Stay Curious: Coaching Through Life’s Later Transitions

The past nine months have been a turning point for me. I finished the Henley PCEC programme, stepped away from full-time work, turned 67, and joined Brave Starts—an online community for people in their fifties and sixties who are rethinking life after corporate careers.

That mix of study, change, and community has nudged me towards a new focus: coaching people in their fifties and sixties who find themselves at a crossroads.

This stage of life is full of upheaval. Leaving corporate life. Redefining identity. Supporting adult children while caring for ageing parents. And, for too many, the harsh reality of workplace ageism.

Psychologists have long mapped life into stages. Erik Erikson talked about “generativity”—the desire to leave a mark and nurture something that lasts. For me, it’s a reminder that later life shouldn’t mean winding down. It can mean giving back, creating, and engaging in new ways.

But many people I speak to feel the opposite. They talk about a loss of agency. About feeling invisible. About being labelled “too old school.” As one client in her sixties told me:

“I think people discount you when you get past a certain age. Your experience is not relevant… it’s such a dismissive term.”

That sense of being stuck is where coaching can help. Change often has three parts: endings, the messy middle, and new beginnings. My role is to walk alongside people as they let go of old roles, sit with uncertainty, and start imagining fresh possibilities.

Sometimes it’s about unearthing long-buried passions. Sometimes it’s about finding a new way to use decades of experience. Always, it starts with listening—providing a safe space to voice the doubts and fears people often keep hidden.

That’s why I’ve called my practice Stay Curious Coaching. Curiosity is what keeps doors open. It’s what allows us to imagine futures we haven’t yet defined. And it reminds me—as much as my clients—that life’s later chapters can be just as creative, purposeful, and rewarding as the earlier ones.

So, I’d love to hear from you:

• How are you reimagining work, purpose, and identity in your fifties and sixties?

• What challenges—or opportunities—have you discovered along the way?

Stay curious!