Time is on your Side

I was sitting in a hotel room in Europe when it suddenly hit me. You have so much time to develop your career. In June of 2009, I will have practised my profession for 14 years. Let's say I spend 14 more years doing it. That would imply I retire from my first profession at an age of 57. Many of my colleagues retire at that age. What is different about my next 14 years though, I will be a creator and a maestro. Compared to that stage, I have been an apprentice before. What a marvellous perspective.

I figured a while ago that there has to be a second career in my life. I was just not born to sit on a sofa in retirement. I think I will write books in my next career. I envision helping people find themselves, so I guess will be a life coach then. While I have no idea how long I would be interested in pursuing this profession, it potentially could be done for another 28 years. After all, I would be just 85 young then. Hey, wouldn't that imply that I am just a quarter into my professional life at 43? I would also imply that I am literally middle-aged now. Amazing!

I was impressed with this simple mental calculation. But how do people feel that are in their 60s, 70s and 80s? Do they also feel they have plenty of time left for self-development? To them I would say that the average person has 40 000 to 50 000 thoughts a day. Just imagine how powerful you become when you rewire your brain one thought at a time. I wanted to calculate how many thoughts I could mold in my 42 year career but I become tired at the thought of doing it. Let's stay in the now and tackle the thoughts one at a time.