From Empty Nest To New Adventures: How Reflection And Travel Shape Your Next Chapter

The room goes quiet after a major role changes—kids move out, routines fade, and you’re left staring at a blank page. We lean into that space with a fresh frame: think of your life as a story you’re authoring, not a script you’re handed. From there, we use reflection prompts and practical tools to redesign your next chapter with intention and weave travel in as a catalyst for identity, creativity, and joy.

We start by revisiting your eight-year-old self to uncover traits that never really left—curiosity, movement, creativity—and treat those as guideposts. Then we map your current “cast” and name the real conflicts: setting boundaries with adult children, shifting purpose after years of caregiving, or rebuilding confidence after a long season of responsibility. With a clear idea of the climax you want—a bold step, a reclaimed talent, a renewed sense of self—we plan travel that supports growth rather than distracts from it.

You’ll learn how to build a 20-activity joy list, schedule it so it actually happens, and turn items into trips that fit your values. Think hot air balloons in Cappadocia or at the Albuquerque festival, a butterfly migration in Mexico instead of a local exhibit, movement-focused getaways, or creative retreats that reignite your craft. The goal isn’t more stamps in a passport; it’s experiences that move the plot forward. Whether you’re reclaiming an old self or practicing a new one, these steps help you design travel that feels personal, purposeful, and doable right now.

If this season feels like transition without a map, start with the prompts, choose one aligned activity, and give yourself a destination that matches your story. Subscribe for more practical tools, share this with a friend who needs a fresh chapter, and leave a review to tell us what trip you’re planning next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Your Life As A Story
• 2:08 Facing The Empty Nest Shift
• 4:10 Letting Adult Children Lead Their Lives
• 6:18 Reclaiming Identity Beyond Motherhood
• 8:20 Reflection Prompt: Your Eight-Year-Old Self
• 11:52 Writing Your New Story And Cast
• 15:24 Conflict, Climax, And Travel As Catalyst
• 18:36 Reviving Lost Talents And Hobbies

