The Career Change Studio

Worried You’re Too Old for a Career Change? Think Again

• Dana Stevens • Episode 6

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Episode 6: If you’re telling yourself that you’re too old to change careers or you are worrying that you have left it too late, then this episode is a must-listen.

Join Certified Career Change Coach Dana Stevens as she explains why your age is not the problem, but rather how you are thinking about your age. You’ll learn how your thoughts can hold you back and how thinking differently is going to be really helpful

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • How focusing on what is possible for you can actually create real change 
  • Inspiring true stories of women who have seen midlife as just the start
  • How to think differently about the number of years you have left in the workplace. 

To hear Dana’s personal story of career change, just click here to listen to episode 1.

Click here to read Patricia Routledge's Letter to Life

ARTICLES ABOUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHANGED CAREERS


Connect with Dana:

Website: https://www.danastevens.com/workwithme
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dana_stevens_coach/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danastevens1/
Free Coaching Consultation: https://calendly.com/danastevens/initial-coaching-chat

If this episode resonated, follow The Career Change Studio and share it with someone who’s feeling stuck in their career.

And if you’re ready to design a working life that truly fits your needs and lifestyle, book a free clarity call at https://calendly.com/danastevens/initial-coaching-chat

Special thanks to @Lou_Greenaway_Music for the piano composition and performance.

Hello, today on the Career Change Studio I want to bust some myths - this is going to be the first in a thread of podcasts where I’m going to be busting regular myths about changing careers. And I’m starting with this one because it is the No. 1 that my clients come to me with - we’re going to be talking about how old you are and whether that makes you too old to change careers.

Why? Because it is a fear, a worry, a doubt that so many of my Career Change Coaching clients bring to me 

“I think I’m too old to change careers” 

“I worry I’ve left it too late to change careers”

“I think I should have done this years ago’

“I can’t start from scratch again”


So let’s get into that today, because one of the things I teach my clients to do is identify a fear they have - then instead of letting it overwhelm you or pushing it away and pretending its not there - you want to bring it closer. Examine it, investigate it, check the evidence.

The more you can interrogate it, the more you can neutralise a fear and see it for what it really is - which typically much less of an obstacle than our brain initially suggests.


And this is also something I’m going to keep coming back to in this podcast, as I do with my clients, and that's helping you to see that just because a brain offers you a thought - we don’t have to accept it as the truth or the only answer.


You can go back and find out what other options there are, you don’t have to believe the first thought your brain offers you, or the loudest or the most persistent. 


So if a loud and persistent thought your brain is offering you is “I’m too old to change careers” - 

today I’m going to help you see why it’s a really unhelpful thought, how it will keep you stuck

AND why it’s actually not true.


So hopefully by the end of this you’ll see why it makes so much more sense to let go of a belief that is not only false, not even true, especially when it is holding you back.


Firstly, let’s start with this. This is a thought your brain is offering you - so you want to start looking at the evidence so you can determine - is this thought really true?


Is it really true that you are too old?


Now I can tell you, even without knowing how old you are that it is categorically not true. How do I know that because the simple fact is people change careers at all ages. In their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. 


And I have had clients of all ages come to me and say “I think I’ve left it too late”. Someone said that to me who is in their late 20s! I have people in their 30s say it to me, in their 40s and 50s. 

This shows me that it is a thought that people can have at any age and it is not factually correct at any age. Because people do change careers at every age. 


So I will talk in a minute about evidence that people can change careers at any age - I changed careers in my early thirties then again at 40.


But before we do, let's just look at how believing “I’m too old" is actually the thing that will hold you back, not your actual age.


The thing is that your thoughts - what you believe - affects how you feel, and how you feel affects what you do or don’t do and this creates you results - the reality you end up living in.


So let’s just look at what happens when you believe “I’m too old to change careers”

In my experience that tends to make people feel despondent, sad, unmotivated and pretty low and uninspired. When they feel that way it often leads to inaction. They don’t bother researching different options, they procrastinate and don’t work on their CV, they don’t look for opportunities and new roles. And what is the result? They don’t take any actions to help them decide what to do next or steps to make a change happen. So they end up staying where they are and this then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy - they don’t end up making changes.


