Sometimes later becomes never

Key takeaways:

• Don’t wait for the ‘best moment’ to change;
• There is never a ‘best’ moment;
• It’s never too late to start, but at times, it may be just too late to physically win;
• Act now!

It’s always interesting to have my first free consultation session with a potential coaching client. It’s like watching a real-life documentary playing in front of me (and my client, of course). Some clients came to the first trial session for hopes, some came with doubts, some came with a pile of things to do, while others may just came with no ideas. There was one common question among coaching clients: am I too late to do this?

The answer is no.

I had clients coming to see me at a late age; some after 50. Almost all of them thought that it was too late to do something to their careers or lives. In fact, most people after 50 would simply ‘accept’ the status quo of their lives and think that they will never have a chance to fulfil their dreams they had when they were young. They thought the only thing they could do in the ‘second-half’ of their lives is to passively ‘ride the surf’, whatever surf coming to them and that’s it. These clients came to me with a tiny pinch of hope and a big question mark: is it too late?

I remember I told one client that “it may be quite difficult to become a Fortune 500 CEO for you before you retire, but you certainly can live your life and do your remaining career like a CEO“!

Becoming a ‘big shot’ in a profession may not be the idea of everyone but most of us had that kind of ideas when we were young and ambitious. While life goes on, our ambition “shrinks” from ‘becoming the CEO of a big airline’ to ‘becoming the COO‘, to ‘becoming a senior manager‘, eventually to ‘achieving whatever I could‘. There is absolutely no problem with this ‘shrinking ambition’ phenomenon. Perhaps we just realised how competitive it was out there or how well we could do in lives. The only thing that matters out of all these is: have we done our best and gave it a shot when we could?

There is never a ‘best moment’ to change in your life and it’s never too late to start. It may be physically late for you to become a tennis superstar, but it’s never too late for you to enjoy tennis and even compete in the over 50 age group. Although you won’t become a super star before you die, this doesn’t stop you from trying something that you really wanna do. You can still make it to the front page of your local newspaper that reads: “Age is not a limit to an ambition- 65 yo Ironman“!

Sometimes ‘later’ becomes ‘never’. If you still want to do something, then set a goal, do a plan and act now. Perhaps you still want to open your own cafe. Perhaps you still love tennis. Perhaps you still want to become a medical doctor. Perhaps you still have that passion for astrophysics. Perhaps you still want to fly a plane and become a pilot. Perhaps you are still digging your memory and trying to find that 15-year-old version of you. Ask that young and ambitious version of you: what do I wanna do when I grow up? Your answers are there.

Ms. Diana Nyad successfully swam from Havana to Key West in the US (180KM swim) in 2013 on the 5th attempt of that journey; she was 64. It’s never to late to do something that you really want to do! Here comes Ms. Nyad on YouTube. You are amazing, Diana!

Dr. C. Richard Wu @ REEAConsulting.com