I am stuck in a right hole in my life, I am 46 and haven’t found what I want to do with my life

[Guest]

I sort of fell into work with children as it was easy with my kids but to be true I am not sure if it’s really what I like. Have thought about retraining but feel I am to old only got gcse in English so that doesn’t help no Alevels. I used to work in hospital in outpatient as a receptionist which I liked and as a kid I always wanted to work as a nurse etc like a lot did. I have thought about training to be a counsellor as I am a interested in Mental health with my own experience with my son, but think that will be hard to get a job after.

I Just don’t know anymore I just feel I jump around and never what I truly want to do. Then all the courses have started already so another issue. I just feel it’s to Late..

[Gem]

I trained to be a counsellor at 39 (46 now). Took around 4 years. It was quite expensive and took up all my time at the end but worth it! X

[Rachel]

OMG! I'm 46 and I'm in a similar boat to you! I'm now trying a couple of things but lack confidence and think it's too late or compare myself to everyone. We're still young my friend, we've got this!x

[Catherine]

You can do an access course then move onto nursing, see your local college or university.

[Mary]

Does anyone know if it’s possible to train to be a counsellor and work(I work 30hours and can’t afford to give up work whilst I train.

There also seems to be so many different courses and don’t know where to start as I don’t want to waste my time looking into courses that won’t be recognised??

[Jenni]

Feel your pain.

I was a PA for many many years but had to quit work 2 years ago as I lost my dad and had to be a carer for my Mum who has dementia. She is now in a care home which take the pressure off a bit, however I’m 48 and my youngest is 10 years old. I can’t stand the thought of going back into an office now but feel too old to re-train and I’ve had enough stress these last couple of years, I can’t take more on. It’s a weird phase of life.

[Natasha]

Never too late to retrain. I'm currently retraining in something wildly different to anything I've ever done and there's people of all ages, the oldest in their 50s I think.

[Kathryn]

I’m 39 soon and still don’t know what I want to do. I left school with no GCSEs and always just got by but in the last couple of years I’ve started to think about a career.

I really wanted to be a nurse, so I started looking into that and was prepared for a lot of hard work. The first step was functional skills level 2 maths and English, which I now have but then I changed my mind again and ended up training to be a driving instructor.

I still feel like there’s something else out there for me though so I think I’ll continue with college and maybe even uni one day. It’s never too late

Don't miss: What age is it acceptable to talk to a kid about life being short and only having one life?

[Jessica]

NOT TOO LATE! Never ever too late!

My mum retained as a midwife, going to college at 40 to do an access course. Now my mum didn’t have two GCSEs to rub together, she wasn’t stupid but she didn’t need a job, she needed a rich husband!

So she was completely unaware how to use a computer (couldn’t turn it on) was rubbish at maths and even worse at writing. She gained her Batchelor of Science 4 years later. It was bloody hard, but she smashed it and become a midwife in the end.

You go girl. You do
whatever you want and don’t let anyone tell you ‘it’s too late’!