Six Midlife Career Change Tips – an Unconventional View

There is an increasing amount of advice available to people in midlife who are looking to find a new job or change careers. Rob Bennett, of PassionSaving.com offers six career change tips which are less conventional than most of the advice on offer. See what you think.

1.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 1: Each day you remain at a job you don’t love because the money is good you fall farther behind on your long-term quest for financial freedom.

Rob contends that remaining in a job because the pay and benefits are good overlooks the importance of recognising ‘what you learn’ from your job. If you aren’t learning in your current role you will be falling behind your peers who are in jobs where training and learning are considered essential. The financial risks of staying at a job where you are not continuing to learn are often greater than the financial risks of making a well-planned move to something you enjoy more.

2.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 2: Don’t take the “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow” maxim too seriously.

Whilst this may be true, in most cases, it does not establish WHEN the money will follow. A sound financial plan is required to ensure that the new job or project is given enough time to mature and provide the expected financial rewards.

3.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 3: Focus not on work issues but on money issues.

However much you plan, however much you feel you are suited to the new job, you have not done enough to take the risk involved in handing in a resignation from your current job in pursuit of a mid-life career change.

You must put a financial plan in place to smooth out both the current and future transitions. If you don’t, there is a good chance that a few years down the road you will be back in the same sorts of circumstances that caused you to want to make the first midlife career change.

4.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 4: Understand that the real reason for your job dissatisfaction lies within.

Rob’s view here is that it isn’t a bad boss or a bad company culture that causes you to want a midlife career change – it’s you!

There are of course outside forces that play a role in causing you to be dissatisfied in your career and there are bad bosses and some pretty awful company cultures. But those outside forces are not usually the primary factor in causing job dissatisfaction, and it is important for you to understand what the primary factor is if you hope to pull off a successful midlife career change.

It is natural and good to feel dissatisfaction about a job after you have been in it a number of years. It is the desire to learn and grow that is causing you to become dissatisfied with a career that no longer provides the challenge it once did. The surprising thing would be if you never felt a need to pursue a mid-life career change.

5.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 5: Be wary of quick solutions to the problems causing your feelings of dissatisfaction.

It makes perfect sense to seek a new career after mastering an earlier one or finding that one is not suited for the earlier one. The issue to beware of is that there is a good chance that the frustrations experienced in the earlier role will recur, this time when you are older and have fewer fresh-start options open to you.

The best approach is to gain some level of financial freedom before making the switch to a new role. Not always possible, of course, but if this can be attained, then the pressures on you will be greatly reduced. It is by reducing the extent to which one needs to work for money that one obtains the best possible long-term assurance of being able to spend one's time doing soul-satisfying work.

6.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 6: Understand that what you really need is not career planning alone, but a combination of career and financial planning.

Financial planning on its own doesn’t work. Career planning on its own doesn’t work. It is a combination of the two which works best. If you can build a nest egg you have more control over your career options.

Yes, you need to change careers. But you might want to slow down in your implementation of the plan and make sure that the solution you come up with is one that will serve you well for a long time to come. To make a successful mid-life career change, you need not just a job-change plan, but a money-change plan too. Let’s call it your Life Plan!

Read the full article here: www.passionsaving.com

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join hereFREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

Do you believe the Weather Forecast?

It was already late autumn (fall) and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief in a modern society he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. But being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the
national weather service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later he called the national weather service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at national weather service again replied,
"It's going to be a very cold winter."

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later the chief called the national weather service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely," the man replied. "It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen."
"How can you be so sure?" the chief asked.
The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy.

The story (apart from being funny) also reflects the way in which we can get ‘carried away in the moment’. If we see an item that we like at an auction house (or bid for an item on eBay) we can easily end up paying more than we wanted because other people also want the item. They want it, we want it. They bid, we bid. They bid again, we bid again and so on, until one of us cracks. If we win, we’re pleased that we now own the item but worried about the cost. If we lose, we’re disappointed. The Indians in the story collected far more wood than they actually needed because of the supposed threat of a very cold winter. At least they won’t have to collect so much wood next winter. If we pay more than we should have for our auction item, at least we’ve got it to use or admire for as long as we want.

What else does this story illustrate? Check your sources? Understand the assumptions that are being made when someone gives you advice? That the weatherman (probably an experienced midlifer) was using his local knowledge to find the best answer?

It’s probably all of these. It also demonstrates how easy it is to believe that something is true because ‘that’s the way it’s done around here’. So when someone tells you that ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘it won’t work here’, try it anyway!

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for?

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

The Rocks and Sand of your Life

The tutor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty glass jar and proceeded to fill it with big rocks. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.


So the tutor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the big rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.


The tutor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous - - yes.


The tutor then produced a can of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour it into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.


"Now," said the tutor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The big rocks are the important things - - your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favourite passions - - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."


"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else - - the small stuff."


"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the big rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.


Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Fall in love. Spend time with your friends. Take your partner out for a meal. There will always be time to go to work, go to the gym, give a dinner party and clean the car.


