THIS IS 50
5 Strategies That Can Rev Up Your Career
A STALLED CAREER for older adults may be because of a mental barrier. If you’re not progressing at work—but you’d like to be—take these barrier-busting steps.
1. Set stretch goals: As a generation that entered the job market during an economic downturn, “Gen Xers are renowned for their emphasis on attainable goals, favoring well-planned strategies and realistic expectations over idealistic aspirations,” notes a 2023 report from the market research agency Media Culture. Set some goals that seem out of reach. You may be surprised how far you can go.
2. Prioritize personal time: According to Claudia Strauss, author of What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic, some people believe that “to be an excellent employee means working nights and weekends.” But younger generations value work-life balance, so coming in early and staying late may come off as inefficiency to others. You could paradoxically raise your profile by limiting offhours work. And resting on evenings and weekends could make you sharper during the business day.
3. Stay open to being wrong: Shutting down new ideas because they’re not “right” doesn’t let you or your organization innovate. Don’t assume your way is the only way.
4. Seek help when you need it: Some of us grew up emulating the strong, silent type—completing our tasks alone, without complaint. But not asking for help when needed makes you look closed off.
5. Make the case for a raise: In a June Bankrate survey of 2,000 adults, 51 percent of Gen Z workers and 50 percent of millennials said they were likely to ask for a raise in the next year, but only 39 percent of Gen Xers said the same. Requesting a raise reminds the boss that you deserve to be rewarded for your good work. —Emily Guy Birken
“The important thing to remember is that it’s not personal. It happens to everyone. But as you get older, you realize that the world isn’t as interested in maturity, grace, wisdom. All those benefits are somehow not sexy to people in the entertainment business.”
—Ethan Hawke, 55, on navigating Hollywood in his 50s. AARP members can go to aarp.org/ethanhawke to read the full interview.
MY FIRST TIME ...
… WEARING ROOMY PANTS
I WAS 54 and writhing on my bed. Sadly, there was nothing romantic going on. It was just my way of trying to remove my skinny jeans—the same pair I had writhed my way into earlier that day.
Ever since I’d started making my own sartorial decisions, I’d always chosen formfitting pants, the better to direct women’s attention to my pert derriere. And the look worked for me, even as said derriere expanded over time. My current, serious girlfriend is not a superficial woman, but even she admits to being drawn in by the slim-leg look.
Still, mid-writhe alone on the bed, I feared that my skinny-jeans days were coming to a close. Putting on pants shouldn’t involve trauma. Soon after, with a sense of resignation, I headed to the store and tried on my first pair of “relaxed fit” jeans. What a difference! They not only camouflaged my growing keister but were also way easier to move around in. My posterior was thriving in a delightfully spacious new environment.
Maybe this new look isn’t what attracts women at the club. But at this point in my romantic relationship—and my life—I’m interested in more substantial matters than what I look like from behind. I’d always believed that clothes make the man, but now I know a higher truth: Comfortable clothes make the man comfortable. —Mark Miller
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