My 39 year-old son called me last night to say he is thinking about making a dramatic career change. I listened intently, asked several questions and then encouraged him to follow his passion.
After I went to bed I found myself wishing he had decided to do this 10 years earlier. I was thinking, “You’re almost 40, son. It’s a little late in the game to be making such a dramatic shift!”
But then I realized that I didn’t start speaking until I was 55. My mother was 75 when she became a certified Reiki instructor. I’ve heard it said that if Winston Churchill had died before he was 70 that he would have been considered a failure.
If you look around, I’m pretty sure you will discover that you know a lot of people who didn’t hit their full stride until later in life.
My cousin Laurie used to say, “It’s a good thing the people in our family live a long time, because are all such slow starters!”
That still makes me chuckle because there’s some truth to it. It’s also true that it requires some courage to risk failure, especially when you’ve lived long enough to know that it is a real possibility.
There are probably a lot of things that we might not want to try at this point in our lives for a variety of very good reasons. I just hope you won’t let age be the excuse that keeps you from doing something that ignites your imagination and makes your spirit soar.
