I am 56, and I made a decision a few years ago that I may have made differently when I was younger.
When I first went back to school a few years ago, I was going to major in Health Information Technology. But I found the anatomy classes we had to take boring, and more work than I really cared to do. Besides, there was no guarantee of getting into the program, because there are only a limited number of slots each year. I was more than a little irked at finding out about that when I had already taken some of the required courses. Advisors need to do a better job of warning students about such things! 
I knew I was going to have to decide whether to stick with HIT or change my major immediately. Taking all those courses and doing all that work and then having it all be for nothing if I didn't get into the program was not very appealing -- not to someone in her fifties. It would have meant starting over from scratch. Then, a few days after I found that out, I went to anatomy lab. As I walked to the end of the hall where the lab was, I began to notice tiny gnats flying around, and a godawful stench; there was a human cadaver in the lab. That did it. I walked out (I was not alone) and dropped the class. Now I seem to remember that it was the younger students who stayed. I switched to Paralegal Studies. It did set me back because the courses I had already taken were of no use now, but it was worth it.
I said all that to say this: When you get older, you know what you are willing to put up with and what you are not. And you make decisions with the knowledge that time is growing short. That is not conducive to risk-taking.
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