I’ve outlined some of the underlying reasons why women are still leaving the workforce:

The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the global economy with unprecedented force, and its effects on women in the workforce have been particularly pronounced. The closure of schools and daycare centers disrupted childcare arrangements, placing a disproportionate burden on working mothers. Many were left with the impossible task of juggling work, childcare, and remote learning simultaneously. As a result, numerous women were forced to make the difficult decision to leave their jobs or reduce their working hours.

Persistent Gender Inequality and Stereotypes

Although progress has been made, gender inequality remains a significant barrier for women in the workplace. Women continue to face pay disparities, limited access to leadership positions, and unconscious biases that hinder their career advancement. The persistence of traditional gender roles and societal expectations often places a heavier burden on women to balance work and family responsibilities. These ingrained stereotypes can make it difficult for women to envision a path to success within their chosen careers.

Lack of Supportive Workplace Policies

The absence of supportive workplace policies, such as flexible work arrangements, paid parental leave, and affordable childcare options, exacerbates the challenges faced by women. Many organizations have yet to fully embrace family-friendly policies that accommodate the needs of working parents. Without such provisions, women may feel compelled to leave the workforce, as they struggle to reconcile their personal and professional lives. Implementing supportive policies not only benefits women but also contributes to improved employee satisfaction and retention.

Next week, in Part II: Mass Exodus of Women in the Workforce, I will give another two reasons that may be contributing to this issue as well as some possible solutions.

For now, I ask you to speak to the women in your life that you’ve seen be part of this trend. What was their reason for leaving? Is this a temporary departure from the workforce, or something more permanent?

Photo by  Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Be careful what you wish for,
‘Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all,
And then some you don’t want.
Be careful what you wish for,
‘Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all, yeah.

~Chris Daughtry, “Home” from debut album “Daughtry”, 2007

Oh my Gwad! This is Terrible!  Part of me is devastated. Part of me is jumping for joy, saying “Oh Good!”  But how do I deal with suddenly being out of work after 31 years in one place? 

Reality is forcing many of us to give up our cherished plans.  Most of us over 40, 50 or 60+ have to keep on keeping on so we can afford our longer lives in the style we’ve grown accustomed to…or learn how to downshift.  

It’s no surprise we never thought it would happen to us. But times are a changin’. We are all being forced to go back to the drawing board, asking all over again, who am I, where do I fit in and will anyone hire me?

It’s not easy in mid or later career, much less in full retirement to circle back. Even if you already “retired retirement”, you may be reconsidering staying on the sidelines. 

No matter what your age or stage, career change will raise your anxiety in direct proportion to the stakes. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself dealing with a whole lot of upheaval on every front.

I just read these Benchmark Report and Analysis research report findings by Quantum Workplace about the impact of COVID-19 crisis on employee engagement – this one statement stood out: 

“Our research indicates that when the COVID-19 virus initially hit the U.S., employee engagement dipped slightly to 70% Highly Engaged but had meaningful growth to 83% Highly Engaged after U.S. restrictions were put into place.”

But then, they report further: 

There was an 11% year-over-year difference in high engagement between 2019 and 2020. From that peak in March of 2020, engagement levels slowly declined and returned to 2019 levels.

This all while the historic rise in unemployment levels during the pandemic, along with subsequent lockdown guidelines, the unemployment rate rose to over 16%–levels not seen since the Great Depression causing a dramatic change from the 3.6% unemployment rate in January 2020.

Clearly there is a correlation with the depression like increases in unemployment coinciding with the sudden rise in employee engagement only underscored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting  in April of 2020 that the number of people who quit their jobs voluntarily dropped to a 10-year low! 

Could it be for those workers on the fence waiting to make a career change or jump companies got an unexpected wake-up call: If my friends and colleagues are losing jobs at record rates, maybe my situation isn’t so bad after all?!”

Now add this encroaching economic disaster and the turmoil over making new career moves on top of Covid-19’s continuing devastation – it’s a daunting journey for all of us who face sleepless nights wondering how to keep our doors open or lead our firm in these times. 

Retiring Retirement, you’ve got to be kidding?

Our dreams of “doing it my way”, bypassing the system, or retiring early to pursue another career or start a new business with greater meaning and freedom is fading in the minds and hearts of way too many of us…at every age and stage. Increasingly, many of us feel imperiled or on the verge of implosion on every front.

