I sat at my bureau this morning, my hands wrapped comfortably around a warm cup of masala chai, watching the autumn light move slowly across the room. There was a time — not so long ago — when I would sit in this exact spot carrying a quiet, unspoken fear that my biggest achievements were already behind me. That my life, in many ways, was winding down. Growing up within a traditional South Asian background, the unspoken cultural script often whispered that once a woman turned forty, her most vibrant chapters were finished.
It is a heavy thing to hold: that subtle, creeping dread that you have already peaked, and that the rest of your years will simply be an exercise in managing what you’ve already built.
Over the last fifteen years, I have launched and intentionally closed down multiple businesses. Each chapter, each attempt, broke me open in different, uncomfortable ways, leaving me wondering if I had somehow missed the boat while everyone else was sailing effortlessly ahead.
But the narrative we are fed about ageing — that there is some invisible expiration date on our dreams and our relevance — is entirely wrong.
At forty-seven, after decades of achievement and deep exhaustion, I relaunched my professional path. But this time, it was the right path: Midlife by Design and The Sattva Collective CIC. I didn’t launch them despite my age; I launched them because of it. Because of the growth, the scars, and the absolute clarity that only comes from lived experience. I finally realised that I didn’t need to compare my timeline to anyone else’s. That realisation became my quiet turning point — the exact moment I chose to stop performing for other people’s expectations and build something that felt wholly, undeniably mine.
The world whispers that we run out of time, but history tells an entirely different story. Vera Wang didn’t design her first collection until she was forty. Julia Child was forty-nine when her first cookbook was published. Arianna Huffington launched her defining digital platform at fifty-five, and Laura Ingalls Wilder published her very first book at sixty-five.
The decades you have lived are not dead weight. Every failure that taught you resilience, every skill you fought to master, every boundary you had to learn the hard way — that is not just “experience.”
It is compound wisdom.
It is the quiet, unshakeable power of knowing your worth, carrying knowledge that youth simply cannot buy, and using your past setbacks as the exact foundation for your next step.
We do not need to reinvent ourselves, as if the women we were before are broken vessels to be discarded. What we actually need is reclamation. The women who navigate this season successfully do not wait for permission, and they certainly do not wait for perfect timing. They use their accumulated wisdom as rocket fuel, stepping forward with intention and owning their story without apology.
Today, at forty-nine, I am holding the living proof of that clarity. Alongside my previous professional milestones over the last eighteen years, the last twenty-one months alone have brought me:
Contribution Award 2025, Centre of Excellence
Most Dedicated Female Health Coach 2025 – London, SME News UK Enterprise Awards
Women’s Life Coach of the Year 2025, London & Southeast England Prestige Awards
Midlife Lifestyle Design Coach of the Year 2026, SME News UK Enterprise Awards
Midlife Lifestyle Design Platform of the Year 2026, SME News UK Enterprise Awards
South Asian Women’s Midlife & Menopause Platform of the Year 2026 UK, Women’s Health Awards 2026
Most Empowering Midlife Lifestyle & Well-being Platform 2026, Women’s Health Awards 2026
Countless international and national media appearances
And most importantly, the birth of my book: ‘From “What Now?” to “Watch Me!”: Midlife by Design, Not by Default’ — which was released just six days ago.
If you are standing at your own midlife crossroads today, feeling the heavy weight of your years, know this: you do not have to write your next chapter by default. You have permission to pick up the pen, gather your wisdom, and curate a life that is entirely, beautifully yours.
Kiran x
You can discover more and order your copy of the book here.
