Jack had been working as a trademark attorney ever since graduating from law school. “But honestly, I’m kind of bored with it,” he said. “I don’t want to do this work anymore. I wish I could pivot to something new.”
He let out an audible sigh. His shoulders slumped. “But… you know, it’s too late for that.”
“Too late?” I exclaimed. “We’re hardly a year over 50!”
Jack just shrugged with a sense of hopelessness.
Having attended MEA less than a year ago, I practically bounced off the roof deck and into the ocean with excitement. “Oh, I have a fantastic solution for you! Do you know Chip Conley?”
Jack shook his head no.
“He’s a Stanford grad, too,” I continued. “He founded Joie de Vivre, a boutique hotel chain. Then he was a consigliere to the founders of Airbnb. Well, a few years ago, he started a retreat center for people who are in midlife and looking to make a career change. It’s called the Modern Elder Academy, and it would be perfect for you! You go for a week and explore this exact topic with other people, and you can choose the leader you want to work with—people like Michael Franti and Elizabeth Gilbert.”
“Oh yeah, MEA, I’ve heard of that,” Jack replied. “A friend of mine was telling me about it. But I’m afraid it’s too woo-woo for me.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Maybe ‘too woo-woo’ is exactly what you need,” I blurted out.
Jack’s answer revealed so much, I thought. Not about his conservatism or practicality, but about his fear—the fear of looking at himself, of evolving, of making changes in his life. How often do people dismiss exactly the soul medicine they need most by labeling it “too woo-woo”?
For the past two decades, I’ve been fond of saying, “I didn’t choose the woo-woo path; it chose me.” I was going along quite smoothly in life until I hit roadblocks at age 30, including divorce and a crisis in my family of origin. In order to heal, I dove into yoga, meditation, therapy, poetry, spiritual retreats, Burning Man… all the “woo-woo” stuff, basically. This journey was profound in helping me understand myself and develop a new method of relating to the world. It brought me peace, greater empathy, and a far more authentic connection to those I love.
Not surprisingly, I didn’t find MEA “too woo-woo” at all. I mean, sure, we did an exercise where we stared into each other’s eyes. We burned pieces of paper where we had written down aspects of ourselves that we wanted to let go of—feelings of failure, regrets about not being financially successful enough in life, disappointments in children, and so on.
But aren’t these exactly the sorts of exercises we need to embark on in order to grow? To take a deep look into our souls and see what is really calling us. To discover what’s beneath the shell of an identity we’ve been wearing, beyond achievements, beyond financial success, beyond raising kids who also go to Stanford, or whatever your metric may be?
What is calling to you? What is the voice you hear when you can’t sleep in the middle of the night or when you’re in the shower or hiking in the woods? What is the job you see other people having that you wish you could have? What is the impact you long to have on the world?
What does it take to make that midlife pivot?
It might take a little woo-woo magic to find out.
-MeiMei
MeiMei Fox, a 2x New York Times bestselling author and FORBES contributor, is the Founder and CEO of Your Bestselling Book. Her company offers a la carte solutions from book coaching, to ghostwriting, to an intimate 6-week course in community with other high achievers — all aimed at helping you author and publish your non-fiction book or memoir.