Totally agree that you just do not realise how much harder it is to keep motivated in work when you are older. I think the menopause hit me harder than I realised. I was so driven in work - I loved the challenge and even though I resented the many, many extra hours I worked in holiday time or after I came home I was very proud of maintaining my high standards. I was very driven, and although I don't think I am a very ambitious person (I know, for example, that I could have got a senior management post if I had tried for it), I wanted to work at being the best I could be in the job I had.
The I guess round about my mid 40s I could feel the shift in myself. I saw people with just a few years experience going for those management jobs, and unbelievably getting them!!! I was not envious of them at all - they were jobs I didn't want - but I just could not conceive how people who were so clearly out of their depth would keep pushing for promotion. I believe that you should learn how to do your own job properly and prove your worth before going up the ladder. What really did grind my gears was when some of these people were promoted into roles that meant that they line managed some aspects of my work. That I did resent. I could not take being appraised by someone who I knew could not do the job I was doing, in fact was not doing their own job properly. I still have great admiration for those people in management positions who worked so hard to make up for the limitations of the over-promoted and to keep the place running. They are still there, and I feel that they will suffer far more than I did.
A few years ago I would have stood my ground. Fought for myself and for my team, but I just did not have the energy and the will to do so. So, I bowed out. I can't access my pension for a few years, but I am in the very fortunate position of having savings that I can live off until them. I suppose I am still bitter about how much my place of work changed in the last few years, but I suppose I should also be grateful that it made me re-evalate my life. I have no regrets whatsoever about leaving work. I am currently still in bed, with a cup of coffee and I am planning a lovely long walk later as the sun is forecast. If I was still working I would have been up and out of the house in the dark three hours ago.
I was lucky. I earnt enough to clear my mortgage early. I have a pension pot that, although it will be depleted as I have to draw on it early and loose a lot of it's value, will be large enough for me to live on. I don't have expensive tastes or hobbies so I should be ok. I cannot stress enough how important it is to plan for the future when you are young. Even a small amount put away in a pension will grow. At 20 I never thought about being 50. I thought I would always love my job, and be able to keep putting in those hours. I didn't, I wasn't.