Permission to Begin Again in Your 60s (or at Any Age): Trusting Yourself in Midlife

Permission to Begin Again in Your 60s (or at Any Age): Trusting Yourself in Midlife

What does it really mean to give yourself permission to begin again—especially in midlife?

In this solo episode, Wendy explores why permission is often the first act of reinvention, how trusting yourself changes everything in your 60s (or at any age), and why midlife can be a powerful awakening rather than a crisis.

She shares personal reflections on self-trust, pivoting, hormonal shifts, and choosing a bigger, juicier life—plus gentle prompts to help you notice where you might be waiting for permission.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, unsure, or afraid to change direction, this episode is your reminder that you’re allowed to begin again—right now.

✨ In this episode, Wendy shares:

🧩 Why permission is often the first act of reinvention
💬 How women are socialized to put themselves last—and how that shows up in midlife
🔍 What permission really means (and what it doesn’t)
🧠 How hormonal shifts can unlock boldness and clarity
🔄 Why pivoting isn’t failure—it’s recalibration
💛 Wendy’s personal story of giving herself permission to begin again
💪 Why self-trust is a muscle you build over time

Reflection questions to consider:

❓ Where might you be waiting for permission right now?
❓ Whose approval are you unconsciously seeking?
❓ What feels complete, even if you haven’t admitted it?
❓ What would trusting yourself look like today—not someday?

Podcast shoutout + Resources

I’m also giving a shoutout to my friend Suzy Rosenstein, host of the podcast Women in the Middle: Loving Life After 50. If you enjoy thoughtful conversations about midlife, reinvention, and navigating life with intention and curiosity, I know you’ll love her show.

I also reference my recent solo episode Reinventing at 61: How I’m Betting on Myself in 2026 (Without the January Pressure)—a great companion listen if you’re exploring intention, self-trust, and spaciousness this year.

Free resource: If this episode inspired you and you’d like to go deeper, I invite you to download my free audio, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity and Inspire Your Reinvention Journey. It’s designed to help you reflect, notice what’s calling you, and gently reconnect with yourself—no pressure, no fixing.

PS: If this episode resonated, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend, sister, or colleague who might need a reminder that they’re allowed to begin again.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & The Power of Permission
• 4:36 Societal Conditioning & Midlife Awakening
• 6:42 Permission: An Internal Awakening
• 9:38 Permission is Alignment, Not Failure
• 11:47 My Personal Journey with Permission
• 13:47 Invitation to Curiosity & Permission as Practice
• 16:17 Acknowledgments & Call to Action

Transcript

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I'm your host, Wendy. I'm so happy you are here. If you are brand new and stumbled upon the podcast, or a friend recommended it, welcome to our Reinvention Rebels community. This is the place where we are navigating and figuring out midlife together, all the ups and downs as we figure out how to step into our midlife boldness. And I can't thank you enough for joining me today. And for all my regulars, welcome back. So happy you're here. You know we have the best conversations about how we are lighting things up, y'all, in midlife.

And if you listened to the episode a couple of weeks ago where I kicked off the year, I was talking about intention, about choosing how we want to move through this next chapter and 2026 with more awareness and purpose. I don't know about you, but I am ready to be on fire for all kinds of new possibilities. Today's episode builds directly on what I talked about a couple of weeks ago, because intention on its own, that's not enough. What actually determines whether we follow through on our intentions, and I know we often have really juicy big ones, that's really about permission.

And this is what I mean by that. So many women I talk to, brilliant, capable, thoughtful, amazing women, we're not stuck because we don't know what we want. We know. We know we want bigger and better and juicier lives. But more so, it's that we're stuck because we haven't given ourselves permission to want it, or to choose it, or to change our minds. It's kind of nutty, but that really comes first. We have to actually say to ourselves, I'm giving myself permission to want this thing that has been this tiny idea in the back of my head. So today, I want to talk about permission, what it really is, why it's so hard for women. And that's been my story too, but especially during midlife, and how giving yourself permission is often the very first act of reinvention.

