Bernie Borges:
Hello, my midlife friend. This is Bernie Borges, your host of the Midlife Fulfilled podcast. Hey. This is episode 147. A takeaway episode from episode 146, my conversation with Genefa Murphy, PhD. You You know, in takeaway episodes, you know the drill. I summarize key discussion points from the previous episode, and then I hone in on 1 key takeaway that I wanna emphasize. And then I issue you a challenge to consider on the topic.
Bernie Borges:
Now before I recap, 3 key discussion points from my conversation with Genefa Murphy on episode 146. I want to address what for some of you Might be a proverbial elephant in the room. Here’s what I mean. On episode 146 on my conversation with Genefa Murphy, It included a lot of information about the company that she works for as CMO, and that’s Udemy. And I want you to know that at the time of the recording and the release of this episode, I have no business relationship with Udemy. I was not compensated by Udemy for recording this episode. In fact, I willingly and gladly featured the conversation with Genefa because Udemy is a company that provides a valuable resource for lifelong learning. And, look, anytime I feature a business on the Midlife Fulfill Podcast who is not a paid sponsor.
Bernie Borges:
I do it because I believe that they have value to the listeners of the podcast. For that matter, when I choose to work with a paid sponsor, I do so because I likewise believe in their value to the listeners the midlife fulfilled podcast. Now the main difference though is that a paid sponsor spans several episodes versus a single episode such as my conversation with Geneva Murphy on episode 146. Case in point, if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that in 2023, the Inspire Leadership Initiative at the University of Notre Dame sponsored 5 episodes. And I was happy to partner with the Inspire Leadership Initiative because of the value of their encore education program for people over 40 who wanna thrive, and that’s my audience. People over 40 who wanna thrive. That’s you, my friend. So if you listen to episode 146 with Genefa Murphy, CMO of Udemy, and you thought about the fact that we fitness Udemy quite a bit, I want you to know that it’s because I believe that this is a company that offers a valuable service, and it’s relevant to the mission of the Midlife Fulfill podcast.
Bernie Borges:
Whether or not you choose to check them out, of course, that’s your decision. Alright. With all that said, I wanna summarize the key discussion points from my conversation with Genefa Murphy on episode 146, and then I’ll get to my one takeaway. So Discussion point number 1, the power of learning and skills development. Genefa highlights the trend of both the technical and personal skills development that she sees as well as validation of acquired skills through the badging process at Udemy. Now Udemy is supported by over 200,000 courses and more than 70,000 expert trainers that guides individuals on career aspirations. So the technical and the personal skills development and the validation is a powerful aspect of learning and skills development. Summary point number 2, the importance of lifelong learning.
Bernie Borges:
Genefa emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning. In fact, learning new skills, particularly in midlife, Not only opens up new opportunities, but it also provides confidence and as we discussed, a sense of fulfillment. And Udemy’s platform makes learning accessible to individuals as well as to organizations. And I even made the point that it’s very affordable to individuals. Summary point number 3, legacy focused. After many leadership roles in b to b companies with many achievements, Jennefa is finding so much fulfillment by impacting people’s lives through accessibility to learning. She even discussed one story as an example of 2 individuals who leveraged their Udemy powered learning to set up a new school in Rwanda. Naturally, Jennefa is very moved to have a part in this story.
Bernie Borges:
And this is where I wanna land for my takeaway about legacy focused. You know that I profess the 5 pillars of midlife to be health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. And you’ve heard me say if you’re a regular listener to the podcast that if you’re 80% fulfilled, you’re doing great. Well, that’s because if you’re adequately fulfilled in 4 of the 5 pillars, that’s 80%, and that’s pretty darn good. Genefa briefly mentioned that she experienced some health issues, and it gave her a reason to assess things in her life, including how she wants to channel her talents and her experience in her career. She had a long for career in b two b technology marketing, and we discussed that a little bit. And she said that when she was afforded the opportunity to be in a leadership role, a c level role at Udemy, where she could impact people’s lives through lifelong learning. She said she felt very fortunate.