Unlike our rebound after the stock-market bust of 2000 and the last 2 recessions in 2001 and the Great Recession kicked off in 2008, we were finally finding our economic footing and hope was rising. We were caught unprepared for these VUCA times we are in now. This time we may not recover fast enough to regain our remembered sustained bull market highs for quite some time. For some of us it may not come soon enough to re-secure our financial footing…yet again for a large number of us.  A very small percentage of us are still “sure” we’ll be fine financially when it’s time to call it quits.  No one can afford to go unconscious.  Covid-19 demands we stay awake and alert.

Recent headlines support our worst fears: “Among those out of work, those over 45 are taking longer to find a new position than those under 45.” Or WSJ article entitled, “Women’s Careers Could Take Long-Term Hit From Coronavirus Pandemic”. 

Women of all ages are being caught by surprise. Our working parents are struggling with the old bromides which kept women around the kitchen table instead of the board room table. So today we are witnessing women once again defaulting to Super woman role to the max or forced into the designated caretaker roles. Women are taking the brunt of the dings from the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Immense innovation, and creativity, leveraged by collaboration, are required to get us way out of this darkside mess we all are finding ourselves in—here and around the globe we are in this  together. We are being given a pause time to wonder—to go way outside of the box of our prior normal. It is in the immensity of the loss we share as we all are being challenged by disorienting rapid havoc of this novel virus. It is in the in-between times and spaces where we will wonder each and together will wonder a new way of well-being into existence. 

Facts are facts. But incessant talk of the bad economy and/or breakdown of our American experiment as a democratic republic is is a self- fulfilling prophesy. Same is true for one person and for us collectively…on all sides of the divide. Like a viral worm these negative thought packets devour our sense of the future and screw up our perspective. Surrounded by all this negativity, we can’t help but be affected.  It doesn’t stop with just us, it’s just as true for our customers and co-workers whose conditioned reflex will be to hunker down, cut back and not take risks.

Wailing “mea culpa” or responding like a deer in headlights is not acceptable. Please don’t get caught up in the gloom and doom and give up.  We can transform gold from the dross of this newest wake up call. 

Not to Worry… The Gray Ceiling is now in vogue!

One of the ways we can thrive in a down market is to learn how to be an Everyday Futurist^SM.

What is an Everyday Futurist? It’s a term I coined that refers to a person who learns to read the future – not by reading tea leaves—but by studying trends, crafting possible scenarios and responses to them. 

I believe learning to be an Everyday Futurist is the “X” factor that creates sustainable success. Without honing the futurists skill set, it is impossible to make sense of what is happening around us, much less come up with strategies that respond to the changing marketplace whether you are seeking to change companies or industries or switch careers. In fact, it is what will make the difference between going nowhere or capturing more market share…whether it’s in the resume email overload in H.R. inboxes or about developing yourself as a trustworthy advisor or visionary trailblazing leader.

We believe it’s essential to plot societal shifts in order to develop big brand ideas,” …Trendspotting allows us to tune into the zeitgeist, discover how seemingly disconnected details are connected and figure out how the mood of the moment is affecting people’s lives. Without this bigger picture, we run the risk of creating irrelevant and ineffective communications.

~Ann Mack, Director of trendspotting/ J. Walter Thompson 

You can start by paying attention to key trends and preparing ourselves for what’s ahead.    

The Hottest Topic Worrying Leaders today: 

Caveat: Covid-19 is most current, but it is temporary in the scheme of things. What’s not going away any time soon is the

Graying of Business

Top talent shortage. Brain drain. Leadership needed. Succession planning non-existent or insufficient.

Reality Byte:

Approximately a decade ago, 43% of current workers were projected to become eligible for retirement by 2020. That’s all changed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now with tens of millions of workers unemployed in a poof of time at no fault of their own. If that’s not enough, there’s a perfect storm forming as these same Americans who now aren’t paying into the government account that pays out the social security benefits are prematurely drawing down their benefits as soon as they hit the eligibility date.

Right about now I’m guessing that if you are around retirement age, you are evaluating the upside and downside of staying or going, or perhaps building out or getting out. The allure of the safety net of 

U.S. Social Security benefits and Medicare coverage may tip the scales for many of us who are facing this choice point of “Do I stay? Or, do I go?”  

Worker skill shortage.

