On today’s podcast we are talking about midlife with my guest Rita Coburn – a Peabody and Emmy Award-Winning director, writer and producer and founder of RCW Media Productions.
Rita co-directed And Still I Rise, a documentary about Maya Angelou’s life. Rita didn’t just make the documentary, she lived it – as Maya Angelou’s XM Radio producer. Maya Angelou was Rita’s mentor – like for real! Like in real life. So when it comes to life, midlife or any stage of life, Rita is my go-to woman for wisdom. She is the woman who makes me think the hardest and laugh the loudest.
This episode is filled with nuggets of Rita inspiration and motivation like “On the road to what you want you get to get rid of a lot of don’t wants.” For me, midlife reminds me that the clock is ticking. There is no time to waste. We can’t wait on our dreams, we need to make them happen now. And we can’t waste time doing the things that don’t serve us.
Rita says “Time is the last commodity. It’s actually all we have.” And then in her very Rita way, she encourages us to “do some new stuff.” Rita picked up golf, I picked up standup comedy. What new stuff are you doing?
Rita and I have known each other for close to 30 years. We worked together at a talk show that wasn’t The Oprah Winfrey Show. After a 12 -15 hour day working together, we would call each other on our house phones when we got home and talk for another two hours! We never ran out of things to say, and we still don’t.
I hope our conversation inspires you to live your life more fully, to go after your dreams no matter what age you are, to call a girlfriend or guy friend who makes you laugh hard, to find a mentor and be a mentor and to be good to yourself.
