Chip Conley

What a difference a decade makes. One out of every four American employees aged 50 and older lost their job in the Great Recession in 2008. And, it took older workers two to three times longer to find a new job during the next few years. This sudden reality created a “confidence gap” for many midlife workers.

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa

I've long enjoyed Pash Pashkow's TEDx talk on why "the midlife crisis needs a rebrand." Is any other life stage saddled with such a rotten narrative as "a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger" (that's the dictionary definition of "crisis")?!

If you’re a last minute vacation planner, we’ll let you in on a secret. MEA’s newly-expanded beachfront Baja campus is open this summer for our DIY programming of Sabbatical Sessions from July 17 through October 2. And, we have quite a line-up of talent that you can tap into.

Leadership guru Warren Bennis said long ago that the best leaders are "first-class noticers," a term he borrowed from Saul Bellow's novel "The Actual." He was referring to the idea that a combination of fresh eyes and a wise soul can help a leader see things in people and an organization that aren't as noticeable to others.

“Aren’t you spent?” I was recently asked after co-leading an intense MEA workshop week. Without thinking, my answer rolled off my tongue, “No, I’m invested.”

Here’s a question for you: Do you worry less about how you look after age 50, or are you at a time in your life where you are giving more attention to your appearance?

“Aging is no accident. It is necessary to the human condition, intended by the soul. We become more characteristic of who we are simply by lasting into later years; the older we become, the more our true natures emerge. Thus, the final years have a very important purpose: the fulfillment and confirmation of one’s character.” - James Hillman, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life

“We’re still living with the old paradigm of age as an arch. That’s the old metaphor. You’re born, you peak at midlife and decline into decrepitude…A more appropriate metaphor is a staircase. The upward ascension of the human spirit, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness, and authenticity.” - Jane Fonda

As I read this recent New Yorker article on Jimmy Buffett's retirement community (he's up to three mega-villages in Florida), I was struck by this paragraph: