Spicy Midlife Women: Real Talk, Raw Truth, and Bold Moves for Women Over 40

21. Why You’re Not Too Old to Try Something Wild

• Jules and Michele: Midlife Mentors • Episode 21

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Who says midlife means slowing down? Jules and Michele are here to flip that script and prove that this season of life is the perfect time to shake things up, try something bold, and live fully on your own terms.

From skydiving at 50 to taking solo trips to St. Lucia, the Spicy Midlife Women are spilling real stories about stepping outside your comfort zone, ditching the fear of judgment, and embracing the thrill of new experiences — big or small.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

  •  Why midlife is a launchpad, not a limitation
  •  How to move past fear and perfectionism when trying something new
  •  Real talk about travel, dance classes, pole dancing, and living life out loud
  •  The mindset shift that turns “too old” into “just getting started”

If you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to do that, but…” this one’s for you. Because you’re not too old, it’s not too late, and the only deadline is the one you create.

Stay spicy. Stay bold. Stay unstoppable.

Are you ready to take your "spiciness" to the next level?!

Connect with Julee & Michele on Instagram @spicy_midlife_women and send a DM about what resonated most during this episode so they can encourage you with steps forward in your own life.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, hey, everyone, it's Jules and Michelle here, your two spicy midlife women from Seattle, Washington, the Emerald City, sharing our real life stories and having no BS conversations with all of you. Ain't that right, Michelle?

SPEAKER_00:

That is so right. Here to help all you midlife women redefine your relationships, ditch those toxic cycles, and reclaim your power one episode at a time. And that is what we're gonna do right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, ma'am, we are getting into it. We are gonna be talking to you guys today about why you're not too old to try something wildly new. And this is something that resonates certainly with me because I try new things all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

But what do you think, Michelle? I think that midlife is a perfect time to be trying some new things. Because why the hell not? I know. I'm with you on that completely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and there's so many things people out there probably have wanted to try, but they don't have the nerve to do it, or they're worried that they're gonna be really bad at it, whatever it is. Yeah. Have you ever done anything that's just kind of been out of character that you've gone, what the hell am I gonna try it? Okay, maybe I'll answer that question first because Michelle clearly has to think about it. Have to think about it. Let's think about when I tried to snowboard. Oh. I was like, you know what? I couldn't ski to save my life, but I'll be damned if I'm not gonna try to snowboard.

SPEAKER_00:

So this might be a good episode for me because I have to say I play it safe at this point in life. And this is one of the things we're gonna talk about. Right. Why we don't do some of the things that maybe we think about doing. Yeah. Yeah. Because if I snowboard it, I mean, I fall down just walking. So it hurt myself.

SPEAKER_02:

It hurt myself. No, it is that we're not gonna talk about what happened when I snowboarded. Okay, tore the meniscus in my knee and had surgery. But hey, at least I tried, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. So those are things that we're talking about, you guys. And it doesn't have to be something crazy like snowboarding, but it can be something really, really simple that you've really wanted to do for a long period of time. But yeah, what whatever reason you haven't, could it be, you know, the lack of time that you've had available to you or just the nerve to do something different?

SPEAKER_00:

I think sometimes for midlife, and of course we're talking to women because we are women, it's society's outdated narrative, right? That it's too late, yeah, versus the reality, and if you have the mindset of just getting started in this midlife, because you really are kind of heading into a whole new range of experiences if you want it to be that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think we need to look at midlife as something that's you know more of a powerful pivotal point in our lives versus something that is not looked at as a decline. And it's funny that we're talking about this episode tonight because I was at the gym today and I'm kickboxing, right? And I'm kickboxing at the gym and I'm not loving it today. You're badass, Jules. No, I'm really not a badass.

SPEAKER_00:

You are because I can't even think about kickboxing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it sounds a lot more hardcore than it is. I mean, it's really your effort level that you put into it. I mean, like the dude that was next to me, he's like jumping and like doing these roundhouse kicks and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

And I look at that- stop, stop. You're doing it though.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm totally doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

You're doing it though.

SPEAKER_01:

So, okay, get back to your story. Okay, but I'm thinking to myself, as I am punching this bag, right? Going, what if I stopped doing this now? Would this be something that I would come back to? And I I thought about that for a moment as I was in the middle of whatever round it was that I was in, and I thought, you know what, I can't stop this now because I probably wouldn't come back to it.

