Book excerpt: "Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love"

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In "Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love" (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster), National Public Radio health and science correspondent and "Sunday Morning" contributor Allison Aubrey writes about the steps Gen Xers may take to foster a sense of purpose as they enter this next stage of life.

Read the excerpt below, and don't miss Allison Aubrey's commentary on "CBS Sunday Morning" October 18!

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If you've been so busy taking care of others that you haven't had time for yourself, you're not alone. As a Gen X woman, I've spent decades in the trenches, toggling between kids and career. When I hit a midlife wall, I took a sabbatical from my day job. I called it a "curiosity tour," and I went in search of people making bold, heartfelt pivots. What I found made me excited for the future. These women showed me how much opportunity and adventure can still lie ahead.

One way to start a midlife reset is to make time to be creative. Creativity lets us express what's inside of us, and it can be a bridge to connection. Sometimes the nudge to begin comes from someone else's story.

"I used to be so delusional. I always imagined I could be more than I was, and eventually I grew and evolved into that person." —Lady Gaga

Every spring, I take a bluebell hike with my friends, when the purplish bell-shaped wildflowers temporarily blanket the woodlands along the Potomac River. Last year, Amy Wilton, a friend of a friend who happens to be a professional photographer, joined us. When the hike was over, as she scrolled through to share her images, it wasn't the bluebells I found engaging. "Wait, stop, go back," I said as she flitted through.

It was a portrait she'd taken in Maine that caught my eye, of a woman singing onstage. A picture can paint a thousand words, but this one painted one: transcendence. I had to know more.

I visited Kristi Kalajian in Camden, Maine, where she lives. Turns out, Kristi works as a PA, a physician assistant. Her part-time gig is as a singer in a band, a role she didn't seriously entertain until her fiftieth birthday.

Kristi has a lush and smoky voice and has always loved R&B. As her fiftieth birthday approached, that I need to sing feeling resurfaced. She made up a set list of her favorite songs and began practicing to get her voice back into shape. "I was so nervous," Kristi told me. She invited a bunch of people to the home of a friend, who had a gorgeous grand piano. The concert was a runaway success.

So, what next? She didn't want to stop. She really wanted to be in a band again. "Looking back, that was definitely the thing that was missing in my life," she says. But she lives in a small town and had two teenagers at the time, as well as her job that required long hours, so road shows were a nonstarter.

Maybe it was just a dream. Time passed. Then, she was invited to a New Year's celebration where the host asked everyone to make a vision board. Kristi had always considered this kind of thing to be hokey, but she went along anyway.