SEASON 6 EPISODE 7
October 23rd 2019

HEIDI´S INTRO

How do you feel when someone asks you: Are you retired? Maybe the question is fine for you, you are happy to say “yes” and glad to, finally, not having to go back to work next Monday. Maybe you were tired of your work and now, being re-tired, you can rest from your life’s work.

Maybe you don’t want to be asked this question, maybe it sounds strange to you. Maybe you connect with this word the notion of “too old for work”, “useless for society”, “you need to step down and give way to the young”, and you might not really believe these ideas. Then you are in good company with many of us, especially the 100 women whom our guest Sue Brightman has interviewed. They made clear that “further becoming” is a better word for the time after you have left the work phase in your life.

Instead of indulging in re-tiredness, many of us in the “second adulthood” are expanding and exploring new territory thanks to the new possibilities which arise by not growing children or doing the normal job any more. It is a time of harvesting a long life’s experiences and to offer them back to the world in one way or another!

About Sue Brightman

For 30 years, Sue worked as an Organizational Development and Leadership Consultant, teaching and coaching at some of the world largest organizations. A Master Trainer and Certified Coach in Conscious Business, Sue founded Brightman Glover International and facilitated programs to clients in over 40 countries including Shell Oil, General Motors, Pulitzer Newspapers, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, and Huffington Post.

Like many women in her subsequent research, Sue recognized natural completeness of her career in her late 50s. Recognizing what she now calls “Done With That nudges”, she also recognized a full-on zest for wanting to continue learning, growing, and contributing.

Sue’s consideration of the question “What now?” was accompanied by deep curiosity about this stage of life: natural completion of successful careers, but more still to do with energy, creativity, good health, and spunk. She discerned a new pattern emerging on a global scale along these lines. That’s when she found social anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson’s work who declares that a whole new stage of life has arrived between 50-70+: Those of us in it are pioneering what it means, says Bateson.

In 2016, Sue launched a research project to interview 100 women between 50-79 to listen for markers of this new stage, and capture the tracks we’re laying down for ourselves and generations to come.

Sue’s upcoming book A Call to Further Becoming: The New Declaration from Women Over 50 announces ten themes that emerged repeatedly from 100 women’s stories and responses. Not only do they include the plethora of creative endeavors we are embarking on at this time – but they blow out of the water the old narrative of retirement, disengagement, and decline. Relationships of deeper connection, respect for our own resilience borne of facing challenges, and a growing trust in our inner wisdom allow us to speak with courage, act without fear, and pursue what is ours to pursue.

These findings led to Sue founding For Women on the Journey of Their Lives, LLC through which she supports women in their 50s, 60s, 70s through Executive/Life Coaching, Women’s “Further Becoming” Retreats, and soon-to-be-offered online Workshops/Groups. Combined with her certification as an SQ21 spiritual intelligence coach and interfaith chaplain, Sue’s championing of women who are pioneering Adulthood II is already attracting university requests for teaching and speaking on this emerging topic.

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW FOR THE BOOKS RECOMMENDED