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Have you ever thought about your life as this storybook? Like a novel or maybe even a movie? I know we've all had things in our life that could certainly become movies or books, right? I'm an avid reader and this idea of our lives being written down in a storybook for others to read is exciting for me. Yeah, every story has high and low points, good and bad, and drama and conflict, but there's also these exciting high points that you if you think about making a movie out of it could be rather exciting. At least I think so. And we all have very different stories. But I'm also wondering if you're at a place in your life where you're thinking you need to rewrite your story. I'm mostly thinking of my women who may either be in empty nest season approaching it, maybe you're in menopause and this is just all new to you. You've retired already, but you want to do something new with your life. I know how that feels. I've been an empty nester for about four and a half years now. And it is so true that my life before that phase was so much, it was just diving into my children's lives. I was so much involved in their stories that I really forgot my story and even lost a bit of who I was in that process. And I know as mothers, that often happens. And we think about their stories, and maybe their stories are coming to an end and they're moving on, they're gonna fly their own wings and fly the coop, so to speak, or you're approaching it, or you're already there and you're still just not sure how to operate as in that empty nest season. I'm gonna help guide you through today some ways that we could rediscover ourselves. And yes, there is a way that travel ties into all this, but stick with me. These are steps and questions that I may ask my coaching clients to help them better assess where is an ideal place for them to take a solo trip. Getting this whole like idea of what is your news story, what's this new story you maybe want to write and change? And how is travel associated or connected to that? How can that be part of it? And I know becoming an empty nester. At first I was actually really excited about the prospect of my kids going out on my own. Oh, I could finally be free. But no one ever told me how difficult it would be to pull back enough to still be their mother. I have two adult boys in their 20s, and yet let them be adults, live their lives. And I have been so involved in my children's lives. It's it was mostly wrapped around soccer and all their activities. And I loved it mostly. There were days that I was tired from all of it. And now, as I look back, I miss those moments too, those moments of being with them. And so maybe now your idea of your story is changing because it's not so much a part of someone else's. So we're gonna look at that today. I struggled with letting them be adults and being happy for them too, but in the midst of that, I had to also remember and rediscover who I was or maybe what part of me that got lost during my marriage or during just that child rearing phase of my life, that season of my life. So I like to look at this open possibilities, this blank page, so to speak. And I'm this author or I'm this filmmaker, and I'm gonna create this story to tell. This story that's gonna be a, I don't know, golden globe winner reward, whatever it is, that is meaningful though, because we have other characters that may be a part of our story, right? So some questions to help you maybe rediscover. And this, please don't skip this part. So if you're driving and listening to this, take a moment, either come back, or if you have the opportunity, grab some pen and paper. And I want you to write down these reflection questions for you. And this is gonna help you target kind of your what you are like, what are your tendencies? And one way to do that is this first question is I want you to reflect on who you were as your eight-year-old self. What were you like? What did you enjoy doing? What were your character traits? I find that our character traits and our kind of how our quirkiness, our personalities don't change much from that age. I look at my kids now and even think about when they were even younger and how they still display some of those same characteristics. But as mothers, we sometimes have to evolve and change a little bit to adapt to whether it's trying to raise our or be parents in a certain way to our different children. So reflect back on yourself. Look at yourself as say eight years old or so. And what were you like? What things did you enjoy doing? I have a vivid picture of me, slightly younger than eight, where I am sitting on this blow-up chair. It's a Winnie the Pooh blow-up chair, and I have a basket of books next to me, and I'm reading. And that still is a part of me. And these last four and a half years or five years or whatever, I've actually been reading more. When I was in my the depths of raising my kids, there wasn't a whole lot of time for that. So I'm rediscovering this whole joy of reading. The other thing I think about when I think of my eight-year-old self, what did I do? I spent a lot of time being creative, dancing around the living room. I hadn't started dance lessons yet. So that was just part of me. And so movement is a part of me, and that still is, and I'm continuing to dive into making that fit more into my story now as a 50-something year old, right? And how movement is still part of my life. And what are my character traits? I think that still often stays the same in our lives. It can change slightly if maybe you've experienced a traumatic event later in your life, but it is still there and we can reclaim that, go back and rediscover that in ourselves. Okay, because these are things that'll be important as we start to dive into how can we take this picture of ourselves, our eight-year-old self, and bring it into present day. There's many ways. Number two, I'd like you to actually think about writing a news story. And as I mentioned, imagine maybe your life on this movie screen. And who are the characters in your novel or movie? Okay, there's always those certain characters. If you're married, it's probably still your spouse is involved in your story. You have some best friends, you have siblings maybe, and maybe your children are still part of that story. And think about those characters that are in your story and how they may influence your future or your story moving forward and what that kind of looks like. Are there conflicts? There's always conflicts, I hate to tell you. I know we want this lovely, oh, happy ending, so to speak, as when we read some of those like romance novels, right? And in movies, they always like to make sure they tie it up at the end, right? So you're not left hanging. Although there are some that do leave you hanging, knowing that there is a part two. So what is the conflict that maybe you need to consider either tackling, climbing that mountain to overcome? And that also, if you do that, provides another sort of story that is built into your life story, how you overcame that resilience, by the way. And what is your climax? And does it include travel? How do you write travel into your new story if you've never traveled before? If it's already been a part of your story, or you had to leave it for a while due to responsibilities in your life? Can you come back and start to reclaim that joy that you have? And then if it's not been a part of your story, now most people at this sort of stage of their life, they have more time. They want to start to do more travel. And so, how can you reclaim that and add that even to your story? What does that look like? Where would you like to travel? How how much would you like to travel? How far would you like to go? How comfortable are you with that idea? And do you need to reclaim some of your lost talents, lost hobbies, or even some goals that you said a long time ago that you have regrets or disappointments that you never achieved? I would write those down. What are those? For me, lately, I've been trying to reclaim my creativity. And so I have a whole list of things that I used to do creatively that I had had to leave behind, maybe due to time, responsibilities, maybe I couldn't afford to take classes