What does it mean to design a life that’s both impactful and true to who you are?
How do you navigate transitions—across careers, roles, and life stages—with grace, courage, and purpose?

Carol Lim, speaker, coach, and changemaker, shares her deeply personal journey from career civil servant to startup CXO, and now to a thriving portfolio career that multiplies impact across futures thinking, human-centered design, and serious play. Through reflection and reinvention, Carol explores 3 key ideas:

Reframing transitions as opportunities for inner and outer transformation
Redesigning career paths through experimentation, learning, and playful seriousness
Reimagining the future—of work, aging, and community—through intergenerational collaboration

Whether you’re navigating mid-career shifts or exploring what it means to live and lead meaningfully, this conversation offers a gentle yet powerful roadmap for what’s possible.

Listen & Subscribe

🎧 Spotify → [Link]
🎧 Apple Podcasts → [Link]
🎧 YouTube → [Link]

Key Takeaways

If you are navigating a career transition, exploring a portfolio path, or simply rethinking what a meaningful life looks like—this episode is filled with thoughtful reflections and practical wisdom.

1️⃣ Transformation Begins with Permission — Give yourself the space to explore, evolve, and reimagine what's possible.

2️⃣ Design Your Own Curriculum — Learning doesn't stop at school. Carol shows us how to craft a self-directed journey of growth.

3️⃣ Play is a Serious Tool — Play isn't just for children. It’s a powerful, human way to learn, connect, and create.

4️⃣ Futures Thinking is Participatory — The future isn’t built alone. Intergenerational conversations and inclusive design matter.

5️⃣ Travel Light to Go Far — Transformation often means letting go—of titles, assumptions, and what no longer serves.

1️⃣ Transformation Begins with Permission — But That Permission Has to Start with You

While many professionals dream of career reinvention, few actually pause long enough to reimagine their path. Carol shares how her turning point came from a visceral realisation about time—and a conscious decision to step away from full-time work. Her story reminds us that meaningful change often starts not with certainty, but with the courage to say, “I’m allowed to try something else.”

2️⃣ Designing Your Own Curriculum is Key — Especially in Times of Transition

Rather than wait for formal opportunities to upskill, Carol took learning into her own hands—signing up for global courses, seeking out mentors, and building new knowledge across time zones. In moments of transition, you don’t need a full roadmap. You just need to ask: what do I want to learn next, and how can I take one step toward it today?

3️⃣ Play Isn’t Just Fun — It’s a Pathway to Innovation and Belonging

In high-pressure, outcome-driven cultures, play can feel frivolous. But Carol argues the opposite: play unlocks imagination, deepens learning, and builds bridges across differences. Her work with Play 14 SG shows that safe, playful spaces often lead to serious breakthroughs. If you’ve been feeling stuck or disconnected, maybe the question to ask is: where am I allowed to play again?

4️⃣ The Future Isn’t a Forecast — It’s a Conversation We All Need to Join

Foresight isn’t just for policymakers or futurists—it’s for anyone thinking about what comes next. Carol’s experience at the Dubai Futures Forum, co-creating with youth and global leaders alike, reveals how the future is shaped through participation. If you care about what’s ahead, ask yourself: whose voices am I listening to—and who else needs to be in the room?

5️⃣ Letting Go is Part of the Work — Especially When Stepping into a New Identity

Career transitions aren’t just logistical—they’re deeply emotional. For Carol, leaving titles behind meant confronting questions of identity and self-worth. But she also discovered that what matters most—her values, her curiosity, her capacity to contribute—came with her. If you’re in between roles or rewriting your story, this is your gentle reminder: you’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from experience.

Tune in for a conversation that gently challenges conventional career paths and invites you to reimagine how we navigate transitions, design our futures, and build impact—on our own terms.

Connect with us:

🔗 Carol’s LinkedIn

🔗 My Working Title’s LinkedIn

📩 Subscribe for more episodes!

Tags:
#CareerTransitions #PortfolioCareer #FuturesThinking #PlayfulWork #TransformationJourney #IntergenerationalWisdom #DesignYourLife #HumanCenteredLeadership #ReimagineWork #WorkingIdentity

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