Every Decade Has A Story Worth Telling

There’s something I’ve been thinking about lately…

The most energized people I know aren’t the ones who have everything figured out.

They’re the ones who have something to be for — at every age and every stage.

I was reminded of this at a luncheon where I had the good fortune of sitting with two featured speakers: Diana Pierce and Ember Reichgott Junge.

Both accomplished. Both well-known. Both well into their eighth decade and moving like they’re just getting started.

Diana Pierce spent 32 years as a news anchor at KARE 11. Hall of Fame broadcaster. One half of the most beloved anchor duo in Twin Cities history.

When she retired in 2016, she could have coasted on a legendary career.

Instead she asked herself a familiar question: What’s next?

Today, Diana photographs flowers.

She writes Bloom With Me, a weekly newsletter that finds stories in petals and seasons and the quiet beauty of growing things.

And a container gardening book is on the way.

Same Gift. New Garden.

Ember Reichgott Junge became a Minnesota state senator at 29.

Served 18 years. Practiced law. Wrote an initial book that won a national award and was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court case last year.

Then she walked into a ballroom dance studio and found something she didn’t know she was looking for.

Her new book, The Dance of Resilience, published by Simon & Schuster this past January, makes a compelling case that partner dance should be covered by insurance as a preventative measure against dementia, depression, and Parkinson’s.

She is now actively touring and advocating for legislation.

Same Instinct For A Cause. New Dance Floor.

Sitting with these two women, I kept thinking: this is what it looks like when someone doesn’t abandon who they are. They just point it somewhere new.

Neither woman reinvented herself.

Diana is still a storyteller. Ember is still an advocate.

The form changed. The essence didn’t.

What I Keep Coming Back To:

Designing your next decade doesn’t require becoming someone else.

It doesn’t require a book deal or a legislative agenda or a second act that impresses anyone. It requires knowing who you are and finding something worth pointing that toward.

A caretaker pouring herself into the people she loves.  An explorer finally taking the trip. A mentor investing in the next generation.

A gardener. A dancer. A builder of something small and meaningful.

When I built the program Design Your Decade, it came from a feeling I couldn’t shake…

That I hadn’t come close to finishing the work of my one precious life.

I wanted a structure that helped people make steady progress toward their ‘next’, whatever that looked like for them.

What I’ve seen since is this: the people who feel most alive aren’t the ones who’ve figured everything out. They’re the ones who have something to be for.

Diana has her garden. Ember has her dance floor.

What’s yours?

Laurie

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