Breaking news, you can change your career at 50! I am Yvonne O’Garro, a Yoga Teacher who started the journey to change my career from HR to Yoga at the age of 50 and have not looked back. Yes, there were fears and worries, but thankfully my yoga practice helped me to “feel the fear and do it anyway”, as the saying goes. I enjoyed my 19-year HR career, but the joy and sense of purpose I feel in sharing the practice of yoga with others cannot be compared.
My journey
I moved into Human Resources (HR) in 2001, started practicing yoga in 2006, turned 50 in 2017 where I also started a 350-hour yoga teacher training course. In 2018, I began teaching yoga and reduced my hours in HR, to work part-time. I moved into full time yoga teaching in March this year.
The journey has been exciting and nerve racking at times. Exciting because I was brave enough to listen to my inner voice and make a change. But with change comes doubt, as well as opportunity. Finances were a big worry for me, as I had a solid career as a HR Business Partner receiving a good salary; How was I going to survive on less? Fine, in reality. As I have made informed choices about things such as where I live, frequency of and how I socialise and where I shop.
Of course I had nerves and doubt during teacher training as I have never been the greatest student when I was younger, so feared I would not be a good adult student either. Support from my tutor, mentor and study group got me through, alongside a regular yoga practice. Particularly my passion, restorative yoga, helped me get through.
Top 5 things I have learnt along the way:
1. Seek professional advice. I benefited from outplacement as part of my redundancy package which was valuable in staying focused on the plan I had.
2. Research is key. Knowing the market you want to move into and where to pitch yourself. You will often feel “I am not as good as the next person” but my journey, as yours, is unique and what you have to offer will attract the right people.
3. I do not have to eat out/visit coffee shops as often, which saves me some money!
4. Self-belief! I secured a teaching role 6 months before passing my yoga teacher training in October 2019, aged 52! A true sense of achievement!
5. Ability to adapt. My training was about teaching live bodies not online via Zoom! I successfully navigated the online learning curve to lead my own classes.
My Advice
If you would like to change your career path, find a way to make it happen! It is better to have tried than to sit back and think: “I wonder”. Start small and build up to your new goal, for example, consider requesting flexible working in your main role to enable a part-time start in the role you aspire to. This will allow you a chance to test the water and see if your passion-project or hobby can actually pay the bills. Seek independent financial advice to ensure you are clear on the financial impacts of your new role. You will also need to decide on things such as, whether it is going to be your own business, if you will be a Sole Trader or Limited Company. If you are in the UK, GOV.UK is great for information on self-employment. Last but not least; Be kind to yourself and take the time to relax and reflect as you move towards your decision. It’s great to have someone to talk things through with, but ultimately, what do you want to do? Do it! Good luck.
Yvonne O’Garro. My name contains Yoga, my late parents clearly had a plan for me!
YOga (rro).
To find out more about Yvonne and her classes, visit her website here.
And find out about her upcoming workshops here.
All photos credit of Maria Nakhmanovich.