After years spent working in the corporate world, many older workers are finding that a career change later in life is proving to be just what they need.

According to a recent report on a study carried out by AARP over the course of a 14-year period, the vast majority of seniors who have switched jobs have found themselves less stressed and enjoying far greater job satisfaction. Although their new direction may be paying them considerably less, and they may have lost health benefits, pensions and the kudos of working at higher level positions, what they have gained is more flexible and less stressful working conditions.

The study, which followed 1,705 workers who were aged between 51 and 55 when AARP began tracking them in 1992, showed that while in some cases they downsized into other paid employment, in a good proportion of others, they became self-employed.

Thinking about it logically, these findings are in some ways not particularly surprising. When we are younger and have the commitments of mortgages and families to think about, the pressure to earn more and achieve more can be great. Accepting jobs which satisfy our souls but do not necessarily move us forward in a conventional sense, for most, does not feel like an option. In addition, as youngsters, many of us feel as though we have a point to prove, both to the world at large and, perhaps more importantly, to ourselves. Instead of following our hearts, we follow the path to greater rewards and the respect of others. We put success and status above personal satisfaction, but not because this feels like any kind of real choice.

Perhaps what this study shows is simply that as we grow older, our priorities change and we develop a different attitude to life. What felt important once, no longer has the same appeal and so loses its ability to stress us out. Not only might our circumstances be different later in life, so allowing us to choose what makes us happy, but even where this is not the case, we have already made our point and showed the world what we can do. With the wisdom of the years, we can just relax and get on with the job, accepting it for what it is, not needing to push so hard and so enjoying it to a much greater extent. It is not just the opportunity to make a physical escape from the rat race, but a psychological one too.

What it does all add up to, however, is great news for the older worker!