 It’s only getting worse. Experienced Boomers please apply. 

The demographics are now shifting in our favor if you are 40+. Since the turn of the millennium there have been increasing calls to prepare for the coming workforce shortage. One of the best treatments on this topic, Workforce 2000 and its sequel, Workforce2020, was produced by the well-regarded Hudson Institute, a Washington D.C. based policy research center and think-tank. 

In the good times, very few of us paid attention. Others like myself did what we could to prepare for the eventual roiling impact on our workforce and economy as the earliest Boomers confronted midlife malaise or sought more meaning in their life and work as they headed towards 60. And then, it all came tumbling down.

A truth I learned a long time ago is that our “emergence comes out of emergency”. That’s true of everyone and everything. Think about it, when have you grown the most? When has your career or business taken its greatest leaps forward?

There’s a bit of lag time operative here. 

In the 1970’s, the glass ceiling defined my younger tour de force in the hallowed halls of corporate America…Decades later it became the dreaded “grey ceiling”. If you were over 40 you were over the hill. Your career was up for grabs – it was far cheaper to hire younger employees than pay for “knowledge workers”. What has long infuriated and astonished me is that this has been the prevailing belief espoused from folks at the helm who are no longer 40. Until now. 

Reality Byte:

The arrival of Covid-19 has no doubt exacerbated and brought ageism to the fore. At first it was the “oldies” who were at fault, positioned as the causal factor in the pandemic spreading. Yes, we oldies but goodies are more prone but the it was density and the lack of pandemic level preparation until these insidious Trickster viruses shredded our immunological divides by showing up in and sadly ravaging the bodies of younger and younger adults…now heart-rendering, even our young ones.

And still, ageism is on the rise. I hear stories daily on how it is emerging from the shadows out into the open. Now we can start to get really serious shift the narratives to a new story of our AGE…together. When we can see whatever the it is, we can speak to it, then it will begin to shift on its own accord.

We are forced to sit with the polarities of two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings for and against the rising ageism across the country. 

The not so good news: Women once again are first in line to feel the brunt of Covid-19 pandemic. Some because they are torn between career and and family caretaking and others because women were last in, so first out.

The good news: In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday said federal employees have a lower burden to prove differential treatment under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) compared to their counterparts in the private sector and state and local governments.

Reality Byte:

All this while approximately 90% of all our leaders are 40 plus. 

There is a shift occurring: More and more of us are staying in the workforce either because we love to work or more recently, because we need to or are afraid not to have a job. But once we are on the other side of this life taking, life changing pandemic and its related severe economic downturn, more of us over age 40 will find ourselves valued once more. 

Pre Covid-19 pandemic, Ernst & Young survey discovered that nearly 40% of employers noted that their number one concern for the next decade will be a shortage of workers as a result of retirement and the shift in workforce demographics. But that was then. Currently the pandemic is too fluid to determine its full impact on the true availability of workers.  Surely by the time this virus is tamed, America will have lost many more lives, which has to have an impact on talent shortage. 

I can still recall actor Dennis Hopper in Ameriprise’s T. V. ad campaign espousing the new Boomer mantra that the new 60 is the old 30! In many ways he’s right. Although my body aches when I wake up in the morning, I have more zest for life and I’m more in the swing of what’s happening than folks my age just a generation ago. What once was viewed as the peak of a mid-career at 40 is now age 60! 

We oldies invented “Cool” and “Hip”, I doubt we’ll let them go. 

Why waste a perfectly useful Recession? 

The time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Long ago alchemists and modern-day physicists alike appear to support the teachings of The Power of Positive Thought or Think and Grow Rich teachings. Those of us who convened for the Harmonic Convergence back in 2001, learned to Ohm and have seen the benefits of visioning, know that we can affect our reality by adjusting our inner thoughts and how we envison our world. 

Everything is energy at its most fundamental level. Matter is energy moving at slower speeds.  Our reality is malleable and made up of quantum wave-like particles of energy that respond to our very thoughts.  So whether you are a staunch follower of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, a fan of Bellaruth Naparstek’s pre-surgery visualizations or my own guided imagery recordings for healing or successful transformation,  or you are someone just beginning to explore the world of the unconscious and modern day alchemy, these current in-between times can provide you with a laboratory to experiment with truly creating your future, image by image.

