On the weekend I turned 42, when I turned 40, I decided that I had enough of the job that I was doing and set the goal that by the time I was 50 I would be running my own media company. Why did I set the goal to 10 years, I am very much a realist and understand the following.
Learning new skills to be able to market them and service your client takes time
Building process, setting everything in place so that the customer journey is seamless and enjoyable, this takes time.
Learning how to market those services, to educate the client of the benefits takes time.
Converting those clients into sales and servicing those clients, delivering on the promises your business has made takes time.
These are just some of the many things I new that took time, when I turn 50, I want this nailed, I want a sustainable client base, a service I was proud of, a business I could leave to my children when the day comes for me to retire.
The point is, that it all takes time.
The bigger point is that its not too late, regardless of age, fresh starts are not defined by the age they began at. They are not defined by your lack of skill, nor are they defined by the people who tell you it’s too late.
It is only your mental attitude towards change that will define how this fresh start proceeds, and how it will pan out.
Take a moment to sit back and ask:
“Are you really happy?”
“What would make you happy?”
Look into what is needed to make you happy.
Don’t be deterred by the length of time it will take to be happy.
Ask yourself, “Is being unhappy now an OK state to be in for the next 10 years”.
For me it was no, my mental health must trump everything else. I can’t be a good partner or role model to my children if they see that I represent a life where happiness is always to the loser to security.
Conclusion
They need to know and understand that there will come a time in their lives where change is needed and be in the state of mind to know that is OK, nothing is permanent, we are fluid and capable of adapting to what our new landscape looks like.
Our mental health deserves much more than compromise.
Change is daunting, change is long, nothing easy was worth having anyway.