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A midlife career change is as good as a rest
Options don’t have to narrow for the over-50s, but it pays to prepare the ground.
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For many, the biggest barrier to change is ourselves.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Camilla Cavendish
A Christmas card arrived recently from an old friend telling us she’s had a bit part on television. Formerly a teacher, she enrolled in drama school in her 50s, which didn’t augur well. Her parents had warned her against taking such a big risk when she was starting out. But after her mother died and left her a small legacy she took the leap – watching her on stage, you’d think she’d been doing it all her life.
I’ve interviewed lots of people who’ve made career shifts in midlife. The lucky ones talk with a sparkle that makes them seem younger. They achieve, often for the first time, the happiness that comes from what the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called a “flow state”: being completely absorbed in the task.
