Living Your Midlife Reinvention: From Beta Test to Published Story
You have the framework. You have the tools. Now comes the hard part: actually living it.
The new you is ready to debut.
You understand that your self is a story you craft, not a thing you discover.
You know which parts are fixed (biogenic) and which are flexible (sociogenic and idiogenic).
You’ve decided whether you need a remaster or a remix.
You’ve identified your genre and designed Performance Personas for specific contexts.
You have the framework. You have the tools. Now comes the hard part: actually living it.
This is where most people stall. That’s because knowing what to do and actually doing it are separated by discomfort, uncertainty, and the very real challenge of existing in two versions of yourself simultaneously.
This final article in the Midlife Identity Remix series addresses the execution gap.
How to test your new story safely.
How to live between drafts while you’re building the new version.
What to cut from your old story.
How to go public with your rewrite.
And how to keep iterating, because you’re never really “done.”
You’re not discovering who you are, you’re authoring who you become. And like any good writer, you need to test your draft, get feedback, make cuts, publish, and then — most importantly — keep revising.
Let’s explore how to actually do that.
Part 1: Beta Testing Your Remix
Software companies don’t launch products without beta testing. Writers don’t publish first drafts. Athletes don’t debut new techniques in championship games.
You shouldn’t go all-in on your reinvention without testing it first.
Beta testing means trying your revised narrative and your Performance Persona in low-stakes environments before high-stakes deployment.
This isn’t about hiding or playing it safe; it’s about gathering data. Does this version of you energize or deplete you? Does it feel authentic-amplified or forced? What works, and what needs adjustment?
Start with Your Performance Persona
Your Performance Persona(s) are the easiest place to start beta testing because they’re bounded by design.
For Platform You:
Test at a small local meetup before a major conference
Record practice videos before going live
Present to friendly audiences first
Start with 20-minute talks before 45-minute keynotes
For Closer You:
Practice pricing conversations with peers
Test your proposal language on low-stakes opportunities
Try your “sit with silence” technique in casual settings
Rehearse your value statements until they feel natural
For Deep Work You:
Block two-hour sessions before attempting full days
Test different locations to find what works
Try various triggers to see what activates focus
Measure actual output, not just time spent
For Connector You:
Attend smaller networking events first
Set a two-hour time limit and honor it
Test your opening lines on friendly strangers
Practice exiting conversations gracefully
Read Your Own Response
The key to beta testing isn’t external validation — it’s internal calibration.
A 2018 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people could distinguish between “true self” behaviors and “merely pleasant” behaviors by how energized versus depleted they felt afterward.
So after you deploy a Performance Persona or try a new aspect of your revised story, ask yourself:
Did this energize or deplete me?
If it energizes you (even if it was challenging), you’re on the right track. That’s authentic-amplified work, which is you operating in alignment with your genre while stretching strategically.
If it depletes you completely, something’s wrong. You might be:
Operating too far outside your genre
Missing the recovery component
Performing someone else’s story, not your own
Using chronic free traits instead of bounded ones
Your body knows the difference between aligned stretching and misaligned forcing. Trust that internally-generated data.
Iterate Without Compromising Vision
Beta testing will reveal what needs adjustment. But here’s the trap: Don’t let feedback pull you back into the old story.
There are two kinds of iterations:
Type 1: Refinement within your vision
Adjusting how you express something
Finding better triggers
Optimizing recovery schedules
Improving execution while maintaining direction
Type 2: Abandonment of your vision
Going back to the old story because it’s more comfortable
Letting others pull you back to their expectations
Convincing yourself the discomfort means you’re wrong
Abandoning your genre to copy someone else’s
Type 1 is necessary. Type 2 is capitulation.
You’re looking for the Performance Persona that feels like turning up your volume, not changing the station. When you find it, you’ll know. It will feel challenging but right. Uncomfortable but energizing.
That’s your signal to keep going.
Part 2: Living Between Drafts
Here’s what no one tells you about reinvention:
For a while — maybe a long while — you’ll exist in two stories simultaneously. The old version hasn’t fully ended. The new version isn’t fully formed. You’re living between drafts.
This is the messy middle. And it’s supposed to feel weird.
The Dual-Identity Phase
If you’re building an expertise business while still employed, you’re literally operating two identities:
Corporate You: Shows up to meetings, delivers on projects, maintains professional relationships, operates within existing hierarchies.
