I recently read Jane Pauley’s book, Your Life Calling: Reimagining The Rest of Your Life. It is a well written and very inspirational book that highlights interesting people who took action to connect to their passion and purpose. As I read those stories I focused in on how people actually found and acted upon their newly found “calling”. For many of these people they were clear about what they did NOT want, but their new direction or epiphany did not always just land neatly in their lap. In a recent interview Jane said:
“The message is not the best is yet to come….but to realize that to find inspiration you have to be looking for it. …Even groping in the dark is looking.”
For the last two years I have been researching and talking to organizations and coaches who are in the business of helping people through these kinds of transitions. I have also been delivering a series of workshops helping with this discovery process. What I have found is that people are waiting for the secret formula or the perfect or ultimate answer to the question – What is the next step for me? They are actually stuck in their head, maybe it is fear or just over thinking what this next step should be… As Jane would say …”You have to be willing to take the off ramp.” It is time to stop thinking too much and start getting out there and learning by trial and error.
For example, Will Flower left his high level Fortune 500 job to take a sabbatical for a year to travel and try some things out. Flower says, “Taking that kind of leap in midlife means being fearless and having confidence to take that next step. There is a next chapter and YOU are the one who gets to write it.” Not everyone who takes a U-turn in life arrives at a new destination successfully but unless you get out there to explore and experiment, you will never find out!
Here are 5 key takeaways from Jane Pauley’s book. These incredible tips are for all of you sitting on your couch wondering and pondering what is next for you.
- Inspiration is everywhere, but you have to be looking for it. (even if you don’t know what you are looking for.)
- Don’t wait for the answer before you act. (Take the first step – remember that self-discovery is the reward for taking that first step.)
- Reinvention often takes much longer than people would like. (It rarely arrives from one single epiphany.)
- There is no one right way to reinvent yourself.
- There are golden clues hidden in your past.
Don’t be afraid to leave the comfort of who you WERE. Your next step does not mean a complete overhaul or that you have to start a new foundation or solve world peace. It can be as simple as finding a place that can use your talent and experience at a local nonprofit!
Take a chance on YOU! Start the discovery process by attending our “What’s Next” workshop at the Encore Academy on March 27 or April 12, 2014.
Your life is calling! What are you waiting for???
“Twenty years from now, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the ones you did do.”
-Mark Twain
While many people have a mental picture of an entrepreneur as a hip twenty-something working on the next billion dollar tech company, the fact is that entrepreneurial activity is growing fastest among Americans aged 55 – 64, and people over the age of 65 have the highest rate of self-employment in the country. The factors influencing Baby Boomers and seniors to consider launching their own enterprises vary from economic necessity to pursuit of a lifelong dream. Discovering exactly which path to take in becoming an entrepreneur or changing a career later in life, however, can be daunting. So as part of the 7th International Conference on Positive Aging, the founders of Encore Tampa Bay and SeniorEntrepreneurshipWorks will explore how seniors are becoming new engines for today’s economy and what steps they can take to re-imagine their lives and maintain their prosperity.
