Late Career Loneliness: Is this you?
It all begins with an idea.
Last fall, I was on a trip with friends in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. While walking with my dear friend and business collaborator, Pamela Harless, Founder of Collective Confidence, we were chatting about how women in their late career may struggle with finding meaningful connections and identities outside of work. We both have started a “second act” career after being in successful roles in a corporate environment. We’ve gone through all the phases of our career, from early career, when we still had time for friends and family and work was secondary…to mid-career, when we had our own family/children to raise AND work and were trying to balance it all, leaving friendships - and self - to suffer. Now, here we are. We’ve succeeded in the work world, we have healthy marriages and grown children that we are close to and proud of. And admittedly, we get lonely.
Often, for women our age, identities have been tied to family and/or career and things largely outside of “self”. We naturally have labels assigned to us that end up taking a lot of space in how we define ourselves. As we are working to fulfill our often mis-aligned identities, the lack of meaningful friendships becomes painfully obvious in late-stage career. Loneliness can be a real challenge for women between 40 and 60. While closeness with family is good, research shows it does not solely solve for loneliness and that even one close friend can increase psychological health in a meaningful way!
Let’s face it…we are close to the finale of our career and the thought of being without co-workers, who have likely met our need for social connections, creates fear and vulnerability. Not only that, but there is a sudden realization that we have spent so much time investing in others and leaving ourselves in need of some “filling up” through social connections. The things we say “yes” to can be based on guilt or necessity instead of desire and interest. Identities get muddled because work played a larger role in our lives to this point and as it starts to become smaller, we are likely left feeling confused about who we are outside the office. Our "labels” start to become faded and tattered. Maybe it’s time to rip them off!
Be honest with yourself. Do any of these describe you?
You are proud of your career and family accomplishments and feel like your contributions are mostly complete.
You're closer to retirement than you are your 30th birthday and those long years of career focus are behind you.
Years with your family and/or children went by way faster than you can comprehend or accept.
You realize that you have prioritized your various roles in life (Spouse, Parent, Child, Executive)... and perhaps deprioritized yourself without realizing it.
You have trouble answering questions about what you love to do in your free time and who do you like to do it with.
You may find yourself in a state of languishing and feeling uninspired.
In those quiet moments, your mind drifts to the questions, “who am I” or “now what”?
Pamela and I get you because we are right here with you! We want to explore how we might help you develop confident, authentic responses to the questions:
How would you honestly describe your authentic self?
Do you recognize joy and how to find it and keep it?
What strengths and gifts have you laid aside or dismissed and would like to dust off and put to use in new ways?
What would a good friend with a similar background provide at this stage in life?
What would you like to learn (or re-learn): about yourself, about others, about meaningful connections?
To celebrate International Women’s Day and to honor the passion we have for women in this stage of life, Mosaic Path and Collective Confidence are collaborating to curate a group of like minded women to come alongside each other and explore these questions.
We are looking for a group of 8 - 10 women for which all of this resonates and who find themselves thinking, "what's next?".
Over a 2-month pilot program period, through group and 1:1 discussions we will explore: Impacts of loneliness, the value of friends, the role we play in building (or losing) friendships and finding our power to move forward.
If you'd like to learn more, communicate your interest by completing the short form below by March 22, 2024.
Those who express interest will be invited to join one of three calls where you can learn more about the pilot, ask questions, and determine if it's right for you.
We would love for you to be part of this journey!