Take care of the big rocks first - - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."


One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The tutor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a drink!"


Mid Lifers are often confused over their priorities - should I change my job? Should I take early retirement? Do I really still love my partner? Am I saving enough for retirement?


Sort out the 'Big Rocks' in your life before you make any big decisions. The results of your prioritisation may make the difference between a big win and a succession of regrets!

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join hereFREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

A 'must have' tool for all you bloggers

Please note, this is NOT an Affiliate pitch!

Have you ever wondered how people can save really neat screenshots from web pages or documents and embed them in their blog or web pages – like this:

Or this:

The answer is a nifty little tool called SnagIt.

SnagIt allows you to select any part of a document and save it as an image with all sorts of effects – a ‘torn edge’ as in the first image above or with a drop shadow, as in the second image. There is a wide choice of effects.

You can add text boxes to the image that you’ve captured, as I have done in the picture of Coco above. There is a wide choice of tools like this that you can use within SnagIt.

It is really useful for selecting web pages as one of the options is a ‘scrolling’ setting, which means that it will capture the whole webpage, whether you can see it on the screen or not. It will even keep the hyperlinks live!

SnagIt images look great in all sorts of documents and can really bring a dull report to life. If you use it, I can guarantee that people will ask you how you managed to edit your images!

SnagIt is not free but it is not expensive. You can find the details here: http://www.techsmith.com/ (You may know Techsmith as the makers of Camtasia).

Well worth the investment.

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join hereFREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

Win 1 million dollars! Your prediction is ... ?

On Friday 11^th June, football’s World Cup will kick off in South Africa; the world’s largest sporting event.

On Saturday 12^th June, England play the USA. What is your prediction for the score? 3-0 to England? 4-1 to the USA?

Predict the correct score and become the King or Queen of ‘Across the Pond Pundits!’

As a bit of fun, please add your prediction of the score as a comment on this blog. All predictions placed up until the time of the kick off will be included in the competition. The winner(s) will receive a very valuable prize of a gold crown (jpg or png) and 1 million, yes I million! Zimbabwean dollars (photocopied - rates of exchange may vary on a daily basis but the cost of conversion may outweigh the value of the prize …)

To give you some guidance, the current odds are as follow:

England 1 USA 0: 9/2

England 2 USA 0: 11/2

England 2 USA 1: 7/1

England 0 USA 1: 14/1

England 0 USA 2: 35/1

England 1 USA 2: 19/1

England 1 USA 1: 6/1

England 2 USA 2: 16/1

England 5 USA 0: 50/1

England 0 USA 5: 500/1

My prediction, for what it’s worth, is a 2:2 draw – which will give England the necessary kick up the *ss to go on and reach the final!

The name of the winner(s) will be published to millions?, thousands?, hundreds? of Twitter followers on Monday 14^th June.

Please tweet this message to all of your followers to encourage as many predictions as possible.

Happy predicting!

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join here FREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

The Keys to Successful Dieting in Midlife - or not! The Mid Life Devil’s Advocate View

Most of us would like to be slimmer and we have all (almost without exception) tried to lose weight at some point. Midlife is a time when we are prone to putting on weight and dieting becomes more important in our lives – at least for those of us who worry about these things.

So we do our research and find out which is the best diet for our own particular body and our own particular lifestyle. When I was doing my degree, some years ago now, one of my friends went on a ‘beer diet’. He didn’t eat for 5 days, but carried on drinking beer every evening. He did lose weight but this is definitely not to be recommended!

We might try the Atkins diet, the cabbage diet, the ‘this’ diet and the ‘that’ diet and we lose some weight. Hooray. So what’s the problem?

The job of the Mid Life Devil’s Advocate is to help you to understand the reality of dieting. The Advocate isn’t trying to dissuade you from dieting, quite the reverse. He just wants to give you the reality of what you’re contemplating.

So what is the Devil’s Advocate’s view of dieting? Here are some points to ponder:

