Month: March 2017

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Transforming Your Retirement: What If You Were a Person of Extreme Health, Wellness and Energy Throughout Your Retirement?

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Isn’t that what we all wish for? Wishing and hoping – but also, far too often worrying and fretting and fearing that it won’t be so. In spite of increased life expectancy, we are also aware of increased incidence of certain chronic conditions as we get older. The prospect of depending on multiple prescriptions and procedures to maintain a level of health, and affording their cost is a concern for most of us.

One of the best things we can do for ourselves is to explore and implement ways to maintain a level of wellness and vitality. Wellness is defined as ”the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind especially as the result of a deliberate effort.” There are several dimensions of wellness: physical, mental, emotional, wellness of the spirit and social. Wellness then is all about making choices in support of your overall well-being. As we do this, we create a strong foundation from which we are transforming our retirement.

We are extraordinarily fortunate to live at a time when there are a variety of approaches and techniques that enable us to be healthier longer. We have access to a wide range of things that will help us maintain and enhance our health, not just help us after we are already ill. If we focus on prevention and wellness and take advantage of what’s available, we can avoid much suffering and illness in our later years.

The key concept here is that we have access to possibilities of extreme health, wellness and energy that past generations did not have. Many of them begin with having a mindset and attitude that aging can be different than the stereotypes and even from what our parents and grandparents experienced. It means going outside the traditional wisdom and resources to explore the multiple types of practices and approaches that are available.

Some of what we have access to is being adapted from Eastern health practices & medicine; other things are based on new understandings from research. You will greatly enhance your life by finding and using tools that will increase your wellness rather than worrying about and waiting to treat illness.

In addition, many alternative approaches to healing are becoming available. Some traditional medical practitioners are including some of these into their repertoires;and of course, there are alternative practitioners for each specialty.

Huge amounts of information available on energy medicine, hands-on and other forms of healing, yoga, nutritional and herbal supplements, particular diets or food choices, types of meditation, various exercise techniques, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping), Spring Forest Qigong, Reiki, various forms of massage, breathing, hypnosis, acupuncture, acupressure….the list could go on and on. I urge you to explore them so that you expand the ways in which you are a person of extreme health, wellness and energy as you are transforming your retirement into a joyous time of life!

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Transforming Your Retirement: What If You Could Learn and Do Many Things That Bring You Joy?

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What a wonderful opportunity the retirement years to learn and do things we never had the time for! I am always amazed when I hear people say they don’t know what they will do with their time once they are retired. Or when retired people say they are bored!

I encourage you to develop or augment your personal “Bucket List” to expand your vision of the possibilities as you are transforming your retirement. The 2008 movie “The Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson inspired many people; if you would like to see it again, it is available here: The Bucket List.

I recommend a 3-part Bucket list: 1) “Things I Want to Learn About” 2) “Things I Want to Learn to Do” 3) “Things I Want to Do.” You may find some overlap between them, but that’s okay.

The “learn about” list will probably have things about which you’ve been curious: the history of your town or neighborhood, your ancestors and family history, the newest knowledge about outer space, etc.

The “learn to do” list might include things like quilting, deep sea fishing, online marketing, golfing, playing an instrument, learning a language, etc.

The “do” list can include simple things like “read one book per week” or “have a home vegetable garden.” You may do something as a result of learning about or learning to do things from the other two lists. For example, you want to “learn to do excellent digital photography.” On this list you could include “take great photos on 3 continents.” Or you intend to “learn about where my grandparents came from in Norway” and on this list you will include “travel to the family homestead in Norway and meet distant relatives.”

You will think of additional items for all of the lists as the days and months pass. Be sure to write them down. Having and continuing to add to the lists is powerful as you are transforming your retirement. The next steps will begin to move the dreams into reality.

Resources/Conditions Needed. Look at your lists and separate them into 1) things you can do relatively easily, with minimum or no cost, any time you choose, and 2) things that require significant planning, effort and/or resources. If you lack something, jot down what those things are and begin thinking how to get them. It could mean purchasing something, but often you can use resources without purchase, for example by bartering. If you want to learn to do woodworking, you could sign up for a community education class, or find a woodworker who needs a paid or volunteer assistant/apprentice, or find a woodworker who will teach you in return for you teaching him/her a skill you have mastered. Think creatively!

Prioritize. Now that you have some exciting possibilities, prioritize them to get started: according to what you want to do first, second, etc. or by time periods – within 3 months, within 6 months, this year, etc.

Then take one more step and choose the one item on each list that you can and will start now. There’s great value in having some ongoing projects at the time you retire. They give you something to focus on as you transition, and later when there are empty times. This is an important piece of transforming your retirement.

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Transforming Your Retirement: What if Your Positive Expectations Created a Positive Retirement?

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The images, beliefs and expectations you have of this “3rd Act” of life will greatly influence the outcomes. What you expect the coming years to be is a powerful factor in determining how it will go. Expectations are both conscious and subconscious. Our conscious expectations can be sabotaged by what is firmly planted in our subconscious as we are transforming our retirement.

By identifying attitudes and beliefs that may contradict and undermine our positive expectations, we can address them. Negative expectations can come from memories, past experiences, messages in advertising, characterizations from television or movies, etc. It is very valuable to unearth some of these, and writing will help in that process.

Take 3-5 minutes to write down responses to the following questions: + What did you think when others retired? + What memories do you have of your parents’ or other relatives’ retirements and the impact on their lives? + What do people say in whispers at retirement parties? + What advice or warnings have people given you about retirement?  + What are the messages on retirement cards? + What older characters from television or movies do you recall? What image of retirement and aging do they provide?

Look at what you have written. Are they mostly positive or negative? The positive messages and images are ones to hang onto, repeat, and develop into specific intentions and plans.

Negative messages and images are pervasive beyond our conscious awareness. What you have written in just a few minutes is an indication of that. The negatives at the conscious level can be changed with your action. As you identify the negatives at the subconscious level on an ongoing basis, you can address them also.

Become hyper-aware of the negatives and resist them, whether they are within you or from external influences. Be aware of the attitudes of the people you spend time with. Be aware of what you expose yourself to in reading, listening and viewing information.

Decide how you are going to deal with the negative people in your life. Often this means figuring out ways to limit your time in close proximity of them. A direct approach is sometimes best: tell them you have decided to be positive and look for the best in everything and invite them to join you in this. Maybe they would like to live more positively and just need the opportunity..

Decide how much negative news, commentary and entertainment you want flowing into your mind and change some listening and viewing habits.

Consistently take these steps, and your attitude and expectations will help you in transforming your retirement into a joyous and fulfilling time of life.

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Transforming Your Years After 50: What if Gratitude Were the Overriding Tone of Your Life?

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Daily Gratitude Practice
If you are not already doing this, start a daily practice of writing a Gratitude List and really monitor how it changes your attitude. It’s very simple and most effective it you use a journal (a simple notebook is fine, or a folder in your computer) rather than scattered pieces of paper. That’s because looking back over a month, or a quarter, or a year can take you to a whole new level of gratitude. And if you don’t make it easy for yourself to do it, guess what? It likely won’t be done.

Write down 5-10 things every day for which you are grateful. If you’re not used to doing this, you may start with 5 per day; expand from there to 10 as you get into the rhythm of it. They don’t have to be huge things; in fact if you get into the habit of expressing gratitude for small things, it’s even more powerful.

Include things that you are grateful about in yourself. They may be attributes or attitudes; they may be things you did or didn’t do. As you make the change from employed to retired, measures of accomplishment and self-worth inevitably change. This is a way to acknowledge yourself in this new stage of transforming your years after 50.

Writing these down at the end of the day is most beneficial as you more easily remember the day. It puts you in a positive state of mind that will lead to sleep. It just wraps up the day in a lovely package.

