The house is quiet. Quieter than it’s ever been. No kids
scrambling to get up and get out for school (that hasn’t been the case for
years but you didn’t notice it)…no husband bumbling around, he’s already left early
for work (he doesn’t want to appear that even though he’s older, he can keep up
with the younger workers - he needs that job!)…or a husband who no longer is
there for many reasons and now you’re going this life alone…Silence!
Just last week you were directing a staff of 40, sitting in
your corner office, Madam VP of whatever. Or, you declared that you were sick
of it all and retired only to find that you weren’t quite ready to deal with
that whole fixed income thing. Either way, right now you’re walking around your
quiet house feeling purposeless and silently grieving the passing away of 20
something years of working life. What the heck just happened?
Life happened. Either by choice or by making the decision
one day that what you were doing wasn’t enough and now you need something more.
So, now what? Remember ladies, I said in my previous post, it
isn’t over.
So now is the time you start the second half of what can be
the best part of your life. Life after 50something!
I read the book Beyond
Half Time* by Bob Buford a few years ago and it focused on living the
second half of your life with significance and success. What I liked about the
book was that it helped me to see that I could keep dreaming and aspiring
beyond raising kids or finishing one career.
The road to finding yourself after 50Something is not always
the easiest, but it is doubly rewarding the second (or third) time around. When
we pool all of our experiences from our past, we are equipped to achieve more
and help more people. Yes, it requires a little more energy (some days I just
don’t want to do anything but bask in my past successes or failures), it
requires more courage (when you are younger, the consequences of what we do are
the furthest things from our minds), and it requires that we keep dreaming.
Lorraine Campman, 58-year-old founder of Music Oasis
Lifelong Learning Center in Pennsylvania, says “Don’t let the
music die inside of you. If you have a dream, find a way of fulfilling
that dream, and there are going to be rough spots in the road along the way,
but you have to persevere, accept the help that’s available out there and do
what you can to make it happen”. She
fulfilled her dream through breast cancer, financial woes and starting a new
venture in her fifties.
I am
one of those 50Somethingers who found my way through one business failure to
now doing something of significance that I love. My business partner, Carolyn
Johnson, who you will hopefully meet in future posts found tremendous business
success in her late 50’s. We are everywhere, us 50Somethingers, and if you are
one and want to live the second half with more significance and success, stay
connected. As this community grows, we will all prosper and change together.
Stay
tuned cause – it still is not over!
* Bob Buford now has a
series called Half Time which provides spiritual guidance through Bible study
and personal guidance for financial and professional success.
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