Rethinking Work, Identity, and Meaning - 2025 Midlife Remix Wrap

Episode DescriptionAt some point in midlife, many of us realize that the roles we’ve been playing, at work, at home, in our lives, no longer hold the weight they used to.This episode is the Midlife Remix wrap for 2025. It’s been a tumultuous year for me, personally and professionally. A year where I learned a lot, not just from my own life, but from my clients and from every guest who joined me on the podcast.Across conversations with Jack Swift, Larry Olson, Keith Lawrence, Eric, Paige Scott, Bruno Del Ama, Brett Wright, Mark Hsu, Maryann Bruce, Paul Hatch, Yogesh Chavda, Henry, and Sam Sellers, a set of shared tensions kept emerging. Questions about work becoming identity. About success losing its pull. About fear, grief, ambition, leadership, parenting, and how we define a meaningful life when the old formulas stop working.This episode steps back to take stock of what this year revealed and what shifted in how I think about work, identity, and meaning in midlife.Chapters and Time Stamps00:00 – The Midlife Tension00:48 – The Squeeze of This Life Stage01:23 – Failure Over Achievement02:00 – From Ego to Intuition02:34 – When Work Becomes Identity03:07 – Mourning Old Selves03:48 – The Cost of Pretending04:16 – The Hedonic Treadmill04:41 – Being Seen and Reordering Life05:10 – Leadership and Connection05:42 – Fear, Legacy, and Parenting06:35 – Life Beyond Work07:08 – Acceptance and Freedom08:21 – One Job Can’t Carry Everything08:46 – Risk, Regret, and Discomfort09:14 – The Void and Self-Defined SuccessMain Themes• Work as identity and what happens when it breaks• Failure, fear, and grief as information• Ambition without satisfaction• Leadership rooted in vulnerability and connection• Parenting, legacy, and presence• Meaning beyond a single job• Redefining success on personal terms#MidlifeRemix #YearEndWrap #MidlifeReflection #WorkAndIdentity #RethinkingSuccess #CareerTransitions #LeadershipAndLife #MeaningInMidlife #stevenmiyao #coachingmetta