Gratitude as a Tool for Specific Situations

What I’ve just described is a Daily Gratitude Practice. You can also use the technique any time you are facing a situation about which you are ambivalent or conflicted. For example, list all of the things for which you’re grateful related to the change in this new state of life: I have time for myself and my interests; I can do things more spontaneously; I can explore new hobbies and interests; and so on. You will note that these are all stated as positive statements, not the lack of the negative (I don’t have to be available for taxiing kids around all the time). This can change your feelings about a situation, or perhaps identify an aspect of it that you do want to change in some way.

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Transforming Your Years After 50: 10 Questions to Shift Your Thoughts

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“We live in the world our questions create.”      —David Cooperrider

Humans are estimated to have about 60,000 thoughts per day and 95% of those thoughts are the same from the previous day – which leaves us with only 5% new and creative thoughts. In addition, the majority of those thoughts are negative. (See Simple Capacity.com)

Take a few moments to think about the quote by David Cooperrider. What kinds of questions are most common in your mind? For many of us they are negative questions: What if this happens? What if that doesn’t happen? What if I don’t make it? LOTS of negative ‘what if’ questions swirl around our minds, especially in times of transition and change – like retirement! Transforming your years after 50 into a fulfilling time of life can be enhanced by changing this typical pattern.

Mendhi Audlin has written a book, What If It All Goes Right?: Creating a New World of Peace, Prosperity & Possibility, which gives us a tool for changing our questions.

She encourages us to ask ourselves What If UP questions. Basically, the idea is to flip or reframe our negative thoughts or ‘what if’ questions into positive questions. Instead of ‘What if it’s all downhill from here?’ say ‘What if I had a fabulous final segment of my life, filled with joy, contribution and fulfillment?’ If that kind of question dominates our thoughts, we are creating a very different reality.

Here are 10 positive ‘What If’ questions. They can provide a positive framework for your anticipation and planning for transforming your years after 50. I will list them here and address each one in future posts.

1) What if gratitude were the over-riding tone of your life?                                                                                                                                                        2) What if your positive expectations created a positive retirement?
3) What if you could learn about, learn to do, and do many things that bring you joy?
4) What if you were a person of extreme health, wellness and energy throughout your retirement years?
5) What if you made significant contributions of many kinds to family, community and the world in the coming years?
6) What if the next phase of your spiritual/faith journey was invigorating and joyful beyond imagination?
7) What if you left a stunning legacy to your family and others?
8) What if you generated any needed money in creative, fulfilling ways?
9) What if your current relationships became better and better and you created new fulfilling relationships regularly?
10) What if you had a fabulous final segment of life, filled with joy, contribution and fulfillment?

There is a separate blog post addressing each of these questions; Click on “10 Questions to Ask Yourself to Open Possibilities” in the sub-heading below the title of this blog post.

In addition, REINVENT YOUR LIFE, TRANSFORMING YOUR LIFE AFTER 50 INTO A TIME OF JOY & FULFILLMENT,

a FREE report, is available if you provide your name and email address so that I can send it to you.

 

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Transforming Your Years After 50: Recapture Dreams that Still Excite You

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Dreaming new dreams as you are transforming your years after 50 is an invigorating process. (See Dreaming New Dreams)

There are other dreams from other parts of our lives that may be worth rediscovering. Perhaps this is the time to make them come true. They may be ideas or possibilities that are big or small. They may be skills, hobbies or experiences or just things about which you want to learn.

What were your talents and interests as a child? What did you want to do and be when you grew up? Think back to childhood and see what you find, first in your elementary school years. Where was it? Imagine being there again – that will help you recall those things that may be so deep in your memory. For me, I attended a one-room school house in southern Wisconsin. There were around 30 students in 8 grades, all in one large classroom. I lived with my parents and two younger brothers in a large house on an acre of land just outside a small town. In that place and time, what you were interested in, what did you excel in, what hobbies or activities did you spend time doing? Do you remember wishing you could do something that wasn’t possible then but might be now? Jot down what comes to mind.

Move on into your high school and young adult years. Think about the same questions and jot down your answers. Are there any patterns? Is there anything that stirs up old emotions that you’d forgotten about? Particularly look for things that make you think, “I wish I had done that” or “I’d still like to do something with that.”

