Too Old For A Career Change?

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks!"

We've heard many messages in our lives that can make change difficult in the second halves of our lives. I've known people in their 30s who were already planning for retirement, which for many means endless rounds of golf, and a couple of cocktails before hitting the Early Bird Special at the local restaurant. Retirement becomes a kind of second adolescence: no kids, no job, no responsibilities. And yet, plenty of people choose to start a new career relatively late in life. Personally, I have a lot of energy, and the thought of "classical" retirement holds little appeal. I want to do meaningful work until I drop. When my paternal grandfather retired from his job as a machinist, he spent the last years of his life parked in front of the television. No hobbies, no meaningful activities. Sorry, that's not my cup of tea.

So, you're 50, or maybe 60, and for whatever reason you decide to start a second (or third) career. How do you keep going knowing that you probably have fewer years of life left in you than you've already lived? I don't know how it works for others but for me, I find it useful to live each day of my life as though it were the last ... and paradoxically, to also live as though I had all the time in the world ahead of me! I might drop dead tomorrow, but so what? The 25 year old next to me at work might die suddenly tonight, and I might outlive him!

Years ago, my sister was dying and my family was trying to avoid talking about the inevitable. One day, she looked up at me and asked if I thought she was dying. To comfort her, I told her that each day was a gift, and none of us knew how many days we had left. I could get hit by a car on my way out of the hospital and she could outlive me. So we need to appreciate each day we are given on its own terms. Since them, I've come to understand that this is among other things true, and that the life lived in fear is not worth living.

Do you look forward to each day as though it were a great gift, and truly enjoy it for what it is rather than for what it isn't?