I’m 57, have no savings, and am unemployed. Is it too late to turn my life around? An open letter response.

An open letter to a mid-lifer that recently posed this question on Quora.com.

I’m 57, have no savings, and am unemployed. Is it too late to turn my life around?

Absolutely not!!!

It’s never too late to start but always too early to quit!

Consider that you may have 20–30 years ahead of you – maybe more if you have been taking care of yourself physically. That’s 1–2 generations. Think of how much we have progressed in that amount of time.

You can make lots happen in that amount of time also.

It’s been said that we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in one year and greatly underestimate what we can get done in three years. Think of it as momentum that develops through planning and compounded effort.

While I don’t know your life situation, I feel safe in saying that you got to 57 with some successes along the way. It’s only in your head that it’s disgraceful to be unemployed and with no savings. It’s no comfort to know that there are lots and lots of folks in this leaky boat with you, but it is a fact.

And, frankly, nobody is thinking about you or really cares – you just think they are.  This will erode your self-image and make the road ahead harder if you concern yourself with that.

So start by reminding yourself of what successes you’ve had and what it was that made you successful at it. All of us have innate talents. Often, we leave them unpolished or unrealized as we strive to meet the cultural expectations of parents, peers, professors, and politicians that take us down a path of conformity and comparison at the expense of allowing these deep talents to flourish.

Ask yourself:

• What do I really, really like doing?
• What am I really, really good at?
• What advice do others seek from me?
• When have I been in a “flow state” where what I am doing makes time fade away?
• What would I be doing if time and money weren’t a factor?
• What would your five closest friends say you are?
• If I stumbled into my own funeral, what would you like the eulogist to be saying? And who would it be?
• What does this world need that I can provide?

When you have that figured out, then get aggressive about finding a match for that combination. Let the match with your talents be the guide to your decisions and not money.

When you have your talents aligned with your work, you’ll see the rewards come.

In step with this, it sounds as if a change in self-discipline is in order as well. As in, spend less than you make. With a 30–40 year runway, you have the opportunity to make a solid financial recovery. Plus when you are doing what you love, you aren’t likely to succumb to the social pressure to “retire” and potentially squander a couple of decades of fulfilling, meaningful creativity and production.

Remember, that creativity is not age-dependent. And mental senescence is not automatic. Your creative brain will grow as long as you continue to challenge it.

A future bigger than your past.

So think of it as being 2/3 done with 1/3 left but with the advantage of being able to leverage accumulated life skills, work experiences, and wisdom into a lifestyle of work that can be more gratifying, purposeful, fulfilling, and financially rewarding than the first 2/3.

You are uniquely gifted and far from a slug. Recognize that, change your self-talk, get into motion, get help, and launch your restart. And remember that our society needs you to be a producer and not another “hanger-on” or someone on the dole.

Good luck – and thanks for putting yourself out there.

Beginning is half done!!