Speaker #0In a regenerative context, it is available to you to consciously create work that is in alignment and in harmony with your age and where whatever your age has brought, it has brought depth of experience, it has brought stories, it has brought connections, it has brought exposure, it has brought ideas all of that can feed into your work and you get to decide. Hello, this is the Regenerative Work Life podcast. My name is Alyssa Murphy, and I'm so happy to spend this time with you today to explore what it means to live and work regeneratively. Specifically today, I'm going to explore... explore the concept of age and regenerative work. Now, this is actually a really joyful topic, because my kind of bottom line here is that I think the idea that we age out of our usefulness, that we age out of our value, that we age out of the possibility for new beginnings and new change is completely tied to kind of... industrial efficiency concept it's it's an entirely corporate construct and it has just no place in regenerative work whatsoever so done we don't we don't have to think about that anymore okay it's not quite that simple but I really would love for us to let go of the idea that age is in any way an issue or a barrier and you know of course that is going to take individual work if age is really presenting for you as a problem or a hurdle or something that you feel embarrassed about but I'm going to try to talk into why I really don't believe that and also how you can think about your work in response to your age and actually craft work that will serve you well into your older age if that is what you choose because there is also no requirement to retire within regenerative work. You can work as long as you are able and as long as you want to and if you think carefully about the kinds of work that you want to do you can actually start setting things up now so that you create a work life that gives you the best opportunity for working in some capacity for as long as you would like to. This topic was inspired actually by a particular client who I worked with who was, who is in their mid-40s and she had taken quite a long break, I resent that term, but a pause from working. to raise her children and she was really ready to come back to work but definitely did not want to go back into the sort of corporate sustainability agency life that she had been in before but because she was going to be starting something new this idea or this uncomfortableness or embarrassment around age was showing up quite strongly for her like can I at 45 embark on something new and you know how long realistically can I be doing this work um and we worked quite a lot on this topic together and really together um you know I'm 41 so we're not dissimilar ages we're both in perimenopause and it was such a pleasure to really unravel that idea and reframe it and see this as actually the perfect time to be embarking on something new. Because, you know, the joyful thing about midlife in general, and specifically midlife for people who are going through perimenopause and menopause, is there's so much natural unravelling and letting go and, like, seismic shift that, you know, in some ways you just cannot help. but create something that's kind of going to be, you know, radically disruptive in a really positive, really positive way. To me, something that's radical and disruptive is. good thing. You know, you already like are losing your ability to give a shit about what people think. You know, you're already starting to sort of unravel a little bit at the edges. Like it's the perfect fertile time to create something for the next chapter of your life. And we were really able together to embrace this new period. If any of you familiar with the author Sharon Blackie, she refers to it as haggitude. So we worked on embracing my client's haggitude and finding a business that resonated with that. And just a couple of weeks ago, we had our last session together after working together for actually about nine months. And at this point, she had locked in the idea for her new business and what she was going to be doing, her offer. all of that kind of stuff. She was ready, ready to go with her new offering. She knew the work that she wanted to do for the next 20, 30, maybe 40 years of her life. And we did this beautiful visualization where I took her forward to her mid-70s. And, and she was able from that position of imagining herself into her mid-70s to look back on the impact. that her work had had and the legacy that she felt it had had for her children and for her grandchildren and how it had served her in those 30 years and how she was still active in that work and it was so beautiful it was so powerful and this is available to you whatever whatever age your art but if you know if age is showing up as a topic it's likely that you might be approaching mid life or you are kind of later on um you know perhaps typically at the point where people are thinking that you should be retiring and stepping back from work and where the sort of corp in a corporatized world your usefulness is starting to fade in a regenerative context it is available to you to choose work, to consciously create work that is in alignment and in harmony with your age and where whatever your age has brought, it has brought depth of experience, it has brought stories, it has brought connections, it has brought exposure, it has brought ideas, all of that can feed into your work. and you get to decide um yes of course you have to meet your needs I understand that I'm not I'm not as always I feel like I need to whenever it comes to the sort of practicalities and you know I need to be clear I understand you need to meet your needs okay and whether you can fully do that from regenerative work or not will depend on your circumstances and exactly the kind of work that you're choosing to do but you do have the opportunity to choose how much space your work takes up, how much physical energy it demands. There is so much possibility out there and really I believe everything is required. All contributions are welcome in a regenerative space. You do not have to fit yourself in to a corporate sized hole or template. you know you don't have to try to fit and package and push yourself into something you know if you need to make money find the simplest and easiest way for you to do that and then allow your regenerative work to be something beyond making money something outside of that something where you can pour in your creativity and your passion and your way of seeing the world