- People often tell me,
or I often hear people saying,
"It's too late to pursue my dreams.
"I've missed the boat.
"At my time of life, it's too late."
And that is not true.
It is never, ever too late to pursue your dreams.
Keep listening to find out how you can pursue your dreams
and achieve them at almost any stage of your life.
You know, I love the expression,
"When you change the way you look at things,
"the things you look at change."
Because you could say, "Oh, well, it's too late,"
or you could say, "Actually, now I've retired,
"I have the time to pursue my goals, my interests."
Every single day, you get a chance to reinvent yourself.
In fact, you can reinvent yourself twice every day.
The first way is to change how you think.
And the second way is to change what you do.
It is never, ever, ever too late to find a goal,
to follow that goal, to turn that goal into a passion,
maybe to turn that go into a business.
Age is not a barrier.
And not having enough time is not a barrier.
Here's an expression I love,
"If you want something done, give it to a busy person."
So we often have a belief that we come out of school,
we go to college, we leave college,
we're trained, and we go into a career
and we stay there for life.
But, you know, who you are at 18,
who you are at 23 is often not who you are.
Some of the most successful people in the world
changed career at 50, at 60, at 70.
After all, Frank McCourt, who wrote 'Angela's Ashes,'
was a teacher in New York.
And when he retired, he had time.
He thought, "Wow, I've been teaching writing stories
"all my life."
And he finally wrote 'Angela's Ashes,'
which had one of the best opening lines ever.
He said, "A poor childhood, pfft.
"You need a poor, Irish childhood.
"You need a poor, Irish, Catholic childhood.
"That's a poor childhood."
And then he wrote ''Tis.'
And there were many people, Catherine Cookson,
Mary Wesley, who wrote 'The Camomile Lawn,'
wrote that when she was in her eighties.
She said, "I finally had time.
"I was so busy having sex, and then, at 80, I sat down
"and wrote about sex.
"When I stopped having sex, I got to write about it."
The guy who was Martin in 'Frasier'
had a very successful business
running a medical newspaper.
At 50, he woke up and thought, "Is this my life?
"I really want to act, but who's going to employ me at 50?
"I've never acted before."
But he began to act for the joy,
being in what we call amateur dramatics,
just the local theater, just for fun,
just because he had a passion, a calling to act.
And someone in the audience saw him,
cast him in 'Frasier,'
he was Martin, and he was set for life.
And when 'Frasier' ended,
they said, "What do you want to do next?"
He said, "I'm going to go back into the theater.
"I don't need the money, this is my love."
Someone called Jocasta Innes was someone in England
who, her husband left her,
she had no money, and she rented a home,
and she couldn't afford to paint it.
So she got little sample pots of paint for free
and began to do something called stippling,
which is really kind of flicking bits of paint at a wall,
so you have a pink stipple instead of a pink wall.
And, actually, she made that a thing.
People went, "Wow, this is amazing."
She started to write books about stenciling
and stippling and rag rolling.
Anita Roddick, who founded The Body Shop, had no money.
She painted the walls bottle green
because they were full of mold.
And yet, those women created something incredible.
They had a second act.
They began to do what they loved.
Often, when our children leave home, if a marriage ends,
we think, "Wow, what should I do
"with the second half of my life?
"I've always wanted to be a designer,
"a writer, I've always wanted to do this."
We are living longer than ever.
And we have the internet, where you can learn anything.
You can take any course from your kitchen table
and many of them are free.
You can learn almost anything at all online on YouTube.
So you can learn a new skill at any age.
Because, after all, when you're older,
you have time on your side.
You have patience.
You don't have distractions.
You may have the money not to have to go
and do a job you hate.
And you can also learn to be confident.
I have so many free audios on how to be confident,
how to have self-esteem, how to learn
how to apply yourself.
After all, I was a therapist very early in my career.
And much later, I became a writer and a speaker.
And then I began to train people in RTT®.
I have 20-year-olds to be therapists.
I've also trained people in their seventies.
Many people have said to me,
"You know, I retired.
"I am bored out of my mind.
"And this RTT®, wow.
"You know, I can work for two hours a day.
"I can see two clients a day or one.
"I can work three days a week or two,
"but I can do something that gives me passion and joy
"and uses my mind, but I'm sitting down,
"so I don't have to commute to work
"and stand on my feet all day."
And the great thing about being a therapist
is when you're older, you are seen as wiser.
You're seen as a sage.
So we train people of 73, 74.
I recently trained a man from Holland, who had retired
and was so sad and depressed.
He said, "My life is empty.
"I get up, I have a bath, read the paper,
"and go, 'Well, that's the first hour gone,
"'only another 16 to go.
"'What am I doing with myself?'"
He came to train with us,
he was in his very late sixties, seventy by the time he finished.
He said, "Do you know? I love this
"because it's a job that really works."
But you know what was even better?
Within a year, he married another therapist.
He found someone his own age.
They had interest in comedy.
He said, "I used to love girls of, like, 30.
"They didn't really like me,
"but now I've found this woman,
"and we're building a business together,
"doing therapy, changing people, changing ourselves."
So, you can do something you love
at almost any age and any stage.
And, remember, youth is being flexible,
and being flexible is youth.
And when you do something new,
it actually makes you younger.
It's why university professors are very youthful.
My father taught until he was in his late seventies
because, I love this expression,
"When hope dies, old age runs to meet you."
But when you're constantly using your brain,
which has a brutal "use it or lose it" mentality,
when you're using your mind to learn,
your mind doesn't age.
It's why composers and artists
are composing and painting in their nineties,
because the brain doesn't age until you stop using it.
So at any stage, you can find something new,
find something that makes your heart sing,
and it will actually keep you young
and flexible and passionate,
and all of those things are very youthful,
whereas being inflexible, you can be old at any age.
Go ahead; it's never too late to follow your dreams.
You know, I got married at 50, I'm blissfully happy.
I started to teach and train also at 50.
The best bits of my life are the end bit.
I did everything the wrong way.
I had a baby first, got married second,
found the career I love much later in my life,
but I love it because it's kept me young and happy
and fulfilled. And if I can do it,
you can definitely do it too.
If you have always dreamt about helping others,
click the link below,
and I will give you the exact steps to fulfill your dreams.
And, remember, when you do what you love, you have purpose.
When you share it, you have meaning,
and that lasts forever.