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Studying again in your 50s is just one option for your next chapter The old three-stage life is disappearing. What replaces it? For much of the twentieth century, adult life followed a fairly predictable pattern. First came education. Then work. Then retirement. One day you are working. The next you are not. It was a simple, linear model, and for many people it worked reasonably well. You trained for a career, spent 30 or 40 years building it, and eventually stepped away from

After 30 or 40 years as an employee, a midlife career change can require a surprisingly different set of skills. For much of a successful professional career, the rules of working life are relatively clear. You have a role. An organisation employs you. There is a salary, a job description, colleagues and perhaps a team to manage. Work arrives in your inbox. Meetings appear in your diary. Someone, somewhere, has decided that your skills are needed. Then, as you begin thinking

When Retirement Planning, Stay Curious! A client recommended I listen to this week’s edition of BBC Radio 4’s Start The Week and that was where I discovered Lani Watson’s book Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers. In this book she explains that, when curious about something, the act of then asking a question creates a little dopamine hit for the brain’s reward system. In that moment we become more receptive not just to the answer we seek, but recepti

How to think about purpose, identity, workand what you want fromt he next stage of your life The Retirement Journey When people start planning for retirement, they tend to begin with the financial questions. Do we have enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement? When can we afford to stop working? What will our pensions and savings provide? These are important questions, and many people quite rightly work with a financial adviser to help answer them. But there is another

When you stop full-time employment you might need to re-contract some of your family relationships. Over recent months, a couple of my coaching clients who had recently stopped working full time raised an issue that I reckon is very common, but isn’t talked about that much. After many years of both partners in a marriage leading very busy lives and with children living at home, suddenly finding themselves spending large amounts of time at home alone with their partner was pro

As a coach, I often hear that significant transformations require six sessions, which appears to be the industry standard. Whilst that can be true, I've observed that a single conversation can sometimes redirect someone's life. A few months ago, I spoke with a former colleague who had recovered from a challenging illness but felt stuck in his professional life. He wasn't seeking answers; he needed space to think out loud. A couple of months later when we spoke again, he co-fo

Many organisations are good at managing the departure of older workers via redundancy, but far fewer are good at managing what happens to these valued employees afterwards. For many experienced employees, leaving a long-term role is not simply a job change. It can trigger a profound shift in identity, confidence, routine and purpose. This is particularly for people in their 50s and 60s who may still have 20+ productive working years ahead. Increasingly, I’m working with s

For people who don’t have a lot of money, it’s a common misconception that life is a lot easier for those who do. Through my coaching with clients who are in their 50s and 60s, I work with people who have worked all their lives, who have been made redundant and are now worrying about how to pay the bills and I also work with people who have made money and having retired in their mid-fifties, are now wondering what to do with the rest of their lives. Those who don’t have money

Later-career transition is becoming one of the big societal challenges of our time, but we’re still treating it as if it were a problem that should be solved at the individual level. I recently hosted a discussion with a group of men in their 50s and early 60s talking about career transition. These were highly experienced professionals — from finance, technology, consulting etc - people with decades of expertise behind them. The conversation covered familiar territory: CVs, n

Every transition in our lives has a stage that feels uncomfortable. We often want to discard our previous identity or role, yet we don't feel fully established in the new one. This "in-between" period, sometimes referred to as liminality, can be challenging. In her book 'Working Identity', Herminia Ibarra emphasizes a crucial point: we don’t think our way into a new identity; we act our way into it. In other words, we need to start 'walking the talk'. This March (hopefuly Spr