Are You Too Old?

I’ve had it in the back of my mind that in addition to my blogging and novel writing I wanted to add one more something to my repertoire. My plan from the moment I left Corporate America has always been for multiple streams of income.

I haven’t talked about it here. But I have been planning another stream. In face I have been working just this week to add a page to this blog with more information on what that will look like. Then this morning as I was sitting at a table at the 85Broads breakfast, when it was my turn to introduce myself, out of my mouth slipped my first soft launch. I am a novelist, blogger and coach.

Yes, Coach.

One of the things I have learned in the last year and a half is that many people just don’t know what to do when faced with a pink slip. Others dream of having the courage to leave their job on their own and go off and do what they have always wanted to do. Others still don’t know what that is. Some like what they do and where they are but are feeling stagnant and ready to reposition themselves for what’s next. Then there are those who just think they are too old to do anything different.

It is such a scary place. Trust me, I have been there more than once. Too scary to navigate on your own. A person needs guidance, a road map and most of all coaching that yes, they will win at whatever they create as what’s next. Which is how I came to decide to add on a coaching practice. But more about that in another blog. Let me get back to the point of this one.

I offered up my experience and vision for my coaching practice. One of the women fell into the category of worrying that she was too old to do anything different.

I cringed as she said it. I remembered when a few years into teaching school I thought I was too old to try something new. I was twenty four! In retrospect that was an insane thought. But it was my thought then as it was hers now.

But it got me thinking, what is too old? Are you ever too old to make a change? Or is change the antidote to aging?