It Is Never Too Late

Life shouldn’t be a spectator sport and neither should retirement.  Too many people wander through life content to go along with the crowd.  That’s a recipe for a life of regrets and I have become determined not to let that happen.  It is never too late to change and taking that first step toward a more focused and active life can make all the difference in the world.  Retirement is a gift that not enough people take advantage of.  Yes, it’s a time for leisure and hobbies and everyone has earned that spot on the porch to rest and reflect on a life well lived but make sure you’re not letting any of your dreams go unfulfilled.  It is never too late to re-visit your past and do all of the things you fantasized about but never attempted because life got in the way.

I spent many hours in meetings as part of my time in Corporate America and learned that almost nothing gets done in a meeting.  You listen to people talk about something, but you never see them doing anything.  I came to realize that’s how many people live their life – they talk about what they want to do, but they never actually do it.  I wanted to live my life differently and I started to read as many self-improvement books as I could.  I didn’t just read them; I tried to put the advice into action.  I admit I played it safe.  What I should have done was find a job or career that I loved or start a business that aligned with my interests, but I chose to continue in my well-paying job and put my focus on an active retirement.  It has made all the difference.  The bucket list of travel destinations are now almost complete and we continue to plan to see the remaining places we haven’t been to.  We’ve even been to New Zealand and Australia and that was one of those goals that we knew was a bit of a reach.  It turned out to be even better than we thought and we would repeat that whole trip without hesitation.  I don’t say this to brag.  I say it to inspire you to start making your own dreams come true.  I know for a fact that it is never too late to do something you become determined to do.

It is never too late to turn your life around.

One of my mentors over the years has been Matthew Kelly and one of his first books, The Rhythm of Life, is one that I refer back to again and again.  In an early chapter in the book, he makes it a point to say that you’re never too young to do anything because people at extraordinarily young ages have accomplished things that are absolutely amazing.  He also makes it clear that you’re never too old to do anything either.  When I first retired, I looked at this list and took it as a challenge.  It has been a source of inspiration ever since and was one of the motivating factors for me to start this website.  I hope some of these facts inspire you to review some of your dreams and come to the same conclusion that I did: it is never too late to pursue a dream.

Every field has a bunch of late bloomers who can inspire the rest of us.  Two corporate legends came to success fairly late in life.  Henry Ford didn’t start his first assembly line until he was fifty and Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers at fifty-two to start the Golden Arches empire.  And another fast-food success story was started by Colonel Sanders after realizing his social security check wasn’t going to be enough to live on.  Dom Perignon was sixty when he first produced champagne and Oscar Hammerstein was sixty-four when he wrote the lyrics to The Sound of Music.  Can you imagine becoming famous right now for something you have yet to do?  It’s possible.  As these people illustrate, it is never too late to follow your dream.

Winston Churchill was sixty-five years old when he became Great Britain’s Prime Minister and partnered with Franklin Roosevelt to save the free world.  Nelson Mandela was released from prison at the age of seventy-one and became the President of South Africa four years later.  Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent bifocals until he was seventy-nine and Michelangelo was seventy-two when he designed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Frank Lloyd Wright’s work on the Guggenheim Museum wasn’t completed until he was ninety-one and Ichijirou Araya was one hundred years old when he climbed Mount Fuji.  Not one of these people looked at their age as a barrier and neither should anyone.

Too many people die with their music still in them as the great philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said, and I have come to look at retirement as my time to make sure that doesn’t happen to me.  I don’t want to just talk about what I have done in the past.  I would rather focus on what I plan on doing in the future and making it come true.  Even if I don’t get to cross off everything on my list, I have come to realize that the journey is as much fun as getting to the destination.  It is never too late to create new dreams, re-visit old ones and then have the time of your life pursuing them.  Why not start today?  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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