Written by: Joyce Hardie, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I left work on Friday, looking forward to the weekend the same as I usually did. Saturday was the usual cleaning and shopping, takeaway for dinner, a bottle of wine, and a relaxing night in front of the TV.
When I woke up on Sunday, I felt horrible, I couldn’t get out of bed and was convinced I had picked up a bug, and that was how it started! I was off work for a week before I went to see my doctor. She diagnosed a virus which, when combined with my fibromyalgia, had absolutely floored me.
It took weeks to get back on my feet, but when I did, I agreed with my boss that I would continue to work from home on the big project that I had been working on, with documents being sent to me at home and online calls it was working fine. Until the day I got a call from a third party I had worked with for a long time, “Are you ok?” he asked. I responded that I felt just the same and asked why. He told me that he had been called in by my company to be told that my doctor had insisted that I could no longer work as it was affecting my health. That was a lie, and there were many to follow,
By the time we went our different ways, I was so glad to be out of that company, especially when someone stole the collection that the staff had done for me was stolen along with the card and all the comments on it. How low can someone stoop?
That was the start of my annus horribilis. My father passed away while I was in Dubai. My husband dislocated his shoulder. The operation to fix it caused more damage than it fixed. My health continued to deteriorate, and my daughter left home to go to university. I was home alone with poor health and no job.
At the age of 54, with no other options, I set up my business doing the same kind of work as I had in the corporate world, without thinking about it, and it failed dismally. Yes, I did get some work, but it was sporadic, and there was much more money going out than was coming in. I then set up a writing business, doing freelance work, spending long hours for jobs I got paid very little for. My one glass of wine every other night turned to one every night, then two, and then three.
I tried to get help, but everyone out there was half my age and no life experience. I knew I needed help, and I just couldn’t find it! Eventually, an acquaintance, who for some reason I opened up to, was there to help me get back on track.
That was when I set up my writing business, but every now and then, I would wonder why there wasn’t any support for older women. As we get older, we have different kinds of issues; we lose our confidence, we lose our identity, we face menopause, the loss of elderly parents, facing an empty nest. So in 2019, I decided I would be there for those women, and The Reignited Woman was born. I spent 2019 brushing up on the things I had learned at University, became a Life coach, a Life Purpose coach, and an NLP Master practitioner, and in January 2020, I started my business.
I share my story to help the women understand that age is not a barrier and that they can achieve anything they want to, irrespective of their age. At the age of 60, I run two businesses, I am a Trustee of a local charity, a non-executive director for a local community development trust, and I volunteer. Age is only a number. It is not a predetermined lifestyle.
Joyce Hardie, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Joyce Hardie is a life coach working with women over 40 helping them find a new purpose and direction. Joyce was forced to give up work in the corporate world, where she worked in financial services, due to ill health. This led to a dark place in her life where she was unable to find a life coach who had enough life experience to help her. Having identified this gap in the market Joyce set up The Reignited Woman. She is a social science graduate, an NLP Master Practitioner and Life Purpose Coach and uses these skills plus her own techniques to help women with issues such as lack of confidence, overwhelm and anxiety. Her mission is to help 5000 women over 40.
