There’s a particular kind of woman who doesn’t just survive her own life; she rewrites it, deliberately, in her own handwriting. That’s the energy I felt reading Robin Colucci’s answers.
Robin calls this her “Third Act,” and you can feel the theatre in that phrase, because there’s nothing accidental about how she’s living it. At 52, she finally moved to the Connecticut shoreline she’d dreamed about since she was a little girl, a dream she’d postponed for decades, first for lack of money, then for her children, then for the quiet, invisible work of making sure her kids still had a father after divorce. She didn’t just move there. She kept going, and wrote, produced, and performed her own award-winning one-woman musical.
What struck me most was the line about narcissistic men. Not bitter, not guarded, just clear. Eighteen years single, and happier than she’s ever been with a man in the room. That’s not a woman who gave up on love. That’s a woman who finally trusts herself enough to know what she won’t tolerate again.
There’s a quiet rebellion running through her answers, in the boundary around weekends (”I shall not let others’ goals pull me off track from my own dreams”), in the gratitude practice that pulls her out of self-pity, in the flat refusal of the idea that anything is ever “too late.” This is a woman who has stopped asking permission.
Who are you, and what season of life are you in?
I'm Robin Colucci, and as I will turn 62 this year, I am in the season of life I like to call my "Third Act."
What surprised you most about your 50s?
What surprised me about my 50s was that, for me, it was the decade when I really stepped into my power and made some lifelong dreams come true. For example, I'd wanted to live on the Connecticut Shoreline since I was a little girl, but youth, lack of funds, or commitment to making sure my kids had a relationship with their dad after we divorced all added up to my putting off that dream. And at 52, I moved to CT, bought a house near the beach, and am living my dream! And I didn't stop there. I resurrected another childhood dream to write, produce, and perform my own original music.
One thing you’ve stopped doing (and you’re better for it):
I've stopped dating narcissistic men! My last relationship ended 18 years ago. And, so far, I have never been happier with a man in my life than I am right now without one. It doesn't mean I wouldn't consider another relationship, just no narcissists!
One thing you’re choosing instead:
I am choosing to focus my energy on my creativity. I wrote and performed an award-winning one-woman musical comedy at the United Solo Festival in NYC last year. I am also travelling more and enjoying time at home with my family. And loving my work!
One boundary you now honour, no apology:
Weekends are for me to relax, recuperate, and do whatever I want, including being a slug sometimes.
One micro-decision that changed everything:
I shall not let others' goals pull me off track from my own dreams.
One practice that keeps you steady:
Gratitude. Reminding myself of all the blessings in my life lifts me from anxiety or feeling sorry for myself when things don't go my way.
One belief about midlife you no longer subscribe to:
That there's any such thing as "too late." As long as I'm alive, there's time to give it a shot.
The best thing about being in your 50s:
Caring less about what other people think and focusing on how I see myself and discovering what I want
Complete this: At 50+, I am…
…a powerful, independent, happy, healthy, creative, joyful, playful, wealthy woman! And I am loved.
This week, I want women turning 50 to remember:
The best is yet to come!
My Note to My Future Self
What stays with me from Robin’s story isn’t the house by the shore or the musical, as wonderful as both are. It’s the patience underneath them. She carried those dreams for decades, through marriage, divorce, raising children, building a life around everyone else’s needs, and never let them die. She just waited for her own season.
That’s a different kind of strength from the one we usually praise in midlife. Not reinvention as urgency, not some race to become someone new before it’s “too late,” but reinvention as faithfulness to a self she never stopped being, even when life asked her to set that self aside for a while.
And then there’s the boundary with men. I think a lot of us quietly understand that one. The relief of choosing peace over chemistry, solitude over settling, your own company over a man who makes you smaller.
If you’re following along this week
My Stop: What dream have I postponed so long I’ve stopped admitting I still want it?
My Start: Where could I bring more creativity back into my life, on no one’s schedule but my own?
My Boundary: What kind of person or pattern am I no longer available for?
My Micro-decision: Whose goals have I let pull me off track from my own?
My Practice: What’s my version of gratitude — the thing that lifts me when self-pity creeps in?
Journal prompt: If I trusted, the way Robin does, that there’s no such thing as “too late,” what would I finally let myself begin?
85 Weeks to Fifty is a series born from one woman walking herself towards fifty in the company of other women’s wisdom. If their stories are landing, if you’re finding yourself in their honesty, there is a space where this conversation continues, week by week, not just in interviews but in the deeper, more personal work of actually living this season differently.
The Midlife Circle is that space. Bi-weekly essays and The Midlife Edit, a private podcast, a Starter Library of tools, and a monthly personal video from me, from £19/month or £149/year.
And if you’re ready for the deepest layer- audio training, The Midlife Reset course, and four quarterly 1:1 calls with me- the Midlife Inner Circle is £297/year.
You don’t have to walk towards fifty alone. Come and do it properly.