I’ve always believed that we have this power within to create our outer reality. Of course, in hard times all of us tend to go back to our reptilian brain modes of behavior and we forget the power we have within to alter our reality…our future.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many executives and professionals to envision to the point that their imagined reality becomes the real deal. This has worked for preparing for major presentations, auditioning for a major part as well as securing a desired position and to signing contracts or healing from within. 

No matter how long I do this work or with whom, it always comes down the same thing: First, and foremost, you’ve got to know what you want. Then the fun begins. 

For starters here’s what you can do:

*SEE yourself in a future you want for yourself. Don’t hold back. Detail it all. The Universe can’t provide what you want if it hasn’t a clue from you!:) 

*It’s the perfect time for retraining and reskilling, and for expanding your horizons. Go for it! Don’t wait another moment.

*If you are feeling stuck and limited at any age…don’t buy into this notion. THINK: Bypass the system!

*If you are over age 40, KNOW that the tide is turning, older adults will be in demand again. It’s especially good times for those who have the resilience and self-reliance, rooted in developmental maturity to lead us into a future we can be proud to live and leave behind. The new times will be all about well-being with a focus on whole people/whole organizations.

Everything changes. How we work change or flow with it will make the difference between a soft landing or a slide on the slippery slopes of reinvention in the midst of a global restructuring with no end in sight for future impending trickster events.

How’s it working for you while facing these shifting forces? 

Let me know at Karen@karensands.com. Want more of this, come join me GRATIS every MONDAY on Zoom for my Future Proof Forum at Noon-12:45pm ET. REGISTER HERE

Everyone wants long term success. But it is elusive for most.

Long term success is dependent on knowing where you are now and where you are headed. Then closing the gap. Frequently. Continuously.  Whether it’s your business, your career or your life at home., it’s easy to get off track, lose touch or get buried under. Without a true sense of where you are in the moment, it is impossible to realize your dreams or be a leader in your field.

Re-calibrate your profound knowledge

The only way we can take 100% responsibility for sustaining our success is to keep re-calibrating-in every aspect of our lives and organizations.

Key to successful recalibration is to acquire what my dear departed mentor, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, coined as Profound Knowledge. This umbrella phrase emphasizes understanding change and how to measure it, being aware of emerging trends and shifts, and learning how to apply this knowledge to leading and sustaining long term success.

Bottom line: If we don’t acquire Profound Knowledge we cannot know how to prepare for and leverage coming change, thus how to sustain our success long term.

Understanding change means understanding shifts in our personal world as well as tracking trends that capsize us, overtake us, or cause us to flounder.

Learning the Hard Way

Unfortunately one of my Gen X male clients learned this the hard way. A rising star in his field and recently married, he was planning far a great future for his kids, tons of time for fun and all the trappings of success. As if out of the blue, the rug got pulled out from under him. His “Happy Homemaker” wife fled, saying I’m out of here!

Somewhere along the way there was a breakdown or perhaps many small fissures below the surface. Had they been recalibrating an checking in with each other, communicating the truth of what was so for each of them…perhaps they could have saved their marriage…or at least ended it with love, grace, and forgiveness.

Even in the most secure relationships, unexpected change happens to ruffle our plans. A recently returned to work mother of teenage kids reported that her new career is now going gangbusters and she no longer worries about the empty-nest . But, the new ripple in her life is that her once very successful husband, in his late 40’s, now faces an unknown future. Surprised by the shifts in his industry, “suddenly” he and his business partner are facing the probability of closing their doors. What once appeared to be the sure path to their dreams, is no crumbling beneath them.

Change is inevitable. If you can learn what Profound Knowledge is and apply it you can avoid these same pitfalls and NOT LEARN THE HARD WAY!

What steps are you going to take to future cast your long term success?

I’ve talked before about the ongoing trend of women leaving the corporate world to start their own businesses. This is no surprise considering the glass ceiling is still unbreakable in many companies throughout Corporate America.

Many women, especially women over 50, who have spent their working lives climbing the corporate ladder are faced with the difficult choice between leaving to start their own businesses or staying with their company and striving to be one of the exceptions, perhaps fighting to change the system from the inside, like such notable women as Virginia M. Rometty, IBM’s next chief executive, or Anne Mulcahy at Xerox, Indra Nooyi at Pepsi, Peggy Foran at Pfizer, and Sarah Teslik at Apache Corporation, who led their companies to sign the Aspen Principles, by which companies, investors, and corporate governance professionals agreed to commit to long-term value creation over short-term profits.