SPEAKER_00:

I was just gonna say, you would not go back to it. No. And I think about these things all the time. Like when I think about my mom, and of course she's 98 now, but I think about where did it start changing for her. Right. And I think about that with myself because I really want to be super intentionally aware of that, because I don't want things to start changing for me. But they are changing, they are changing.

SPEAKER_01:

I guess the whole thing we have to acknowledge is that they're changing, but are we allowing that to change at the magnitude or to the degree that we want them to?

SPEAKER_00:

Changing, meaning what you just talked about, though. Like if you stopped this, yeah, because because some women are gonna stop it, they're not gonna do stuff. They won't go back to it, and they won't go back to it to your point. And then by the time they think about it again, they're gonna go, oh, I can't do that. I'm too old. Yeah, exactly. And that's what I'm talking about when I say that. Where does it start changing? So it's the mindset in certain situations, I think, that you have to be super aware of, right?

SPEAKER_01:

So, real talk though, Michelle, the only deadline that we have is the one that we place upon ourselves. This is true. And we're putting those societal expectations on us about things that you know, we say, Oh gosh, we can't do that because we're too old or whatever. I mean, I remember this is gonna sound crazy, but I think I was 35. I just had my youngest, right? I wanted to take hip hop dancing classes so bad. I really did because it looked like so much fun. And so I showed up at this dancing hip-hop class. I was 35, here's old, and I felt so freaking old. And of course, I was completely uncoordinated, but at least I tried.

SPEAKER_00:

Who cares though? I don't. This is actually a great topic because Julie is really great at experiences and doing things that maybe would have judgment placed around them and things like that. She does them anyways. I've done some of those things with her, go like going to an ice cube concert, going to a Snoop Dogg concert. And those things for women our age, I mean, yeah, you're you're like, eh, I went to Snoop Dogg, and then people are looking at you like really.

SPEAKER_01:

Why are you going to I posted my guy, right? I posted Tupac on my story the other day because it was the 25th anniversary of his death. Yeah. And my son, my oldest, yeah, who lives in Texas, I say no more. He's like, Mom, what's up with that? Why are you posting Tupac? I'm like, you know what? You need to knock it off. Just knock that shit off. Yeah. And he kind of laughs because they totally know me. It's just, you know, one of those things.

SPEAKER_00:

But anyway. But I think that's one thing talking about that, bringing to the forefront that there is that fear of failure or judgment in the cases that we were just talking about that I think stops some of us from doing some of those things or having some of those experiences. Or they're like growing up in like a good girl. You and I both were somewhat, you're Catholic, you were Mormon. But when you grow up in that environment and you have those expectations put upon you, there's that perfectionism component that comes into play, also as far as the way you do things or how you're doing them and why you're doing them, and just those things that can poke at you and cause you to second guess yourself, right? Yeah. Like, who am I to think that I can be doing this?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and it's like that's the thing because there's people around you that are looking at you like, why are you doing that?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I I I was just telling Julie as we were talking about this. There's a woman we both know. I think she maybe just turned 50, totally went and did skydiving. Yeah. And just like seeing that, I think she did it with her daughter. And I mean, like, I don't think I'm badass like that. I totally did that when I turned 50. This is what I'm saying. Julie is the great one for stuff like this. But here's the thing, Michelle.

SPEAKER_01:

If we do not live, then what's the point? Yeah. And that's my logic behind a lot of this stuff. Okay, so I could jump out of a plane and there the parachute might not open, and that's the end of my story. But you know what? It's a pretty good end if that happened.

SPEAKER_00:

So was was that like did I mean, like, you know, I'm thinking of that Kmart commercial. I just ship my pants.

SPEAKER_02:

No, was I scared to death? Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Were you you know, it's funny because I was not at all. And Andrew, my oldest, went with me. I was perfectly fine with it. And I think it was like, oh yeah, I'm totally gonna go jump out of a plane until I got in the plane. And then I was the very first one, and you're going tandem, right? With you have someone who you're with, it's an expert.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was the very first one in the plane, which means I was the very last one out, and everybody else there were, I think there were eight other people or something that had were getting out before I did.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01:

And I remember getting to the very edge of the plane, going, Holy shit, what the fuck am I doing? Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, Let's go. And I jumped out of the damn plane. And I for probably a hot second, it felt like a long time, but it really wasn't. I was like, I'm gonna die. This is the end of my life. And then I realized that I wasn't gonna die, and it was the most exhilarating experience ever. Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

That's pretty, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I really want to bungee jump. That's kind of my next thing. I don't, I just I don't know. But she wants to watch me bungee jump.

