I turned 50 this year.
If I am lucky, I have lived half my life. So what will I do with the other half?
I took that question to Sanibel Island for my birthday. Shoes off, feet in the sand, a bucket of shells with my seven-year-old. I had been going full force for months, and I needed to hear myself think.
Here is what I heard. I teach AI. I build with it, I create with it, and I am excited by what it can do. I am also a person who loses days to a screen without noticing. The tug and pull is constant, and I am not sure I win more days than I lose. The answer to the second half was never to walk away from technology. It was to stop losing myself in it. When everything else falls away, what is left is what matters.
I do not know what the other half looks like yet. I am in a moment of transition, and I suspect I am not alone. Education has been turned upside down by AI and the current climate. It is a disruptive time for educators, and really for all of us. If I am honest, I am not sure what my next chapter looks like.
Are you?
The trap
I am a professor now, but I did not start there. I started as a career counselor, and I sat with thousands of people in moments of transition. Different jobs, different cities, the same look in their eyes. Today I spend my days teaching AI and digital media, and I see the same look in the people learning to work alongside it. Almost all of us fall into the same trap when the ground moves under our feet.
We try to outrun the uncertainty. One more email at night. One more scroll before bed. Another video we will not remember by morning. Dinner with the people we love while our minds are somewhere else entirely.
I call that The Presence Gap. Your body is at the table. Your attention is somewhere else. The wider that gap, the harder it is to hear what your life is trying to tell you. You cannot find your next chapter inside it, because the answer was never on the screen.
Irreplaceable
Industries will shift, AI will rewrite the work, and your job title can change in a day.
The people who love you will never get another you. If that circle feels small right now, it can grow. Every lifelong friend started as a stranger.
As you figure out your next chapter, do not ignore the relationships, or the inner purpose, where you remain irreplaceable. One you keep. One you build.
Heart, star
That is the rhythm I wrote about in Keep Shining. You do not need a five-year plan to get through a season of change. You need a rhythm between your inner life and your outer community.
Keep is the inner work. The heart. When you cannot see the whole staircase, start by closing The Presence Gap with yourself. Step away from the screen long enough to hear your own thoughts. Walk outside. Be kind to yourself for not having it figured out. Your job title may change and your industry will shift, yet your purpose belongs to you. No one can post that job.
Shining is the outer work. The star. When life feels disruptive, do not isolate behind a screen. Turn toward the people who would never replace you. Call your oldest friend. Make a new one. Fill a bucket with shells. Use AI to grow, and keep real human community at the center of your days.
Heart. Star. Heart. Star.
The book, and the talk
I wrote KEEP SHINING: Rediscovering Purpose and Connection in a Digital World for exactly this season. It is not a plan. It is a mirror, for anyone who feels a little scattered and wants their purpose back. If that is you, or someone you love, the book is here.
If you have already read it, a short review on Amazon would mean more than you know. It is how a small book finds the next person who needs it.
This is also what I speak about: AI, digital media, and how to innovate with purpose without losing the human part. If your team or organization is in a season of change and wants to adopt the new tools without losing itself in the process, send me a message. That conversation is one I would love to have.
The second half
We do not have to know what the next half of life looks like today. We just have to stay present enough to live it, grounded on the inside and connected to the people who matter most on the outside.
That is my plan. Are you in a season of transition, too? I would love to hear from you. Even a simple “yes” counts.
Keep shining,
Dr. Nancy Richmond is a professor at Florida International University's College of Business, where she co-chairs the AI Teaching Forum. She is the author of KEEP SHINING: Rediscovering Purpose and Connection in a Digital World.
