Look to the past to shape the present

to re enter. Some people have made enough money to retire comfortably when the time comes, and they're looking for more meaning or more fun in the next season of work. Other people love their careers for years or decades, but the spark is gone and they want to find new work that they will be excited about. Then there are people who still love their careers but want to add a new twist, or want to add a serious hobby

or volunteer outlet on the side. I have been reflecting on mid career resets since I interviewed doctor Gillian Goddard for this podcast a few months ago. Jillian is a practicing endocrinologist, and she recently launched Hot Flash, a newsletter about menopause that has quickly scored a lot of readers looking for accurate information about this hot topic. In our conversation, Gillian mentioned that she did journalism when she was much younger.

That seems totally unrelated to her career in indo chronology, but she has returned to journalism in a way and combined it with her medical work by writing her newsletter. Her college pursuit connects with a midlife twist on a career she loves. She is a physician and a writer. Now. It makes sense that what we did as kids, or teenagers or young adults would still speak to us. We loved these things in the past, and while we might be different people now, we are not so different that

former interests might not still spark something. So if you are trying to figure out what is next vocationally, one option is to consider the classes, extracurriculars, hobbies, jobs, and volunteer roles you loved when you were younger. Is there anything your past self thought was cool that your present self might still want to do. There are lots of ways you could twist things together. Did you want to be a singer when you were a kid, but you ended up as an accountant? Could you serve as the

CFO for your city's opera company? Perhaps growing up you spend all your free time reading. You dreamed of being a librarian, but became a lawyer instead. If your kids are launched and your law school loans are paid off, it may not be too late to earn your MLS and become a librarian after all. Or perhaps you could stick with your current career but provide pro bono legal services to the library or serve on your library foundation's board.

Maybe your favorite job ever was teaching at a summer academic program during college, but now you lead your family business. Could you teach a night class at a nearby business school to combine your experience of being a small business leader with your love of teaching. Or maybe when you were in college you worked in the kitchen of a

fabulous restaurant, and imagine being a chef one day. Whether you are a doctor or a teacher or communications officer, these days, you could lean into your love of cooking by hosting dinner parties or cooking for a local feeding ministry in your off hours. If you are at a point in your life when you are craving something new, think about what your past self loved to do. This

might point the way to a total career change. But it also might point the way toward job crafting, as doctor Jillian Goddard has done, or it might lead to something rich on the side. All of these could be fabulous outcomes. Is there anything from your youth that you would like to add to your present life. You can let me know at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.