SPEAKER_00:

But you're not too old to try something wildly new, which is what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

So there was a woman that was on the same plane that I was on that was, I think, 87 years old, that jumped tandem with someone else. She'd never done it before. And I was like, what a fucking badass that woman was. I will never forget her. Wow. And she didn't seem like she was scared. I didn't see what her face looked like when she jumped out. But at the same time, it was like, I'm all about here's here's how I feel about life, you guys. Experiences versus things. I like things too. Let's just establish that. But she totally likes things. I like things, but experiences are so critical because they make up who you are, and whether it is a concert, which I'm obviously big into music, or whether it's a trip, or whether it's an activity or event, or you know, you decide you want to hike or you want to do a half marathon or whatever the case may be, it's like there's nothing stopping you but you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that is it.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you live your life in a really complacent way, it's kind of like existing. And that's the scariest thing to me is to exist and not to live.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and I think doing something wildly new, yes, it can be out of your comfort zone, but it doesn't mean that you're out of your mind. No, right? It doesn't have to mean that. It could be something, and again, I mean, going through this episode, Julie, like you do all the things. Not not all of them. I have I have done things. Do a lot of these things and really props to you because thank you. Well, because when I say not out of your comfort zone, it doesn't mean that it has to be out of your mind. Things like learning a new language. So I know last year Julie's like, she starts doing this thing and she's like learning Spanish because she wants to go on a trip where she can speak Spanish and she's doing that. It can be something like learning a new language, like that, launching a new business. It can be, it doesn't have to mean that it's like this whole thing, it can be some kind of side hustle business. Or it can be a podcast that you do, or it could be a podcast like spicy midlife women, yeah, moving to somewhere new, which Michelle will probably do that before I do, right? It could be taking up pole dancing, learning how to belly dance. And Julie has done that too, not belly dance, she's done pole dancing. Yeah, my daughters-in-law did that pole dancing, and so fun. And you're doing other kind of dancing right now, too. And that's why I say you kind of got the niche on this.

SPEAKER_01:

I got the niche, but I'm getting my girl Michelle out of her little comfort zone because I swear to God, she looks at me, you guys, and she's just like, really? And I'm like, Yeah, really, let's do it, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I love it at the same time. I'm always the cautious one, but she brings me right through and I'm thankful for it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I guess you guys all out there have your friends, like your very, very close bestie friends that you probably do things with. I know Michelle and I do a lot of those things together. I have another friend, Mary, and is like, whenever I'm down for something, she's like, I'm in. She doesn't even, she doesn't even hesitate. She's just like, I'm in. Yeah. You know, and I always know she's got my back too. Like the two of you, you don't try to talk me out of anything, which I appreciate.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's put our hands up in that convertible, man. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Put your hands up in the air and wave them like you just don't care. Yeah, something like that. The roof. The roof is on fire. Oh. So anyway, let's get back to this. So midlife. I think sometimes we are in a place where when we get to where we want to be, all of a sudden the clarity kicks in, the confidence comes with it, and you're just at that zero fucks place. And I feel like there's topics I certainly am there with, but not every topic. And I think everything that we look at is kind of a learning. Like, for example, when we're talking about trying something new, I was telling Michelle that, you know what, I'm not gonna wait around for everybody to decide that they want to travel. And I've been very unnerved by the idea of traveling on my own because it's nothing I've ever really thought about. I've always thought about, oh, I want to have someone to share this experience with. I want to go and da-da-da-da-da, and have my friend with me or have someone with me. And I realized that I'm missing out on so many different things if I'm just kind of waiting around for life to happen. Yeah. So I decided what the fuck? I'm totally going.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And so I started like, I think we talked about this on a couple of episodes ago, where I had joined some Facebook groups that were travel groups. Some of them are co-eds, some of them are female travel groups. I just joined a few of them just to kind of see what was going on. I could not believe how many women are traveling alone or traveling solo, I should say, and they're meeting up with other people or they're going to a retreat, a lot of like yoga retreats and stuff that are out there for women. I love that. Yeah. So I just said, what the hell? I picked kind of a time frame that I was thinking about going somewhere, and I'm all about sand and sun and a margarita. Forget the margarita. And I picked St. Lucia. Yeah. And I'm going to St. Lucia. So excited that you're doing that. I know it's a journey to get there. Yeah. But now I've got the travel bug like crazy. It's like I still want to go to Costa Rica. I'm still planning that for next year. And there's a few other places that I'm wanting to go, but are going to be like longer, like weekends, like you know, big weekend trips or whatever. But I'm all about it. I'm like, I don't really care. It's like I can be social, I can meet people, I can talk to people. And if my friends want to go, great. If they don't want to go, great. I'm just going to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it and it's not like you're throwing caution to the wind. I mean, in a way, you're throwing caution to the wind, but you know, you're doing that in just following your gut and what you want to do and not letting anything hold you back.

