The answer is… only if YOU think so.

You’re the only one who is stopping it from happening. No one else.

I hear people say, “I’m 40. I’ve been doing this job for 15 years. It’s what I know how to do.” Yet they are uninspired, stressed, bored, and even depressed with the THOUGHT of going to work. 

Is that how you want to live the next 15 years of your precious life?

I don’t care if you’re 40, 50, 60 or any other age. You determine how you spend your days. And you have a choice. Is it time to claim your choice? Only you can answer that question.

You’re age is an excuse. It’s an excuse for the fear that you feel – fear of failure, fear of success, fear of ending up in a card board box in Duluth, MN, fear of being judged, or many other fears.

It’s time to name the fear, gather your courage, and do what it is you really want to do.

Here’s a story to inspire you to step into your fear and create a life where you’re excited, passionate, creative, and can’t wait to get up in the morning.

Ruth, who I actually first met through my bank 3 years ago, approached me and said, “I know you. I saw your flier for a workshop you’re offering and recognize you from the picture. I’m coming to your workshop.” She had been working in the banking world, and was feeling done with it. 

Scan forward to last week when I ran into her at the grocery store and she was BEAMING. Not like a passing beaming, but a “from the heart, life changing” beaming. She is entering into her second year as a graduate student in the counseling program at MSU – and knows she’s living her life’s purpose. 

Her age? 55.

I was so inspired by her story. I want to share it with you and she wants to inspire you too, so here’s what Ruth said about her experience of changing careers:

“At the age of 49 I realized I wanted to change the course of my life, at that time I did not necessarily know what I wanted to do, but did know that what I was doing did not feel rewarding nor fulfilling. I couldn’t imagine continuing to feel so empty and uninspired as I entered my 50’s and wanted to look forward to this time in my life.

I began graduate school in Marriage and Family Counseling @ MSU at the age of 54. One is never too old to move into a new place. Yes, it is scary and the world & society around us often makes the assumption that by that “age” you must have life figured out; it is the age and time to move into a slower pace of life and all your house payments coming to an end…

In my experience it couldn’t be further from my truth. I did have many naysayers in my path when I decided to go to grad school, that discouraged me because of my age, starting over after a lucrative career in bank management w/retirement and all the costs associated and long hours, but to live inspired gives me so much energy.

I feel youthful and wake up each day with new resolve and motivation, because I am living a truthful experience. I feel blessed!!! Oh yes, the fear of failure, I refer to it as my F… door (it’s not the F__king door, it’s the Fear door).

In my experience my fear of changing my life, going against “mainstream” was paralyzing. But I have found that it is important to be aware of & acknowledge the F.. door as real in my life, face it, accept it as one of life challenges and have found beautiful new pathways each time I pass through it.”

I’m so happy for Ruth and the courage she had to start a new career at “mid-life.” It’s just a label anyways. What would you do differently if you walked through F door?

Categories: Self-Organization