Science Says: Live Your Best Life Now — Focus On Career Later

Photo by Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash

When does a midlife crisis start?

When I was in my twenties, I thought I was in a midlife crisis, but it turned out to be a career crisis — I was not happy in my job but was living in an age when people simply just did not change careers often.

Then when I was in my thirties, I thought I was in another midlife crisis. Figuring I would live to 65 or 70 years old, it seemed logical that I would have my crisis mid-way through. So I pursued my entrepreneurial dreams with the idea that I would glide into retirement.

Then, I sold my business and was faced with the fact that I was nowhere close to retiring. Now in my forties, I realize I needed yet another career move but had to consider that the best years of my life might be behind me.

Well, it turns out, science thinks I may just be getting started. Thank you, science.

As recently reported in Quartz by reporter Corinne Purtill, psychologist Laura Carstensen, the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, thinks we should be starting our full-time careers when we turn 40.

According to Carstensen, the current career path many have followed for decades — going to school and starting a career in our twenties — is no longer realistic, as it fails to take into…