The Midlife Reinvention: How to Find Your Ikigai, Deal with Imposter Syndrome & Build Your Confidence in Career & Life Transitions

Have you pictured your next chapter in big moments, like the business launch, the move, or the day you hand in your resignation, but never pictured an ordinary Tuesday inside it?
The milestones matter, and they’re worth dreaming about. But a life is lived on ordinary days, and that’s where a dream shows its truth. Andrea Maizes, from episode 344, left an exhausting executive role only to build a consulting practice that had her working 60 hours a week, a reminder that busy and fulfilled are not the same thing. In this Thursday check-in, a companion to Monday’s episode 352, you’ll continue the visioning step of the Pyramid of Reinvention by putting the picture of your next chapter that excites you most to a simple test. Kavita also shares what Diwali, the festival of lights, means to her, and why it’s the perfect time to make room for something new.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why an ordinary Tuesday tells you more about a dream than any big milestone, and how it keeps you from recreating the very life you’re trying to leave
A three-step exercise to write out an ordinary day in your next chapter and test it with one question: would I love to live this day again and again?
How to read your energy, the lift of positive, anabolic energy or the heaviness of draining, catabolic energy, and what to ask when the picture feels heavy, plus what Kavita’s own ordinary Tuesday looks like fifteen years from now
Press play to walk through an ordinary day in your next chapter and find out whether it would fulfill you or simply keep you busy.
Kavita would love to send you the Inner Mentor Exercise, a guided visualization where you meet your future self, the wisest version of you, who is already living that life. Email her directly at kavita@itsmytimenowcoaching.com to request it.
And if you’d like to picture your next chapter alongside other women asking the same questions, join the waiting list and share what you’d love to see in Kavita’s group program and community opening in January.
Episodes mentioned:
Episode 352: How to Design Your Next 15 Years on Purpose in a Midlife Career and Life Transition 

Episode 344: What to Do When You Can’t Tell If You’re Burned Out or Ready to Leave Your Career, with Andrea Maizes

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Take the Ikigai Clarity Assessment and find out which of your four Ikigai dimensions may be out of alignment.
Schedule a Clarity and Next Chapter Call with Kavita
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This podcast explores career and life transitions, helping women find clarity, confidence, and purpose through Ikigai and self-discovery. We cover navigating change, overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs, finding your purpose-driven career, and building the courage to start your next chapter - whether you're facing a career transition, life transition, or midlife reinvention.
itsmytimenowcoaching.com | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

What would your next 15 years look like if you designed them on purpose? And what if you have so many options for your next chapter that you can’t decide which one to choose?
For many women in a career or life transition, the challenge isn’t a lack of options. It’s never having had the time to picture what they want clearly enough to choose. Continuing the visioning step of the Pyramid of Reinvention, Kavita’s six-step process for moving from confusion to clarity, this episode takes the Odyssey Plan from the bestselling book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, and stretches it across your next 15 years, part of what Ikigai co-author Francesc Miralles calls an ocean of time. With layoffs and AI reshaping work, those years are coming either way, so who decides what they look like, you or your circumstances?
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why the next 15 years of your life may be the ones most worth designing on purpose, and why they don’t have to look the same as the first part of your career
How to use the Odyssey Plan, a way of sketching three very different futures, to picture the life you’re living now carried forward, what you’d do if that path disappeared, and the life you’d choose if money and other people’s opinions didn’t matter
How your Ikigai, your reason for being, and the lift of positive, anabolic energy can help you decide which version is right for you, plus how Kavita blended all three versions into her own plan at 60
Press play to picture three versions of your next 15 years and start designing the one that’s right for you, on purpose.
To go one step further, email kavita@itsmytimenowcoaching.com for the free Inner Mentor Exercise, a guided visualization where you meet your future self, and share what your three versions look like. And if you’d like to picture your next chapter alongside other women doing the same work, join the waitlist and share what you’d love to see in Kavita’s group program and community opening in January.
Ready to talk through your next chapter one-on-one? Book your Complimentary Clarity Call
Episodes mentioned:
Episode 346: The Pyramid of Reinvention overview 
Episode 350: What Staying May Be Costing You, with Carol Lin
Episode 351: How You Want to Be Remembered 
Episode 277: Ikigai Explained: How Purpose Evolves 
Episode 278: Francesc Miralles, co-author of Ikigai

_________________________
Take the Ikigai Clarity Assessment and find out which of your four Ikigai dimensions may be out of alignment.
Schedule a Clarity and Next Chapter Call with Kavita
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This podcast explores career and life transitions, helping women find clarity, confidence, and purpose through Ikigai and self-discovery. We cover navigating change, overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs, finding your purpose-driven career, and building the courage to start your next chapter - whether you're facing a career transition, life transition, or midlife reinvention.
itsmytimenowcoaching.com | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

If you could choose the words people will use about you one day, would they match the life you’re living right now?
Most of us assume we’ll be remembered for our title, our years of service, or the roles we held the longest. In this Thursday check-in, a companion to Monday’s episode 350 with former CNN anchor Carol Lin, that assumption gets turned around. When Carol describes her legacy, she doesn’t mention a single job, and Ikigai co-author Francesc Miralles names a greatest success that has nothing to do with selling millions of books. Their answers continue visioning, the second step of the Pyramid of Reinvention, where you begin to picture what you want your next chapter in a career or life transition to truly mean.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why one simple question can cut through everything that looks impressive from the outside and brings career clarity to what matters most to you now
What Carol Lin and Francesc Miralles each hope to be remembered for, and what their answers may reveal about your own
A simple exercise to write the words you’d love to be remembered by, and one small step to start living your way toward them this week
Press play to write the words you’d love to hear about your life, and start living your way toward them in your next chapter.
Kavita would love to send you the Inner Mentor Exercise, a guided visualization where you meet your future self, the wisest version of you, and hear what she wants you to know about your next chapter. Email her directly at Kavita@itsmytimenowcoaching.com to request it.
And if you’d like to picture your next chapter alongside other women in transition, Kavita is opening a group program and community in January. Join the waiting list and share what you’d like to see.

