“The ultimate handbook for anyone wanting to be challenged, fulfilled and stay young in mind and body.”
Repotting Your Life: Reframe Your Thinking. Reset Your Purpose. Rejuvenate Yourself Time and Again
By Frances Edmonds
Elliott & Thompson / hardback / non-fiction / 13 May / £14.99
Do you feel stuck or stifled, but struggle to know what to do next? It’s time to ‘repot’ your life.
“What I learnt along my journey of repotting – a journey that would take me to a whole new country and an undertaking full of possibility and growth – offers, I hope, a useful new model for navigating the increasing number of transitions that we are all called upon to make throughout life in the modern world. And so my gift to anyone embarking on a new stage in life would be an understanding of how best to master the challenging and often daunting process of moving on and branching out. My gift would be proficiency in the art of repotting.”
In a world in which we’re living longer, and change is a necessary yet often uncomfortable process, Repotting Your Life offers a toolkit to revitalize your relationships, your passions or your career, whatever your age. It is for anyone who feels stuck or stifled, and is struggling to know what to do next.
There are four simple steps in the process of repotting:
Step 1 – Potbound: Know when you need to make a change.
Step 2 – Pots and Plans: Identify where you want to be. Understand what makes you feel fulfilled and matters most to you. Figure out a plan of action.
Step 3 – Pulling up the Roots: Prepare to end one phase of your life and commit to your repotted future.
Step 4 – Bedding In: Put down new roots and re-energize yourself for your next adventure.
With verve, wit and wisdom, Repotting for Life offers the motivation to set aside what is no longer working and the tools required to design a thriving life full of fresh possibility.
Frances Edmonds has had an extraordinary professional career full of transitions and transformation, latterly becoming a longevity and well-being fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute in 2018, where her concept of ‘repotting’ was born. She is an inspirational keynote speaker, a cross-generational mentor and helped create the UK’s most prestigious business development network. Previously an international conference interpreter at the European Union, United Nations and World Economic Summits, she is also a bestselling author and broadcaster
Feature ideas / talking points
Intergenerational education, teamwork and cross-mentorship: a new model for the future: Frances took up her research fellowship at the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford (the epicentre of California’s Silicon Valley, innovation and high-tech) in her mid-60s at the same time as her 30-year old daughter who’d left a lucrative career in investment banking and was studying at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Independently, they navigated the challenges of their own new beginnings. Together they helped forge a powerful inter-generational community that combined the energy of thrusting young students with the wisdom of experienced elders - a model for tomorrow’s innovative, flexible and highly effective blended teams.Ageism: We often talk about diversity and inclusivity – but these concepts rarely extend to “older” people who have enormous amounts of accumulated wisdom to share and are too often denied the appropriate opportunities. Reseach has demonstrated that in business a blended team of mixed ages achieves the best results.
Post Pandemic Priorities: The new work/life integration model: At a time of global change, more people than ever are being obliged to reassess their priorities. Even before the COVID pandemic, the classic 3-chapter model of Learn, Earn and Retire at 65 had become unrealistic for the vast majority of people. In a world of extended life expectancy, a new model of work/life integration is required that will involve constant oscillation in and out of work and in and out of continuous personal and professional development throughout a far longer life span.
The huge challenge is that society does not yet have the culture or the institutions to deal with the “30 extra gifted years” of life expectancy that a baby born today will have as compared to a baby born in 1900. What Mindset, Toolset and Skillset will be necessary to successfully navigate the expected “100 year life”?
How Frances conceived of the idea of ‘repotting’ whilst at Stanford: The plaque at the entrance to Stanford’s world famous Graduate School of Business: “Repotting - that’s how you get new bloom - you should have a plan of accomplishment and when that is achieved, you should be willing to start off again.” (Ernest Arbuckle – former Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business.)
Reframe Your Thinking: Techniques for dialing down the emotion, taking the heat out of negative thought patterns, and “turning the debacle into an earner.”
Reset Your Purpose: What happens when you lose your sense of purpose? The end of a relationship, an empty nest, a situation that’s no longer working… there are endless catalysts that precipitate loss of purpose. How do you identify and move on to the next organising principle in your life?
Rejuvenate Yourself Time and Again: “Repotting” is a process – and you are never, ever finished. It’s a journey, not a destination. It’s a system, not a goal. The better you understand the system, the more effectively you’ll be able to negotiate today’s increasingly frequent and radical changes.
Importance of wellness, purpose and community: The key pillars of a meaningful life well-lived.
For more information, please contact Emma Finnigan PR.