SPEAKER_01:

And can you imagine the experiences that I'm going to come from with? Yeah, I can't. If I do this right. Yeah. There might be some really good experiences that I come home with, you know, and I can share them with all of you when I do, well, most of them anyway, yeah. When I come back, because I would not have had those if I'd stayed home or said, nah, I'm not going to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

And you don't need anyone's permission but your own. Right. Right. And money. You need money. I mean, there's that too. Yeah. Yeah. Or a credit card. There's that. Yeah. But I think too, some of these things that we're talking about, it doesn't have to be this big five-year plan to try and do something. Right. It doesn't have to be this huge thing. It can be just tiny steps that you do. And making decisions, even in regard to the kind of people that you're surrounding yourself with. Yeah. Right. People that have an expanded mindset like that, like you're talking about. And you're going to be surrounding yourself with women you don't even know that are choosing to step out and do those same kinds of things. Who knows what other opportunities will come into play when you do that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_01:

I know. Well, we're all in a group chat now. Yeah. And we're all talking to each other. And yeah, it's been, and I haven't even met these women yet. And they're from all over the world. That's so I know. Cool. I'm really excited. I'm really excited about it. So yeah, a lot of it, you guys, is surrounding yourself with people who are as big a believer in your journey as you are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, that are encouraging you to do the things that are gonna bring you joy.

SPEAKER_00:

And if you're just starting to do stuff like that, embrace that. Embrace being a beginner at some of these things in midlife. Embrace being a beginner who is taking a dance class. Embrace being a beginner who is even thinking about travel, whether it's just doing research or looking into it and figuring out the steps you need to take to be able to make that come to fruition. Just embrace it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And we have our community that we are putting together. And you probably heard a little something at the very beginning of the episode talking about wanting to get your feedback on what you guys would like to see included in this community. But my little brain is telling me that by this time, probably next year, we'll probably have something together where we all can meet up and have some really amazing experiences together. More to come, obviously, on that. But I'm really excited about the women that we are embracing, really. I don't know any of you guys. Well, I know some of you maybe, but I don't know a lot of you. Like I was telling Michelle today, is like we're in 700 and some odd cities in so many different countries now with people listening. And it's just the coolest thing to know there's someone in Switzerland who's actually listening to what we're talking about. There's someone in the UK, there's someone in Indonesia. I just think it's amazing that we have this opportunity to connect.

SPEAKER_00:

And we have the thing in common is we are in midlife. Yep. And we are experienced a lot of the same things. We've been through a lot of the same experiences, and we are navigating this really together. So the community that we have is super exciting because it's going to be a group of like-minded women that can share all of that with and grow and learn and navigate through this time of life together and come up with new ideas and new experiences and share them with one another. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And any questions you guys have, I'm sure there'll be lots of room for that too. Like really deep and dark and dirty, dirty questions, right?

SPEAKER_00:

That's where the spiciness comes in, right? I know. There's nothing wrong with being spicy. There's nothing wrong with it at all.

SPEAKER_01:

Bring your friends into the spicy fold. You know, if you're the spicy one, bring them in. So anyway, it's all about something that we want you guys to try in maybe the next week or the next month or something like that. What is going to bring you joy that's something you have not done before that you've been trying to do, whatever it is? It could be something major, it could be something not so major, but it's something you've been thinking about but haven't had the nerve to do. Give it a try.

SPEAKER_00:

Even if it's just writing it down. Yeah. Even if it's just thinking about it and writing it down, that is more than you have done to this point. Yeah. Or talk to your bestie about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because your bestie's going to encourage you, right? Yeah. Your husband's going to encourage you. Your wife is going to encourage you. Whoever you have in your life is going to encourage you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So those are the people that are going to help you kind of live that best life that you're really striving towards. Cause it's my only thing that I always say is like, we only get one, right? Yeah. So enough of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we are out on all the socials. So just want to direct you there to Facebook or Instagram. And we appreciate the downloads we are getting on whatever the podcast platform is that you prefer. And we thank you for listening. We're excited about our spicy midlife women community. And if you enjoy us, please tell your friends about it. Share it. Like us, follow us. And until next time, ladies, stay spicy. Stay spicy. Yep. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next week. All right. Bye. Bye.