Now take a quick scan of your adult years and look for the discarded or submerged dreams and hopes. Make a list of things you had wanted or intended to do or be that didn’t happen. Alongside each item, write down one or more reasons that it didn’t happen. It could be a choice you made, or that someone else made for you. It could be that it just dropped lower on your priority list when you moved, or got married, or had children. Perhaps the resources to make it happen just weren’t available. Then look back and identify which ones still have appeal and pull at you.

As you look back at all of the items from the different parts of your life, are there some that still stir up a desire? What would it look like if you chose one or more of those interests, talents and dreams from earlier in your life and did something with it NOW? Perhaps you want to pursue them as you transform your 3rd Act into a time of life you really enjoy.

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Transforming Your Retirement: Dreaming New Dreams

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What if….you could be, do, and have anything you wanted to during the next 20, 30 even 40 years of your life? Having those dreams is an important part of transforming our retirement. Sometimes it is difficult to do that kind of dreaming from the viewpoint of today. How about reversing direction to look  back at the coming years rather than forward?

Imagine being at the end of your earthly life. Look back from that perspective and think about what you hope to see. Perhaps these questions will open up some possibilities:

1) What memories do you hope those you love have of you?
2) What will your legacy be among a wider circle of friends, co-workers and acquaintances?
3) What are the things about which you will say: “I’m glad I did that”?
4) If you were composing a newsletter/newspaper about your life, what would the titles of the articles be?
5) What would want included if you were the subject of an article titled, “Local (wo)man celebrates 90th birthday and accomplishments of the past 30 years”?
What would it look like, sound like, feel like?

As I am transforming my retirement, I have these new dreams: to relocate to be near my daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren and develop a successful online business that will allow me to live comfortably, travel a great deal, and contribute to some of the causes and movements that I strongly support.

Part of the vision for my business is to build a network of incredible people who share how they’ve invented their lives after age 60, and who have a specific commitment to contributing to their community & the world. Can you imagine what a difference we can make? This isn’t a dream I could have had early in my life. It’s a result of being a teenager and young adult in the 60s and 70s, of living and working through the succeeding decades with expectations that each of us can make a difference. It’s possible because of technology that allows us to connect in ways we never dreamed of earlier in our lives.

Dreams, visions and goals are powerful. May they be a driving force as we are transforming our retirement into a joyous, significant part of our lives.

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Transforming Your Life After 50: Role Models Along the Way

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We all have role models that influence us in each time period of our lives. We can learn from those people again as we are transforming our loves after age 50. Before we look at the ones that are influencing us now and for the future, let’s start back in our childhood. The earliest recollection of stating that I wanted to be like a particular adult was saying that I wanted to be fat like Grandma Smith! I was about 6 at the time, and I succeeded in following that role model up until I started high school!

Perhaps your choices were less conscious and declared. They may have been positive or negative role models. Whatever they were, travel back mentally and pull out those childhood and teenage role models and make a list of them. What was it that attracted you to them? How did their examples affect your dreams and decisions as you grew up?

Who were your role models as a young adult, and what areas of your life did they impact? For instance, you might have had role models for job or career, relationship and parenting, spiritual matters, and others. Think about what you admired about them and wanted to emulate. Did you indeed follow their example?

You can do the same process with role models in the middle years of your life – later in your working years and family development. Some of these people may have drawn you away from the first set of role models as your life changed and you went in different directions.

Are they any of the role models from early or middle adult years still people you look to as guides? As you move into this next exciting phase of transforming your years after age 50, are there people who have something to teach you? Decide whose example you want to carry with you. For the other positive role models, bid them a fond farewell and express your gratitude for what they provided for you in the past! This can be a private thing for you, or you may choose to contact one or more of them who are still available. A message of gratitude from the past can be a treasure beyond measure to give to another person.

In addition to the gifts you find in past and current role models, I encourage you to look for some additional people who can inspire you in this new phase of life. As you continue the process of transforming your years after 50 by deciding what directions you want to go, you will be identifying those people.

