“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C. S. Lewis.

Last week, I was very fortunate to see Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra perform in concert at an arena in Birmingham (UK). It’s the third time I have seen them in concert in the past 3 years and it was a great evening with tremendous music, visual effects and lighting. There were lots of great tracks with feel good lyrics and it was fun. I felt very grateful to be part of the audience.

ELO enjoyed tremendous success across the world in the 1970’s and 1980’s producing great tracks like Mr Blue Sky, Livin’ Thing and Don’t Bring Me Down. I mentioned Jeff Lynne in a chapter of my first book Be First Class. The chapter was called “You are never too old to pursue a dream.” I have included extracts from the chapter in this blog.

I once heard an interview with Jeff Lynne (now 70) where he explained that he thought his days of delivering concerts were over in 1985. Since then he had established himself as a very successful record producer. He produced tracks for artists such as Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Bryan Adams plus others.

However, in 2014 he was persuaded to be part of the Radio 2 live concert in Hyde Park, London. He stated that he was extremely nervous prior to going on stage given he hadn’t played a concert for almost 30 years.

He thought that it wouldn’t be a very big audience and that not many people would be interested in watching their set because they were only interested in watching the headline acts perform later. Therefore he was amazed and thrilled to play to 50,000 people who seemed to really enjoy the show!

This positive experience inspired him to go back to his home in Los Angeles and write some new material and record a new album which was released in November 2015. They also arranged a tour of various arenas which were played to sell out audiences!

It’s always wonderful to see people start a new chapter in their life and in some cases enjoy a renaissance in their later years. The advances in medicine mean that people are living longer. Therefore it’s possible to experience and do things in our old age that wouldn’t have seemed to be possible 40 or 50 years ago. There are many possibilities for people to explore.

It made me think of all the times that I’ve heard people talk about a dream they had when they were younger or talk with a touch of regret about something that they’ve always wanted or would like to do but haven’t yet accomplished. Only to say “but I am too old now.”

A story that I love which counters this limiting belief, is the story of Cliff Young.

Cliff was an Australian potato farmer and athlete, best known for his unexpected win of the Sydney to Melbourne ultra-marathon (543 miles) in 1983 at 61 years of age.

What makes this feat even more incredible is the way that Cliff went about winning the race. It’s normally only attempted by world class athletes, who train specially for the event and are typically less than 30 years of age. In fact it was the first race that Cliff had entered!

When he showed up at the start of the race in 1983, Cliff was wearing overalls and work boots! Everyone watching was shocked to discover Cliff wasn’t a spectator when he picked up his race number and joined the other runners.

Once the race was underway, Cliff didn’t even run properly; he appeared to shuffle. Many people feared for the farmer’s safety. The professional athletes knew that it took about 5 days to finish the race. In order to compete, they ran about 18 hours a day and slept for the remaining 6 hours.

Cliff wasn’t constrained by conventional wisdom. He was unaware of this approach to the race. Whilst the top athletes slept, he kept on running! To everybody’s disbelief, Cliff ran the whole five days without any sleep and secured an amazing victory!

Today, the “Young-shuffle” has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it is considered more energy-efficient.

Is there something that you have always wanted to do but haven’t yet accomplished?

Maybe there a hobby you have always wanted to start or somewhere you would like to visit? Possibly there is somewhere you have always wanted to go on holiday to? It could be that you would love to do some studying, write a book, see the Northern Lights or maybe change jobs.

Life is too short to put off something that’s special to us. I believe that none of us should die with the music still inside us.

With this in mind, why not take a few moments out this week to reflect and think about if there is something you’ve always wanted to achieve.

Take the opportunity to be honest with yourself and get clear on what’s stopping you. Determine if this is still something you would like to do. If it is, commit to taking action to make it happen and decide what your first step will be. Also consider if there is any help you need in order to make sure that you fulfil your dream and potential.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk