Don’t Let Age Dictate How You Live and Work After 50

We've been conditioned to believe that once we reach our fifties, sixties, and beyond, our focus should start to shift to winding down, personally and professionally. 

The "norm" is to start preparing for conventional retirement, as though a one-size-fits-all approach and societal stereotypes get to decide what we do next and what is best for us. 

I beg to differ. 

Society is very good at putting us into boxes. It likes clear stages and tidy labels. But I think that's incredibly limiting. It shrinks what's possible and ignores the fact that we're all different and want different things from our lives. 

Social conditioning and a random age number shouldn't dictate how we choose to live and work at this stage of life. We should decide that for ourselves, based on what matters most to us.

I recently turned 60, and I'm choosing something different from what many people consider the "norm" at this stage of life. 

I am not focusing on winding down in any way, shape, or form, far from it. I am actually ramping up. I've spent the last couple of months creating a new chapter for the way I want to live and work. I've been making changes to my business, and this autumn I'm launching a new version of it. I'm also making changes in my personal life, and a move to a new place is in the works. 

Because that's the life I want to create. One based on what feels meaningful and fulfilling to me, what matters most to me, not on my age or an assumption that turning 60 automatically means it's time to start heading towards retirement. 

And that's really the point. Getting older shouldn't mean automatically following a path that someone else decided was the "normal" next step. Maybe you want to retire. Maybe you don't. Maybe you want to start something new, change how you work, move somewhere different, build a business, learn something you've always wanted to learn, or just create more space for the things that matter to you. 

Really, it's all about having choices about how you want to live, rather than letting your age decide for you. But choices diminish when you make them based purely on age and the conditioning that usually comes with that. I believe we're far better off deciding for ourselves what we want the next chapter to be. Because that's exactly what it is. Just another chapter of life. 

So, if you're in your fifties, sixties, or beyond, what do you want your next chapter to be? And what can you start doing to make that happen?