The midlife career conversation nobody talks about.

You wake up one day and realise you’re closer to retirement than the start of your career and yet, there’s still so much left you want to do.

You’ve spent decades building your career, leading others, giving your all.

And now, there’s still a long road ahead.

Fifteen years, maybe more, until retirement.

Fifteen years to keep making an impact, to shape something meaningful, to make sure that all the sacrifices you made, the late nights, the hard calls, the resilience actually meant something.

But midlife women don’t just want to get through the next fifteen years.

They want to feel alive in them.

Because at this stage in life, the questions shift.

It’s no longer, “How do I climb higher?”

It becomes, “What do I want this next chapter of my life to stand for?”

For many of the women I work with, the answer isn’t about titles or promotions.

It’s about legacy, purpose, and recognition.

They want to know they made a difference.

They want to lift others as they go.

They want to look back and say, “That mattered.”

“I mattered.”

And one of the most powerful ways to make that happen, to keep growing, contributing, and shaping what comes next, is through mentoring.

Why mentoring matters.

For me, mentoring isn’t just about advice or guidance, it’s about space.

Space to think, to be challenged, to be reminded that it’s not too late to start shaping the future you want.

When I look back on my own career, I can see the crossroads clearly.

Moments when I was questioning whether I’d taken the right path, whether I still needed to grow, or whether I’d reached the end of a chapter.

And what made the difference, every single time, was having someone I trusted, someone who could see me clearly, without an agenda, to help me make sense of what was next.

A mentor who saw possibility where I saw uncertainty.

Mentoring gave me the courage to make big choices, like moving from clinical practice into leadership, and later into coaching.

Even when those choices felt risky or “too late.”

Because women have been told for too long that midlife is a plateau.

That after a certain point, ambition should soften.

I don’t believe that. At all.

I don’t intend crocheting my way to retirement, thank you very much, and I know, deep down, neither do you.

This stage of life isn’t a winding down.

For me it’s a redefinition.

A chance to reclaim all those facets of myself that I’ve let go along the way.

It’s a time to think about what’s next beyond formal roles:

Passion projects, books, consulting, mentoring others, even starting something completely new.

The women I coach and mentor often ask:

💬 “How do I make sure I’m not just sliding into retirement, but stepping into something I’m proud of?”

Because you don’t have to wait for retirement to start living the next chapter of your story.

You can build it now, alongside your leadership role.

You’re not running out of time, you’re stepping into a new kind of leadership.

One that’s grounded in experience, purpose, and freedom.

And mentoring, done well, helps you reconnect with what drives you, find clarity in the fog, and build confidence in your own path forward.

Because you know you still have so much to give and so much you want to do.

Not just to your organisation, but to yourself.

If you’ve been feeling that quiet pull, that sense that there’s more you want to do, create, or to be, I know for sure that mentoring can be the catalyst.

Because it’s not about fixing anything.

It’s about rediscovering who you are now, and what kind of legacy you want to create.

Why shouldn't this be your time.

Your experience, your voice, your story, they all matter.

And the world needs midlife women who are brave enough to shape what comes next.

Jackie

If this resonates and you’re standing at a crossroads or simply craving space to explore what’s next, my RECLAIM Mentoring Group Programme was designed exactly for this season of life.

It’s a small, supportive circle of midlife women ready to reflect, reconnect, and redefine success on their own terms.

Book a no-pressure chat to find out more.

Because midlife isn’t the end of your story, it’s where you finally get to write it your way.