Ever had a thought ... I'd love to do this or that but it's too late, I'm too old, I'd have one foot in the grave by the time I finished studying, training, building or beginning and competing with folks 30 or 40 years my junior. Not to mention friends and family, your dear children rolling their eyes with that get real look were you to speak of that dream in any current fashion.
But what's the point of it's too late? It's rooted in a realistic worn down and out persona that for all it's truth offers no passion, no satisfaction and maybe worst of all ... no fun. Better to be Don Quixote tilting at windmills or giants with no more chance at success than an ant rolling a hot dog up a hill. So whether you are in the 1st third (0-30), the 2nd third (30-60) or the 3rd third (60-),
why be ruled by brainwashed societal rules designed to foster inaction?
My Story
I was 50 and had spent nearly five years flailing about for a way to make a living after my career in the music business had abruptly ended. I tried everything, but nothing stuck, nothing lasted. My career was gone and I would not have another. I was divorced and broke with two small children; too young to die, too poor to retire and too old to start again.
We become the heroes of our story through necessity. In these crisis moments, crushed down into bloodless muddy pulps we either relax into the never never or turn towards the sky, gasping for breath and meaning. Any meaning will do. Fun, fortune, fame, power, service to others, or the ornery mid-finger to the world, it does not matter! Finding meaning is the key ingredient, the knight's armor and sword necessary to do battle, withstand the blows and thrust forward. For me it was those boys. I had to re-create myself for them. 
I thought about psychology. I had been interested in it when I was a kid but dropped out of university after just one term, never to return. I had a high school diploma. To become a psychologist would take a bachelors degree (four years), a masters degree with thesis and 1,500 hours of internship (three years), a doctorate degree with dissertation (three more years) along with 3,000 hours of internship (another year or two). Not to mention qualifying for and passing federal and state licensing exams. Even by my most optimistic count I'd be looking at about 14 years. Good Lord, I'd be nearly 65 by then!
That's insane I thought, even for a persistent Capricorn like myself. But there were those boys, my swords of meaning. So I started; Miami Dade Community College, the last gringo and by far the oldest in every class I attended. In fact it was that way in every class, practicum and internship from beginning to end. End? Yes, I did it. I might have completed a bit sooner except for those damned federal and state licensing exams and repeated attempts ... those suckers almost did me in. And those school loans I'll be paying off until the end of days? I chalk that up to the cost of getting in the game and pray that America figures out how to educate its citizenry in a more prudent manner. Still and as you well know by my byline, today I am Dr. Robert Lusson, a licensed clinical psychologist and the living testament to it's not too late, it's too late not to. 
Quite simply, you are going to be the same age tomorrow whether you choose to take action or not. And if you fail? Well, I could make the argument that it's not about the result (one moment) but the journey (a whole lot of moments and experiences) but I won't. I'll save that for another article.
You are not getting any younger and you are not too old ... you're just where you are ... the place in time where you set off on another lamanchian journey.
And don't get too caught up in pragmatic accountings of why you should not or could not do it. Remember that life on this planet is a far more mysterious journey than most of us give it credit for and that when you show up at the door of something, more often than not it opens.
OR
as that not so mad man of La Mancha said:
"Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished."
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, M. DE 1605b The Adventures of Don Quixote. London: Penguin Books, 1982
Dr. Robert Lusson is a licensed Clinical Psychologist living and working in Los Angeles. He specializes in issues of aging.
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