_________________________
Take the Ikigai Clarity Assessment and find out which of your four Ikigai dimensions may be out of alignment.
Schedule a Clarity and Next Chapter Call with Kavita
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This podcast explores career and life transitions, helping women find clarity, confidence, and purpose through Ikigai and self-discovery. We cover navigating change, overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs, finding your purpose-driven career, and building the courage to start your next chapter - whether you're facing a career transition, life transition, or midlife reinvention.
itsmytimenowcoaching.com | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

Are you torn between staying in a career that no longer fits and leaving without a plan B in place?
Most of us only count the risk of leaving. Former CNN and ABC News anchor Carol Lin, the first national anchor to break the news of 9/11, faced a different calculation when her husband was diagnosed with a fatal cancer while she was six months pregnant. Walking away from a career that had asked everything of her, with no financial safety net, led to three more careers she never could have predicted. Her story opens visioning, the second step of the Pyramid of Reinvention, where you begin to picture what you truly want your next chapter to look like, even when a life transition makes it hard to see anything new.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
The one question that may help you decide whether to stay or go in a life transition
The surprising everyday habit Carol says can train your brain to picture a different life
What to ask yourself when you’re redefining ambition in your next chapter
Press play to weigh the real price of staying against the price of leaving, and give yourself permission to picture what comes next.
Ready to take those first steps alongside others in transition? Join the waiting list for Kavita’s new group program, opening in January, and share what you’d love to see in the community. And if you’d like to talk through your own next steps one-on-one, book a Complimentary Clarity Call with Kavita.

About the Guest

Carol Lin is an award-winning journalist and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News, best known as the first network journalist to break the news of the 9/11 attacks. Her honors include an Emmy, a Peabody, an Alfred I. duPont Award, and three Los Angeles Press Club Awards. After leaving CNN, she served as an entrepreneur in residence at SRI International, taught journalism at USC, and led strategic communications for Los Angeles County government. Her memoir, When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War, is available wherever books are sold. On her Substack, she shares stories of how 9/11 shaped the lives of everyday people.
Website: https://www.CarolLinNow.com
Substack: https://WhenNewsBreaks.Substack.com
Instagram: @carollinnow
Facebook: @carollinnow
_________________________
Take the Ikigai Clarity Assessment and find out which of your four Ikigai dimensions may be out of alignment.
Schedule a Clarity and Next Chapter Call with Kavita
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This podcast explores career and life transitions, helping women find clarity, confidence, and purpose through Ikigai and self-discovery. We cover navigating change, overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs, finding your purpose-driven career, and building the courage to start your next chapter - whether you're facing a career transition, life transition, or midlife reinvention.
itsmytimenowcoaching.com | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

What if you could start living your reason for being this week, without quitting your job or changing everything at once?
So many people in a career or life transition believe their Ikigai, their reason for being, only begins after one big move. Continuing the rediscovery step of the Pyramid of Reinvention and building on Monday’s episode 348, this Thursday check-in shows how your purpose can start showing up in small ways in the work and life you already have. Through a story from Ikigai co-author Francesc Miralles and two women Kavita interviewed at the Ikigai in Nature retreat in Zermatt, Switzerland, Llynne Plante and Liza Solonos, you’ll see how small steps can open the way to your next chapter.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why your reason for being doesn’t have to wait for one big leap, and how small steps often lead to bigger changes with a careful plan behind them
What a 7 a.m. coffee shift taught the co-author of Ikigai about living your purpose in the work you already do, and how two real career transition stories put it into practice
Three simple ways to begin bringing your reason for being into your life this week, and how your energy can guide you toward career clarity
Press play to find the first small step that brings your reason for being into your life now, and let the next one become clear from there.
Haven’t gathered the pieces of your Ikigai yet? Start with the free Ikigai Clarity Assessment, which takes about five minutes and shows which of your four dimensions are alive in your life right now.
To hear Kavita’s full conversations with Llynne and Liza, listen to Episode 215.
And if you’d like to do this work alongside other women in transition, join the waitlist and share your thoughts for Kavita’s group program and community opening in January.

_________________________
Take the Ikigai Clarity Assessment and find out which of your four Ikigai dimensions may be out of alignment.
Schedule a Clarity and Next Chapter Call with Kavita
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
This podcast explores career and life transitions, helping women find clarity, confidence, and purpose through Ikigai and self-discovery. We cover navigating change, overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs, finding your purpose-driven career, and building the courage to start your next chapter - whether you're facing a career transition, life transition, or midlife reinvention.
itsmytimenowcoaching.com | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube