By Jane Firth and Erin Essenmacher

One of our favorite things is leading the Architect Your Next Chapter Course for Athena. We have the privilege of meeting so many accomplished women who are focused on applying the skills, wisdom, and experience they have gained through years of working and living, to understanding how they want to have impact in the next chapter of their lives. That drive is the “connective tissue” that runs through all Athena members: a desire to realize our purpose and channel it into meaningful work in the world. 

The women who join the course arrive with similar questions echoing within them: “What’s next?”, “What does it mean to live a good life at this unique stage in my journey?” “How do I connect what matters most to me to how I spend my time and how I support my family and community?”

For nearly all of them, there is some version of an inner critic saying “Why are you asking what you want to be when you grow up? You should know by now!”  But the truth is, we change and we grow. Your sense of who you were ten years ago looks different than who you are now – and what was of utmost importance to you then has most likely changed as well. You’re not the same person you were ten years ago because you have grown and evolved. This impacts where you now want to focus your time and energy. Our sense of purpose evolves as we do. While it can look slightly different for each person, we all share a need for fulfillment and a desire to live a life of meaning and purpose. The Japanese have a word for this: ikigai. It means “reason for being.” This is obviously important from an existential perspective…why am I here? But it equally applies to any significant thing we want to accomplish.

Sometimes we get so head’s down moving through our to-do list, or so focused on achieving something we’ve set our sights on that the goal can start to feel like the destination. We lose sight of that last and most critical piece: our fulfillment. The real reason we want the thing is not about the goal itself, it’s about how the goal makes us feel. Take, for example, a common ‘why’ behind much of what we do professionally: financial reward. There is nothing wrong with this as a motivator, as long as we don’t fall into the trap of making money for its own sake rather than  tapping into the deeper ‘why’ beneath. For instance, having money makes us feel safe and secure, it enables us to do things that provide joy or entertainment. It can make it easier to spend time with loved ones and enables us to support the people and causes we care about, which brings its own kind of fulfillment.

Here are some things we know for sure:

For most of us, our time is not our own. We are responsible, reliable professional women – we show up, we get things done, we lead, we manage, we meet deadlines, we juggle work and family responsibilities. With so many competing pressures, it’s easy to overlook our own need for space— to think, evaluate, empower and energize ourselves. 

We need a small but mighty respite from all that demands  our attention. We need time and space to take stock of our lives, our strengths, and our capabilities. To reawaken our sense of purpose and recognize the unique impact we’re capable of making. This is our moment to decide what the next chapter of our journey will hold — and what it no longer needs to include. 

It is important to remember that if A represents all that we currently devote and commit ourselves to – our time, our efforts and energy – and if B is the work within ourselves, time to reflect about all that is in A, time to think, time to recognize how we’ve evolved and decide what it needs to look like and feel like going forward, then something we know for sure after decades of coaching executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs, is that everything that is in A is richer, more aligned, more purposeful because we gave ourselves all that is available to us in B! Time to think for ourselves is not frivolous, it is a substantive necessity for women who give so much of themselves to their work, and to all that is important in their lives.

It’s important to remember this: if A represents everything we currently give ourselves to — our work, our commitments, our energy — and B represents the time we spend reflecting on it all — thinking, assessing how we’ve grown, and envisioning what we want life to look and feel like moving forward — then decades of coaching executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs have shown us one thing for certain: everything in A becomes richer, more aligned, and more purposeful when we give ourselves the gift of B.

In the Architect Your Next Chapter course we take women through a journey that helps connect the what, the why and the how:   

—> What you bring to the table in terms of your experience, skills, expertise, leadership style and point of view.

—>Why you want to have an impact – i.e. what are the bigger desires, values and vision–the connective tissue that should infuse and inform your work in the world, and 

—> How you connect these things to create a roadmap for the next chapter of your life. 

Understanding these three key elements is not just critical for a happier, more fulfilling life, it is essential to effectively direct your career on your own terms. This is true whether you want to take a bigger job, switch industries or fields, build a business, explore board service, or lean into philanthropy, investing, or volunteer work.

The bottom line: it’s worth investing the time and energy to explore your own deeper ‘why’ and how you want to spend, as Mary Oliver said, your one wild and precious life. Understand how you want to feel, what fulfillment looks like to you, and what you want to impact—whether that’s in your own life, in your community, or in the world more broadly.  This is not a luxury; it’s a smart career strategy. When you know what drives you, you stand on solid ground, better equipped to design the life you want and ready to act when opportunity comes your way.

This belief is our root “why” in creating Architect Your Next Chapter, a mastery level program that provides a generative, confidential environment to think and create; where your time belongs to you, where you step into your potential and uncover new insights about yourself. It’s a space shared with other remarkable women who are going through this process, a space where you take the helm of your life with fresh energy, wisdom, impact, and intention. Join us for an extraordinary experience and discover what is waiting in the wings for you as you Architect Your Next Chapter!