“It’s not easy being part of the advance team that is ushering in the new era of work and living. First is always hardest. First is before there are networks and pathways and role models. Before there are policies and ways to show us how to go forward. We’re in the middle of a seismic shift and we’re going to have to find bridgework to get us through.
Bridgework is what we do in the meantime. Bridgework is what we do when we’re trying to figure out what is next. Bridgework is also letting go of this notion that our worth and our value depend on our income and our titles and our jobs. Bridgework can be crazy or cool depending on how you were rolling when your personal financial crisis hit.
Bridgework doesn’t mean that we don’t want to build on our past careers. That we don’t want meaningful work. We do. Bridgework is what we do in the meantime while we’re figuring out what’s next.” ~ Elizabeth White, Ted Talk X
Themes:
- Get off your throne
- Small-up
- No more magical thinking. The normal we knew is over.
- Bridgework
- Being first is hard.
- Strategy, not failure: Do what you need to do to go another round.
- Need new way of thinking of what it means to be old in America.
- Support our dignity and independence.
