It’s never too late

It’s never too late.

Whatever stage you’re at in life, it’s worth bearing in mind the above words.

It is never too late.

It’s never too late to make a change and alter the course of your life. To embark on a new career or begin the steps necessary so the life you envision or dream about can become a reality. To rekindle old friendships or make amends.

Initially, such change needs to come from within, usually following a period of soul-searching. This is how you come to an understanding of yourself and knowing what you truly want out of life. Not what others want of you, but what you want to accomplish for yourself.

Once you change your mindset, you can plan your course of action, for without action change cannot happen.

The transition is one that is both internal to external.

Mindset to action.

Complacency and comfort are the enemy of change.

For years I was stuck, like a rat on a spinning wheel. I felt trapped. Stuck in a routine I hated and desperately unhappy because at my core I wasn’t living an authentic life. I wasn’t doing the work I believed I was born to do, but what others wanted or expected of me. In effect, I was living someone else’s life. A square peg in a round hole.

In order to find success in any field, two things are required . The first is a genuine interest in your work and the second is an aptitude for that work.

If either of those two elements are missing, things are out of balance or off kilter and will require more effort to get things right. You will tend to struggle and it soon becomes a never-ending uphill battle which saps you energy and motivation.

In my case, family pressure and circumstances pushed me in the wrong direction.

I’m a typical creative. I don’t like routine or structure, nor do I possess strong attention to detail. I was pushed from job to job, and this took a toll on my self-esteem. I felt like a failure.

It’s not even that I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did. I wanted to be an author. There was even a period early on when I gathered some information together about my great, great, great uncle James Tyson. I thought it would make a wonderful story—a great Australian novel. Banjo Patterson has immortalised him in a poem called T.Y.S.O.N.

James Tyson’s story is an inspiring one—a typical rags to riches story—the son of a convict turned self-made millionaire. A man determined to forge his own path despite the cards he’d been dealt. In fact, growing up the son of a convict made James more determined to succeed. He’s an example of a pioneer entrepreneur and like many entrepreneurs achieved success at a young age.

I guess I wasn’t as driven as James Tyson. Although I hated my job, I was comfortable and became complacent. While boring, my job didn’t require too much effort. It paid me an income that I spent on meaningless stuff. Spending became a way to self-medicate, to somehow make me feel better. In one way I would call it laziness, but also I believe that deep down I lacked an essential ingredient for success.

Confidence.

I didn’t believe I was good enough. Essentially, it was a fear of failure that let me down. This was my roadblock.

Over the years, my routine job became more intolerable. There was even a period where I hopped from job to job like a rabbit on the run from the fox, the period between each job lasting but a few weeks, where I never passed probation. I felt like what is wrong with me? I can’t keep a clerical job.

I knew this was an obvious message. I wasn’t following the right path. There was no growth, let alone fulfilment.

I realised it all came down to me and only I could change things. If I did nothing about the situation, nothing would change. The perfect job was not going to fall into my lap, nor was I going to get where I wanted to without effort. Lots of effort.

Writing a novel is a monumental task, but anything worth doing requires effort. You need to think what’s more difficult? Spending day-in, day-out in a job that makes you miserable or taking the steps to change things?

If you believe in yourself, anything is possible!

Never forget you are the master of your destiny.

How you live your life is up to you.