Why do we need life coaching in our 50’s 60’s 70’s?
Seniors need a life coach.
I am a life and transition coach for older adults. I had a reporter interview me yesterday and ask me why do seniors need coaching??? Isn’t that just for young people?
My response is that seniors need coaching for the same reasons younger people do…
When you get older, you need to take time for reflection, inspiration, and thinking how do I want the next phase of my life to be?
We get to do a do-over, or a recalibrate of what you think is important now?
I was listening to this YouTube speech from Mathew McConaughey…
Mathew Maconnehy — 5 rules for the rest of your life
In another interview he says,
“What better subject do you have than to study ourselves?”
He discusses the five life lessons as he talks the recent college graduates. Who talks to us like that ?
What can we learn from our life story?
Sometimes life events force us to pause and evaluate our lives and what is important, or what to consider next.
Divorce
Job change
Retirement
Children leaving home.
Death of a friend of family member
Turning 50
Turning 60
Turning 70.
These are natural times of transition that happen throughout life. One of the most powerful for me was when my daughter left home for college. I was trying methods to help me cope with my loss. I decided to become a workshop junkie, traveling to “learn new things.” To “find myself”. Again.. I was 55.
I read voraciously. I closed my psychotherapy practice. I took 3 years to learn a who new activity (trading in the markets). I took time to re-evaluate my life… It is a time of a new beginning. I had to figure out who I was now and what I wanted for my future.
I was lucky that I was able to take the time of reflection, for reading, for journaling, for exploring what I wanted to do next. What was really important for me.
I shifted my life. I ended up trying a few different things and then I got a job for someone else. Boy was that a lesson for me! For two years I was a supervising psychologist in long term care providing direct service to seniors who could no longer live alone, independently. It had a lasting impression on me.
I learned
- I am not a good employee because of have too many ideas that I could do nothing about.
- I loved teaching and supervising others.
- I loved working with older adults
- There was very little written about aging and psychotherapy.
- I could go back to my private practice and re-create it—again specializing in older adults.
I had to start all over. I had sold many of my books. I had no office. I started seeing seniors in my home begin.
The things I learned were….many older adults were struggling with who they were now that their goals had been achieved.
What I heard was
I have to keep working because I don’t know what else to do.
My wife wants me out of the house because she can’t tolerate me being home 24-7. She told me “I need to get a life.”
I know I have more work in me, but I am not sure what else to do.
I spend too much time watching TV and then my day is gone and I have accomplished nothing
I am lonely since I no longer see people at work..
All of this inspired me… to begin exploring Coaching Older Adults to help them, inspire them to know that this journey that they can begin…doesn’t have to be alone.
It can be done with guidance.
This is a time of re-evaluation.
It can be exciting and fun.
Coaching is an opportunity for you to invest in yourself for the next phase of your life.
It is a guided tour of what might be as you grow older.
For some people, retirement is their end goal.
For others, it is creating a new business or getting a new job.
When older adults tell me they feel like they are “not seen”. Coaching is an opportunity to shine the light on you life…have you honor it, maybe repurpose it. Having a coach helps you do that, by questioning, challenging, supporting, and exploring—all that you might be.
So you can live a life without regrets…..
If you would like to take this journey with me…so you don’t need to do it alone, call me to discuss how I might help.
