Changing Focus after Fifty

by Maura O'Scannlain and Penny Harrison

Ask any librarian what books are available on the subject of life after fifty, and you will be immediately directed to shelves full of books on money, health and pop-psych clichés. In these areas resources abound, but on the subject of a thoughtful exploration of what's attractive and available to those changing course later in life, there seems to be hardly a word. Seeking to fill this void, we interviewed a number of individuals who have made transitions that have provided both personal fulfillment and public appreciation. Their observations are instructive for those who would change course and strike out in new and challenging directions. Should you wish to carry on similar discussions, questions that we posed appear below.

Discussion Questions

1. How did health, finances, and career status influence your decision to change focus in later life?
2. Are you doing what you thought you'd be doing when you decided to change focus?
3. Are you satisfied with the way you are spending your time and if so, by what process did you get to this point?
4. Did you come to your new focus through thoughtful analysis or did you just let it happen?
5. Do you now use skills you have acquired in a new way and if so, how?
6. Is your new focus related to your earlier career and if so, how?
7. Have you changed your title to “retired,” and if so, how and when did you decide to do this? Did your social interactions change as a result, and if so, how?
8. Did you have a role model for this process and if so, how did this other person's experience affect your decision for better or worse?
9. Did your family have a role in your decision to change focus?
10. What constraints, if any, did you feel when you changed focus and did you anticipate them?
11. Is there any advice or piece of wisdom you wish you had known or ignored?

Predictors of satisfaction

Studies have been done to predict satisfaction with a change of focus in later life for those who have been thoughtful and productive in their earlier years. In general, levels of satisfaction remain high. Factors associated with these high levels of satisfaction include reasonably good physical health maintained by a balanced diet and regular exercise; a mind that is stimulated regularly; spirituality defined in any number of ways but including continued exploration; financial security; change because “the time was right” and not because it was imposed; an optimistic outlook, active participation in community and personal activities; solid, long-term, mutually supportive relationships with friends and especially spouses, which tend to improve and become all the more important as they replace the camaraderie of the workplace; a self-esteem that provides genuine self-confidence; a constantly broadening perspective; deepening insight and a crusty sense of humor. When curiosity endures and people keep themselves challenged, but not overwhelmed, satisfaction ensues. Interviewees found their fears of boredom were unfounded.

Are you ready to make a change?

Some people feel most comfortable testing the waters. One way is to keep a foot on shore by cutting back and working part time. A well-respected heart surgeon followed this course for a year. When he discovered that instead of not finding enough to do during his time off, he dreaded going in to work, he realized he was ready to move on.

For some it is a question of financial security. How do I know how much is enough, and what am I willing to sacrifice for more? At one extreme is taking the plunge into something entirely new; at the other is staying in place until we drop. But presuming that one is fortunate enough to feel secure and health is pretty much intact, the question becomes “When do I make a change?”

Carefully orchestrating a second career and successfully pursuing it may be the ideal, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule. More common is a series of new starts—volunteer work, hobbies, more involvement with church, trying to get into teaching or any other perch from which to pass on skills and lessons learned. Unfortunately, this approach often resulted in skimming along the surface of a number of endeavors without any lasting commitment to any, leading to misdirection, frustration and a continuing hope that “something will show up. For others, happy surprises arose when they decided to try something different. “One thing led to another, and before I realized it, a big change had happened.”

Some considered it fortunate to have a job that allowed them to move slowly and change focus if and when they were ready. Yet they worried that this situation could become too comfortable and keep them in a rut when an abrupt change might have forced them into new adventures and challenges. Still, as one interviewee noted, “I can think of people who have kept the same focus until the day they died, and thereby validated their lives and careers. This approach seems particularly true of artists. Frank Lloyd Wright was designing buildings until he was in his 90s. Painters Matisse and Monet kept on with their art about as long, as did the sculptor Michelangelo. I admire that kind of integrity.”

What applies to the arts may not apply so easily to other professions where “as long as they were able” can become a serious point of discussion. A few interviewees spoke of those who had “stayed too long,” failed to maintain their skills and competencies and finally, as a result, their reputations. The story of the 94-year old lawyer still coming to the office every day tended to provoke more head shaking than nods of approval. And as one physician observed, “I want to retire before I start throwing my wheels.”

For others the need to change was unrelated to any loss of competency. Still respected for the skills and judgment acquired through the years, their work atmosphere had just become untenable. Sometimes it was that friends with whom they had “fought the battle” had left. Sometimes it was that they had become “the oldest thing in the office,” and they feared being “out of touch,” as they became less and less part of the “engine that drives the entity” of which they had been an integral part. In either case, they felt the loss of autonomy and a sense being in control.

For still others, the change in focus had more to do with their personal as opposed to their professional lives. “Perhaps retirement doesn't coincide with a particular age or eligibility for a retirement check but occurs psychologically when offspring are flying on their own and when personal time becomes much more valuable than money, prestige or whatever else was driving a work life.”

Identity Crisis

Some professions wrap a person in an identity they can never wriggle out of: doctors, lawyers, people “of the cloth” find it difficult to shed a professional identity that others see them as embodying. The other side of this quandary is shedding the old coat before the new one is broken in enough to be worn comfortably.