Bernie Borges:
And if you remember when I said to Genefa that the most common theme that I see in the interviews that I conduct on the Midlife Fulfilled Podcast is a desire to achieve legacy fulfillment. And I said to Genefa that it appears to me that She is experiencing this as CMO at Udemy. What she said was, that’s exactly right. Now I want you to know that we had not discussed this point in advance. My comment was totally spontaneous to Genefa. And it’s usually the case with my guest interviews. I mean, we often have some planned talking points in advance, but they only serve to guide the conversation. Each guest conversation on the podcast is totally unscripted.
Bernie Borges:
And when Genefa validated my observation that she’s focused on her legacy fulfillment, It was like another data point for me. And you see, in the absence of formal research, anecdotes Such as guest interviews help inform the content that I plan and the priority of those topics. Again, in the absence of data, it appears to me that the further we get in our life, the older we get, The more experience we have, the more we value legacy fulfillment. And when you think about it, This is pretty logical. The older we get, the more we think about our mortality, and consequently, The more we think about our purpose in life, the impact that we have on either a cause or a place or a community or a group of people or just 1 person. Impact eventually becomes what we value the most. Let me repeat that. Impact eventually becomes what we value the most.
Bernie Borges:
As for me, I will openly share that legacy fulfillment is the pillar that I am most focused on at this stage of my life. In fact, I will share that my legacy fulfillment aspiration falls across 3 areas. Here they are. Number 1, My immediate family, namely my wife, my 2 adult children, their spouses, and my grandchildren. And incidentally, I don’t have any siblings, and my parents are both deceased. So that’s my immediate family. Number 2, I wanna reach more people through the Midlife Fulfill podcast. You know, the analytics tell me that the podcast currently reaches people in 70 countries, and that’s awesome.
Bernie Borges:
But I wanna reach as many people as I can, as many people as possible. And the 3rd area of legacy fulfillment for me is I wanna continue to impact an individual that I mentor. He’s in his late twenties, and we meet up over coffee periodically just to talk about life. And while I have a mentor, mentee relationship with him, I gotta tell you, I am blessed by this relationship because I learned from him too. And, look, I’m not ashamed to admit this. In fact, I am proud of that. On a side note, If you don’t have a mentee in your life that’s 20 or more years younger than you, try to find 1. Initially, You might think that the mentee is gonna be the beneficiary in the relationship, but don’t be surprised when you realize that you also benefit from the relationship.
Bernie Borges:
Anyway, here’s my challenge to you. My challenge to you is have you defined your legacy fulfillment goals? For example, I recently updated my affirmations and goals for 2024. Now this is an annual exercise science that I go through, where I handwrite my goals and affirmations. Now I make a distinction between goals and affirmations. I treat affirmations as positive statements of something that I want. I say each one out loud in the present tense. For example, here’s 1. I am accountable for all of my success and failures.
Bernie Borges:
That’s an example of an affirmation for me. Goals are things that I want to achieve, and they span across the 5 pillars of midlife. Now I don’t wanna get into the semantics between goals and affirmations here. Do it however it works for you. The important thing is that you do this exercise or an exercise like this, and that you review your aspirations and goals frequently so that you keep them top of mind and committed to them. So again, have you defined your legacy fulfillment goals? If you have, fantastic. And like I said, I encourage you to read them out loud every single day. I have to admit, sometimes I miss a day or 2, but for the most part, I read them out loud every day.
Bernie Borges:
Now if you’ve not done this yet, I hope that this episode has inspired you to do it. I wanna thank Genefa Murphy for joining me on episode 146 and for sharing her story with me and with you. And, hey, I wanna remind you that you can watch my video recording with Genefa Murphy on episode 146 on the Midlife Fulfilled YouTube channel. It’s linked up in the show notes page for this episode. Just scroll down to find it. My next guest episode features Tim Delaney. Tim shares a b f to a f story where he reveals something that came to him recently that’s an eyebrows raising revelation. Hey.
Bernie Borges:
If you’re a new listener, I invite you to hit the subscribe button on your podcast player so that you don’t miss this episode as well as future episodes. You know what time it is, my midlife friend? It’s that time when I remind you that if you’re 80% fulfilled like I shared earlier, You’re doing great. And if you wanna know how I know this, listen to episode 100 where I explain it. I’ll see you in episode 148. I’ll see you then.
