Expiry Date - Remastered | LAYC33

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What's your expiry date?

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Yeah, like seriously...

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Isn't that how society has planned it for us?

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That we're going to reach a certain age...

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A stage...

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Expiry date...

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Where...

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We're supposed to just go gently into that sweet night, of obsolescence.

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As a woman in your 60s, or 70s...

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A retirement...

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A family raised...

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Mortgage paid off...

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Career...

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The last hurrah...

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and...

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You're just supposed to expire, without an odour of course...

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Because...

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What value would we have?...

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At this age, in our life?

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Well, that maybe sounds a little dramatic and harsh...

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But, it's kind of the stereotype, or the programming, that I was raised with...

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And didn't think much beyond that.

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And I confess...

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I was as guilty as the next person, judging me...

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That I judged older women.

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As I was growing up...

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As I was maturing...

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To be, unnecessary, unimpactful, sometimes inconvenient...

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Or sometimes just convenient...

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Because they were there...

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They were steady, and they were available for babysitting

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and asking quick questions.

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I wrote an article sometime back...

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Just about that..

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About...

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Is there a point of obsolescence?...

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Where...

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We as baby boomers...

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Cease to have any real value to society?...

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To business, to family and friends around us?

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Our children are adults, with very full lives of their own.

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For many of us, the grandchildren have already reached the age of independence...

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And they don't need dear sweet granny to read them a bedtime story.

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In our relationships, sometimes we just aren't even needed anymore either.

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Everyone's gone off...

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To start their own quest in life.

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Well, even though I grew up with that Freedom 55...

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Carrot in my brain...

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I grew up in Canada...

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and it was a London Life commercial that set me up...

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To go...

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Wow, I will have lived a terrifically successful life...

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If at the age of 55, I can retire from making any income, gainful employment...

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Live on the savings and the assets that I have accumulated

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over this wildly successful...

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Baby Boomer lifestyle that complied with...

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All of the...

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You know...

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Go to School...

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Get a job, Get married and Buy a House...

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Have some kids, pay off the mortgage...

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et cetera...

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Plan...

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Right to the edge of the cliff...

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When..

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In your late 50s and early 60s, starting to fade from

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everybody else's radar screens...

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Companies...

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Up until recently, and probably many, many, still...

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Were anxiously walking us to the door to get rid of us...

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Before we died in the traces...

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Or, that we cost too much money on the health care plan because

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of our deteriorating condition...

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At our ripe old age.

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Let's turn off that show, and take a look at the reality of today.

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My circumstances as a serial entrepreneur, and a business owner...

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Led me to sell my company in 2009, and take a whole new journey in my life...

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I took a chance on love again...

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I sold my home and possessions in Canada.

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I moved to the United States, and tried the woman of leisure lifestyle.

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After all I earned it.

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I'd earned it the hard way.

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I'd had my own company for over 20 years.

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There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in making payroll and

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dealing with economic disasters...

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Conditions outside of my control, and learning how to be a CEO on the job...

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On the job training for sure!

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Well, I tried that...

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Okay.

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I deserve this....

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And after all...

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That's what they said I was supposed to do.

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I was over 55...

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and it was time to slow down...

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Enjoy the fruits of my lifelong labor.

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After all, I've been working since I was 12 years old, and really just...

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Step back, and give someone else the opportunity to step

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forward, and rise in my place.

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I tried that for a while...

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Rather than feeling the joy...

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And experiencing that beautiful life...

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That the television commercials from Freedom 55 had portrayed...

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You know...

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The lovely couple with the silver hair, with the Polo

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sweaters over their shoulders...

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Walking hand in hand, on the beach...

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Or...

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Riding together in a golf cart.

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I found that all of that was possible, and available to me...

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But it wasn't enough...

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It wasn't enough to make me feel great about who I was...

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And what my purpose and value was.

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Now, at this different stage of my life, for a long time...

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I fought my true feelings because...

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I had convinced myself, that that was, the role I was supposed to play.

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And if I didn't have to work...

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Then obviously...

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What kind of an idiot was I to say...

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Hey, let me try something new...

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Let me take on a challenge.

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Let me take on risk.

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Let me face the fear of personal growth, and learning new

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skills and, deciding how...

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I wanted to make an influence now...

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How I would be able to have positive impact.