The question is, with the Great Recession and the worldwide Occupy protests against corporate greed, fraud, and environmental destruction, will we soon see a shift? Will we collectively force the hand of Corporate America to recognize that transformation begins with visionary leaders who understand how to do good while doing well? Are we on the verge of seeing the collapse of the old corporate culture, and if so, will we also see fragments of that glass ceiling among the debris?

Some would say only time will tell, but that view discounts the power we have to change our own future. Time may tell us what has worked, and what hasn’t, in the past. (For a fascinating and timely look at the past and present of corporations, I highly recommend the film The Corporation). Time may tell us when we are repeating history, and what we can learn from how we have reacted or responded to epochal change in the past—conservative and restrictive, wild and revolutionary, consciously evolutionary, or downright transformative.

But time doesn’t tell us everything. Time doesn’t have a voice. We do. We can’t predict the future, but we can lead the way toward creating alternative futures that transform the world as we know it.

Whether you are a career professional or a new or seasoned entrepreneur, you cannot afford to ignore the opportunity we have right now to step up amid the chaos and lead the way to a greater future—not just for women, but for the world. Protesting is powerful, but it’s not enough. We can’t just decry the problem. We have to step in with solutions.

Now is the time to listen to that visionary voice inside you. No doubt the world chaos has stirred her. The world is literally crying out for creative disruption of the status quo, for new ideas to change business so that it reflects our values, honors our responsibility to each other and to our planet, and capitalizes and strengthens the interconnected global society we have become.

How do you want to see the future of business, big and small? When you envision the ideal marketplace, what do you see specifically? What are you going to do today to start making that vision a reality?

Always Add Value is one of my 52 Quintessential Principles of Greatness codified to keep us moving from great to greatness.

I forget to apply this principle myself every once in a while. In fact, just last week I was asked to by a really sharp associate leader, “what value will you bring to my membership?” What caught me most off guard was that the Value Added editorial thrust of this issue was already in the works.  Here I was being confronted with having lost sight of this very principle.  Will the learning ever stop?  Nope.  I sure hope not.

These on-target questions inspired me to re-think how I add value by what I do.  I responded that her high achieving and accomplishing members match the profile of my clients.  They are successful in their chosen field; they want to expand their referral network and are seeking to improve the results.  Coaching entrepreneurs, family firms, executives and professionals, I appreciate their business challenges and professional concerns.

All of these movers n’ shakers want to improve the performance of their firms, attracted new and maintain current revenues and customers. But that’s not all.  What I’ve learned is that these truly accomplished folks relish the opportunity to fine-tune and to stretch. Even more so, they know that becoming a better communicator and a leader ensures that they will thrive in these challenging times.

I also added that we all aim to keep our personal and professional lives in balance.  It’s just such a struggle when buffeted constantly with destabilizing sound bites and constant emails announcing disruptive shifts in our world and demands on the personal front. Add that to having to deal with the pressure of invigorating a work life, keeping the home fires burning and just having fun. Whew! That’s why powerful people look for coaches who add value by moving them to greatness and to building legacies that are unforgettable.

I could have kept riding my dead horse, not “hearing” what I was being asked. Instead, I took in the question and changed my language so that I could add greater value, On the other hand , if my response fell on deaf ears, then I would need to change horses by seeking out another grouping of people who would be more in sync.

In the process of re-stating my value added, I was reminded that more and more of us are wanting to realize our vision for a better and sustainable futures for ourselves, our loved ones, our workplace, community and our planet.

What I’ve found is that today’s vanguard leaders are seeking to make meaning as well as money, and build legacies as well as bank accounts.

What’s become paramount is that if we are to reach our greatness, we are must take a good look at our lives, our leadership and our relationship asking the probing questions:

Am I in the right tribe?  Am I adding value in all do?

A New York Times article on “mompreneurs” caught my attention once. The article featured moms who searched everywhere for a product to solve a particular problem or fill a need only to realize that there was nothing out there—so they invented it. Realizing that they can’t be the only ones searching for a solution to the same problem, these moms created successful businesses from their inventions.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, statistics show that people age 50 and beyond are twice as likely to be successful as younger people with their entrepreneurial start-ups. Much of this has to do with the qualities and values shared by many in this change- making cohort, e.g.,  knowledge, know-how, and experience, all qualities that lead to wisdom, a characteristic of visionaries.

