It’s mostly acceptance that you are already grown up, and a career change involves financially weighing the benefits of the new career vs the lost income to train for it. Add to it the fact that the working runway gets shorter and shorter which reduces the financial payoff, and you’re not changing careers after your 40s unless it’s for love/enjoyment.

I think we were sold a lot of Hollywood bullshit about living for your job and working all evening or dream jobs that involved taking our laptops to Starbucks to plan parties for the rich and famous. But at the end of the day, a job is a job - nobody would pay you to do it if it was that fun. And so my choice is to make as much as I can to allow me to enjoy my leisure time, which means staying in my current career where I have already climbed the ladder.

There is some truth to this... I've moved on from the ideas that I might be highly influential or consequential. Now I just focus on trying to be a good person, do good deeds that keep me happy, tell nazis to DIAF, etc. No fame to be had for me. Other than a few immediate family members, I'll be forgotten to time when I die.

Luck, basically. I landed a career that I actually enjoy, it pays decently, and I'm given a lot of freedom and flexibility. I tried having a "normal job", but in my mid 30s I concluded that normal jobs are for normal people, so I reached out to some former coworkers and got back into offshore seismic survey. I have since landed a supporting role where most of it is done from home.