When people quit jobs they have held for years, how do they think of themselves and introduce themselves to others? There is this from a community leader, head of an active political movement and energetic soccer player: “Personally, I often declare myself ‘unemployed' in preference to ‘retired.' Neither is especially attractive. The first implies you're no longer wanted; the second that you're old and less relevant. I do remember a friend's telling me how his social status had diminished sharply when he left his positions as CEO and could no longer make contributions and give favors.”

Or “I had business cards made out with all the usual contact information identifying myself variously as ‘consultant,' ‘opiner,' ‘curmudgeon,' etc. and handed them out as I deemed appropriate.” Or “I used ‘semi-retired.' I don't do that anymore because of the altered attitudes of people I meet. They talked down to me or saw me as a pensioner with no grasp of the real world. I now state my profession and say I work part time. Still, in spite of the difficulty of surrendering an identity built on the work of many years, the trade-off for working until the mid-sixties and beyond is a potential reduction in what you are able to do with the rest of your useful life!”

Many found an irony in facing this situation which they analogized to the old adolescent identity crisis. The questions: Who and what am I really? What do I want to do? What am I good at? What is worthwhile?” are familiar. But this time they are viewed through the lens of years of experience. Later life is the time when one is supposed to complete the pictures, fill in the blank spaces, express latent hopes, experience delayed gratifications.” And time has now become a significant factor.

Time is finite.

More and more it is time that becomes the most precious commodity. Most did not want to spend it making money or punching a time clock or pleasing someone else. A number of people mentioned how the imperatives of limited time and not putting off their dreams came home to them with the death of a close family member or friend. As the concept of career receded in importance, they began to think about what they really wanted to do with the rest of their lives.

“One thought I had was of ‘buying my time back'—that is, hopefully having saved sufficiently to have the freedom to contemplate an alternative to paid employment.”

“In my circles, the term ‘retirement' is often used in a joking way. Most of my ‘retired' friends are far from retired. I think it is a great excuse to get out of things you really don't want to do' that is, to be more and more selective as time goes by. By being selective, there is room for a greater variety of activities and experiences.”

In general, they want to be able to call their time their own, feel some satisfaction in what they do and pass back some of what they've learned.

Freedom is available.

The prospect of “retirement” used to raise the image of being “put out to pasture.” But today that old stereotype fades quickly before the real possibilities that can open up in later years. Though some constraints—health, finances, family needs, community obligations—remain, our interviewees often noted a large burst of freedom that comes later in life. Commonly this takes the form of freedom to travel, freedom to pursue hobbies, freedom to satisfy curiosities, freedom to pursue personal ambitions, or freedom just to sleep in and to do whatever whenever one wants. But one former businessman spoke of the freedom of conscience that flows from freedom from necessity and ambition. He noted that when one's children are raised and educated and one has saved enough to be secure against foreseeable contingencies and no longer has a job or customers to lose, there is at last the freedom to say and do what one thinks is right.

Image is double-edged.

As one interviewee noted: “It is interesting to me how much retirees are glamorized in current advertising by all the mutual funds that want our money and the pharmaceutical companies that want us popping their pills. The ads make it look like the reason for living is to retire, as long as we can swallow enough medicines to keep us in good enough shape to enjoy it. The best ads make us older people look rich and sexy—skippering our sailboats. Still, I think ‘retirement' as a fulfillment of a life's dream dependant on drugs is a relatively new thing. It would be interesting to see how many such ads were placed 15 or 20 years ago.

Options for Those Too Valuable to Lose

Few people approaching the prospect of ‘retirement” see themselves as sidelined. In fact, when they redirect their activities “most intelligent people avoid doing silly, stupid things." Said one interviewee, “I think good decisions require both heart and mind. Perhaps the most satisfying change in focus comes from exercising an acquired skill that has been put to a new use. Let's face it, acquiring brand new skills late in life is very difficult, But redirecting skills can be quite gratifying. My personal group of friends continues to use career skills in modified ways.”

Perhaps technical proficiency has waned a bit, knowledge of the ever-changing rules of the game becomes difficult to keep up, and technological skill remains primarily the province of the youngest player. Nevertheless, the perspective, insight and judgment as to when and how to apply those skills seem to increase with age and experience.

As one recently retired professor of medicine noted, "these MRIs, CTscans, etc. and the data they spit out are all well and good as far as they go, but they are hardly a substitute for understanding the patient as a human being, providing continuity of care and using the insight developed from a lifetime of observation and thought."

And as one recently retired practitioner of family law recalled, "I was once proud of the number of cases I'd won; now I am proudest of the number of times I have kept my clients out of court."

The retired physician, lawyer, businessman, educator, etc. becomes the researcher, the writer, the board member, the speaker, the advisor, the clinic or community volunteer. And perhaps, the musician, the woodworker, the grandparent, the mentor. Clearly the accumulated experiences of these individuals are too valuable to lose. Hopefully, others will be wise and self-confidant enough to seek them out, and they will seize the opportunities that come their way.

While there is perhaps a little too much optimism in such comments as “60 is the new 40,” history does offer stunning examples of people who take the expertise they have gained through years of experience and strike out with astounding success in new directions. Oliver Wendell Holmes was appointed to the United States Supreme Court at age 61 and served there as one of our foremost jurists for the next 30 years. Arturo Toscanini began conducting the NBC symphony at age 70, and continued to do so until he died at age 87. And of course there is Winston Churchill, whose political career lay in ruins when he was 62 and who was called upon three years later to save much of the world from a ruthless tyranny. Inspiring possibilities are abundant in our time and place as well. They need only be grasped.