Entrepreneur You: Builds after hours, tests business models, creates content, establishes your expertise platform.
Neither feels fully true yet. Corporate You knows you’re planning an exit. Entrepreneur You knows you’re not committed full-time yet.
This dissonance is normal, and it’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong. It’s a sign you’re doing it exactly right. You’re not being fake. You’re being strategic.
Corporate You has become a Performance Persona now. It’s a bounded character you deploy for a specific purpose (funding your transition) with recovery built in (your evening and weekend work on your business).
Why Discomfort Signals Progress, Not Failure
The space between stories is inherently uncomfortable. You’re giving up the relief of familiar patterns without yet having the comfort of established new ones.
Your brain will interpret this as danger. It will tell you to go back. It will tell you the old story was fine. It will convince you that discomfort means you’re on the wrong path.
Eons ago, your brain would have been right. But in today’s world, your brain is wrong.
Research from the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that identity transitions create temporary cognitive dissonance that feels threatening to self-concept. But people who push through this dissonance end up with more complex, resilient identities than those who retreat to familiar patterns.
Discomfort in the messy middle is like muscle soreness after a workout. It’s not injury, it’s adaptation. Your identity is literally restructuring, so of course it feels strange.
The discomfort is the work. The weird feeling is growth.
Managing the Transition
Set a timeline: “I’m building my business for 18 months while employed, then transitioning full-time.” The timeline makes the dual identity temporary and purposeful, not permanent and confusing.
Use different spaces: Work on your business in different physical locations than your corporate work. Train your brain that “this desk = Corporate You, that coffee shop = Entrepreneur You.”
Honor both identities: Don’t phone it in at your job just because you’re planning to leave. Corporate You deserves to perform well. That’s integrity, not divided loyalty.
Build your recovery rituals: The transition between identities needs its own recovery time. After corporate work, take 30 minutes before switching to business work. Create separation.
Tell the truth (selectively): You don’t owe everyone your full story. But confide in trusted people who can support both versions of you during the transition.
Part 3: What to Cut from Your Story
Living between drafts reveals what needs to be eliminated. Some elements of your old story can’t coexist with your new one.
This is the editing phase. And editing requires courage because cutting familiar elements feels like loss, even when those elements are draining you.
Chronic Free Trait Performances that Can’t Be Sustained
Remember: Free traits work when they’re bounded and recoverable. They fail when they become chronic.
Review your current obligations:
Which activities require you to act against your genre constantly, with no recovery built in?
For introverts:
Daily social obligations with no alone time
Jobs requiring constant performance with no downtime
Relationships that demand perpetual availability
Commitments that prevent recovery
For extroverts:
Isolation-heavy work with no collaboration
Schedules that prevent human interaction
Roles that require excessive solo work
Environments that limit connection
If you can’t modify these to be bounded and recoverable, you need to cut them. Not immediately — remember, you’re living between drafts — but strategically and deliberately.
Relationships that Reinforce Old Programming
Some relationships are built entirely on your old story. They exist because of who you were performing, not who you actually are.
The diagnostic questions:
Does this person encourage your alignment or your conformity?
When you talk about your reinvention, do they respond with curiosity or with “I liked the old you”?
Do they want you to grow, or do they want you to stay the same because your stasis serves them?
These relationships might need to be:
Ended: If they’re actively sabotaging your growth
Modified: If they can evolve to support the new story
Limited: If they’re not harmful but not helpful
This doesn’t mean abandoning everyone who knew you before. It means being honest about which relationships are built on your authentic genre versus your performed sociogenic traits.
The people who love your actual genre will adjust. The people who loved your previous performance will resist.
Activities Misaligned with Your Genre
You have limited time and energy. Your new story requires both, so here’s how to maximize them.
Audit your current activities:
Which ones align with your genre? Which ones fight it?
Which ones serve your personal projects (idiogenic)? Which ones serve someone else’s expectations (sociogenic)?
Which ones energize you? Which ones deplete you?
Cut or minimize:
Networking events that drain introverts (unless they’re Strategic Connector Persona deployment)
Committee memberships you joined out of obligation
Volunteer work that conflicts with your actual values
Social activities you attend only because “people like us do this”
Professional associations that no longer serve your direction
This is not selfishness. This is resource allocation.
You’re reallocating time and energy from misaligned activities to aligned ones. From chronic performances to strategic ones. From the committee’s story to your own.