• Statistically, most of us don’t keep our weight off when we finish our diets – so why bother?
• To maintain a constant healthy weight, men need 2,500 calories per day, women need 2,000 calories per day – not fair, but that’s the way it is.
• So anything more than this will be stored in the body as fat.
• All the things you like to eat are fattening – it’s one of the laws of nature:
• A Big Mac and medium fries (UK size) contains about 800 calories
• A Danish Pastry contains nearly 300 calories
• 100g of chocolate contains about 500 calories
• 100g of popcorn contains about 400 calories
• A traditional Christmas dinner contains about 1,000 calories
• A medium size tub of potato salad contains about 1,000 calories
• A decent BLT sandwich contains 800 calories
• A Caesar Salad (which you might expect to be low in calories) contains about 750 calories (it’s the dressing)
• On the other hand:
• An apple contains about 50 calories
• A portion of carrots contains about 15 calories
• You can see where this is going …
• You need to have a calorie deficiency of 3,500 calories to lose a pound in weight – so, if you’re a man and you eat 2,000 calories per day (2.5 decent Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches) you will lose 1lb per week. It’s a long haul.
• So willpower and staying power are important. Do you have will power?
• You will start off very confidently – then you get hungry.
• You won’t lose much weight in the first few days so you lose your enthusiasm.
• You decide to keep a food diary – you conveniently forget to write down the biscuits that you eat with your coffee.
• You do very well during most of the day and then start nibbling while you’re watching TV. And you don’t nibble apples …
• You decide to have just one alcoholic drink – then two, then three. Fun, but alcohol is loaded with calories.
• A bag of crisps (fries) has about 200 calories in it – that’s a small bag though, not the big ones!
• Cereals for breakfast are a healthy option and the adverts tell us that there aren’t too many calories in a portion. True, but not the portion size that you eat!
• You will lose weight if you use more calories than you consume. So you decide to do more exercise. This makes you hungry and you eat more.
• You join a Gym on January 1^st. On February 1^st your membership lapses.
• Exercise is hard work and you decide that, rather than exercise, you will eat less. This is hard work too.
• It’s the QUANTITY of food that counts. It’s all very well eating the right type of foods but you mustn’t eat large quantities of food. You know this but you still eat Seconds, sometimes Thirds.
• When you have friends for dinner you cook a lot of food, saying that you don’t want your guests to starve and any leftovers can be eaten the next day. You eat it all anyway, because it’s there, on the table, looking at you.
• You go out for drinks with your friends and you’re really good. Slimline drinks all evening. Then one of your friends suggests going for a curry or a kebab. Oh dear, all that effort wasted!
• You will soon start to believe that the bathroom scales are broken.

If you are keen to go on a diet, don’t let the Mid Life Devil’s Advocate put you off. The points above are all exaggerated (apart from the calorie contents) to give you a real flavour of what’s in store for you.

If you feel that you need to lose weight, then try to lose some of your excess pounds. Just understand that you’re in it for the long haul. It’s really about a lifestyle change more than a short term diet and you need to understand this. 

Try making some simple changes – stop having sugar in your drinks, use semi-skimmed milk, don’t eat after 8pm, only put butter/spread on one side of your sandwich (and not too much butter/spread either!) These are simple changes which add up.

Remember – taking in more calories than you use up will lead to weight gain. Pig out occasionally by all means, but make sure you restrict yourself afterwards to make up for it.

Good luck,

The Devil’s Advocate

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join hereFREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here

Are you driving your car through life - or standing on the side of the road?

Recently, I was driving in the middle lane of a 3 lane motorway (freeway) at 70 miles per hour. A car came alongside me in the outside lane, probably doing about 72 miles per hour. As the other car slowly passed me, I could have reached out and touched it – our speeds were almost identical. It seemed as if we were hardly moving. (I wouldn’t have reached out, of course, that being a particularly stupid and dangerous thing to do – in case you wondered!)

Now assume that you were standing on the side of the road. You would have seen me approaching at great speed with another car alongside me, also going at great speed. You would have felt the blast of air as we drove past you and you would have seen our cars disappearing quickly into the distance.

It’s the same event but seen from completely different viewpoints.

So what life lessons do we draw from this? Here are some suggestions:

1. As midlifers, we have our view of the world which has formed over a number of decades. Our younger (and older) colleagues may have completely different views of the world built up from their own experiences. We should never assume that our view is the only right view; there may be a number of ‘right’ views.
2. We may speak to colleagues using a language that we have assimilated during the course of doing our job. Our conversations may be peppered with 3 letter acronyms – TLAs –which are meaningless to most people.  We are doing the equivalent of driving along the road thinking that we are talking to the car next to us when, in fact, we are talking to the person on the side of the road. He hasn’t got a clue what we are talking about because he is coming to the conversation from a different entry point.  He doesn’t understand your TLAs, why should he? People who work in government and IT are particularly good (bad) at this! 
3. People like to learn in different ways. Some like to read the words, some like to listen to the sound, some like to watch the video, some like to touch the pieces and the finished article. Some like to use a combination of these.  When we are passing on our knowledge to others we should adopt the right form of learning for each individual – not easy to do, of course. We need to identify those who are driving alongside us in their car and those who are standing on the side of the road watching us drive by at great speed.
4. In our relationship, do we always ensure that our partner understands us – the way we feel and the issues that might be pulling us apart? Are we always sure that our partner is in the car alongside us or might they be on the side of the road, watching us driving away from them?
5. In our business we are very close to what we are doing and passionate about our brands. It’s easy to assume that other people feel the same way – that they are in the car alongside us. They’ve seen the ads, they’ve tried the sample and they’re loyal followers of our brand. In fact, most people have never heard of our brand; they’re standing on the side of the road watching our car (and a lot of other cars) driving by and out of their lives.

We need to understand how the people that we’re interacting with, view us. If they’re in the car alongside us, going the same way at the same speed with the same understanding, you can speak to them in the knowledge that they will understand you.  If they’re standing on the side of the road watching us, then start the conversation with them at a much earlier point, with more background detail and explanation of what you are about.

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join here FREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here