Now they might be telling themselves it’s because of their age but actually it’s this Thought Cycle - this way of thinking. They are not even giving themselves the chance


And even if you do get yourself to a place where you’ve made a decision and you’ve decided what you want to do next, this sneaky thought “I’m too old” can really sneak in and start affecting your confidence


When you think that, you start looking at all your skills and experience through that lens - you tend to focus on what you don’t have - the tech you might not be 100% up to speed on, the changes that might have occurred in your industry, skillsets that you don’t feel 100% confidence


People end up start feeling worried about interviews - what are people going to think when they see me and see how old I am? The truth is if you go in there, apologetic about your age, believing it might be a problem - that’s how you’ll come across.


But if you are in an interview situation - really believing in your value, focused on the skills that you DO have, in full belief of the weight of your experience and maturity and how that gives you so many skills in terms of how to handle people, situations, challenges, change and the need to adapt. You can go into that interview with the energy of someone who really sees their own worth and then you will be focused on articulating that. So in that interview, you can be in control of the perception you put across - not as someone older but as someone that is bringing so much experience, value and emotional intelligence and resilience.


This is what I help my clients to do, really build belief in themselves and their value - at any age so that becomes the focus of their job search and it’s not held back by their fears.


And I just want to revisit this idea of a Thought Cycle - the way our thinking affects our feelings, actions and reality. Because we know how thinking “i’m too old” will keep you stuck so lets look at how changing that thought is helpful. 


So we don’t need to go too far the other way and try and make ourselves believe “It’s going to be super easy at my age to change careers” - because that probably won’t feel believable to you. So we could just start with “It is possible for someone my age to change careers” - now if you believe that, you are more likely to feel hopeful, optimistic, maybe even motivated so the actions you are going to take are - start figuring out what you want from a new role, researching options, start doing your CV, Job hunting - applying for jobs.

And the result will be that you’ll then start getting interviews or even a new job


And oh look, you’ve just proven your own thought to be true - they can become self fulfilling prophecies.


EVIDENCE THAT CHANGE IS POSSIBLE


In my coaching, I teach my clients how to change beliefs and strengthen new ones. 


One of the techniques is to look for evidence to support it.


So that’s what we have to do now - ask ourselves, is there evidence that people can change careers at any age? In their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and even beyond and the answer is yes. 


I am going to tell you some of it now but I just want you to know that that is how I know that it is possible for you.


Even though I don’t even know how old you are. I know because I have evidence of lots of people doing it at all ages - I’ve done it, my clients of done it, people I know have done it and well known people have done it.


So I’m going to share some examples for you. Because maybe you don’t have lots of examples in your own life of people in your own personal circle


Like I said I have successfully changed careers twice - in my early thirties and again at 40. I’m not going to go into that here because I did a whole podcast about it so if you want to know my story go back and listen to the very first episode, episode 1.


I am going to tell you about lots of other people who have done it - maybe some people you do know and some people you don’t.


Firstly my partner’ mum actually retrained as a counsellor in her 60s, did her counselling degree and now works part time as a counsellor in her 70s.


You may have heard of Lapland UK - the christmas santa experience here in the UK created to provide the magic that you might get from visiting Santa in Lapland. That was actually set up by a woman called Alison Battle and her husband - Alison was a primary school teacher in Lewisham. South East London for 20 years. When she was in her mid-40s, she and her husband were frustrated with the lack of magical Christmas experiences for their children. So they took a leap. They remortgaged their home and, with no events experience, created LaplandUK—an immersive festive experience that’s now visited by tens of thousands each year and brings in millions in revenue.

Now while Alison left behind the classroom and built something extraordinary in her 40, your change doesn’t have to be as radical or high risk as that. But if people can make those sort of changes, you can too.


There are even more high profile people too that we can look to - 


Arianna Huffington set up the Huffington Post, a progressive news & blogging website in 2005 -  when she was 55. She was a writer with no experience of running a website before she set it up with her co-founders. She’s now 75 but when she was 66 she stepped away from the Huffington Post to set up her new company Thrive Global   -which is a technology company focused on behaviour change to improving productivity and health outcomes


And you may have heard of famous wedding dress designer Vera Wang - did you know that she didn’t actually open her first wedding boutique she was 40? Before that she was a competitive figure skater who moved into fashion journalist. She designed her own wedding dress the year before  her 40th out of frustration of what was available and then went on to open her own wedding dress business. She’s now now 76 and is one of the wealthiest self made women in America running a huge global fashion empire.


