Here is just a sampling of the emails we get each week:
- A 51-year-old businessman: “I feel like I’ve lived my whole life by accident.”
- 56-year-old (PhD. in Theology currently driving a bus): “I feel like I’ve been given six seconds to sing, and I’m singing the wrong song.”
- A 53-year-old businessman: “I feel like my life is a movie that’s almost over, and I haven’t even bought the popcorn yet.”
- A 39-year-old automotive engineer: “I’m a butterfly caught in a spider’s web, with my life slowly being sucked out of me. ”
- A 27-year-old computer specialist: “I’m a box of parts and nothing fits together.”
- A 55-year-old dentist: “Failing in my practice knocked the wind out of my sails. Still waiting for a breeze to bring me in.”
- A 32-year-old in the family business: “The merry-go-round of my professional life has left me no farther than a few steps from where I got on and now with a weak ”
At what age do you cross the line age-wise where we’re just “too old” and it’s just wiser not to want or know about a better life, but better to just exist and wait for the grave? Is it 35, 50 or 70? Is ignorance really bliss after all? I’ve talked with 27-year-olds who are fearful that they’ve missed the window of opportunity for a life well-lived. If your dream was to play quarterback in the Super Bowl, that may be true, but for most of us, living out our dreams is not one event.
Is 65 Too Old To Start a Chicken Empire?
Colonel Harland Sanders got fired from a whole bunch of jobs before starting his own restaurant. And then he failed — went out of business when the freeway came in and nobody came driving down the little road that used to go right in front of his restaurant. So he found himself broke, absolutely broke at 65 years old. But he had this recipe for chicken. So at 65 years old, he started driving around selling his recipe for a nickel apiece.
Ten years later, he had more than 600 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in the United States.
She Made More on One Painting At 76 Than Her Entire Life Working a Job
Grandma Moses. Remember her? As a little girl, she would draw and paint and people would come along with that great advice. “Well, that’s fine, but you’ve got to do something responsible, something practical and realistic where you can make a living. So she got a job essentially as a secretary and that’s what she did her entire life.
She was 76 years old when her husband died and she remembered how much she had enjoyed painting. She was 76 years old when she turned out her first painting that we know of and that painting was sold ultimately for $1.2 million. She spent the next 25 years as a painter.
She made more with that first painting than she had earned in her entire lifetime working in a job, being responsible.
When you find your joy and your passion and combine with talent and an economic model, you make money.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”You can write and keep rewriting your story until you reach the ending you wish — whether you’re 57 or 27 or 37 or 87. @48daysteam” quote=”You can write and keep rewriting your story until you reach the ending you wish — whether you’re 57 or 27 or 37 or 87.”]
Look for recurring themes in things that get your attention. Is it art, music, children, old people, cars, caring and nurturing, birds, reading, flying? Don’t think that your dream needs to be new and revolutionary. We all know someone like Susie who sells seashells by the seashore, but most lives of fulfillment may look ordinary to an observer. We find that even those who end up extremely wealthy are not necessarily doing something rare; rather the critical element is that they are doing something they truly enjoy!
Your dream life will integrate your (1) Skills & Abilities, (2) Your Personality Traits, and (3) Your Values, Dreams & Passions. Trust your heart in this process. It’s more intuition than logic. And be confident you can live out your dreams. Don’t settle for less!
Recommended Resources For People Who Fear They May Be Too Old To Find Work You Love
Over The Hill But Not The Cliff: 5 Strategies for 50+ Job Seekers to Push Past Ageism and Find a Job in the Loyalty-Free Workplace (The Perpetual Paycheck) Paperback – by Lori B. Rassas
Getting the Job You Want After 50 For Dummies Paperback – by Kerry Hannon
PODCAST: Making your stability and maturity a plus in your job search.
Grandma Moses is my greatest encouragement on this issue. Secondly is the story about how bamboo grows. It hardly grows at all in the first few years but in the 4th or 5th year it grows to full highth. I feel I’ve been on the verge of that growth spike for years now. Still plugging along though.
Still plugging along though.
Grandma Moses is my greatest encouragement on this issue. Secondly is the story about how bamboo grows. It hardly grows at all in the first few years but in the 4th or 5th year it grows to full highth. I feel I’ve been on the verge of that growth spike for years now.