Why it's never too late to start
I'm 36 on Saturday. In my head, I'm still in my late twenties. Looking at me, I guess I could pass for 32. And last year I started my own business. This one. The coaching one. If you're reading this and didn't know I'm a life coach, take a look here when you’ve finished reading the article.
When I was younger, I thought that at 36, I'd be climbing up the career ladder, smashing those deadlines with the world at my feet. I'd maybe have a child, definitely have a nanny, and be happily married. Nothing like the pressure of societal norms to make you feel like you're not at the 'right stage' in your life to do something different that works to YOUR schedule. Anyway.
The weird thing is I've done a lot of those things, just in a *very* different order.
I got married when I was 23 and divorced at 27. It wasn't right for lots of different reasons, so I decided to start my life again on my own.
A couple of years after that, I decided that I was ready to start afresh in London. So I packed up everything I owned and swapped a two-bedroom apartment for a bedroom in a house for more than double the price. And it was still cheap.
In 2019 after my breakdown, I had to start from scratch with a lot of things, figuring out what made me happy, what I should keep doing and what I shouldn’t. Values became a huge focus for me, and continue to be in my coaching life.
“Never give up on a good thing, remember what makes you happy.”
-George Benson
At the end of 2020, I was made redundant from my full-time gig. So now, it was time to start again. To put one foot in front of the other.
The reason I'm telling you all this is to highlight that it's never too late to start something. When I was 27 and unhappy, I could have said that it would be too late to create a new life for myself and still be exactly where I was.
I could have chosen to stay in the North because it was too late to make a change. I wasn’t unhappy, but I know I wanted more.
Had I not had the breakdown, I don’t think I’d have started exploring the notion of becoming a life coach. At 35, when I thought my career was on a specific trajectory, things changed, and here I am, starting and now running a new business and writing this article to you from my bed on a dreary Wednesday afternoon.
Inspired by others
I've been reading a biography by Ruth Jean Miller. She's a 90 something-year-old burlesque dancer and comedienne. If you live in London, you might have seen her on the comedy scene in Angel. I've seen her a few times now, and she's fab. Anyway, in her book, I found out that she didn't become a comedienne until she was 70 YEARS old. She found something that she loved to do and she did it.
Sadly, Captain Sir Tom Moore passed away earlier this week, and he didn't inspire the nation with his walking achievements around his garden until he was 99 YEARS old.
Christian Dior was 41. Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, was 42. Julia Child was 49 before she changed cooking in America. J.K. Rowling was 32 and had a round of rejections before "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published. The list goes on.
It's not too late to start something. Please don't let people make you think that it's too late for you to start that side hustle, or take up fencing or start to play the ukulele or whatever it might be that you want to do. It's not. I assure you.
Of course, there's fear, confusion, worry, excitement, and a whole host of other things. But the worst thing you could ever have to live with is regret. Do you want to be sitting on your deathbed thinking, 'shit, I wish I'd just tried it to see what happened.'
You'll either succeed or learn something about yourself from the situation. So what are you waiting for?
I can probably help…
If this article has resonated with you then maybe we should talk. I’d love to hear about what you want to start, or maybe what you’re hesitant to. Drop me an email or a DM and have a look here at how we can work together.
