“It can clearly be unsettling to recognise you are entering a new and perhaps very different stage of life. ‘Power over others seems inexorably to lead to an inflated view of oneself’, the authors write. ‘The sense of importance that work provides is seductive, and the relative predictability of command-and-control work relationships . . . can become an addictive retreat from any sense of vulnerability’.”

Stefan Stern writes in the FT about the ‘third age’ and how to prepare for life after an intense career, examining Changing Gear’s eight-step plan for successful career transition.