Eleanor was a high-flying businesswoman. Then her boss asked for a meeting.

Eleanor Mills had no idea she was about to get fired.

At 50, she was at the peak of her career at The Sunday Times in London — a demanding job she'd built her life and identity around for decades.

And then one day, she was asked to come up and have a chat with her new boss.

Just like that, it was over.

"I was suddenly made redundant out of the blue. It was a massive shock," she told Mamamia's MID, the podcast for midlife women who are anything but.

"It was one of those surreal moments, like being in a car crash, or when you realise someone is trying to break up with you."

In that moment, the world seemed to slow.

"I could hear these voices talking, and all I could see was a tugboat chugging slowly up the Thames and birds flying around the cathedral. It was as if I wasn't even there in my own life."

Listen to Eleanor's chat with MID host Holly Wainwright. Post continues below.

Everything Eleanor thought she was suddenly stopped.

"I really had that feeling of having been pushed off a roof, with no idea what I was going to do next," she recalled.

"I'd always been the main breadwinner, so I was terrified about money. And I also realised that this incredible wave I'd caught as a young journalist in my early 20s — 25 years on — had come to an end. I had been spat off it. And I was like, 'Wow, what am I going to do next?'"

The magic mushroom trip that changed everything.

Here's where things get interesting.

Before Eleanor's entire world imploded, she'd taken a trip to Jamaica with a friend for a story. Not just any trip — they were there to experience guided psilocybin (yes, magic mushrooms) sessions for a story.

Little did she know, she was having a vision of her future.

"We went to Jamaica, where it's legal to take psilocybin magic mushrooms, and we did three heroic doses in a week," Eleanor explained. "This wasn't microdosing — this was the full-on experience."

Her friend Decca Aitkenhead was there to process PTSD from her husband's death. But Eleanor? Something else was pulling her towards this experience.

"It's one of those things… where somebody suggests doing something, and it's quite out of character or not something you would normally do, but something very deep inside you just goes, 'Yes. This. Now.'"

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Eleanor had never been one to dabble in psychedelics in her youth. But she'd always wondered what they might reveal. And, boy, did she learn some things.

"I had this incredible experience while I was there, of everything kind of melting. They call it ego dissolution," she said.

"It was basically as if I had dissolved into a vat of yellow cream. That's the best way to describe it. I was just flooded with this golden light and a connection to all things."

The trip gave her a glimpse of possibility.

"Suddenly, everything [felt] possible. I had this sense that I was moving into a new phase, and I was being shown something new — the power of connection, and also the power of a massive shift, a change in how we think about everything in our 50th year."

When Eleanor later found herself unemployed, that "golden thread" from Jamaica came back to her.

Watch the trailer for Mamamia's MID, the podcast for Gen X women who are anything but. Post continues below.

The push we sometimes need.

Here's the thing about losing your job at 50: it's terrifying, but sometimes it's exactly the nudge we need.

"I don't think I would have had the courage to jump out of my big job — my big black cloak, this massive, powerful role that had defined me for so long," she said.

As women, we don't tend to allow ourselves to ask, 'What do I really want?' But for Eleanor, it's the question that changed everything.

"I think women are very good at not allowing themselves to dream big, or even to contemplate what they might truly want in their wildest dreams," Eleanor said.

"The truth is, you're never going to get to a place of fulfilment — not just success in a worldly sense, but real fulfilment — if you don't even let yourself dream about what that might look like.

"We've been good wives, good mothers, good daughters, good employees — but we haven't been encouraged to ask, What do I really want?"

Finding your 'what next?' at 50.

Looking back, Eleanor realised she'd spent decades chasing other people's dreams — society's expectations, her parents' vision of success.

"It took me until I was 50 to have the confidence to walk my own path, rather than the one laid down for me," she said.

So, instead of hunting for another corporate role, she decided to build something new. Eleanor founded NOON, a community for women navigating the messy middle of life.

"The current paradigm of what midlife women are for is 'unfit for purpose,'" she said.

"When I talk about creating a new map, I mean we need new signposts — a new sense of what this phase of life looks like."

And the name? Pure genius.

"I named my community Noon — as in, the middle of the day — because in a 100-year life, 50 is only halfway through!"

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If you're approaching (or smack in the middle of) your 40s or 50s, Eleanor wants you to know this isn't the beginning of the end. It's the middle of your story.

"The old three-stage life — education, work, retirement — doesn't fit anymore," she said.

"In a 100-year life, we need a four-quarter model. This 50 to 75 phase is an enormous opportunity to find purpose, fulfilment and reinvention."

It's time to embrace midlife. Because, as Eleanor so eloquently put it, it's about becoming "the generation that holds the ring for others".

So go on. Step into your power. The second half is just beginning.

Find out more about Eleanor, here.

Read more MID stories below:

• Amanda Keller was thrown an unexpected lifeline in midlife.

• At the height of her career, Rachel Griffiths disappeared for three months. It changed her life.

• After her divorce, Amantha tried everything to find love. Then she made a spreadsheet.

Feature image: Noon.