Is it too late?

I’m often asked “Is it too late to change career after 50?”

My first response is simple:

“No, it’s not too late.”

Followed by a caveat:

“The feasibility will depend on what you want to change from and to, and on your circumstances, your resources and your motivation.”

And then a further clarification:

“It depends, too, on what you mean by ‘change career’.”

Followed by some advice along these lines:

The first trick is to stop thinking about ‘career change’ and think instead of ‘career-related change’. As I’ve written in previous LinkedIn posts, focus first on the process of working out what it is you’re after and only then on designing a future that meets that need. It might not be such a radical disruption to what you’re doing, but you’ll generate a definition of ‘career-related change’ that’s personal and meaningful to you.

The second trick is to stop thinking about change as something you opt into from a static position.

You may think you’re standing still at the edges, with ‘change’ as something over there that you might choose or need to engage with at some point.

But you’re already engaging with it, even if you don’t notice.

Things are changing all around you right now, including what’s required of you in your current work, if you’re employed, and perhaps in your personal circumstances.

So, if you don’t like what you’re doing, or there’s something else you want to do, forget the rhetoric around changing career, and start envisaging a shift from passive to active engagement with change.

Because it’s never too late to change.

And there you have it. A simple answer in the end.

Want some help with this? Then get in touch to set up a free call and we’ll take it from there.

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash