man-o-pause

Mid-Life Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: Time For an Encore Career?

Year end is often a time for reflection. This year brought changes of historic proportions. Some good but also challenging on many levels, especially for midlife boomers. You may be considering a lifestyle change, a midlife career change, having an identity crisis or looking for that "encore career". Boomster.com is running a contest for Boomers to win a customized research report on how, exactly, you might reach your goal.

• Win a detailed, step-by-step guide to meeting a new goal.
• Open to people ages 45-65+.
• Prepared by Barbara Oliver, former Research Director, The New York Times.
• Enter from now until March 15, 2009. One winner is chosen every two weeks.

Sample reports are available online at Boomster's Dream Library.

Struggling Through Midlife

If yesterday's post was a little flip regarding the very real anxiety men feel in today's economy, I offer another voice for career change help. He's H. Les Brown, a career change consultant, and he writes about midlife mastery and career change.

His latest article focuses on two key factors that everyone needs to take if they're feeling stuck in their job:

1. Create an exit strategy. An exit strategy is nothing more than asking, "What if?"
2. Make one decision right now. Acceptance is not complacency, but merely the first step in a series to put you on a path of a meaningful midlife transition.

What motivates a person to make a career change is different for everyone. Oddly, my exit strategy was also my decision. I found that with decision came direction. I knew what type of company culture/values I was looking for, I knew I liked the freedom of being self-employed, I expected to paid my full worth, and I knew relocating would be very stressful for me and my family.

When I accepted the fact that I no longer wanted consulting clients, for example, I created an opportunity to work in-house, on contract, for a stable, respected company without having to relocate.

Having purposely avoided the corporate environment my entire career, working for one of the largest companies in the world feels like landing on another planet, which is kind of fun for me. But if you're in a soul-deadening career, it's never too late to get career change help.

I don't know H. Les Brown personally, but his enlightening articles will at least provide the first step: Direction.

 

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~ Anais Nin

Baby Boomer Career Made In Hog Heaven

A perfect midlife career transition might be self-employment by way of franchise ownership. According to Scott Yarnell, GuruFocus, "... For the patient investor who enjoys accumulating, at reasonable prices, those rare privileged companies with a durable business franchise, current market conditions offer such an opportunity with Harley-Davidson (HOG).

"... Warren Buffet has explained that the test for a business franchise is how much harm a competitor can do to the company if the competitor did not behave rationally with regard to its own performance. In the case of Harley, the well established mystic of owning a Harley among its devoted customers appears impossible for others to imitate. Harley customers pay a premium for both the image and quality of a Harley motorcycle. The company has managed to create an entire culture.

"Although I have seen many willing to adorn their bodies with the Harley name, I have yet to see anyone with a Honda motorcycle tattoo (and not for lack of looking). For most of its customers, a Harley is the only motorcycle they will purchase. This strong brand loyalty among its customers seems to cement Harley’s status as a durable business franchise. Harley has over 49% of the market for heavyweight motorcycles in the U.S. while its closest competitor has only 15%..."

While this is not a stock recommendation, I do think it offers some insight into a viable middle age career change. If you're turning 50, why not have fun with the quintessential "male midlife crisis" product.

Men's Identity Crisis at ... 35? 50-year old men may take comfort in learning that their signs of midlife crisis are vastly different than the newly minted, mid-life men of 35. Goodbye to the Porsche or Harley Davidson. Say hello to Botox and extravagent holidays. Research commissioned to launch the DVD of Wild Hogs featuring four middle-aged men on a road trip, found that British blokes spend 24 billion pounds per year to turn back the clock as mid-life crises begin to kick in earlier than ever. Tom Phillips, a U.K psychologist, suggests that a number of reasons are at play. "It used to take people years to inherit some big job, whereas now if you've got talent you can get spotted very quickly. That means that you can get burnt out a bit sooner, and therefore you've got the syndrome of the mid-life crisis. "And when that burn-out happens, these men need to take time to discover parts of themselves that may have otherwise remained latent," Tom says. Burn-out is certainly one sign of a midlife crisis as is the desire to escape the rat race. I consider my particular midlife crises to be part of an ongoing midlife transformation, albeit career related. Once I've mastered a field of study, it makes no sense for me to continue plowing the same acreage. Echoing my sentiments is Todd who asks, "Who Needs A Midlife Crisis?" I think reevaluating where one is in life is always a good thing.

Do What You Love & You'll Probably Starve

This provocative title is counter to the myth of the Baby Boomer generation: Do what you love and the money will follow? How many middle aged people love what they do? Money, while important, takes on less importance. We're all headed for a midlife crisis when reality conflicts with myth.