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Transforming Your Retirement: Forgiveness and Taking Responsibility

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Without exception, people will disappoint us and hurt us. It’s impossible to avoid it. Holding onto anger and grudges because of that, however, is something we have control over. In the process of transforming your retirement into a joyous journey, you will find more freedom if you deal with this baggage. Maybe your anger goes back to childhood; maybe to yesterday. Regardless of the length of time, it is a negative pull from the past that can alter our potential future.

Perhaps you can identify and feel deep hurt and/or anger toward a parent or other person that goes back as far as childhood. Perhaps it is more recent. Whenever it was, you owe it to yourself to put it to rest. In some cases, seeking professional help would be most advantageous. Another option is to do some work yourself that can alleviate the damaging emotions. These steps can be used regardless of when the situation occurred.

First consider what you are gaining or what the ‘payoff’ is for you to hang onto this hurt or anger. This may require some deep thinking; so don’t rush through this first step. Here are a couple of possibilities; they may spur other thoughts. Perhaps someone else’s actions and the impact on you gives you a reason or excuse that things didn’t go as you wished for you after that. You may think, I would have done much better in my life if that hadn’t happened. Or perhaps you feel betrayed by someone for whom you gave so much. You may think, if I had given all I gave to you to someone else, my life would have been so much better. Find the ‘payoff’ for you.

Now ask yourself how you would feel if you could release your negative feelings related to this person or this situation?

And how would your relationship with (or memories of) this parent or other person change if you moved beyond these feelings? Take some time to imagine this.

Now make a choice: will you keep the benefits or ‘payoffs’ of hanging on or gain the benefits of forgiving and moving on?

A helpful way of choosing the benefits of forgiving and moving on is to write a letter to the person(s) involved. It may either be actually delivered or for your own use. The writing will be beneficial for you either way. Start out by describing the source of your anger and hurt. Be as specific as possible; get into the feelings and describe them. Then describe the impact that has had over the subsequent years. End with a statement something like, “I now choose to forgive you for that and forgive myself for not finding a way to resolve this earlier. I can’t change the past but I can choose to let it go and release the claim of that past situation on my future.”

If the person is alive and you feel it could be freeing to discuss this with them, do it. If you can’t or choose not to do this, either read it aloud as if you are speaking to that person. Claim that resolution and let go. Feel the freedom it provides as you continue the process of transforming your retirement into a joyous time of life.

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Sticky: Welcome!

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TransformationI love gathering and curating ideas and resources that enhance and enrich life. With the ever-expanding amount of information we have access to, finding what may be applicable to us can be overwhelming.  It can be very helpful to have someone do the research, gather information and share what they found on a topic.  Most of the topics being explored here can be of interest and useful to people of all ages.

Click on “Start Here: Categories of Posts” above to view post topics and click to see a list of posts related to that topic.

Some things are more specifically targeted to people aged 50 and older.  “Transforming Your Life After 50” is a process to which I am personally committed. My purpose here is to provide ideas, inspiration and tools so others can also engage in a life-affirming process that enriches and energizes their lives in our years after 50.  That process is based on our dedication to delighting in the gift of life, using that gift the best way we can, and being grateful.                                                     

“Transform” is to change in form, appearance or structure, or change in condition, nature or character; to turn around. 

People considered Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are now in their mid-fifties to about seventy years old. This stage of life is different in many ways from our parents’ and grandparents’ experiences: life expectancy, health, resources, technology, and the wide array of options have changed. With the pace of our lives, many of us do not take the time or energy to take responsibility for making these years the best they can be – except perhaps in terms of finances.

For many of us, these years are ones of transition from very intense career development, child rearing, and community involvement to ones where there is some time and space available. This can be a time of new experiences and of reinventing our lives for a “third act” that includes “retirement” as we chose to define it.  It can be a time of transformation.

I invite you into an exploration of what you bring into this new phase of life and of tools that help you anticipate and design a “third age” that is satisfying, joyful and contributes to the well-being of others.  I look forward to sharing and to communicating with you as we travel this path of exploration and discovery.