separate the two things out if money is an issue for you otherwise there is just a really strong possibility that you're going to be true trying to package yourself into something that you just don't want to do. I spoke recently with somebody who was not that far off her planned retirement. I think it was about 10 years off planned retirement and was already feeling the concern of becoming a burden to her family. She was called to do regenerative work, to do regenerative consultancy and had a particular idea of kind of mid-sized businesses that she wanted to work with. but was constantly playing this idea of like, I should get a job, I should go back into the corporate world. And that for me is when age does become a problem, when we're trying to squeeze ourselves into something that we know does not fit for us, and that doesn't want us. Like that's, that's the reality. Like, yes, of course, there are some exceptional organisations who don't conform to this. But by and large, like most corporate organisations don't really want you pasta certain age. you know, it's not the norm for them, they don't really understand it. So Create possibility for yourself. And that starts with you deciding whether or not age is going to be a barrier and setting your boundaries for work in response to age, you know, deciding what you are and are not willing to do and consciously taking yourself forward. As I mentioned with my client, take yourself forward. however many years, 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and think about what is going to serve that version of you. What is that version of you going to look back on and say, I'm so glad that you made that investment energetically into reshaping your work. Don't let yourself believe that it's too late. I shared this story with this particular client I mentioned who was struggling with being in midlife and wanting to do something completely new. And I shared this story of my nan, who, nan, if you happen to be listening, it wouldn't surprise me if you were, I love you very much. My nan is now in her late 80s. When she was in her early 50s, she had an accident and she shattered a lot of bones in her ankle. And she never properly got is fixed. she got to the point where she could kind of walk again but she never um she never did the surgery that she should have done she never did proper rehabilitation on it she never did a course of kind of exercise or therapy to really fix the problem and her ankle has been a problem through the whole second half of her life and she can only walk very limited distances it restricts her mobility, her ability to drive and so on and I always think like Nan what if 50 year old you hadn't thought that it was too late to do anything and I don't know if that was consciously what she chose I haven't I haven't asked her about it I'm not sure she'd be open to the conversation but the point is I could imagine that maybe in her early or mid 50s you know she thought okay well this is just something I have to live with now this is something I have to accept this is the way it is maybe rehabilitation felt like a really long process and maybe it would have been but let's just say that that rehabilitation and maybe a course of surgery was going to take 10 years would that not be worth it for the 30 years and plus that would come afterwards and this is the story I shared with my client because she was feeling like you know I'm in midlife I need things to happen quicker I need to get this business off the ground now I can't waste any more time and she really struggled in the slower parts of the process and what I wanted to share with her and with you is even if it does take a long time and it may well I it would be very irresponsible of me to pretend that you can for sure make these changes happen in a short period of time for some people it does For others, maybe most of us, it takes longer and it's a sort of ongoing and cyclical process, you know, a few steps forward, a few steps back. But whatever it takes, it's worth it for the period that comes after. Whatever age you're at, whatever investment of time and energy that is being required of you, isn't it worth it if it means that you can create a work life that will serve you into old age? That when you are... at that point where perhaps you don't work anymore or you work very little, you can look back and feel so proud of what you have done, the legacy. And what I mean by that is, I don't know if legacy is the right word, but I mean the meaningful change that you made, the contribution, the positive contribution that your work made, the people it touched, the ecosystems it nurtured, the changing in systems thinking whatever it is that that came from your work that you created so I invite you let go of those ideas of age they're not your beliefs they are somebody else's belief about age embrace the stage that you're at find the value in it and make the investment even if it feels like it's taking a really long time make that investment for the years and years that come afterwards and the beautiful impactful work that you can do. That concludes my stream of consciousness on this concept of age and regenerative work life. I would really really love to hear your experiences, like does age show up for you as an issue are you someone who has been able to embrace the age that you're at are you someone older perhaps who has found that actually you have moved into a whole new kind of creative chapter of possibility precisely because of your age it would be so joyful to me to be able to hear your experiences and your stories you can always connect with me via email i'm alissa a-l-i-s-a at regenerativeworklife.com. It is always a pleasure to hear from listeners and connect with you. So do take me up on that invitation if you would like. Thanks for listening to the Regenerative Work Life podcast. And I'll be back here next week if you care to join me. Thank you for listening to the Regenerative Work Life podcast. It's time to put what you learned today into practice. Remember, you were called to this work for good reason. Nature needs each and every one of us, and you can do this. If today's episode has been helpful, please take the time to share it with someone who needs a little guidance in stepping out of corporate and into regenerative. Learn more about how I can help you find your vision for a work life filled with purpose, impact and joy at regenerativeworklife.com and connect with me on LinkedIn. Just search Alyssa Murphy. I'll see you back here soon for the next episode.