Marty Nemko takes a contrarian view of career contentment, from how to choose a career to determining if self-employment is for you. If you've been thinking about career change at 20, 40 or 60, this article is for you.

John Agno, certified executive and business coach, weighs in challenging this notion:

"Experts say many people retire only to discover that work provided key sources of psychological fulfillment, such as status or a sense of purpose, that aren't easy to replicate. How are you going to continue to engage the world after your first career ends?

"As Baby Boomers near the end of their first career, it's clear many don't have a clue of what's next or even how to answer those questions. Only after the action in the first career stops do many early retirees realize they need to replace the stimulation, the social network and the psychic rewards that come from work. Mid-life career and phased retirement planning is also about how to fill your time with worthwhile pursuits during the close to 35 years in this phase of life."

Changing Your Identifications

Why Blog? Why Now?

Over Memorial Day weekend, I attended a seminar in Lake Tahoe focused on "Changing our Identifications" conducted by Joann Saraydarian. I returned with clarity and conviction, decision and direction.

Prior to leaving for the trip, I responded to a writing experiment announced in the Writer's Digest's newsletter. I'm not a writer, per se, but I'd been a publisher and editor, so I was intrigued when the sales letter offered a way to join the legions of entrepreneurs succeeding online.

Here's the interesting part: I NEVER read those long sales pitches, yet I found myself scrolling, scrolling, scrolling down the page. First I looked at the author's blog, WorldWantingPeace. His sincerity and integrity shone through. So far, so good.

More scrolling and I'm expecting the standard "call to action" where you're asked to buy, subscribe, etc. at a "discounted" rate for a "limited" time. Right!

For someone who's neither a published author nor an internet expert, to find a resource that would guide me through a step-by-step process of creating a vision, identifying a niche market, using internet research tools to validate that market, building a blog, website and more was like a gift from the gods.

Then I realized that my intention started over Memorial Day weekend. During that seminar, my heart whispered, "How can I help men?" On June 1st I opened my first lesson. I was off and running. Man-o-pause — Providing Midlife Men a Place to Breathe — is the result.

I did not know a thing about internet marketing, web design or blogging, yet here I am.

I am now in the process of creating a website that meshes with my expertise in publishing and promotion. With the help of this Experiment, I'm convinced I can transfer my offline skills to a successful online business.

There Are No Accidents

One last thing: I thought the course advertised read 60Daysto10K, which seemed reasonable. The idea being that within 60 days a person, if he were diligent, could earn $10,000 a month from his online efforts. After having jumped in with both feet and delirious with enthusiasm, I found out that the course advertised really said 60Daysto100K!

Why is this significant? Because I would NEVER have gone past the first paragraph of the pitch. It would have looked like your typical Get Rich Quick scheme.

Why did my eyes read one thing, but my mind register another?

Answer: There are no accidents. I made a decision; Universal Law provided the direction.

To Thine Own Self Be True.

Mid-Life Man-ifesto!

Hugh at Gaping Void is my new favorite thinker. "I'm interested in changing the world [however you wish to interpret that statement]. And I believe gapingvoid readers tend to be interested in writers who feel the same. That's the quality we'll collectively be looking for, so please keep that in mind," he writes.

To submit your own man-ifesto, go to GapingVoid.com and Change the World 500 words at a time.

He asked my other favorite writer/thinker for his take. Here's what Seth Godin had to say:

"Does it take 500 words to change things?

Probably not. It probably takes less than a hundred, plus a secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient is your desire to actually do something about it. To take action, to believe that it’s worthwhile, to confront what feels like a risk but really isn’t. The secret ingredient is to ignore excuses, abandon procrastination and stop looking for proof.

So, where’s my manifesto?, he asks." Is his a Mid Life Manifesto or what?

Man's search for meaning begins with you. Visit my new site, Search For Meaning, at www.manspurpose.com.

Mid Life Crisis in Marraige

This blog attracts hundreds of visitors per month all of whom are looking for answers to deeper issues, many of them questionning their purpose in life. Like

• How can a husband survive his wife's midlife crisis?
• How to heal an estranged son?
• How do I deal with my husband's midlife crisis?

Those are three of the most common queries Man-o-pause receives each month. The pattern suggests crisis on many levels. Men, women and their offspring feel disconnected and misunderstood.

When you're in the midst of emotional pain, it's difficult to act rationally. You watch the racehorse of your mind whip around the track over and over again. This is when you need to STOP; step outside yourself and ask, "If I lost everything today, who would I be?"

It also helps to step away from your environment. That's why I'm recommending a visit to www.urbanyukon.com, a community of bloggers around the Yukon Territory looking for adventurous things to do.

If you've really had it, send your wife, husband, or teenager a one-way ticket. They'll return with a changed perspective.

Because their crisis is not about you.