How to Embrace the In-Between | The Tamsen Show

The question most of us ask in midlife isn’t why, it’s now what?

For Chip Conley, bestselling author and founder of Modern Elder Academy, the answer came in six steps. On  The Tamsen Show, he shared his blueprint for finding clarity and purpose during one of life’s most misunderstood stages.

Here’s his 6-step formula:

1. Redefine what aging means: Studies from Yale show that shifting your mindset on aging can add 7.5 years to your life.
   
   
2. Embrace the in-between: Conley compares midlife to adolescence: a liminal space of transformation.
   
   
3. Stop chasing achievements: Joy, he says, is a better life compass than external success.
   
   
4. Edit your life: Make room for what matters by clearing what doesn’t.
   
   
5. Build emotional strength: Not just mental toughness. This means community, curiosity, and inner resilience.
   
   
6. Find purpose by helping others: Generativity, as psychologist Erik Erikson called it, becomes essential in midlife.

According to Conley, many of us still have 30 to 40 years left after age 50. Midlife isn’t the end of the road. It’s just the end of the map we were handed.

Want to hear the full conversation and start your own reinvention? Listen to the full episode of The Tamsen Show