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All of that remained unanswered for me, for a couple of years...

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Until I realized that my search to find those answers...

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Wouldn't be satisfied until I answered one other, much more critical question first.

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And that was...

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Who Am I Now?

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Rather than trying to conduct my life and planning...

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Based on who I was attached to...

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The identity who I was attached to...

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That I was quite comfortable with for many years.

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And I knew exactly what my place was in the world, and my role.

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Well, it was really easy...

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I had a business card that told me...

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Exactly...

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Who I was.

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I had to really stop and look in the mirror...

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Look deeply into my own eyes, and ask that question...

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Who Am I Now?

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It was a very emotional process.

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And you all know already that I have an affinity for words

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that start with the letter E...

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And so...

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Expiry, and Emotional, and Evolutionary...

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We're all part of this conversation...

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In how do we...

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Make that transition...

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From who we were...

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To who we will become...

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And...

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How do we traverse that unknown area in between?

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I certainly was not prepared for that experience in my life.

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I didn't give a single moments thought to...

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What will I do?...

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When I am not who I was?

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What will matter to me?

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What will I have to Learn?

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Decide?

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Choose?...

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What skills do I have?...

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That transition into...

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What I want to do next?

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How important is it to me to...

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Slow down?

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Or speed up?

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Because now...

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Really, if I give myself permission...

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I have the freedom to do anything I want to.

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Another huge part of that assessment or evaluation was...

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Who do I need to have on my cast and crew?...

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To help me fulfill the script that I can write for myself?...

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To produce what I call an Encore performance in my life.

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I feel absolutely no regrets for the life that I had and the things that

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I've experienced and accomplished...

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Or failed forward...

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Very quickly or slowly.

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But here I am now, at this point...

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Going all right...

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How do I figure out...

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What needs to happen?

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What's the system?

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What's the process?

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And how do I execute that?

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I wrote a book called, Who Am I Now?: Feminine

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Wisdom - Unmasked and Uncensored.

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And it really talks about...

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That lifetime journey of getting to be...

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Me...

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At that point, age 65.

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But the sequel...

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to that...

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The unwritten sequel to that...

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Is this journey I am on now...

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To really appreciate everything that I am, and have been leading

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my life in preparation to be...

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Today...

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And what I choose to do with that going forward.

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Part of the conversation I'd like to continue with you...

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And with guests on my show.

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Over the past 10 years, I've talked to other women...

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And I found out...

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That there was absolutely no reason for me to be hiding in shame, and suffering from

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this identity crisis that I was having...

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Because I was not alone...

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At any time.

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Hell no...

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Not alone because there are millions of baby boomers that are at this juncture....

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That are going...

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Okay...

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What now???

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Because we certainly didn't think that much farther ahead.

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There was just this...

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False belief that we're just going to go off the cliff...

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When we reach a certain point.

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There's far too much life to be lived yet.

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I'm now 66...

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I expect that I will live at least another 25, 35, 45 more years...

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What will I do to fill that time?

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What will I do to make sure that I have enough money to live the

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way that I want to live, and to be able to do the things I want to do?

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These are the conversations that I would like to have with you.

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And with the women that I have come to know...

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That are out there...

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Busting up those stereotypes and paradigms...

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They are transforming themselves...

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Starring in their lives...

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Doing something that maybe they never ever thought they would

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do that would happen because...

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For a lot of our lives, I don't know about you...

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But certainly for me and many of my friends...

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We kind of fell into our careers, or we were directed, and suggested

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and pushed or obligated...

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Or it just got too hard to leave that predictable income.

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On the day that you are set free...

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From that sense of obligation and sense of being parked there?...

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Maybe...

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typecast?...

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In your role?...

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To where you can freely say...

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Hmmm...

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I get to decide...

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How I want to show up in the world now.

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What my character is truly like.

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Authentically...

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Who am I now...

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Based on this evolutionary journey of...

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5, 6, 7 decades, that we have lived on this planet.

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So please, I'd like to hear from you.

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What are you thinking about...

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Your Encore?...

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What you want to do next in life...

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How are you getting through that process of deciding...

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What that's going to be like...

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How you will produce and direct that successful Encore?

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I am delighted to be on this journey with you.

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I will be even happier to give you a standing ovation...

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For figuring out your Encore, and starring in it!