When I was 40 I bought a Harley-Davidson…. while my wife was out of the country. I told everyone that that was my mid-life crisis. As a baby boomer I rationalized that this purchase was appropriate and better than some other mid-life decisions I have heard of other people making. I’m not sure my wife agreed completely. Eight years later I still have the motorcycle. And my wife.
I’ve only really had two jobs in my adult life. For the first 16 years I worked for the same Information Technology firm and for the past 10 years I have been a fee-only financial advisor. I enjoy working with people and really like making complex topics, like retirement planning, easy for people to understand. I thought I would be a financial advisor until I retired. My, how things change.
Throughout my working years I have always volunteered along with my wife and children. I have been involved with the American Heart Association, Rotary, Arms of Life, the Refuge, my church, international mission trips, and Center Grove Band Boosters to name a few. My main focus has tended to lean toward “heart” organizations and international mission work. Our 18-year-old daughter, Alex, was born with serious heart disease and has had 10 cardiac surgeries over the years. Combine that fact with our various international mission trips and it was easy for us to see that children in other countries are not nearly as lucky as Alex has been because they do not always have access to life-saving heart surgeries.
About a year ago I started doing internet research into how we might be able to help poor Honduran children get much needed heart surgery. I mentioned Honduras because our family has spent extensive time there over the years. I attended a conference in the Dominican Republic and began to meet people in various international organizations who strive to provide cardiac surgery to needy kids around the world. One such organization is called the International Children’s Heart Foundation, or ICHF. Based in Memphis, TN they send medical teams around the world and perform more than 500 surgeries per year on children in underdeveloped countries.
So, here I am at age 48 facing yet another “mid-life” change – not a crisis. Although this one doesn’t involved any motorized vehicles, yet. I started talking with the ICHF and began to wonder if my skill set could be used to further their mission. I suddenly found myself moving from potential volunteer to potential employee. Could this really be happening? Another career change? Moving from the business world to the non-profit world after 26 years? How much stress can one Boomer take?
So, in January I embark on my third career. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average U.S. worker changes careers 3-5 times during their lifetime. Okay, so I am only on my third. Whew, what a relief to be “average.”
The difference this time is that I am truly passionate about what I am going to be doing. I enjoyed working in the I.T. industry for 16 years. I really liked helping clients for 10 years in the financial services industry and many clients became friends. But this “mid-life crisis” is different. I am passionate about helping save children around the world who have heart disease. I am comfortable telling the story of our daughter and how she wouldn’t have lived had she been born in an underdeveloped country. I know what it is like to wonder what to do when your child is critically ill. We always had a hospital just down the street with qualified surgeons and cardiologists. But many times in these underdeveloped countries the parents of “heart babies” are simply told to take their child home and keep it comfortable as it dies. Now I can look some of those parents in the eye and tell them about my daughter’s struggles and how their child can get the same surgery, provided free by a group of caring medical professionals from the United States.
Are you ready for your “second act”? Are you following your dream? Are you making the difference you want to make? If you feel empty in your career then start planning for a change. That may mean new training, assessing your strengths and weaknesses, and networking. It will also undoubtedly involve evaluating your finances to see if a mid-life crisis fits in to your budget. You may need to trim expenses and save money to make the transition.
Just don’t sell that Harley !