Now imagine combining the lessons learned from the mompreneur phenonemon with your life and work experience, or your company’s unique niche brand. What need or problem do you have that does not have a solution in the marketplace? Where does this intersect with your experience, your gifts, and what matters most to you? What skills would you need to learn, hire in or find a J.V. partner to provide, in order to have the most success creating a solution? If you are already at the helm of a business, what about your existing business model would you need to reinvent. What strengths could you capitalize on, or add, to create new revenue streams. Be sure to make fulfilling or better addressing what your clients and prospects really need your top priority.

Now let’s take this to the next level, the visionary plane: What need or problem does your community, your country, the world have for which there is no adequate solution? Where does this intersect with what matters most to you? With your experience, your gifts, your interests? With where your business is strongest? Are there any connections between the need you identified in your own life or business and the larger-scale need you see in your world? Do you need to invent new niche services or products, or do you need to reinvent your existing offerings for a new customer mindset and new needs?

The years ahead, 2019 onward, may just be the years of the Grannypreneur and the Boomerprenuer. Collectively we are reinventing work after 50, which is turning stereotypes about aging and retirement on their head. Not only will more and more people age 40 and beyond be looking to start or grow their own businesses, or continue leading their organizations, they will also represent the largest market segment for these same businesses, which is one of the reasons it makes so much sense to start off thinking about solutions for your own needs and problems. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but in these times, the grandmother of invention is reinvention—of yourself, your future, your business, your world.

What area will you start?

Amazon #1 Best Seller Author of 11 books including The Ageless Way, Gray is the New Green, Visionaries Have Wrinkles, The Greatness Challenge and more.

I’ve talked before about presence, what it is and why it’s important to develop, (see “Unwrapping Your Presence”). The first steps in developing this presence are asking the right questions, then opening yourself up to listening to the answers from the visionary voice inside you. These answers (or more and better questions) might come from within, but they can also come from messengers and symbols in your outer world that resonate with that voice. The important thing is that you open up as many conduits for that voice, for these messengers and symbols, as you possibly can, preferably with guidance from other visionaries. (Read more about this in “Stop, Look, and Listen.”)

This process is holistic, bringing together your body, soul, and mind in synchronicity. Presence is itself visceral. It isn’t a head trip but a physical embodiment of your Soul Speak. Even the visionary within resides in your body, connecting soul with its vessel. When you start hearing that voice and seeing messengers and symbols all around you, don’t be surprised if you feel the truth of what you’re receiving deep in your belly. There’s a reason for the saying “I feel it in my gut.”

That’s the inner feminine rising within you, the intuitive wisdom that your visionary voice embodies. Women and men have this aspect, but in women, it’s closer to the surface and often easier to access. But the inner masculine plays a role in this process as well, supporting the inner feminine, again for both women and men. (For more information about these aspects and archetypes, see Carl Jung.) As you work on asking the right questions and opening your soul and body to the answers, to that visionary voice, you can take the next step and start opening up your mind, gathering the knowledge that will feed the insight you gain.

Begin doing your homework, the research in the outer world that your inner world needs to process for you to ultimately make your vision reality. If you are focusing on your career or business, research the market, emerging trends, new business models and practices, technology, visionary leaders and companies, and gaps in what the world needs that business has yet to fulfill, or fulfill adequately.

If you are focusing on reinventing retirement, research what others are doing and where, flexible arrangements with companies or nonprofits that enable you to focus your energy and time the way you want, or entrepreneurial opportunities that would enable you to fulfill your soul’s purpose and make a difference, while still making a profit.

If you are seeking to make changes in your personal life—a move, a renewed focus on relationships, more travel, or more time and energy devoted to new or neglected meaningful pursuits—research places, social opportunities, logistics, and personal growth resources (such as this blog!). For all of the above and more, consider what skills you will need to learn and develop to make the most of whatever opportunities you will eventually pursue.

Now is not the time to draw definite conclusions or make decisions. Not just yet. The purpose of this information gathering is to give your visionary something to work with and to fine-tune the messengers and symbols you receive. Continue the inner work of asking questions and developing conduits for your visionary voice. By consciously getting your inner feminine and inner masculine to work together, you are on the path to creating a future that works—for yourself, your community, your world.

