Welcome to The Second Act

There’s one question that I ask people, particularly working parents in their 30s and 40s, that often has an unexpected reaction. It’s not unusual for female executives in particular to be speechless. Indeed, it can stop them in their tracks after I have let them run with a narrative about work issues and the conundrum of “what I want to

by Sandy Burgham In January I wrote a post encouraging you to choose a word for the year, a theme that anchors the year and keeps you focused on a particular shift that is calling. It seemed to strike a chord with people, many of whom have shared with me their ‘word of the year’ that came to them during

Around the time this edition is published, most readers will have surrendered to the bacchanalian overindulgence that marks the silly season, letting keto, paleo and possibly even vegan disciplines slide and having that ‘just the one’ glass of champagne — every night. As they reach for just another canapé, their guilt is assuaged by reassuring nonsense conjured up by their

When the kids were young, and my husband and I wanted to role-model being charitable and Christmassy, we would reserve a Saturday in December to drag them around various rest homes to bring Christmas greetings to elderly relatives. For our children, it was their least favourite day of the year. Kissing whiskered aunties and honorary relatives, their connection to whom they

By Sandy Burgham Over my last few columns, I have pondered the question of second act career fulfilment, and encouraged you to go back into childhood memories to consider what you loved to do when left to your own devices, away from the influences of the opinions of others. There are clues in this as to what kinds of activities

By Sandy Burgham We all like a good story, it’s hardwired into us. Professor Yuval Noah Harari suggests in his book, Sapiens, that the reason homo sapien shot to the top of the food chain was not just our ability to create stories, but to believe in them. Our narratives, shared and personal, are a big part of our identity. There’s

By Sandy Burgham My husband and I are going through a good patch in our marriage. Today he spent a lot of time preparing the wood-fired hot tub at the bach, did the dishes twice, and made elaborate pizzas. This is getting into perfect man territory. To be honest, that’s all it takes to turn me into a nicer person

By Sandy Burgham One of the biggest questions people pose at midlife is, “what do I really want to be doing with my life?” On a recent trip to the UK I did a short course on career development, which explored the idea that a fulfilling career should be a grown-up version of who you were, and what you loved doing,

By Sandy Burgham I don’t usually agree with a thing that comes out of the mouth of property developer Sir Bob Jones, but I do concur with him on one thing — the value of an arts degree, and specifically, a liberal arts degree. For those still stuck in an era where a Bachelor of Arts was mocked as “BA

By Sandy Burgham My mother used to instruct me not to take life too seriously, to be really present every day, as you never know when something unexpected could occur and end life as you know it. For her it was a blinding flash of light, then a bomb that destroyed her school, many friends, and in fact her whole