You have undoubtedly heard the famous saying, “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” But what about when you retire?
High achievers and people who have been successful in their working lives can approach retirement feeling unsure of their path when they leave their careers behind. When your career has dominated the majority of your adult life, having to figure out “what you love” outside of your work can be daunting.
It’s important to understand that no matter what your job was, what your plans or ideas were, or the goals that you worked toward before, you can change this completely and start afresh on a whole new journey in your life.
Plans are meant to change, and so is life. And it’s never too late to start again, change everything and discover something that truly fuels you with purpose and passion.No matter where you are in your retirement journey, your time is now.
Time is Yours for the Taking
The best age to do what you love is the age you are when you make the decision to do what you love. I refuse to accept any reasoning of “I’m too old to start…”
It is very common throughout your life to associate your age with a timeline for your goals. For example, you might have planned “I want to move to the city by 25, I want to be working for a reputable company by age 30, I want to be a homeowner by 35, etc.” And, if these goals are not met at that particular age, we develop an underlying feeling of failure.
But, time and age shouldn’t be used to set an end goal. Life happens at a different pace for everyone, and life is also very good at throwing in curve balls, meaning that timelines often face unforeseen obstacles. You have to retrain your mindset into seeing time as a guideline rather than a specific due date.
Here are a few examples for you to prove that age is irrelevant in pursuing your passions:
- Ray Kroc was 52 when he opened his first McDonald’s franchise. He had toiled for 34 years as a salesman selling paper cups and milkshake machines
- Martha Stewart was nearly 50 when she published her first magazine, Martha Stewart Living.
- When she was 55, Arianna Huffington launched The Huffington Post.
- Harry Bernstein started writing his first novel, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers, when he was 93 years old. He gained literary fame at age 96 when it was published in 2007
- Julia Child didn’t learn about French cuisine until 30, and only began appearing on The French Chef at the age of 51
Take this as encouragement and proof that age is just a number, and your number shouldn’t prevent you from doing anything.
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Your Identity isn’t Set in Stone
A huge part of your career is the identity that it provides. You define yourself for the majority of your working life by what you do, “I’m Sarah and I’m a lawyer.” So when you retire, shifting from that job title into a new identity can be a confusing transition.
This is your opportunity to break down those barriers and reidentify who you truly are, not just who you were in your job or who you have been throughout the past 30 or 40 years of your working life. Your self-identity is a combination of personality traits, abilities, values, physical attributes, interests, hobbies, your social roles in life (eg. daughter, aunt, foster mother etc.), beliefs, and feelings.
All of these traits are fluid and can change over time, therefore your identity isn’t set in stone. You can literally be whoever you want to be, at any given time. Though you might have internalized ideas about who you are and what your limits are, it is likely that these don’t fully reflect the full potential of your identity. In many cases, people will have projected their own beliefs, fears, values, or disappointments onto you. But these beliefs could hold you back, so it’s vital to seek your own individuality and harness your limitless potential to change and grow. Dream big!
Where There’s a Will, There’s A Way
If you really want to do what you love and find a new purpose in life, then you will find a way to achieve that. If your ambition and dream are reasonable, then nothing is truly impossible.
Without a doubt, the biggest obstacle to success is mindset. So, if you believe that you will achieve your dreams, then you will do everything possible in order to achieve them. If you have courage, optimism, and an objective, then nothing can limit your success.
You’re never too old, thinking that you are is a limiting attitude and it will only prevent you from moving forward in your life.
It will not always be easy, but nothing in your life so far has been and you’ve made it this far! You will make mistakes but your courage and belief in yourself will keep steering you in the right direction.
As your life moves forward, you will constantly be in a state of motion, but you are also constantly in control. You have one life to live, so it’s worth making it a great one, and remember… You are beyond capable of creating a life beyond your wildest dreams.