That moment I realized I was the one blocking my own career change at 52

I spent three years telling myself I was too old to start a garden design business, even though I had taken night classes and saved $4,000. Last month I finally set up a simple website for free on Square and booked three clients in the first week. Has anyone else found that the biggest barrier to making a change is just your own story about yourself?

3 comments

3 Comments

stone.lisa8d ago

I read that quote about how "we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are," and it really hit me with your story. That self-story thing is sneaky. You spent three years believing you were too old, but the actual evidence was right there in your night classes and savings account. It's like wearing foggy glasses and complaining the world is blurry. Once you took them off and just made that simple website, the fog cleared pretty fast.

sean_cooper588d ago

You see it everywhere once you start paying attention. My buddy spent two years saying he couldn't learn to fix his own car, then watched a YouTube video one Saturday and had his brakes done by noon. Same thing with my neighbor who kept saying her garden would never grow because she had "black thumbs." She finally planted some tomatoes last spring and now she's giving them away by the bucket. The story we tell ourselves is always way heavier than the actual thing we're afraid to try.

quinncarr7d ago

Boy, isn't that the truth - my wife spent ten years saying she couldn't cook before she finally made a box of mac and cheese one Tuesday.