Mom The Good Years Are Still Ahead Of You

Every woman who reaches mid-life ? that halfway stop where dreams have been either realized or abandoned ? looks around and wonders, "What's next?" The kids are grown, the career is schlepping along and you wake up each day feeling just a little bit lost.

What happened to the life you imagined when you were twenty-one, with all those years ahead of you? The good news: they're still ahead of you. Women have the capacity to live two, or more, different and equally exciting lifetimes.

Dreams and visions tend to morph over time.

Guided by family and career experiences, we gain wisdom and perspective that was not possible for us in those early years. Amazingly, the future we perceive now is much more attainable because of those experiences.

Stoke the Fire ? Promise yourself that from this moment on you will:

1.

Live and work a passionate life. What excites you right now, today? If it's travel, promise yourself you'll travel at least once a year, if only on weekends or to nearby, unexplored towns. If you yearn to pursue a latent talent, such as writing or music, make that pursuit a priority. If you crave a new career, look for opportunities to fan that flame.

2.

Go for it or reject it outright. Make a plan and execute it. Quickly decide to go full-speed in pursuing your vision or to reject it and come up with a new goal you can attain.

3. Take action every day. Jump in! Spend 15 minutes daily on your action plan.

Write only one page a day and you can finish a book in a year, but sitting down to write an entire book can feel too daunting to even begin. Start small, start now.

4. Be a success student for life. Immerse yourself in a vision of your future and seek out the knowledge that will bring you to the next level.

A travel enthusiast could learn about the culture, take a cooking class or host an exchange student. To expand your career or business, find a mentor or request new challenges outside of your daily job description.

5.

Believe you can do anything. Believing is 90% of the win. If you believe that your next 40 years can be whatever you want to make them, no matter the challenges or what anyone else tells you, you will succeed.

The magic of these Five Promises is that they are not complex, they can work for any goal and, most importantly, they will instill the confidence necessary to succeed. By reaffirming these Five Promises every day, any woman can stoke the midlife fire and reinvent her life.

Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD is the founder and president of Vickie Milazzo Institute, a legal nurse consultant training and certification company. She is the author of Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn't Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now, 2006.

By: Vickie Milazzo