Entrepreneur Natalie Campbell has been an overachiever from an early age. While many students at university prioritise the student union bar over studies, she was spending her spare time setting up DJ nights and building her own coffee shop franchise.
Her career since graduating from Lancaster has seen her fly high in different directions, from an early career in retail to working for the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as Director of Insight, running for London Mayor and most recently as the CEO of ethical water brand Belu.
But as the driven entrepreneur hit her 40s, she realised she needed to switch things up. Each year she uses her birthday to check in with herself and figure out her next steps in life, career and health to make sure she is on the right path to create a life she loves – and this is crucial in her achieving her yearly goals.
Here, Natalie shares her advice for creating a life you want to live in your 40s and beyond
Creating a life you want to live
1. Play pretend
“If you decide you want to quit your corporate job and become a Pilates teacher, go to a Pilates class and pretend you are instructing the session, try and embody the daydream.
© Shutterstock / BearFotos“If you want to pivot your career and be a chef, invite your friends round and create meals like you are a chef. Start trying to act like a chef and see how it feels. It’s the only way you can make an informed decision before leaping.
“Testing different things helps you to see if it gives you the feeling or the emotion you want.”
2. Coaching and therapy
“If you’ve got to 40 and haven’t had any therapy, I don’t know how you are surviving.
“I have had therapy and coaching and I always say you should do therapy before you need it.
© Shutterstock“Therapy is for the deeper questions, while coaching is for working out how you want to action what you’ve learned in therapy.
“If you’re struggling to find a professional to work with, ask people in your network if they’ve worked with anyone helpful. I would avoid Instagram coaches.”
3. Don’t compare
“I don’t have a partner or kids. Other than my two pups, there is no school run, there is no end of day pick up, nor do I have to do sports days and the like. I recognise that this gives me more time and more emotional capacity because I am not giving it to other people.
“I don’t believe in the ‘doing-it-all’ thing, and I don’t ever think balance is possible, just do what you can in the moment you are doing it.”
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4. Challenge yourself
“Be unapologetic about what you want to achieve. By midlife, you have all these years of tenure, you have earned the right to spend time investing in yourself.”
5. Look after yourself
“Look at your wellness and understand what is going on in your body, so you can do the work to look after yourself.
“As I’ve got older, I use my birthday as a reminder to book in for a full body wellness check to see where I am health-wise.”
6. Remember to have fun
“In my 30s, my friends would not have classed me as fun. I travelled a bit, but I was never fully present because I was always working.
“Now I like taking time to hang out on the beach in Hove with my friends, tunes in the background, beer in hand, making the time for fun.”
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