you. In the classroom, you know? Um, my brother used to always tell me that. Yeah, you're book smart, Laurie, but you have no common sense. You're not smart. Smart. And. Aye. I don't know if he was right about that or not. I mean, I feel like. That, that might just be one of the shitty things that your sibling says to you, but, um, Yeah. I mean, I went to school and I got good grades and I was definitely book-smart, but you know, I didn't travel to Europe until 20. 2015 was the first time I went to Europe. The first time I went to Washington, DC. Was. Probably 2010 ish. So I. Not that I grew up in a bubble, but there just weren't a lot of opportunities to go and experience things. Go see places that were outside of the immediate bubble. And if there were, we just, we didn't have the money to pay for it. So we just didn't do it. All that to say is, I know I'm not alone. We as, as high achieving women, we just got busy getting to work. And then, and then of course, then we had families and we were raising them up and. So there was never any time for us to take a gap year. But there is now. And I was planning to talk all about the Gap Year when we were in launch mode a couple of weeks ago. And I'm not really sure why that fell by the wayside, but it did. As I was putting the final touches on module one, all the lessons in module one, I started to think I was doing a disservice to all of you who are interested in doing something this year for you. Uh, something that will help you figure out what you want to do in life. Figure out what you want to be when you grow up. And so much of the Gap Year is rooted in. The one-on-one coaching that I would provide to my coaching clients. Coupled with some of the experiential learning from the best life retreats. And VIP days that I do with a handful of one-on-one clients. So it's taking. Different modalities. It's taking different lessons. It's taking different. Approaches to. Giving you the tools. For you to figure out. What do you want to. What do you want in your life? How do you define success? What is your best life look like? So practically. Who is this for? When I was posting those modules, it occurred to me that I should've let you know about it. Um, it's not a secret. I'm not sure why. I didn't tell you about it. And. So. Let me, let me spend a little bit of time. In today's episode two. Talk to you about what the gap year is, and if you are a good fit for it. You should join us because. We are just getting started. This is the perfect time. To start. Uh, program. It's summer. You've got that summer excitement. Because it's summer. You probably aren't feeling that burned out state that a lot of us get, you know, around the holidays or. Deep and spring time when we're. Heading into graduation season. You're probably traveling a little bit. You are. Doing things after work, like going to concerts. Paddleboarding playing pickleball. You're getting out. Camping. You're doing things. And this is a fantastic reminder too do some new things. So. The Gap Year. Is for you. If. You have followed the success playbook to a T, right? You earned your degree. You got a job. You bought a house, you got married, you had some kids and raise them up. You worked your way up through the ranks. And you've done everything you were ever asked to do. And. You've accomplished all the things. And then there gets to be a point. Where you look around and you take stock. And the, the kind of overwhelming feeling is I've worked my ass off for this, and it's not. That you haven't done a lot of things. It's not that you don't have a great life. You just feel a little unsure. Of what's next for you? You might be feeling a little unfulfilled. You might be feeling like a resignation, like, well, this, this is what it's going to be so cool. But you just don't feel like you thought you would feel once you got to this point, once you'd accomplished all those things. It could also be a good fit if you. Look around at your life and you realize you have everything you've always thought you ever wanted. Except that it's not enough. And. You might be feeling a little guilty because you have so much more than everyone else does a. You also might feel guilty because who are you to want for more? Right. There are a lot of women out there who don't have what you have. But by all outward appearances, you have the perfect life. You might be feeling some guilt around that you might be feeling some shame, like why can't I just be happy with everything that I have. If you're in that camp Gap Year would be a great option for you. Or you could be somebody who. Say you've run big companies. You've held important jobs. And if this was like any other project in your life, you would just double down on finding a solution. You would throw more time and resources at the problem. You could figure out a way to work yourself out of the funk that you're in. But this one's different. You cannot. Work yourself out of this funk. Because if you try to, all you're going to end up doing is making yourself feel more, burned out, more overwhelmed, more stressed out. You have to actually approach how you're living your life differently. If. One or more of those resonate with you. You should strongly consider the Gap Year. If none of those sound like you, then how about some of these. Again, you have everything you've always thought you ever wanted: the career, the family, the nice house, the nice cars you've got stamps in your passport. But it just still feels like something is missing for you. You're not sure