Making the Most of Your 50’s – Time for a Change?

Our 50’s are an amazing time in our life. We’ve done a lot at this point; maybe the kids are about ready to challenge the world, businesses or careers are leveling out, and that retirement horizon is looming even larger. It’s natural if you think ‘now what?’ Thankfully, it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, redefine your purpose or follow a lifelong passion. We hope to help you awaken those aspirations with our blog; Making the Most of Your 50’s – Time for a Change?

I’m at this point in my life as well. I’ve decided that I don’t want to retire, but pursue a lifelong goal of being a writer, blogger, and influencer for men 50 and over. I looked in that crystal ball and didn’t care to settle for a rocking chair. Ever.

And are we alone in this thought? Hardly. My inspiration comes from constantly reminding myself that people 50 and over like Ray Kroc (McDonalds), Harland Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Arianna Huffington (Pulitzer Prize winning Huffington Post), and Bernie Marcus (Home Depot co-founder) all began successful empires in their middle-age. Need more proof? Check out this publication by INC. that states middle-aged entrepreneurs are roughly two times more likely to begin a successful startup!

Ok, we know it’s not age, that’s just a <expletive> number, but where to start? Luckily, it’s not rocket science, but looking inside yourself and asking some basic questions now.

What are Your Goals?

First, it’s time to get honest with yourself. Figure out what your goals are and write them down. If you don’t know, explore your thoughts. It’s perfectly fine to daydream and start jotting down whatever comes to your mind. It may be random ideas, but they may lead to deep-seated subconscious thoughts that you’ve buried. Think of all areas of your life – health, relationships, work, and play. What have you always dreamt of doing but put on the back burner to have a profession and a family? Before you know it, you may have a list (longer than you believed possible) of things you want to achieve in your lifetime.

Create Your Plans

Now that you know your goals, how do you plan to achieve them? It’s time to strategize. Whether you are starting from scratch or you already have a building block, it’s time to make your mark. Break your goals down into actionable steps. As you achieve each step, congratulate yourself – even reward yourself on a job well done. It keeps the motivation alive and helps you move forward.

We like the SMART acronym when setting goals:

• Specific: Make your goal as specific as possible. Ask yourself who, what, when, where, and why about the goal. Write as many answers as you can.
• Measurable: Make sure your goals are measurable so you can monitor yourself on and see how far you’ve come. If they aren’t in some sense quantitative, it’s hard to see your progress.
• Achievable: Keep your goals within reason so they are achievable. Lofty goals are great, and keeping that big picture in sight is crucial, but you’ll defeat the purpose of your planning if you can’t attain results.
• Relevant: Is your goal relevant to your life’s missions? Is it relevant to where you see yourself in beyond your 50s and 60s? Think about your future and how it fits into it.
• Time-bound: Give yourself a ticking clock– nothing is more motivating!

Give Yourself Grace

It’s important to give yourself some slack during this time. Change is hard. According to keynote speaker Thom Singer ‘Making a decision to start over at 50 means a commitment to doing a lot of things. We all have potential, but potential does not equal performance. To get results you have to take action.  And for many people it is easy to do things for a short time, really changing takes above average dedication.’

As you apply this dedication, you may fall short and that’s okay – pick yourself up and start again. Take the lesson and figure out what’s holding you back and let it go. Understand you’ll fail, that just means it’s working, and take credit where credit is due. Reflect on what you’ve accomplished, it makes for excellent motivation. Remember, no success story ever ended with: “Well, that was easy.”

Find Your Epiphany

If you want another way to look at it – think of this as your time to have your ‘epiphany.’ No, you don’t have to go climb Mt. Everest or have any other life-changing experience, your epiphany can be anything that facilitates the change in your life.

Look around you – what has changed? Maybe you’re unhappy with or forced out of a job. Same with a marriage. While both instances are perfect reasons to ponder your life until this point, they are also significant turning points. Consider them facilitated epiphanies or a little guiding hand to help you look in other directions in your life. Maybe you’ve only known one way, but what if there are other things you could do that would bring you even more joy than what you’ve already experienced?

Keep Your Brain Young

As you enter your ‘transitional years,’ don’t let your brain turn into a marshmallow. Now is a relevant time to discover unfamiliar things. A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) states (we summarized it) the more your brain learns, the more it grows and the more it fights diseases, like Alzheimer’s.

What have you always wanted to study? Chances are there’s a class for it, whether you function better in a classroom or look online, keep mentally busy! The 21^st century has given us The Internet of Things (IoT) and online learning is so remarkably limitless that anything is within your reach. (Just be careful and read our blog on Keeping Safe with the IoT.)

Final Thoughts

Now is the time for making the most of your 50’s. If you’re like me, you’ve realized that you want the power over these remaining professional years and not subjected to a daily grind that benefits someone else. What comes next is completely up to you, my friend. Nobody can decide that for you. Are you ready to change what you do and how you do it? Then start by using the steps we’ve outlined and take the control back!

As always, we hope that you find worthwhile information here and can use this blog in helping your decisions in making the most of your 50’s. Want us to cover other self-help topics? Spoiler alert, we are anyway! But if you want something specific, reach out to me directly through our Contact page or leave a comment below, we read each one! All the best ~ Glen.