What knowledge do you need to gather to feed your visionary voice?

Ageism can involve assumptions about, or preferential or discriminatory treatment of, someone based solely on their age. Although the word can apply to people of all ages, the negative stereotypes of aging speak to a sense of deterioration or impairment and, though not based in truth, often become part of our sub- or unconscious and accepted as fact. This kind of dismissiveness of anyone is unfortunate for everyone.

Some ageist attitudes include “jokes” or comments mocking those “over the hill” or asserting it’s impossible to find love or have an active sex life over 40. Or the phrase “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” despite there being centenarians who are learning computers or taking up a new language. Has a doctor ever brushed off your query about a medical issue with the attitude that it’s just part of growing older and, “well, you aren’t 20 anymore…”? Or told you, as a 40+ woman, that you should have a hysterectomy to remedy a problem without asking if you wanted any more (or any) children? Do you know anyone over 40 who was passed over for a job or promotion despite being the most qualified candidate? Certainly, some people will be more capable than others. But this is true no matter what a person’s age. If you take 20, or 100,000 people, whether they are 18 or 90, or any other age, each is an individual and will have unique needs and challenges which should be considered accordingly.

Though ageism happens on many levels, all too often when we hear about such discrimination it regards the workplace. Age-based professional bias still happens – a lot — despite the fact that there are federal and state laws meant to prohibit such discrimination. In 2014 alone, there were over 20,000 charges filed under The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/adea.cfm). The ADEA is a federal law created in 1967. It protects individuals ages 40 and older, making it unlawful, for example, for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s age.” (www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adea.cfm; More workplace fairness information can be found on sites like www.workplacefairness.org).

In a Forbes.com article, “The Ugly Truth About Age Discrimination,”  Liz Ryan discusses how being older and having more experiential wisdom can work in your favor. She provides this tip regarding job interview preparation; “Here’s the flip side of the age-discrimination challenge: if you know what business pain you solve and can talk to hiring managers about that pain, they can’t afford to care how old you are.” Ryan further explains that “Job-seekers who use their interview air time to ask questions about the processes, the obstacles in a hiring manager’s way and the thorny problems they’ve seen before in similar situations vault themselves to a higher level of conversation than the ones who don’t.”

For those of you who know you have much to contribute, yet no longer want to work for another boss, the statistics are in your favor. In fact, as I talk about in my #1 Amazon best seller book, The Ageless Way, the 40+ market is perfect for a new encore entrepreneurial start-up, the opportunity to change ageism into Age-Friendly while making a profit. Rather than staying in repressive, stultifying positions with a silver ceiling looming, more and more workers (particularly women who have endured long-standing conflated ageism AND sexism) are standing in their own shoes and starting their own businesses, often as solopreneurs.

Regardless of where we are in our professional lives and whether we work for someone else, are our own boss, or do not currently work, we can all play a role in pushing the edge of the envelope. We can all work toward exposing and eradicating embedded fundamental ageism and make positive change happen by turning the aging paradigm inside out.

Those of you familiar with my work will recognize my clarion call to unite and create a new story of our AGE. Your story about who you are in the world can determine your choices and whether your journey will lead to action or inaction, stagnancy or movement toward greater fulfillment. And there’s no need to agonize over what that means or make the simple more difficult. If you trust in life’s dynamic process, it will all continue to unfold as you age, and learn, and keep refining that story.

As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning — A very good place to start…” Words will always be at the root of your story, whether right now or in the future. Starting today, pay close attention to the words you use to describe yourself and others, consciously changing them, if needed. For example, whether thinking about shifting something in your professional or personal life, just replace the cultural stereotype of “It’s too late for you. You’re not credible unless you are young and beguiling!” by confirming your personal awareness that “My experience, my talents and intelligence, and my unique perspective, make the timing perfect for me to act now. I know how to focus on what really matters. All great visionaries have wrinkles.” Hopefully, though this will be only the first step of many, taking it will ensure that the next step will be that much easier.

What ageism have you experienced or witnessed in life? Was it ignored or addressed? Please share your stories in the comments below.