what it is, but it feels like you were made for something more. Or you constantly feel like you need to say learn one more thing or chase one more achievement or earn one more accolade to make your life complete. So. Maybe you read another article or you subscribe to another podcast or you attend one more conference because it's like, your job has become this desperate search for the next right. Answer to find the fulfillment and happiness you've been looking for. You might also be someone who feels like the planning never ends. There is always one more thing you need to accomplish. Or do or get in place before you can take time for yourself. It's that, that constant I'm going to keep moving the goal line because I finally get there and I don't feel like I thought I would feel so I must have to do more. There must be one more thing I have to do before I feel successful. Or worthy. Or enough. Some of us. Are constantly feeling. Rushed and pressured, like we never have enough time. Like we're drowning in a sea of too much to do. There's just, we cannot get our hands around it. There, there just are not enough hours in the day. And the struggle there is we just keep adding more to our to-do list expecting that, that fulfillment satisfaction that we're looking for. That's going to be on the other side of whatever box we're checking off on that to-do list. But. The honest truth is. If you get really clear on what you want and how you define success. Then you're going to have these bookends that will allow you to actually. Work less. Enjoy life more because you're going to be able to set boundaries that are going to get you. To the point where you are no longer feeling like you are drowning in this sea of too much to do. For some of us. You know, we feel like. There's so much judgment. And we don't want to go all in on something new in our life. Because we're afraid of what people would think about us. Whether that's our parents. Uh, or our spouse or colleagues or friends. If you were to actually step out and do the things you really want to do in your life, like change jobs or end relationships or move to a new house or new city, there is this constant question in the back of your mind. Like, what will they think of me? How will they judge me? It will I lose friends? And because you don't know. How they will react. You're almost paralyzed by this, this fear of judgment. So you just stay where you are. It's that kind of, I made my bed and now I'm going to lie in it and I'm too old to make a change. And so you just. It's this kind of silent resignation that okay. This is all for me. But. If any of those, describe your life. I can't. Emphasize enough that. That that's an unsustainable reality for you. I mean, Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is Doing the same things over and over and over again, and expecting a different result. So. If you continue living your life. Your great life. Just the one that feels like something's a little missing. The one that. Is is good, but just, isn't bringing you all of the fulfillment and joy and satisfaction that you expected to have. Once you've gotten to this point in life, once you had everything you always thought you ever wanted. The truth is if you stay busy doing all of the things for everyone else, if you're not intentional, About making change in your life. Then you're just going to keep delaying. Anything and everything that you want to do for yourself. Until you retire until the kids leave the house until you lose the next 15 pounds. Until the time is right until the time is perfect until someday, but here's the problem. The time will never be right. So you have to decide that you're going to stop waiting. And get really. Clear. On. Creating your best life. And start living that before you run out of time. So what the Gap Year offers you is this 12 month experiential coaching program, which is designed for high achieving women who have been crushing it in their professional life. You know, whether that's as the CEO of a company or. Or the CEO of their household. So. On the one hand you're doing. Fantastic. From a business standpoint. But you're feeling a little adrift or, or stuck in your personal life. So what the Gap Year does is it gives you a 12 month container. To figure out who you are. What you actually want and what matters most in this season of life. And it's 12 months by design. In fact. Let me put a pin in that. I want to let you know that over the course of the Gap Year, You can expect to figure out what you want and put together a clear path on how to get that. You can expect to feel grounded and settled in knowing who you are and living as authentically you, instead of trying to keep up all those appearances which it's exhausting. Isn't it? I mean, if you spend your whole life acting as if you're someone you're not. It's exhausting. You can expect to gain clarity. Which allow you to focus on all of the right things in your life. That you'll actually. Be able to finally, maybe for the first time ever. Recognize exactly what you want. How you define success and what your best life looks like so that you can create that life that you want to live. You'll you'll find that at the end of 12 months, You'll be living unapologetically you instead of the person who. Everyone else expects you to be. Which means. You'll you'll give no fucks. Right? You're you're, you'll be no longer. Apologizing for doing what's important to you even. If or when it's inconvenient for those around you. And I mean, at the end of the day after