The mid-life crisis is out and the mid-life catalyst is in

Last week my phone pinged with a photo of my beautiful friend circa 1990. She was aged 20, had a cheeky look over her bare shoulder which was glowing with sunburn, tussled hair, lips pursed, Ray Ban aviator sunglasses, and a lit cigarette poised between the very tips of her fingers. She was the epitome of 1990s cool.

Today, at 50, she’s the founder and CEO of two successful businesses, a single mum who exercises every day, does not drink, does not smoke, very sensibly wears sun block (even in winter), and hasn’t seen north of 10pm for some time. She is the epitome of 2020s cool.

And she is just like us – women who are embracing what some like to label our ‘mid-life’, with a ferocious sense of excitement and ownership and enormous opportunity. And why not?

Being 50 today is very different to when our mothers were 50 and worlds away from when our grandmothers were 50. While we might be getting older, but we are certainly not old.

There are plenty of Hollywood power women to show us the way on pro ageing – just look at Jamie Lee Curtis, Naomi Watts, Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow, to name a few.

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to be one of the genetically blessed few to find the strength to celebrate your greying hair. Just look in the mirror. Being 50 plus is not a crisis, it’s a catalyst.

You are fit, energetic, sexy, sensual, confident, comfortable in your skin, thriving professionally, successful, full of life, and chomping at the bit to live life in a big, beautiful and spectacular way.

You are self-reliant and self-assured, and somewhere along the journey your confidence, common sense, prudence and self-knowledge have allowed you to discard that part of your ego that used to care what other people thought of you. Why? Because life is too short and you are wise enough to let it go.