Imagine if she’d told herself at 40, nah don’t bother doing anything - you’ve left it too late now you’re 40! She would have missed out on the last 36 years of building and running an incredibly successful business


Last year I was reading about this amazing Japanese woman called Masako Wakamiya - she is now 90 and she actually learnt to code when she was 81 and it sparked a whole new career for her. She used to work in finance - back when she started her career she was just using an abacus for calculations - a simple counting tool with wooden beads. When she reached her 80s she had an idea for an app, a game for older people and so she learnt how to do software coding. Her story inspired so many people that she has since gone on to give lectures about inclusivity and tech for older people and continues to be an advocate. She still does public speaking, serves as the Vice Chair of the senior digital community "Mellow Club," and advises on the Japanese government's Council for Digital Garden City Nation.


Another example is that age is just a number and it doesn’t have to hold you back from learning, developing and taking your life in a different direction. 


And this reminds me of a beautiful letter of inspiration written by the actress Patricia Routlegde, you might remember her as the indomitable Hyacinth Bouquet - Mrs Bucket - from the TV comedy Keeping up Appearances. She sadly passed away last month, but last year when she was turning 95 she wrote a letter about how with each new decade she embraced new opportunities and learnt new skills. I’ll actually put it in the show notes for you to read. In it she talks about landing the role of Mrs Bucket at 50, how she learnt Italian at 60 so she could sing opera, at 70 she returned to the stage to do Shakespeare, at 80 she started watercolour painting. 


She wrote “I’m writing this today to share something simple and true:
Growing older isn’t a final act—it can be life’s most exquisite chapter if you allow yourself to bloom once more.”


Now I could go on and on sharing examples of people who have changed careers or learnt new things or refused to see getting older as a sign that they should stop, retreat or give up but really what I’d like to offer you is that this is something you can start doing.


Start looking around in your life for examples of what's possible. 


Talk to people you know who have changed careers, ask friends of friends about their experience. And if there is no one in your direct network - read books, listen to podcasts, find articles about people who have made changes in mid and later life. Find people like you. Find people who have made small changes and people who’ve made huge radical shifts. Challenge your own perceptions of what is possible. There are plenty of stories online - I’ll even link to some in the show notes.  Find the evidence that does exist that change, growth and development is possible.


YOU HAVE TIME LEFT & HUGE POTENTIAL


The final thing I want to leave you with is this. Right now I want you to work out how many working years you have left. 


Next year the UK State Pension age goes up to 67, and by 2044 - when I’ll be nearing retirement it will be 68.


So I’m 45 now, that means that I have at least 23 years left of my working life. That is a long time. That is enough time to retrain, start something new and build a whole new career if I want to.


I’m only half way through my working life, I’ve been working for about 24 years and in that time I have already changed careers twice - so I’m already on my 3rd career. And in each of those careers I’ve had money, personal fulfilment so I’d count them as successful. So if I’ve already had 3 careers in 24 years…. You can definitely make at least one change in the next 23 years. And that is if you are the same age as me at 24.


And if you’re younger - you have even more time! 

If you are 40, you have 28 years left. If you are 35, you have 33 years.


You have so much time! 

If the thought of all that time currently feels awful and depressing - then you are 100% in the wrong job for you. If you can’t imagine doing what you’re doing now for another 20 years - you probably want to start making changes.


Honestly I’m excited about having 23 more years, I feel like I’m just getting started and frankly all these numbers are if we retire at state pension age. We might want to work longer!


We might enjoy what we’re doing so much that we want to keep working in some capacity. My Dad is still working part-time in his mid-70s because he enjoys it. And I can imagine myself doing the same.


So you do have time.



And you do have the potential to do more, learn more, achieve more later in life. 


You do have the capacity to learn new skills - the advances in neuroscience tell us that our neuroplasticity - our brains capacity to learn, grown and evolve as we get older is greater than we ever understood before.


I’m going to do a whole separate podcast about the power of the potential we have in later life because I really do believe we have more potential in later life than we do when we are younger.


So I hope this has helped you think differently about what is possible for you.

I hope this has challenged this myth - this thought error - that you are too old.


And instead of thinking “I’m too old” and shutting down any possibilities for yourself,, what happens if you start asking yourself these questions instead…..


“If it is possible for me to make changes to my working life, what could I do? What do I want to do? What would be a better fit and make me happier?”


Bye for now


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Dana Stevens

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