The new reality is that our employees and leaders will be working until we die. A report by the British trends consultancy The Future Laboratory, supports my view that in time more and more employees will want to age in place, but in the workplace. Let’s face the facts. It’s not just Baby Boomers who have another good twenty to thirty years of being productive and adding value; our current 40-somethings have the option of working at least another thirty to forty years more if they choose to do so.

The Future Laboratory’s findings point to a growing trend in which most of us will continue to work into old age; thus, our workplaces will morph into a new form, an Ageless Workplace! Clearly it’s time to retread forced retirement into voluntary “returnment.”

The future of the marketplace (and the world) lies in the rapidly growing values-based business model. People are now spending their money consciously, choosing to buy from companies that are making a difference in the world over those that aren’t. More often than not, these are small, women-led businesses, the emerging new “Boomer Women Mean Business” story. Increasing numbers of these Boomer led enterprises are supported by Ageless Women of all ages.

To delve more into this concept check out my Amazon Bestseller Gray is the New Green.

I have to admit it. I am one who likes the familiarity of my comfort zone. After all, its called a “comfort zone” for a reason – it’s comfortable there. However, it can also be a deceptive trap that turns “living” into mere “existence.”

Comfort zones are full of routine; you know – the same-old, same-old. Comfort zones develop slowly – almost imperceptibly. Soon, the air in the comfort zone gets stale, the “flow” of life begins to stagnate, and personal growth comes to a gradual halt. In some cases, personal growth can even shift into reverse.

So, if you’re stuck in a comfort zone, ignore that inner voice that vibrates within every fiber of your being saying, “Stop! Danger beyond this point!” Try these eight “steps” to start really living and moving forward again:

1.  Step inward. Reconnect with your spiritual side of life in whatever way you find fulfilling. Go back to your place of worship if you’ve been away for a while. Learn how to meditate and practice it every day whether that be before you start your day or at its end. Your spiritual life is there waiting to be developed into a spiritual muscle that will serve you and others in times of need and, of course, in times of thanksgiving.

2. Step forward. Volunteer to help your favorite charity or cause. There are many nonprofit organizations that rely heavily on volunteer support to provide badly needed services. Find that new job you dream of and quit the one you hate. Move from survival to significance.

3. Step more. Get physical and feel stronger. Make it a point to get that 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week – even if it’s in 10-minute increments. Move! Feel your body come alive in its movement. Dance! Feel the grace and exquisite motion that your body is capable of. Stretch like a cat and wake your body up from head to toe.

4. Step outward. “The best way to make a friend is to be a friend.” – anonymous. Be a friend! Do things together and for each other. Go places and share memories. Learn about the variety of personalities and the ones you “click” with and those you don’t. As for the ones you don’t, Abraham Lincoln said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

5. Step outside. That’s right. Open your door and go outside. Smell the fragrances in the air. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of nature. Fill your lungs with fresh air and use your outside voice. See the colors of nature from brilliant sunrises and sunsets to the deep purples and greens of the forest. Wonder at the nighttime sky. Awaken your senses in the world outside. It awaits just outside your door.

6. Step deeper. Listen to your feelings. Share them with a trusted friend or relative. Life has its ups and downs and having someone to share them with helps us work through the emotions that are involved. Talk to a professional if you’ve been feeling down. Emotions cannot be ignored any more than pain in your chest.

7. Step upward. Stretch that intellectual muscle by learning something new. Take a class at your local college or through community education, usually connected with the school system. Read! Find a mentor who can teach you something new.

8. Step gracefully. Let your innate creativity flow out of your calling. Paint beautiful paintings, write inspirational words, dance the dance of your life. Enjoy the talents of others. Remember healthy family traditions and values and teach them to your children. Venture into the cultures of others different from you. Enjoy their food, learn about their values and traditions. Appreciate the diversity in life and celebrate it in all its glory.

If you try any of these eight steps to break out of your comfort zone, you are awakening the seven dimensions of wellness in your life and becoming refined by age. Go on. Get out of that puddle of a comfort zone and into the fast flowing river of life and wellness.

Reprinted with permission from refinedbyage.com

A Guest Post by Kathy Sporre

I have worked in the aging field for over 28 years, serving on initiatives at the national and international level. I want to help people become Refined by Age by encouraging them to age intentionally through developing the Seven Dimensions of Wellness in their lives: spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual, social/cultural, environmental, vocational. I also want to help people become aware of age discrimination – a form of discrimination that is entrenched in society.