One of the reasons permission is so complicated for women is because of how deeply we've all been socialized. From a very young age, most of us are taught, explicitly or implicitly, that our role is to keep the peace, take care of others, be agreeable, be responsible, not rock the boat. I've been there for all of these things. I don't know about you, but yes, I'm saying yes to all of this. Honestly, we're rewarded for being accommodating. And I have mastered the art of accommodation. I shouldn't be happy about it because it's, it's, but it's a fact. But now I know, now I'm recognizing it. And we're praised for being selfless. And over time, we internalize the idea that putting ourselves first is somehow selfish, or at the very least optional.

So when we get to midlife, where we are finding ourselves now, and if you're listening and you're younger, this is just helpful information to be thinking about, huh, have I noticed this about myself? But in midlife, something inside of us starts to whisper, or perhaps it's shouting, this is not working anymore. I don't want to do this. And honestly, it feels uncomfortable, at least it did for me, to kind of come to this awakening. Because no one handed us a permission slip that says, you're allowed to want more now, or you're allowed to change, or you're allowed to disappoint people in order to stay true to yourself. And that's why permission has to become an internal process. No one else can grant this to us. No one can give us that permission slip. We have to give it to ourselves. And when we do, um, OMG, that is when things start to open up.

So let me tell you a little bit about how I think about permission now. Permission, it's not an external thing. It's all within us. It's not someone else agreeing with you. It's not having all the answers. It's not certainty. Permission is an awakening within. It's that little voice inside you that probably has been kind of knocking on you for a while, but maybe you can hear because, you know, we're running around, we're busy, we're doing our thing, we're steeped in the societal norms of what we should do and be. So it's hard to uncover that little voice within and awaken to it. But it's that moment when you start believing in yourself, trusting what your body already knows, honoring what your inner voice has been saying to you for years. But if you're anything like me, you ignored it, or you didn't believe you were worthy, or it didn't resonate, or it wasn't theright time.

And I think this is where midlife becomes incredibly powerful. When we allow ourselves, when we give ourselves permission to tune into these feelings that have been percolating for a very long time, but that we're finally ready to acknowledge. Because as we age, we begin to see ourselves more clearly. And thank God it is about freaking time,right? We've lived enough life to recognize our patterns. We've ignored ourselves long enough to feel the cost of it. And there is a cost of holding all this stuff in. And eventually, many of us, we hit the breaking point. That enough is enough moment. Like I've had it. That's when we realize if I don't put my intention on me now, when will I?

And I want to name something else that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. As estrogen declines. And by the way, if you don't already know this, estrogen is often referred to as the peacekeeping hormone. But there's something interesting that happens. Many women notice that their bolder self begins to emerge during this time. Estrogen goes down, boldness factor goes up. Honestly, the filter changes. We're less willing to smooth things over, you know, being the masters of that that we often are. Less interested in carrying everyone else's emotional load. Yep, that's me. More honest about what feelsright and what doesn't. That hormonal shift is so powerful because it can unlock for us mindset shifts if we let it. Permission in midlife, it's not rebellion, it's simply alignment.

And here are a few reframes that I want you to sit with. Permission does not mean you're reckless. Permission does not mean you have it all figured out because we're constantly trying to figure it out. Permission does not guarantee clarity. But permission does say, I trust myself enough to respond to what's true now, who I am becoming. That truly is the essence of permission.

One of the biggest permission blocks I see, especially in midlife women, is the belief that changing direction equals failure. We think, I already started this. People expect this version of me. If I stop now, it means I was wrong. But midlife wisdom, what it really requires, in my estimation, is recalibration. What worked at 35 may not work at 55. That's like my body,right? Like I did all this stuff at 35. Get to 55, I was like, okay, something is truly wrong, butright, we have to recalibrate. What felt aligned five years ago may feel constricting now. And that doesn't mean you failed. It simply means you've evolved.

And you know what? There's a lie we've been sold that starting again means going back to zero. Starting again isn't starting from scratch because you bring experience, discernment, self-awareness, resilience. Starting again isn't failure. It's feedback. Plus, it's all the courage that you have accumulated over all these years. That's what makes it easier to step into this idea of midlife boldness.

