I Had It All and Then I Didn't: Dr. Susan Miele on Identity, Menopause, and Beginning Again

What happens when everything you built your identity around disappears in less than a year?Dr. Susan Miele was a Chief People Officer at a Fortune 500 company. She reached the C suite before 40, which had been her goal since she was a teenager. Her career was not just what she did. It was who she was. Then at 42, undiagnosed perimenopause began dismantling everything. Her performance. Her marriage. Her sense of self. She resigned without a plan, downsized her life, and then watched her new home burn to the ground twelve days after moving in.In less than twelve months she lost her career, her health, and her home.What followed was not a reinvention. It was a pause. And that pause became the foundation for her book, Paused: Redefining Identity When Our Story No Longer Holds Us.In this conversation we get into the story she wrote for herself at fourteen and lived into for decades, what perimenopause really looks like when it does not look like what anyone told you to expect, why she spent seven years trying to get back to who she was before she realized there was no going back, the three questions that anchor identity, who am I, how did I get here, and where am I going, what it means to try on possible selves like clothes in a dressing room, and why the struggle is the path.This episode also touches on menopause in the workplace and why less than twenty percent of US companies currently offer any menopausal benefits, even as fifty percent of their workforce will experience it.If you have ever defined yourself by what you do and wondered who you would be without it, this conversation is for you.Connect with Susan: Website: www.susanmiele.com Substack: https://susanannmiele.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-a-miele-phd/LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/paused-refections-on-identity-7318329934446276609/Susan A. Miele PhD Book: Paused: Redefining Identity When Our Story No Longer Holds Us, available wherever books are sold Want More?Grab your Human Design chart here: https://www.abeautifulfix.com/pages/hdchartWant to unpack it together? Book a 1:1 session here: https://www.abeautifulfix.com/products/discover-you-a-personalized-60-minute-human-design-readingSubscribe to A Beautiful Fix on Apple or SpotifyReady to feel more alive and aligned? Grab my free guide, Finding Your Beautiful Fix: Simple Shifts to Rediscovering Your Inner Power : https://www.abeautifulfix.com/pages/get-your-free-guide-finding-your-beautiful-fixSubscribe to Tracy’s weekly Sunday Love Note, Thought Gems, at abeautifulfix.com—your weekly reminder to pause, breathe, and choose your focus.Support the Show💕 Love this episode? Follow & leave a quick review—it helps others find A Beautiful Fix!💬 Join the conversation on Instagram & Facebook @ABeautifulFix or find me on LinkedIn: Tracy Hill. Have a thought to share? Reach me directly at abeautifulfix.com. 🎙️ Know someone who should be a guest?...