the gap year, You will have a clear understanding of how to make midlife your best life. Why 12 months? A lot of coaching programs are six weeks long or eight weeks long. And. I have. Participated in those and I have delivered those. So I've been on both sides of it. And I'll tell you. What I know for certain. As a high achieving mid-life woman. You already have a lot on your plate. If a program is six or eight weeks long, The likelihood that you will have a vacation. A large project. Something going on with your family. Some major appointments or. Obligations that you cannot change the likelihood of that happening during one of those weeks is very high. And what happens if you miss a week? Or two weeks. You never go back and pick up. That time, you never go back and try hin. Finish the program. Most of us have signed up for a lot of coaching programs that we have never finished. This one is different. Because the program is 12 months. If you get behind. A couple of weeks in module two, you still have two weeks to catch up. There is so much extra time baked into each monthly module. So that if you cannot. Listen to. Learn the material in the first week. No problem. You have three or four weeks to get caught up and because you have lifetime access. If one of the modules, isn't something that you care to work on. You can come back to that at a different time in your life when you need to focus on that. This is all by design. It is, is meant to build on each other, but also be this kind of menu that allows you to select what you need at the time that you need it. There is new material that drops each month for the module that we are working on for that month. We'll be talking about your midlife mindset. Mid-life relationships, midlife friendships, midlife career. Your midlife body, your midlife, personal style, money, and midlife. Midlife travel and adventure. So each month. Time will be spent on these core modules. And because this is the first year that the Gap Year we'll be offered. If say we get to. Relationships or mindset, and we need more than one module more than one month to cover that material. Then we'll just add. More resources in the next month. I will be building out this program as we're going along. Now I have a very detailed outline of all of, exactly what we're going to be covering for the next 12 months. But if we need to spend additional time so that it makes sense, we're going to spend all the time that we need. There is a new topic and we are doing a deep dive on those topics each month. So each month. A new module will drop. And the beauty of the new module is you have the entire month to work through it. And because we're busy and we all learn differently. Not only will you receive videos of the program, but you will also receive a private audio podcast. So just like you're listening to right now with the School of Midlife, if you want to, you can take the Gap Year podcast on your walks with you. Oh, and what you can listen to them while you're driving in the car. You can listen to them while you're making dinner. This. Program is meant to fit seamlessly. Into your already busy life. So you are able to. Listen, watch. Learn the materials. Do the exercises. When you have time to do them. With each module you will get. The videos and the private podcast. There will be exercises. There will be journal prompts. Everything that you need to fully explore whatever the topic of the module is. You will be given that. And those will generally roll out the first week of the month. And then you'll have the entire. Month. Two. Work at your own pace. To complete. The materials. But. This is not just a you sign up and you figure it out on your own because there are at least two group coaching calls, live calls. For you to attend. Each month. On one of the group calls com. Get some additional coaching on the module. The other group coaching call. Is an office hours call. So remember in college, when your professor would have office hours and he, or she would just be sitting there working and you could pop in and ask your questions. Well, same thing with this is. For the. Office hours calls. I'll just be there. And anyone who wants to pop in can pop in and ask questions. All of the group coaching calls will be recorded. So if you can't attend them live, you can still pick them up. But you can see how. Everything that goes into this program is meant to. Give you the tools to work better in your life and not. Lead to significant burnout. Like not, not add more to your to-do list. And because I will be building it in real time with you. The founding member class. The investment will never be this low again. And by low, I mean, Lower than you even think for a 12 month. Group program. Like less than$5 and 50 cents a day. I mean your worth$5 and 50 cents a day. Right? Right. And only you can answer that for yourself, but. I think you and your life and your happiness and your fulfillment and your joy. Worth way more than$5 and 50 cents a day. If I was to just kind of summarize what it is that you get, you get 12 months of live coaching calls. You will have access to the School of Midlife library. So any time a masterclass or additional resources or tutorials are added to the School of Midlife library. You get those for free. You will get 12 months of weekly email support to keep you on track. Private community with the School of Midlife team and your classmates. Because. This is the first time that it's going to be rolled out. Not only will you receive all of the Gap Year content. Right