I want to share something from my own life because permission has been central to my reinvention. I had to give myself permission, which took several years. I had to give myself permission to want to leave my marriage. This was hard-fought permission, y'all. Permission to admit that fine wasn't enough. Permission to want a bigger, juicier life at 61. And it's been hard. But I'll tell you this honestly, permission came before clarity.

I didn't have all the answers. I didn't know exactly what was next, and I still don't. It's a big work in process and a long journey. But what I did know is that staying where I was meant that I was abandoning myself. And I didn't want that for myself anymore. I had felt that feeling for a long time, and I finally admitted to myself, I want more. This isn't working, and it's okay. That's okay. It's okay to recognize that and give ourselves permission to move forward in a different way. So that's been pivotal for me. And that realization changes everything.

This is something I see again and again in the women I interview. Women like Onika, who is so cool. I just interviewed her. That interview is coming soon. She gave herself permission to ignore the naysayers because, you know, they're always there. And trust what she knew about herself, even when it didn't fit into the neat little box that society wants us to fit into. Permission, it's often quiet at first. It's that internal process. But once you say yes to yourself, that's when the momentum follows.

So I have an invitation for you to be thinking about this idea of permission. I want you to lean into this idea as Onika has done, as you'll hear in a coming episode, as I'm in the process of doing now, continuing to give myself permission as I go on this journey of reimagining my life. I don't want you to do anything necessarily drastic after listening to this episode, but I do want to invite you to notice and ask yourself some questions. Where am I still waiting for permission? Whose approval am I unconsciously seeking? What feels complete, even if I haven't admitted it? What would trusting myself look likeright now? Not someday. There's no pressure, nourgency. I just want you to be curious about this. Because noticing and paying attention to those little cues that the universe is sending you, your soul, that internal wisdom that's bubbling up, that is the beginning of change.

Here's what I know to be true. Permission, it's not a one-time decision. It's a muscle. And just like I've been exercising every single day for now 358 days, I think it is. It's something we build over time. And self-trust is built through repetition, through choosing yourself today and again, through honoring what's real for you, not what someone else wants for you. Through letting go of who you were supposed to be and stepping into who you want to be. I know they can be very different. And this is like anything. It takes practice to build this muscle. That repetition is so key. I didn't just start doing 350 days in a row of exercising. I worked up to it. And it's the same way with giving yourself permission. Permission as a practice.

The truth simply is this: midlife isn't about getting itright. It's about staying in relationship with yourself. So if no one has told you lately, let me say it clearly: you're allowed to begin again, even now, especially now. What if you stopped waiting?

Okay, y'all, before I wrap up, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank Susie Rosenstein, host of the Women in the Middle podcast. Susie has been such a thoughtful and generous voice in the midlife space for years, honestly. And I'm always grateful for the way she creates conversations that help women like us feel seen, supported, and empowered in this bold chapter that we're in, or we're stepping into, or we want to be in. And I think you would love her podcast. I'm linking to Women in the Middle in the show notes so you can explore some of her work. It's such a great parallel to the work I'm doing on Reinvention Rebels. It's just another extension of us stepping into who we are meant to be, y'all.

So thank you for spending part of your day with me here. I'm really excited that you're tuning in and listening. If this episode resonated, I'd love for you to share it with a friend, a sister, someone who might need a reminder that they're allowed to begin again too. It's strength in numbers, y'all. The more we can share this content, the more we can empower other women. And we all need this. In this day and age, we all need these reminders that we can give ourselves permission.

Also, if you'd like to go a little deeper without needing to do anythingright away, I created a free audio called Five Questions to Spark Your Curiosity, because y'all, that's what we're doing, and inspire your reinvention journey. It's designed to help you reflect, notice, and gently reconnect with yourself. No pressure. Definitely no fixing. You'll find the link in the show notes for that as well. You can also support the show by following Reinvention Rebels, leaving a review, or again, sharing this episode. Every bit of support helps this message reach more women who need it. And for that, I am so grateful to you. And remember, reinvention doesn't require permission from the outside world, y'all. This is about you. It begins the moment you trust yourself enough to listen. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, amazing Reinvention Rebels. You are figuring it out just as I am. I believe in you the same way I believe in me. Until next time, keep trusting yourself. Keep betting on the woman you're becoming and keep shining your amazing light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.