Your future plan
In researching my latest book, I spoke with over three hundred mature individuals from all walks of life.
Many had experienced ageism and discrimination because of their age.
Now to be clear, these people were not OLD, nor lacking in wisdom, nor wanting to be RETIRED or BENCHED or SIDELINED from life.
Yet this was definitely how they were treated.
This had caused consternation, upset, introversion and stress in many of their lives.
Each of these negatives is wholly undeserved.
Organisations who have an age above which they won’t recruit are on notice. The fact that for over half of these organisations that age is 50 is staggering in its stupidity.
But there is one thing the individual CAN do and SHOULD do to take back control of their future.
And that is to make a FUTURE PLAN.
And this is one area of criticism I have of individual mature people and collectively of the group I interviewed. Only a handful out of the 300 had any sort of plan for their future. They were taking it day by day, and when the challenge of ageism and discrimination arose, they had no plan B, or C, or D.
So I decided I wanted to help.
I’ve always been a plan maker.
It is one of my super powers.
So here is some advice for those of you over 50 out there on planning the rest of your working life.
First of all work is changing. Over 80% of organisations in the US for example say that the future will see a much more freelance and project-based workforce than now.
This means if you are looking to secure your future income, you may have to look beyond the one company, one job strategy for the remainder of your career.
Second, you need to understand your value. What are your skills, what are they worth, who will pay you for them.
Third, what is your currency — can you hand on heart say that in the last couple of years you have been able to demonstrate a good record of getting things done, getting results that will underpin your value.
Beyond these three tips, I’d also like to suggest 8 areas of your life that you might find it useful to examine in some detail in preparing your own FUTURE Plan.
These are:
Self — your health, skills, goals
Family — what are your goals as a family member and for your other family members?
Environment — what about your environment?
Groups — which groups do you belong to?
Passions — what do you love?
Possessions — what do you own, what do you need?
Philanthropy — who and where do you want to help?
Legacy — what impact do you want to leave behind?
Take back control of your life and make a plan. And take a close look at what is happening with work, freelance and business to ensure you can create a prosperous future for yourself.
Good luck on the journey and reach out if I can help.