or whatever the reason being, I had to focus on other things. And so I know those are still part of me. Those are still part of that eight-year-old child inside me, and even beyond, like even in my teenage years, I was very creative in many areas, such as, of course, dance and musically. I wrote poetry, believe it or not. I enjoyed watercolor painting, and I actually found some of my old paintings. I'm like, wow, I was actually not too bad. I think it if I could hone that skill, I was creative in sewing and creating new garments or doing jewelry making. I had so many creative hobbies and loves that really brought me a lot of joy and sparked that creativity in me. And I'm starting to rediscover those. And how does that play into travel? I think just getting your creative juices going really opens up a whole new world of possibilities, just of how you even see the world. So as we open up that creativity within ourselves and we look to add some travel into our story, that you will start to see things from that creative lens. Or maybe there's a hobby that you have put aside. And now through your travels, maybe you can explore that hobby. Is it golfing? Maybe that is included in maybe you go and do some golfing at different places, or if you're a runner and you go to different places to run, or you have you collect things, right? So you have this hobby, you want to go back and start maybe go back to your collection of items. They have plenty of like festivals. I'm just thinking of like those Comic Con places that people gather. They have that for all kinds of collection people. So that could propel your travels to that place. What are those hobbies that you enjoy doing that might take you somewhere new? Do you like to cook? Cooking is an easy hobby to explore in your travels, and it will open up your world to just some new cuisine as well. And then another question, I actually just this activity, and I think it just again helps to get some ideas just on paper. I like to, and if you have been following me, in 2025, I had a just a I made it a goal to incorporate a little more fun and adventure in my life. And I learned that often has to be scheduled because life does get busy. And we can make all the lists we want, but if we're not really conscientious about making an appointment to to do the things on our list, putting them on our calendar and fulfilling those, they're gonna stay on a list, and that list is gonna stay there. But the list I had to create for that that fun activities last year was I had to list, I listed over 25 ideas because some of them actually didn't happen, whether it was like I couldn't schedule it, timing, all that stuff. But I listed 25 fun adventures or activities. Most of them I think I was trying to think locally, first of all, what could I do locally? What was either free or low cost for me? And this activity that I want you to do is only 20. I want you to list 20 fun activities or fulfilling activities. So this could also lean towards that lost hobbies that you have you enjoy doing, and that on the column, after you write down a list of fun activities that you enjoy doing, write down when was the last time you actually did those. If it was never, then great. That's a new activity that you can explore. For example, one of mine was rock climbing, and that was a new activity for me. So I had never done that before. Another fun activity I did last year was ice skating. And so the last time I had ice skated was likely probably 13 years prior or so. But I grew up ice skating. We had an ice skating rink in our backyard that my father would freeze over an area, and we had all the neighborhood kids come. So just finding and reclaiming some of those fun activities that do have some fond memories or just bring joy to you. I want you to list them. And after you list them, of course, write down the last time you did it. If it was never, maybe that's something you want to try this year. But that's also a great way to think about if you wanted to really pursue fulfilling these and doing these activities, not to bring that joy and spark back in your life because now you're trying to reclaim and try to re-establish maybe a new story. And if you're in that sort of that transition, you're not sure what direction your life is going, you're wanting to actually create a new story, as I said, that this list could actually help you determine things that you maybe didn't even realize were really fulfilling and joyous for you, and they can be a part of that story. So putting this together in those that list two can also lead to some travels. For example, I'm thinking one of your activities might be something that can be done in another country or another state or another area to make it even more fun. For example, maybe you have always wanted to do a hot air balloon ride. And yes, you can do that locally, potentially, depends on where you live, though. I know in Dallas we can't you can do that. However, there's some really great places that you can actually maybe experience that on an international level. Most people, when they think hot air balloon rides, they think Cappadocia, Turkey. There's also in the States, there's that Albuquerque, New Mexico hot air balloon festival that happens every year. There are more than just those. You can do your research. And so maybe instead of doing that locally, you utilize that from your list of activities as a way to get you to see another country, explore different different cultures, and fulfill that activity that you have on your list. I also have on my list to I love butterflies. So as I probably have heard in another episode, I can go locally to a lot of these butterfly places that you know that there's one actually in Dallas. There's also one in Pittsburgh, which I was recently in. But I would rather see them in Mexico in their natural habitat where they migrate every year. So that's gonna be some that's gonna be a way for me to fulfill this butterfly sanctuary kind of activity in a traveling way. So get your creative juices going. Go back and do these journaling prompts to dig up all this. What is really a part of you? Who are you? And what do you want to become in this maybe this new life that you're creating, that you're writing right now? And it can be so exciting, and I'm so happy that you are here that I want you to see this new story in your life, and you get to create it. So, why is all this deep dive into figuring out who we are so important for creating travel that is meaningful? Well, that's the purpose. We're sitting in a transitional time in our lives, likely, and travel can assist in helping us find, discover new direction, new purpose, possibly. But we have to start somewhere, which is why I had you do all those activities, those questions, to sort of start to dig up really what's deep in your core of your character, your beliefs, your loves, your joys, and what your desires are, which could lead to creating two things: a trip that is transformative, and where you can start to fulfill those dreams based on who you are, based on who you are right now and what you've discovered. And if it's reclaiming some of your old self, good. If it's developing who you are, like creating a whole new self identity, then travel can also help with that. But once you've done that digging and you're still not sure what to do with all that. I'm here to help you. I'm your travel coach, and I would love to help just guide you in that direction that might need a little assistance, and maybe you're not ready to commit to that four session package that I offer on my website. But I'd like to offer right here and in January only, if you just need maybe a one-time session right now in January only, and for my listeners, I'm offering$99 for a 50-minute session for me to help dive into maybe a little deeper into some of these questions, other questions to help determine a destination possibly for you. How are you feeling in this transitional period of your life? And how can I help direct you to create this new life story that you are seeing, you are envisioning? If you close your eyes, you can see it on that movie screen, and I would love to help you with that. So email me hello at SherylBeck Esh, and we'll talk details around your schedule.