Be …Top 10 tips for staying in work after 50

1. Be prepared to earn less money
2. Release your inner entrepreneur. If divorce or other life crises have meant you have not managed to accumulate or hang on to valuable assets like property think imaginatively about concurrent income streams to protect yourself. I rent rooms and am trying to make money from my blog.
3. Apply for lots of jobs and don’t be sniffy about them. Basically, if I can meet the person spec I apply and when job hunting I will always have multiple applications on the go. It means there is always something to hope for when you get a rejection.
4. Be prepared to travel. Lack of flexibility is a turn off for employers at any age.
5. Be current. Read a newspaper or watch the news. Better still listen to what young people around you are saying.
6. Be positive. Don’t moan if you want to stay in work and never compare the present unfavourably with the past. Find something that is now that you can genuinely be passionate and enthusiastic about.
7. Read Bob Buford’s book, ‘Half Time – Changing your Game Plan from Success to Significance’. It’s basically a book about reassessing what is important in your life mid-stream. I am a bit past the mid-stream to be honest and I have definitely been reassessing for some years, but I liked this quote:
‘The demands of life and the nature of youth together make it very difficult to understand the biblical truth that in order to appreciate the magnitude of your individual significance, you must also understand and accept how small you are. While the first half is all about gaining, which sometimes results in loss, the second half is more about releasing and relinquishing, which usually results in strength. You do not see that clearly when you are 26 years old.’
Read my review of the book www.hazeldurbridge.com/the-second-half/

8. Add value. Use all that life experience to see where you can add value. You may not be in a position of power and leadership any more, but you can do amazing good through well thought out interventions in group and individual situations.
9. Look after your health. However pared down references are now, one critical question is always levels of absenteeism.
10. Develop the mind-set that every day is a gift. Sometimes when my bones ache and I think I am getting too old for the commute I remind myself that I thrive on the discipline, the learning something new every day and that if I was not working I certainly could not afford holidays.