Midlife Coaching Gives You New Eyes to Create Your Future

Most of the clients I work with are getting much value from midlife coaching. Between forty to sixty, they are accomplished and successful by most societal standards. Often, they're in a place of "been there, done that" and are looking for new challenges. Always in the background is the background hum of fewer years left and making the most of them.

At sixty four, I can relate to the issues my midlife clients are dealing with - I've experienced them myself and engage with them daily. Having gone through 5 career transitions and practiced in "reinventing" myself allows me get into my clients' world and impact their life.

Living out of the "stories" we create for ourselves

What's common to all human beings is that we live our lives out of a "story" that we've invented. We don't have a story - the story has us. It's very useful to distinguish the story we made up from the facts... this gives us the freedom to create a new story for our lives.

For example, the title of the story that I lived in for ten years was "the dentist". I was trained to fix people's teeth. People referred to me as "doctor". There were specific skills that I was trained to use. The first thing I noticed when meeting people was their teeth.

The "story" changed when I had to give up dentistry because of eye surgery. I was thirty seven and scared out of my mind as far as what I was going to do next. Confronting "nothing" can be intimidating - it certainly was for me.

In 1981, I hired a coach - that made all the difference in terms of gaining greater clarity, redefining myself (creating a new story) and being in action. I was no longer Dr. Fred. My coach assisted me in seeing that I had "transferable skills" that could be applied to other careers. She revealed my strengths to me rather than fixing my weaknesses. I developed greater self-confidence. I no longer felt lost! Ultimately, I came to the realization that I needed to discover the truth about myself. Midlife coaching assisted me in doing that.

When I coach a midlife client, I address the "whole" person- we're looking at the physical, mental, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social aspects that make up a human being. We look at the different domains of life- financial, well-being, career, leisure, relationships, personal/spiritual development, community and legacy. Not using this approach, I believe, shortchanges the client.


My Recommendations for midlife coaching:

• Hire an experienced coach who relates well to midlife issues and has a track record of success
• Make sure that the coach you're working with addresses the whole person as mentioned above
• Consider joining or creating a support group
• Balance self-inquiry and reflection with action- experiment, take risks
• Be generous - share yourself with people - let them know what you're up to
• Consider developing your spirituality, whatever that means to you.
• Check out The 28 Laws of Attraction by Thomas Leonard. These laws will assist you in being more effective in accomplishing what's really important to you.

Dr. Fred


Listen to this

lively conversation between Dr. Frank and myself about midlife coaching.
To hear other interviews and to subscribe to our podcast
visit our midlife crisis coping podcast page.