Ep. 14: How to Be a Late Bloomer

Published: March 12, 2021, 3 p.m.

The more I learn about late blooming, the more I think we're all late bloomers. Our society pushes us to achieve early, to all of our detriments. I can remember feeling like a late bloomer in my 20s, and I certainly feel like one now, in the midst of a career change in midlife! Really we should be embracing late blooming, or as I like to call it, repeat blooming. Life just feels so much better when you believe that it has more than one act. In this episode I talk about false beliefs we have about cognitive functioning and age, the challenges of trying to understand creativity, a key factor in late blooming, from a neuroscience perspective, and why what really holds us back is more psychological than cognitive. You'll hear how to push back against the arbitrary power of gatekeepers and naysayers, and how to deal with the critics in the cheap seats. I round it up with some tips on claiming sovereignty over your own potential, and how to stick it out when it takes so much longer to achieve your goals than you'd expected.  Let's hear it for potential at every age! 

You can find this episode's accompanying blog post here.

The Brené Brown Netflix special I refer to is here.

Find out more about Rich Karlgaard's book Late Bloomers.

Transcript