In my life second chances have appeared as specific opportunities, not a realization that I'm on a blank page at the moment. Wisdom allows us to recognize and seize such opportunities.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at December 31, 2017 10:08 PM MST
I doubt if there is any easy answer to your question.
My first career choice was sculptor and part-time art teacher. That lasted about twenty years until my values changed and I became disillusioned with the zeitgeist of culture and the art curriculum in schools. I felt useless. It was, of course, accompanied by severe depression.
at 40, I went to a vocational guidance councillor and did an extensive series of tests. The result suggested I become a psychologist. I started a degree in psych at the University of New England, did a six month course in Rogerian style counselling at Lifeline and then volunteered there for two and half years, and did the first of two years in a course in Gestalt. Eventually I decided it wasn't for me. There were far too many risks. I did not want to experience a client committing suicide: 1 in 100 do, which would make it inevitable. I did not want to deal with the ethical conundrum of having to break a confidence by being ordered to bear witness in a court. I did not want the inevitable failures that would arise with some clients who were criminal perpetrators.
Instead, impulsively following a childhood dream, I retired to the country to breed and train Arabian horses. That failed financially in a remarkably short time. It left me with little but landcare and weed-work. I found myself again in the acutely uncomfortable emotions of not knowing what to do with my life. I tried a practical approach, retraining and working in aged care, but found the fate of the institutional aged far too depressing.
Over a period of about seven years I found myself writing novels and poetry, never treating it as anything other than a pleasure. Then it dawned on me that maybe I could take it up seriously. I'm now back at uni, at age 61, studying Creative Writing. I'm doing well, loving meeting fellow writers, and it's starting to look as though finally I have found my right direction, and my right way to be useful in the world.
[W]e[y]lon Musk 