Ep. 45 Getting Married At 40 Was An Identity Shift (And Why This Podcast Is Getting A New Name)

What happens when you were really good at the life you had, and then it changes anyway? Nobody talks about this part of an identity shift. The better you were at the old version of you, the harder it is to let her go. Whether it’s a marriage, a divorce, a career you built your whole self around, or kids who don’t need you the same way anymore, the question underneath is the same: who am I now? In this episode, I tell the story of my own identity shift from proudly, professionally single to becoming a wife at 40. There was my soft, sunlit house, around a thousand first dates (one lasted five and a half minutes), a city every four years, and then a man who’d moved into his new house exactly one week before we met. I did it all backwards: the baby, a pandemic lockdown a month later, and then the wedding with a two-year-old in tow. It’s funny, it’s honest, and it’s the clearest example I have of what a midlife identity crisis actually feels like from the inside. In this episode: Why being great at an identity makes the shift harder, not easier What getting married later in life taught me about losing, and keeping, the old me Why you don’t have to evict the woman you were, and what to do with her instead Why this podcast has had three names, and the new one: Her Identity Shift What I’m building next: a network of women professionals supporting women through life’s biggest pivots If this episode found you in the middle of your own identity shift, I’d love to help you find the pattern underneath it. Book a free Pattern Discovery Call at lesleyturner.ca. Related episodes: Ep. 23 Bumble Dating & A Full Body No Ep. 35 The Good Girl Can’t Survive Past 40, Four Signs the Emotional Patterns Are Healing Ep. 44 What We Get Wrong About the Eldest Daughter, Part 2 Find me on Instagram @thelesleyturner. Book a Free 15-min Identity Shift Call Subscribe to the pod: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/730IxK6Le9bwgAwKQBbrfM?si=a649923b6d4f4a4b Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/her-identity-shift-nervous-system-regulation-somatic/id1896858957