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COPYRIGHT 2001 American Counseling Association
The premise of the Career/Longevity Connection is that engaging in meaningful work enhances one's life expectancy. According to D. Mahoney and R. Restak (1998), to live longer, people must develop a longevity attitude. Proven intervention strategies are given for use with adults engaged in career reassessment.
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History has many examples of. individuals who successfully changed careers later in life and individuals who continue to work well beyond typical retirement age. Admiral Richard E. Byrd was retired from the Navy when he flew over both poles. Jack Frankel had a long and successful career as a scientist, researcher, and founder of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and university president. At age 61, he quit his job as president of California State University at Bakersfield to become an actor because he thought that it would be fun. After several small roles, Frankel won a part in a movie, called The Tomb, about an Egyptian vampire princess awakened by an earthquake. Frankel says that, in the film, he plays the role of a professor of Oriental languages who stumbles on the key to this vampire princess. He talks about one great scene in which the princess tears out his heart with her fingernails, which he claims is one of the high points of his career ("Talk About a Change of Pace," 1985).
Another example of someone who has changed careers is Larry Dyke, an artist who was asked by Pope John Paul II to do a painting for the Vatican museum (Moore, 1983). Dyke's journey to becoming a professional artist followed a long and difficult route. During his junior year in college, he was a second-string quarterback on a lackluster football ream. Seeing that he was not going to be a successful athlete, he quit the football team. Dyke's father suggested that he work toward a career in medicine, but he tried three times and never got into medical school. He also tried dental school and veterinary school, and did not get accepted into either one. Dyke's father was an optometrist, and his older brother was a medical doctor. To earn a living, he was a teacher for 10 years but was not satisfied with teaching. Dyke's hobby was landscape painting,...
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