Too Old???

Opportunity Knocks

Who Says You Can't Live Your Dreams?
By Valerie Young

Dreamers beware: for every dream there are 10 naysayers just
waiting to dash it. It almost happened to Beverly Goodman Park.
Park was close to 60 when her marriage ended. At an age when
most people are contemplating retirement, Park decided to pursue
a long-held dream of becoming an attorney. A lot of people told
her she was too old. Undaunted, Park went to law school while
working full-time, passed the bar exam, and at 61, landed a job
at a law firm. Of her critics she says, "I thought this age
stuff was baloney."

Walter Anderson, author of The Greatest Risk of All, says by the
time we are in our 20s, we will have heard 25,000 "can'ts."
Don't expect a lot of support for your "foolish dreams."
Instead, be prepared to reach deep within to turn "can't" into
"can." Here are two motivation-boosting tips to get you started:

Become the Future You

Dreams, by their very nature, are about the future. With so many
present-day demands your dream can start to feel distant. The
more far-off the goal, the less likely it is you will act on it.

How can you make sure your dream doesn't fall prey to the
out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome? By bringing it into the
present. To do this you must become the future "you." Here's
how: The next time someone asks what you do for a living, try
answering, not in terms of the present, but as if you were
actively engaged in pursing your dream right this minute. In
other words, squelch your pat "I'm an accountant/in sales/a
social worker/a homemaker" response and instead try saying
something like: "I'm an aspiring mystery writer," or "I'm
looking into returning to school to become an oceanographer," or
"I'm in the process of changing careers to pursue my love of
gourmet cooking."

It doesn't matter if you haven't written a single page of your
future bestseller, sent away for one college catalog, or lifted
a finger to pursue your passion for cooking. What does matter is
that the dream that once felt elusive will suddenly begin to
feel real. And when that happens, you will be amazed at how much
sooner you'll get the change ball rolling. Before you know it,
you will actually BE the future you!

Get Inspired

Someone who knows a lot about the power of "acting as if" is
Steven Spielberg. Hoping to fulfill his filmmaking dreams,
Spielberg explains that he snuck onto the lot of Universal
Studios and became a "squatter" in an empty office. He even
bought plastic letters to mount his name in the building
directory. Security guards and exec's alike thought the guy
belonged there. His high jinks paid off. Spielberg's first
directorial break came when the studio bigwigs finally saw his
first film and liked what they saw.

This and other success stories can be found in Mischief
Marketing: How the Rich, Famous, & Successful Really Got Their
Careers and Businesses Going. Author Ray Simon reveals how
famous people as diverse as Mother Teresa, Duke Ellington, Andy
Kaufman, rap artist Big Pun, and Benjamin Franklin really got
started in life and how you can use their mischievous techniques
to do the same.

As encouraging as success stories can be, learning about
another's failure can be just as inspiring. Did you know that
Bob Dylan was booed off the stage at his high school talent
show? Or that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job for
"lacking ideas?" Or that Thomas Edison failed to perfect the
light bulb until his ten-thousandth try? How many "can'ts" do
you think these dreamers had to endure?

And when faced with a dream-buster, these "failure stories" can
make great comebacks, too. Would Parks' critics have been so
quick to discourage had she pointed out that Grandma Moses
didn't start painting until she was 80 years-old and that, of
her over 1,500 paintings, 25 percent were produced when she was
past 100?

"Persistence," said Robert Half, "is what makes the impossible
possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite." As
anyone who has ever chased a dream will tell you,
disappointment, self-doubt, and failure go with the territory.
The trick is to recognize these setbacks for what they really
are - bumps in the road, not the end of the road.

Publisher Katherine Graham said it well: "To love what you do
and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?" This
is your life we're talking about here. So what are you waiting
for? Catch a dream, have some fun and start turning can't into
can!


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About the Author
"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young,
Abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the
Dreamer in Residence at http://ChangingCourse.com
offering resources to help you discover your life mission
and live it. Her career change tips have been cited in
Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend,
Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN,
CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor
Syndrome, Valerie has spoken on the topic of How to Feel as
Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are
(http://ImpostorSyndrome.com) to such diverse organizations as
Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Harvard, and American
Women in Radio and Television.

To read more articles about how to work at what you love without
a job go to http://ChangingCourse.com/articles