When You Can’t Cut Just Yet: Restorative Niches
Sometimes you can’t eliminate misaligned elements immediately. You’re still employed in a role that fights your genre. You’re still in relationships that expect the old performance. You’re still managing obligations you can’t yet delegate or shed.
That’s when Dr. Brian Little’s solution becomes essential: Restorative niches.
A restorative niche is a physical, temporal, or social space where you can drop the performance and return to your genre.
Physical niches:
Your home office where you work on your business
A specific coffee shop where you write
A particular room where you decompress after performances
Nature spaces where you restore energy
Temporal niches:
The hour before anyone else is awake
Weekends dedicated to your business
The 30 minutes after work before family obligations
Blocked calendar time marked “unavailable”
Social niches:
Friends who know and support your actual story
Online communities aligned with your values
Mentors who encourage your genre
Spaces where you don’t have to perform the old identity
Restorative niches don’t replace cutting what needs to be cut. But they make the transition survivable while you’re still living between drafts.
Part 4: Publishing Your Remix
Eventually, you need to go public with your rewrite.
“Going public” doesn’t mean a dramatic announcement. It simply means living your new story openly instead of testing it quietly. It also means deploying your Performance Personas when you choose, not when others expect. And it means showing up as your remixed or remastered version without apology.
This is where you’ll face the most resistance. Because the people who benefited from your old story will want it back.
Handling “I Liked the Old You”
When you publish your rewrite, some people will resist.
They’ll say things like:
“You’ve changed.” (Accusation, not observation)
“I liked the old you better.”
“This doesn’t seem like you.”
“You’re not the person I knew.”
Here’s what they’re actually saying:
“I liked when you performed the story that made me comfortable. I liked when you prioritized my expectations over your alignment. I preferred when your identity served my needs.”
They’re mourning the loss of your old performance, not because it was better for you, but because it was better for them.
Your response (internal, not necessarily verbal):
“The old me was the committee’s draft. This is my rewrite. You’re welcome to read it or not. But I’m not going back to the old version just because you’re more comfortable with it.”
Strategic Performance Persona Deployment
Going public doesn’t mean being “on” all the time.
Your Performance Persona remains bounded and strategic. You choose when to deploy it (or them). You still return to your genre for recovery.
The difference now is that you’re not asking permission. You’re certainly not apologizing, and you’re not performing for anyone else’s comfort.
Platform You shows up when it serves your goals, not when others demand visibility
Closer You handles sales conversations on your terms, not theirs
Deep Work You protects focus time without guilt
Connector You networks strategically, not obligatorily
You’re the author now. You decide which character shows up in which scene.
Attracting People Who Resonate with Your Actual Story
Here’s the good part about publishing your rewrite.
You stop attracting people who wanted the performed version. You start attracting people who resonate with the authentic-amplified version.
In your business:
Clients who value your actual expertise, not your willingness to perform
Partners who align with your genre, not your sociogenic programming
Audiences who appreciate your real voice, not the committee’s version
In your life:
Relationships built on who you actually are, not who you were performing
Connections that energize instead of deplete
Communities aligned with your actual values
You don’t owe anyone the same story forever. The people who matter will adjust, and the people who don’t will leave. That’s not loss; that’s clarity.
Part 5: Keep Iterating
Here’s what you need to understand about your midlife reinvention:
This draft is better than the committee’s draft. But it’s not your final draft.
You’re not discovering a fixed self, because that doesn’t exist. You’re authoring an evolving self, and authorship is ongoing.
From Unconscious Narrative to Conscious Authorship
Before this series, you were probably living an unconscious narrative. The story was running you, because you were performing the committee’s script without realizing it was a script.
Now, you’re engaged in conscious authorship. You’re aware that your identity is constructed. You’re deliberately choosing what to amplify, what to minimize, what to keep, what to cut.
This awareness is permanent.
You can’t go back to believing your story is fixed.
You can’t unsee the fact that you’re the author.
You can’t unknow that your identity is narrative, not essence.
This is both freedom and responsibility. You’re free to keep revising, but you’re also responsible for what you write.
The Goal: Energized Alignment
You’re not aiming for perfection. You’re aiming for alignment.
The test: Does your current story energize you?
Not every moment, or even every day. But overall, directionally, are you moving toward a version of yourself that:
Honors your biogenic genre
Serves your actual values (idiogenic)
Uses Performance Personas strategically
Builds self-complexity and resilience
Feels authentically aligned and amplified, not performed or fake
If yes, you’re on track. Keep going.
