Is it really possible to find your ideal career as late as your 50s? Few of us have the luxury of being able to pursue our dream career when we are younger. Too often the dreams we leave education with are squashed by the reality of the options available to us, and the pressure to find a job and earn money. 

As the years pass, the pressures grow – we need to pay rent, buy a home, save for a wedding and start a family. The practicalities of earning enough to afford our lifestyle don’t leave space for listening to our heart and pursuing something new just because we love it. 

But as you reach your 50s, and your children are starting – or close to – their own adult lives, you may find yourself thinking back to the dreams you had, and wondering if you’ll ever get the chance to pursue them. 

We’re here to give you permission to try! Who knows how many years of working you have left ahead of you? So why not make it your most satisfying career chapter? The key to finding your ideal career in your 50s is to ask yourself a very simple question:

“What would I do for work if money didn’t matter?”

It’s a question that feels luxurious, perhaps indulgent, but it’s also deeply practical. Because as we get older, our priorities shift. We’re not necessarily looking to climb the next rung on the career ladder; instead we can find ourselves searching for more meaning, freedom, and fulfilment.

Whether you’re still working full-time, thinking of downshifting, or ready to reinvent your career altogether, exploring what you’d love to do can lead you to surprising answers – and a life, and career, filled with more purpose. 

We’ve put together nine steps to help you along this journey and find your ideal career.

1) Remember your dreams before responsibilities took over

A good place to start, when trying to identify what you really want to do, is right at the beginning – when you were embarking on your working life. Think back to who you were when you were leaving school, college or university and what you dreamed of for yourself. 

What excited you then? What activities made you lose track of time? Consider these prompts and write your answers to them:

• What did I love doing when I was a teenager and young adult?
• If I could go back to university and study anything, what would it be?
• What job did I want to do when I was younger?

It’s important not to self-edit your thoughts here. Don’t let realism get in the way – just let what comes to you flow out. Remember: You’re not writing a business plan; you’re just trying to rediscover your essence.

2) Look for clues in your interests today

The next step is to return to today, and consider what you are naturally drawn to. What are your passions? What podcasts do you listen to? What books do you read? What kind of films or TV shows do you watch? What causes move you? What interests do you always pursue – or talk about pursuing?

The clues to your passions lie in the small, everyday things you choose in life. So list out everything you love – however small. Then look at that list and identify any patterns you can see. For example, are you drawn to creative pursuits? Do you find yourself getting outside at any opportunity?

3) Identify your “energy boosters” and “energy drainers”

There are also clues in the roles you have had over the years – whether they were your dream jobs or not. 

Think about what parts of your roles gave you a buzz, and which left you exhausted. When you felt most like you, and when you were pretending. Maybe you loved mentoring younger colleagues but dreaded long meetings? Or perhaps you thrived when organising chaos but struggled under micromanagement?

Write two lists:

• Energisers: The tasks, people, and environments that made you feel alive.
• Drainers: The ones that make your shoulders drop.

Your dream job will maximise your energisers and minimise your drainers.

4) Define what ‘success’ looks like for you now

In your 20s and 30s, ‘success’ might have meant titles, promotions, a pay rise or bonus. But as you reach your 50s, it could be very different. Perhaps today success means feeling a sense of accomplishment, more flexibility or having a positive impact on the world. 

So ask yourself:

• How do I want my days to feel?
• What kind of people do I want to spend time with?
• What difference do I want to make – big or small?

Sometimes, redefining success is the key that unlocks everything else.

5) Experiment without expectations

It’s hard to know what is really going to fulfil you without trying it. So don’t be afraid to experiment – kiss a few job frogs, if you like!

You don’t need to quit your job tomorrow or make any big announcements to do so. Instead, start small by trying a short course, volunteering in a new field, shadowing someone whose work you admire, or starting a side project. These low-risk experiments can reveal what genuinely excites you, versus what sounds good in theory.

Many people find themselves blending passion and practicality – creating portfolio careers that combine consulting, creative projects, and community work. Others start purpose-driven small businesses. And some lucky people discover that the thing they’d do for free can, with a bit of structure, become a new income stream.

6) Silence your inner doubter

Sometimes when we approach a new direction in life, we uncover a hidden fear or self-limitation. Maybe you worry that you’ve left it too late, or you don’t have the experience/talent/right to pursue this direction. 

It’s important to understand though that the inner voice you hear is not fact – it’s fear. 

Women in their 50s and beyond have a wealth of life experience, emotional intelligence, resilience, and perspective – and they are drawing on it to launch businesses, retrain, write books and enter new industries. So why not you too?

The next time doubt starts to rear its ugly hear, try these reframes: 

• Instead of “I’m starting over,” say “I’m building on everything I’ve learned.”
• Instead of “I’m too old,” say “I’m experienced – and that’s powerful.”

7) Create a vision that is bigger than a job title

This entire exercise isn’t just about finding a new career; it’s about designing a life for yourself that feels aligned. To help cement this, write a short paragraph starting with:

“In my ideal life, I spend my days…”

Describe how you’d spend your time, what kind of work you’d do, who you’d interact with, and how you’d feel at the end of the day. Read it aloud. Does it give you a spark of excitement (even if that excitement is tinged with nervousness)? That’s your compass pointing you in the right direction.

9) Take one small step every day

It’s all well and good reading advice on how to discover your true purpose and embark on a more meaningful life. But you’ll only achieve it with action. 

And that action doesn’t need to be huge, terrifying leaps. It can be just small steps, taken consistently in the right direction. 

So after reading this article, we recommend making a list of steps or actions you can take. If any feel too big or daunting, chunk them down into smaller tasks. Then give yourself one task a day. Soon you’ll find you’ve made significant progress without even noticing!

What would YOU do if money didn’t matter?

While we all may start our working lives with dreams, the brutal reality is that we need to earn money to live. And this need often dictates or limits the choices we get to make. Sometimes it can result in us ending up in careers we might never have chosen, were other options realistically within reach. 

As we approach the end of our working life, with a lifetime of experience behind us, greater self-knowledge and perhaps fewer financial pressures, we have another chance to work out what we really, really want to do, and find a way to do it. It’s not too late to create a life that feels like you. In fact, this might be the perfect time.