Good things happen with planning!

As my friend Ellen pointed out to me today, I'm living an amazing life, so I should stop screwing it up with stress! It's possible that she fears my physical destruction with the constant travelling, having a family, earning a doctorate, working full time (remotely) and now starting a consultancy. I too see some possible disasterous endings to this scenario, but I believe some well placed strategies will make this work. The nice thing is that everything feeds each other, which is the first strategy. Many of my ideas for both the consultancy and my work as a director of online education is fed directly from my required research for the doctorate in the very field for which I'm working. Also, taking one small step at a time with the consultancy is an important strategy, but a name, philosophy and experience is needed in preparation for the eventual work I want to enter.

Bottom line with this story is that good things happen, especially when you work it. Now I just have to manage it. A few things I've successfully learned through the last five years that brought me to this point of satisfaction and excitment in my career:

1. Choose a field that you feel reasonates with your personality, passion and long term goals.
2. Choose a degree in that field that is either very classic or very new. There are a lot of 'tired' trendy degrees out there.
3. Make sure that the job you want is not only in demand now, but going to be more in demand in the future. This requires understanding the big picture of that industry and impact the economy will have on it, ie, education is an industry that does well in recession.
4. Think about the target audience or group that you'll have to work with - are you a face to face person or somebody behind the scenes? Make sure your goals fit that personality.
5. Keep abreast of publications and try to get involved with professional groups within that field.
6. Network the crap out of contacts!

As you can see, this requires some upfront thinking and reflection, but it's never too late to find what fulfills you. I've seen so many successful people in careers they love who started completely over in mid-life. What you did before or do now cannot be a waste because you carry those experiences and knowledge into whatever field you wish to enter.