How Do You Start Your Life Over At 50+

You can’t escape time, but you can embrace it as an asset and start your life over again.

Age is one of the most common obstacles for 50+ people. Circumstances will force you to make a significant decision and start your life over. This blog post intends to give you a toolbox to start your life over again successfully. Your age doesn’t matter. And it’s valid for any re-start from relationships to business and entrepreneurship.

Let’s face the traditional pattern from a young career-hungry university student to a 50+. They are all individuals viewing retirement as something coming closer. We belonging to the baby boomer group are familiar with a path with a relatively “secure and safe” chain. Most of the goals we perceive we achieve one by one. It’s a kind of cycle where every step has its place.

Every model, whatever it is for, must have a timeline. If you view life as a cycle, age is the most natural “timeline” to use. Without even being conscious of it, you’ll start using your age as something to measure achievements.

Age and achievements

When the famous musician Billy Joel, at the age of 66, and Alexis Roderick, 33 years younger, became a couple on July 4th, 2015, was age an obstacle? Probably not!

Ray Kroc, who made McDonald’s a famous fast-food chain in his early 50s, was too old to start his project? Nope!

What motivated Carol Sanders to start Kentucky Fried Chicken at 65? Well, at least the age didn’t hold him back.

The magazine “Entrepreneur” has several articles about successful entrepreneurs who started over again at a mature age.

With so many proven examples of 50+ people who successfully have made something significant of their lives, why shouldn’t you be able to start your life over again?

In our society, there are “rules” about what everything should look like, how a 70-year-old lady should be dressed, and how a 65-year-old gentleman should behave, but we also expect the younger generation to act.

When Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones are on stage, do they act or dress like typical 70-year-old men? Not at all!

The first and most crucial part of changing and starting your life over is to kill once and for all the dogma that age is an essential variable. Age is a figure to which you need to have the correct relationship. The biological aging that comes with your genetic heritage can be compensated to some extent with proper eating, drinking, and physical activities. The rest is just the age label you put on yourself.

Where to Begin After Deciding To Start Your Life Over?

Whatever your path to starting your life over, the first and indispensable step is to get rid of all negativity. Look at all the people surrounding you, and you’ll find that humans are experts at spreading negative messages without any attempt to turn people down or demotivate people with whom we have a relationship.

Erase negativity

Is that possible? Can you really do that? At your age? Are you not afraid to fail? These phrases are just a few examples of expressions with a damaging touch and can harm your intention tremendously, as we all are vulnerable before making an important decision.

When you hear those negative words, and be sure you will, the person who delivered the message is probably not strong enough to take up the challenge you are just a few steps away from.

Make it a habit of always converting “No, I can’t” into “Yes, I can.”

Be grateful

Whatever life throws at you, forcing you to start over again, there are always things, happenings, and people to be grateful for. Maybe you have beautiful grandchildren lighting up your life; perhaps you live in a place that should make others jealous. Think daily about what makes you happy, be grateful, and use it to give your daily dose of positive energy.

Remember that your good friends and great family are unique gifts; love will help you through tricky times.

Find out where you are lucky, and you will cultivate a sense of optimism that will spread to all other areas of your life.

Discover your passion

Many people have not yet found their passion, and there are many reasons for this. We all came to this earth for a reason, and it would be a pity if you had to leave without discovering and practicing the pure passion of your life.

Passion will be the primary fuel for whatever change you will make to your life.

Maybe you lost your job after many years doing something you didn’t like. Let’s say that you enjoy running (as I do), but your age, physical condition, or whatever other reason that pops up will not make it possible to make a living of your running as a professional African runner. But maybe you can get a job in a sports shop advising other runners about what shoes to wear, and you’ll be doing something you are passionate about. Or maybe you start up your own online business as a running coach. Your imagination limits what you can do out of your passion.

Starting a business online is much easier than you ever have thought.

When you feel that your day had a purpose and that you liked what you did, that’s when your passion has earned the place it deserves in your life.

Find out what is one thing you can do right now that will have the most positive impact. Similarly, what can you stop doing right now that has the most negative impact? Go and do it!

Make a plan

It has been said many times on many occasions and forums, but it must be underlined again. A plan is a roadmap toward your goal and a way to start over again. The plan will be your daily guideline for achieving your goal. See my blog post of April 19, 2015, where the construction of a good and realistic plan was revealed in detail.

During this fascinating journey towards a new lifestyle, many roadblocks and failures will be common ingredients. Your plan will help you get up on the road again.

Step by step

Taking action is the vital key to achieving any goal. If your goal is something big and profound, it will not be a dream that comes to you. You will have to go out and get it. It takes hard work.

But always remember, if you have started, you have already taken the first, important and critical step:

Getting started.

A successful continuation requires taking steps. Stick to the plan and do not get overwhelmed. With consistency, moving one step at a time will allow you to live and achieve the life of your dream.

Reward yourself

The journey to your goal will include plenty of failures, frustrations, roadblocks, and achievements. Often, you will be focused on how to avoid the negative moments, so you will forget the accomplishments along the road. As a rule, always celebrate any achievement, no matter if it’s a big or small victory.

Implementing your personal reward procedure for any achievement will ensure that the number of victories is higher than failures and other negative events along the road.

Rewards will be the most essential part of getting a “never-give-up” attitude in your attempt to start your life over again.