It is never too late for a work-life balance change.
Most of us go through life accepting the concept of working full-time until retirement.
Nevertheless, while many continue to take conventional retirement at around 65, it’s not unusual for 50-year-olds to reinvent their careers and their lives.
Boundaries have moved. A new paradigm involves work and personal life as a whole.
It is not about planning for an early retirement. It is about thinking of “working time” differently, going towards a meaningful activity.
The meaning of life drives our decision about the kind of life we want to lead, particularly when we consider the idea of escaping the daily routine of our work. And, definitively, people in their 50s and 60s look for something different.
However, considering changing your way of life/work is a significant step and making wise life choices is not as simple as it might seem. Of course, financial matters have a huge influence on choice. But non-financial matters can be even more important. What are we looking for in life? What do we want to experience while we can? What time do we want to allocate to our self-development? To our family? To others?
What could be key plans for a potentially different future? A large proportion of people will consider work a vital balance. Others won’t have any difficulty in imagining a life devoted to leisure. And others, still, will take the opportunity to re-evaluate their careers from a different perspective.
Couple and family balance has also to be considered. A proper desire to change doesn’t mean that all members of the family want to do the same. A partner who has a fulfilled personal or working life may not necessarily want to change her/his way of life. It is essential for the one who has more free time to respect her/his partner’s own pace.
A good starting point for change is looking at people who have successfully made a real change:
Paul, 55, for instance, made the decision not to look for a job as a marketing director after having been made redundant. He decided to organise his life differently, and planned both financial matters and his free time. He now devotes a third of his time to work – consulting and developing a start-up – another third of his time to his own development – sport, culture, etc. – and the last third of his time to his family and friends. This new kind of life perfectly matches his needs and expectations of pursuing different interests.
Like Paul, at this stage of life, people don’t have to prove anything ... or want to prove anything either! They are probably looking for more freedom, more pleasure and different challenges. Or they simply want to participate to a sustainable de-growth, consuming and enjoying life differently.
Nevertheless, an unprepared change in work rhythm can be challenging even sometimes depressing. Those who are still of working age might feel isolated in their social life. Those who don’t have specific activities/interests planned or working options could be quickly bored. Those who spend too much time on leisure can feel emptiness and loss of life meaning.
This kind of new life has to be prepared and planned to make this wonderful challenge an amazing new way of life.
The 3TimeProject helps you to assess both your financial and personal situations, so that you can choose to reset your time balance, work differently and enjoy life more.
If you would like to find out more about how we’ve helped people fine-tune their work-life balance, contact us: https://www.3timeproject.com/contacts
F. Carbonnel