now as we work through it, but any time there are changes made to the Gap Year in the future. You will get those too. There is a workbook filled with exercises, progress, trackers, journaling prompts, activities. And if there is enough interest, I have hand selected a book to read every month that relates to that month's coaching. So we will discuss it in a private book club. If you are someone who knows that you work better. One-on-one. There is a private school option for the Gap Year, which you get everything in the Gap Year that I just talked about. But you also get. Quarterly one-on-one coaching calls. And then you also get a private room at the best life retreat. Um, because there is nothing. So transformational then. Actually getting away from your life for four days and just focusing on yourself. So if you're somebody who loves a VIP option knows that. You work better? With. Someone on one coaching definitely check out the private school And for the first time ever. There is a money back guarantee. I am so convinced of the Gap Year will work for you that if it doesn't for any reason at all, We'll give you your money back with no questions asked. Think about it this way. It's such a no brainer. If the Gap Year works for you, your life will never be the same. You'll know exactly what you want to do with your life. You'll have clarity on who you want to be when you grow up. You'll know exactly how you define success. You'll finally understand what your best life looks like and be able to create a plan to make that a reality. But if you don't like the Gap Year for any reason, Just email us show that you've done the work. And I'll give you your money back. And I, and some of you might be thinking, well, why do I have to show you that I've done the work. And the reason is simple because nothing works unless you use it. So people sometimes confuse buying something, acquiring something with accomplishing the thing that they want to accomplish. They think that if they purchase a course, that they're taking action. But the truth is nothing works unless you work it. So you have to at least. Try the work. Because the Gap Year will work for you. If you actually do the work. The enrollment period. Technically ended a couple of weeks ago. But because I haven't talked to you about the Gap Year until now, I'm going to extend the signup period for you because you're listening to this podcast. So assuming that you hear this the week that the podcast drops on July 16th. There's still time for you to get in. And even though the webpage, there's a clickable link in the show notes, even though that says that you have to sign up by June 25th, I think. Disregard that if you want in, let's get you in because there are still spots available and I'm telling you, your life can be dramatically different in one year. But in order for that to happen, you have to do something different than you're doing right now. And instead of waiting until the time is right until the perfect time, even because we know there is no perfect time. Let's get you into the founding member cohort. Let's let's get that process started.'cause like I said, module one, it just dropped yesterday. So you are not behind. There is plenty of time. For you to join us and really make this. The best 12 months of your life. Take your Gap Year. Join us. You've earned it. I know that this is different than most of the episodes. But I wanted you to be aware of this opportunity. The Gap Year will be offered again in the future. I don't know when we will. On board, the next cohort. But I do know that the investment will never be as low as it is right now for the founding cohort. I'd love to. See your name. On the roster. If. Your interested, but have some questions. Check out the webpage. There is a long FAQ section there. And if you don't find the answer to your question, Then let's book a call. Let's talk about it because I would love to have you in your Gap Year and. I would love for you to be able to experience that. Right now. We get one shot at this life. Let's make it a good one. I have a question for you. When was the last time you spent a day focused completely on yourself. Away from the daily grind, the constant emails and text messages. The never ending question of what is for dinner. Well, if a day sounds good to you. What about an entire weekend away? And before you start thinking that sounds a little too indulgent. Let me remind you that you can't take care of everyone else in your life. If you don't take care of yourself first. I am thrilled to personally invite you to join me at the next best life retreat and world famous sun valley, Idaho. With more than 15 hours of group coaching to figure out what you actually want in life, how you define success and help you lay the groundwork for you to create a life that not only makes you happy. But also makes you feel personally fulfilled. There will be incredible group activities like happy hour paint and sips morning walks a sunrise hike, your choice of spa appointments and an award winning spa. All of this wrapped up in luxury accommodations, gourmet meals, premium drinks, and the best gift bag you have ever seen. I'm telling you this will be one of the very best weekends of your entire life. To keep their retreat intimate. There are only 10 spots available and when they're gone, they're gone. So go right now click the link in the show notes and get yourself on the priority list so that you'll be the first to know when we open up registration I cannot wait to see you in sun valley