The MAM (Middle Aged Man) Club

The Great Resignation has seen 1 in 4 workers look for new opportunities - what about a career makes us look elsewhere? And how should we think about making job changes? We speak to a former HR executive from Canada Post about his own path and his model, called the Trek. 

By convention, every January we face a decision around a plan for the year. A resolution. A target that we're going to set, perhaps share, and strive to achieve. This can produce great results and/or great stress. Let's talk this one over.

Relationships aren't easy at any age but given that both we, and our partners, change over time our middle-age relationships may be feeling some stress. COVID doesn't help. As always, you're not alone. We discuss some common themes and provide some approaches to working through (or out) of your challenges.

This may be a very good time to re-invent yourself. But what does that mean and how do you go about it? Re-invention doesn't have to be a full "makeover" it can be as simple as building a few good habits. We discuss the definition and approach to re-invention in this (relatively short) episode.

We take a look at mindfulness in context of what we're all going through and the vast benefits of this practice. Our special guest is Angela Scott who brings more than 20 years corporate training and post-secondary teaching experience to her role as a senior mindfulness instructor at her mindfulness studio (www.forestcitymindfulness.com). We address clinical benefits, the practice itself, warnings, and steps to begin.

So we're all at home...with kids. We chat with Jodi Miller (https://www.jodimillerpsych.com/), a resident child psychologist and psychotherapist, about how to best work with kids, how to structure home-schooling and how to stay healthy and happy. 

This likely to be part 1 of many on the topic. In this episode we seek to define what purpose is, why we need it, and how to go about starting to find yours. One of the suggested approaches is based on the concept that your individual personality is at the center of this journey. We've created a simple app, called Own My Life (http://ownmy.life/) to help identify your personality traits, give you some ideas on what those traits mean.References:Purpose in Life and Its Relationship to All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events - A Meta-Analysishttps://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2016/02000/Purpose_in_Life_and_Its_Relationship_to_All_Cause.2.aspxFred Silverstone : Finding Purpose in Lifehttps://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/finding-purpose-in-lifeDan Pink: Drivehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-driveDan Gilbert: Happinesshttps://blog.ted.com/ten-years-later-dan-gilbert-on-life-after-the-surprising-science-of-happiness/Daniel Kahneman: Thinking Fast and Slowhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slowSHRM: Job Satisfactionhttps://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/business-solutions/Documents/2015-job-satisfaction-and-engagement-report.pdfThe Search for Purpose in Life: An Exploration of Purpose, the Search Process, and Purpose Anxietyhttps://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/60/?utm_source=repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/60&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

Our first episode focuses on definition of mid-life, identification of a crisis, and ways to start thinking about it.  What are typical signs and symptoms? Why are these things happening now? How should I be thinking about this?   References:Triumphs of Experience https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15861579-triumphs-of-experience—the-men-of-the-harvard-grant-studyNeeds Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_theorySelf Determination Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory47.2 is the Low Point https://www.nber.org/papers/w26641