About
Find out more about our founder Sarah Brooks
About Sarah
Most midlifers have ability and experience, but lack the time and space to step back and think clearly about their lives.
Sarah Brooks created The Redesign Project to offer a different way of approaching midlife - not as something to manage, but as a point of deliberate redesign.
With degrees in politics & history, law and journalism, Sarah’s career began as a BBC News reporter, where she learned to observe closely, think clearly and get to the heart of what was really going on. She went on to spend over two decades in television production, developing and producing major factual programmes for the UK’s leading broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Five.
Alongside this, Sarah has developed an interest in how people grow, evolve and navigate transition. This began in California in the 1990s, where she first studied structured approaches to personal development, and has continued ever since through formal training, coaching, writing and practical application.
Midlife is a key milestone where people get stuck. Without a framework for thinking clearly about what to do next, people either respond reactively, make small adjustments or continue without really changing anything.
The Redesign Project was created in response to that gap.
At its centre is the SHIFT™ method - a structured way of stepping back, understanding what has changed, identifying what fits now, and making deliberate decisions about how your life can transform.
The process is about working with what you have - your experience, your capability, your life as it is - and redesigning to align with who you are now.
Sarah’s approach is grounded, practical and effective.
If you’re at a point where something in your life no longer fits - but you’re not sure what to do about it - this is where the work begins.
Q & A
What led you to create The Redesign Project?
After years working as a television producer I became increasingly interested in the challenges of midlife. Not as a crisis, but as a point where many people sense that something has shifted, without fully understanding what or why. The Redesign Project was created to provide a structured way to approach that moment properly.
How is this different from coaching?
Most coaching focuses on what you want or how you feel. This work starts somewhere else. It looks first at how your life is currently set up, and whether that structure still fits. From there, each participant builds momentum through the framework.
Why did you develop The SHIFT™ Method - and what makes it effective?
People in midlife are often capable, experienced and self-aware. They don’t need motivation, and they don’t need to be told to “make a change”. What they lack is a framework to understand their situation and how to take action.
What makes SHIFT™ effective is that it combines structure with reality. It’s not abstract, and it’s not about reinventing your life from scratch. It works with what’s already there: your experience, your responsibilities, your constraints - and guides you to redesign within that.
That’s why people find it both clarifying and practical. They’re not just thinking differently - they have the confidence to take action.
What kind of people does this work best for?
People who are capable and thoughtful, and who know that something needs to change, but don’t want to approach it reactively. They’re not usually looking for motivation. They’re looking for clarity.
What is the real outcome of this work?
Not a completely new life, but something more useful than that: a life that is more aligned with who you are now, and a clearer way of making the right decisions going forward.
Have you gone through this process yourself?
Yes - and that’s the reason this work exists. I felt stuck in my forties and that process - of stepping back, understanding what had changed, and then deliberately redesigning how my life was structured - became the foundation for this work. It’s a combination of my experience and everything I’ve observed over many years working with other people at similar points of transition.
What do people struggle with most when they reach midlife?
What I see again and again is a quiet sense of misalignment. The priorities, ambitions and identity that shaped earlier decisions have shifted - but the structure of life hasn’t caught up. And without a clear way of zooming out and thinking about that properly, people tend to do one of three things: stay where they are, make small adjustments, or keep going without really changing anything.
Midlife Insights
A series of considered perspectives on Midlife and the process of working out what comes next.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full article or visit Midlife Insights here.
