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LIFELONG HABIT: Forget self-conscious networking. Instead, concentrate on making friends and on being a friend. Take an interest in other people, remember their stories, stay in touch, send thank-you notes and celebrate people’s successes. Be the friend you’d like to have—loyal, generous and trustworthy. Take small social
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risks: Invite people to join you in something, offer a ride home, learn to accept help and be generous with your time. In your 50s: Include younger people among your friendships as well as the older and more powerful people who can help you now. Like networking, “mentoring” has become a cynical cliché, but inside the phony stuff is something
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valuable. Make a point of spending some time with younger colleagues and people in your area, but be careful that you listen to their concerns more than you preach to them. As your friends’ children come of age, take an interest in them, too.
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LIFELONG HABIT: Stay fit—exercise enough to sleep well, have plenty of energy and stay healthy. Control your weight. If stress is a problem in your life or work, make changes. Don’t hover between a rock and a hard place; figure out a better spot and move toward it—even if it’s a lateral move. Avoid unnecessary financial stress, which usually boils down to:
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Live enough below your means to prevent financial problems, build up an emergency fund and set aside regular savings for future goals and needs. In your 50s: Periodically evaluate your wardrobe and your overall style. Get rid of clothes that look dated no matter how much you liked them when they were new. Is your hair thinning, graying or
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receding so that it’s time to change the way it’s cut or styled? Be wary of coloring your hair very dark even if that’s your original color; all-one-tone dark hair can look fake and harsh on older faces. Instead, consider using a shade or two lighter to tone down gray without looking like you applied shoe polish to your head.
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LIFELONG HABIT: Unless you are the owner of a new business, do not let one job take all your time and energy: You can have a major career and a minor career. At some point, they may flip. Or you may have a two-tier career: Break jobs into tasks—and turn tasks into secondary careers, possibly very part-time. For example, an interior
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designer with corporate clients also has a local custom-upholstery business with several part-time employees. Your two career lines may be related or completely independent. Today’s trend is toward “slasher” occupations, often in surprising juxtapositions: accountant/garden designer. Jazz drummer/journalism
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professor/craft beer brew consultant. Church organist/web designer/computer programmer. In big or little ways, what you observe and learn in one job may help you in the other. In your 50s: In most families, this time of peak earnings is also a time of high expenditure for children’s college or even
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secondary school costs, home renovations, parental caretaking, and medical expenses. Can you wrest more income from your sideline so that you can keep up your regular retirement savings and keep down overall debt? Whatever your interests and skills are, consider whether you can share or teach them to others as a paying sideline.
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The church organist may be able to add more weddings to his schedule and teach a few private pupils as well. The local history expert starts giving walking tours and entertaining illustrated lectures for a fee.
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LIFELONG HABIT: Be gracious, grateful and generous. If you have problems with depression, anger or anxiety, deal with them. Get help, including short-term therapy and/or taking necessary prescribed medication when your demons get the upper hand. Learn to shed your grudges. Remember, chronic anger and anxiety will show in your face
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as you age, making you easier to read and harder to like. Learn to ask people easy social questions rather than talking about yourself too much, and try to show a sense of humor about yourself. Share news but not unkind gossip. Even if no one’s looking, don’t kick the neighbor’s cat. In your 50s: You may be facing up to the limitations of your
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body for the first time, but do not make it a mainstay of your conversation. No need to joke about “senior moments” when you can attribute memory lapses to “multitasking overload.” If you face a health problem, focus on recovery or management of it. In short, don’t get hung up on aging as a problem.
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LIFELONG HABIT: Keep up with not only the state of your company but of the industry as a whole. Read the business and trade press; follow the important blogs. Join industry forums and groups online. In your 50s: Make note of which companies would be the best to work for, who the leaders are, and also who is likely to be one of tomorrow’s
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stars. Keep bookmarks or a clip file. Go out of your way to get casually acquainted with influential people in your field that you don’t already know.
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LIFELONG HABIT: Read books, go places you’ve never been, expose yourself to different ideas and cultivate additional skills. Be curious and at least a little adventurous about what’s new. In your 50s: Sign up for a massive open online course (MOOC), take online tutorials, add some digital skills and make use of various life hacks.
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Listen to TED talks, take voice or yoga classes. Get out of your comfort zone sometimes. Do things you enjoy and challenge yourself with new stuff. Mix socially with people of all ages, but especially arrange to have contact with people five to 10 years younger than you or more. Committee work or nonprofit volunteering is one good way. Among other
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things, this will update your conversation with current references and catchphrases.
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LIFELONG HABIT: If this is hard for you, get some practice by taking a few courses outside of work. Or take up a new sport; getting coaching will help you if you need to learn how to learn. In your 50s: Abandon false pride: If you get passed over for a promotion or a job you thought you were qualified for, try to find out why so you can fix the problem. Be careful not
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to appear as though you have a chip on your shoulder. As long as you can keep learning and changing, you’ll never be a has-been.