If not, diagnose:
Are you still performing sociogenic expectations?
Are you operating too far outside your genre?
Are you using chronic free traits instead of bounded ones?
Are you copying someone else’s story instead of writing your own?
Then iterate. Adjust. Rewrite.
Permission for Ongoing Revision
You will outgrow this draft too.
Not because you did it wrong, but because you keep evolving. Your values will shift again, your context will change, and new opportunities will require new versions.
That’s supposed to happen.
The point isn’t to write one perfect story and live it forever. The point is to become conscious and skilled at rewriting as needed.
Five years from now, you’ll probably remix your remix. That’s not failure, it’s evolving expertise.
You’re getting better at authorship. Each draft teaches you more about your actual genre, your strategic performances, and your alignment.
What’s One Scene to Rewrite This Week?
Don’t try to rewrite your entire story this week. That’s overwhelming and unnecessary.
Pick one scene.
One Performance Persona to test. One chronic free trait performance to cut. One relationship to modify. One activity to eliminate. One restorative niche to create.
Just one.
Then next week, another one.
This is how reinvention actually happens: not in one dramatic transformation, but in accumulated small rewrites, consistently applied, over time.
You’re beta testing and living between drafts. You’re cutting what doesn’t serve you, going public strategically, and iterating continuously.
That’s conscious authorship. And that’s what midlife reinvention looks like.
Your Final Assignment: Choose Your First Rewrite
Step 1: Beta Test One Performance Persona
Which Performance Persona will you test this week?
In what low-stakes context?
What trigger will you use?
What recovery will you build in?
How will you measure energized vs. depleted?
Step 2: Identify One Element to Cut
What chronic free trait performance, misaligned relationship, or draining activity needs to be eliminated or modified?
What’s the timeline for cutting it?
What’s your plan for managing the transition?
What restorative niche will you use in the meantime?
Step 3: Define Your “Published” Story
What does going public with your rewrite look like?
Who needs to see the new version first?
What will you do when people resist?
How will you deploy Performance Personas strategically?
Step 4: Schedule Your Next Iteration
When will you review and revise again?
Monthly check-in on alignment?
Quarterly review of what’s working?
Annual assessment of bigger changes needed?
Step 5: Write Your First Scene
What’s one specific change you’ll make this week?
Be concrete. Be specific. Be realistic.
Not “become more confident.” But “test Platform You at Tuesday’s team meeting by speaking up first instead of deferring.”
Not “start my business.” But “write for 90 minutes every morning this week on my expertise framework.”
Not “be more authentic.” But “stop apologizing when I state my prices.”
One scene. This week. Written consciously.
The Story Continues
At the beginning of this series, you understood that midlife isn’t a crisis, it’s a plot twist.
From there, you’ve learned:
Your self is a story, not a discovery
Only one-third is fixed; the rest is flexible
You need either a remaster or a remix
You must write in your genre, not someone else’s
Performance Personas let you amplify strategically
Now you execute: test, cut, publish, iterate
The committee wrote your first draft. You’ve been revising it for the last several weeks, and now you’re publishing it.
Not because it’s perfect. But because it’s yours.
You’re no longer unconsciously performing someone else’s narrative. You’re consciously authoring your own.
That’s not the end of the work. That’s the beginning of the real work.
But you’re not reading someone else’s script anymore. You’re writing your own. One scene at a time. One Performance Persona at a time. One strategic choice at a time.
Your brain will try to pull you back to the old story. It will tell you the familiar version was safer. It will reward you with relief every time you back down from the new narrative.
Don’t listen. You know better now.
You know that your brain is operating on ancient software.
You know that familiarity isn’t the same as safety.
You know that the truly risky position is staying stuck in a story that no longer serves you.
The committee had its turn.
This is your turn.
Write well.
Keep going-
P.S. Ready to transform your expertise into location-independent income and upgrade your life at midlife? Further Premium gives you the complete roadmap, with business building instruction, financial planning advice, expat guidance, and more.
further: flashback
🎶 Beastie Boys - Gratitude, Check Your Head, 1992 🎶
Our kids have flown in to join us this week in Baja Sur, and we’re about to start a new tradition of Mexican Thanksgiving. No matter where you are in the world right now, remember it’s about gratitude… and that’s right. (YouTube)
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