Am I Too Old?

Am I too old? Although I have never been a fan of people saying they are too old to follow their dreams, I totally understand. When I think back to when I was a child, I had really big dreams for myself. Admittingly, I may have had one or two dreams of becoming a pop star. Just saying. Realistically, I always knew that I wanted to have my own business and help people. Then, somewhere between then and my twenties, I lost sight of those dreams. I began to believe that others defined my life. I jumped right into adulthood and started to get so busy with my day-to-day routines that I forgot what it was all for. I allowed them to tell me what my future was going to look like. I share this because going after our dreams at any age is scary. There is definitely risk involved, and none of us can predict the future. 

Now, I too understand that sometimes life happens, like starting a family. Maybe your parents become ill and you become their caretaker. Maybe you are working somewhere you dislike and don’t know how to leave. Whether we are on the roller coaster of life going up or coming down, we can’t just change it all when we want to. What we can do is pause for reflection. We need time to think about our journey in life and what we want it to be. How long have you been living your life with your head down on autopilot? We have all been there more than once, so please don’t feel bad if you are there right now. I want to encourage you to pick your head up and take a look around. 

Are you happy? Are you where you want to be? Do you love what you do? If the answer is no to one or all of these questions, you might have some work to do. I think it’s important to share why I am writing about this. I began working in the real estate industry in my early thirties. Can you believe I talk to people often who are also in their thirties and feel they are too old to begin a new career? Crazy right? Crazy or not, that is where some people are. What I hear when people say this is that they would rather settle in life than go after their dreams. Let me be perfectly clear here: real estate was not my dream. Yup, I said it. I didn't get into real estate because I knew so much about it or even because my family was in the industry. It all stemmed from not wanting to pick my family or a career one day. It stemmed from the impact I knew I could make on someone’s life. That’s where the magic truly started happening. You know what's funny? I am not originally from Florida. I am just a girl from New Jersey who took a risk by moving to Florida alone, not really knowing where life was going to take her. Let me be honest: I relocated in my mid-twenties. I can assure you that real estate was not even on my mind as a career. 

I do want to point out that the biggest risks I’ve taken in my life have netted me the best results and experiences. Fast forward six years, and I am still in the real estate industry, but now as part owner of a new brokerage called Game Changer Realty. 

I am also a coach to real estate agents all across the country with The Locker Room. I would never have imagined being here today as that young lady years ago. So reader, if you are finding yourself needing a change, do it! If you are finding yourself stagnant, pause for reflection. Allow yourself to dream big and make a plan. This will give you the opportunity to work backwards on how you will achieve it. What does "working backwards" mean? I’m glad you asked. It means you are looking at the bigger picture of what your dreams are and setting targets and deadlines for when you will achieve each of them. For example, I want to travel to Spain in five years. Working backwards in this scenario means I will set aside 10% of every paycheck for the trip. This would allow me to accumulate all the funds I need for my trip in four years while also giving me a year's time to plan. 

I want to encourage you to take that dream job, start that new business, move across the country, or heck, move across the world! Don’t let age be the reason you don’t pursue your dreams. Think about it: even if you are 50 years old right now reading this and you live until 90, that is 40 more years to live! Make those years count. Lastly, I’ll leave you with a quote I came across from the book titled Halftime: "If in the first half of your life you found success, make the second half of your life be of significance."