|
|
Greetings! The reactions to our first e-zine have been fun to read. They represent a range of ideas, and we've only just begun. For example, a good friend, Genie, wrote from Florida to say, "At this point in my retirement, I am so busy with our local priest and his church, still doing my sister's advertisements for her business, I just about have time for outings with my friends." That's great! Genie has always been a doer and is getting tremendous satisfaction out of what she does.
Another friend, Marcia, wrote, "I think about this "state of retirement" all the time...I even have a folder of ideas! Tutoring has kept me very busy over the past three years, but I am slowly moving away from this work. I think it's more appropriate for middle school students to be working with a current teacher rather than a "white-top," as someone called me recently!
"My current passions are hiking and biking. The Union County Hiking Club is a huge organization of some 600 people who also love to hike and bike. The Club has a directory of members, directions to many starting points of the activities, a website, a 6-month schedule of events, and a Yahoo group e-mail system for up-to-date cancellations and changes to activities. The reason why I'm telling you all this is that most of the participants are retired! (Many but not all.)
"For example, my last bike ride at Island Beach State Park consisted of five riders. A younger woman in her thirties, me (69), and then three riders in their 80's! You get the idea?! The next ride I'm planning is this coming Wednesday on the Henry Hudson Trail, Aberdeen to Highlands. I'm carpooling with two riders in their 80's. The hikes have a lot of age diversity, but during the week everyone is retired.
"So, you can tell I'm really passionate about this organization and will be happy to share more info if you are interested. And, by the way, it costs $10.00 per year to belong! A fabulous bargain toward having fun!"
Marcia's retirement is perfect--she is upbeat, positive, and is excited about what she is doing.
My friend from California, Eileen, succinctly stated, "Being 'together' is the trick of retirement." Who could disagree with that!!
Another friend, Betty, wrote what many retirees are experiencing, "Too busy trying to get rid of stuff, having some "fun" and staying healthy." Down-sizing and getting rid of clutter is freeing all by itself. More freedom, more time to do what you want.
"Being busy" usually intimates "being together" with people you care about, and that may be the secret to whatever you choose to do.
We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you are doing, and we're share it with our readers.
Happy November,
Gail and Ed
Don't forget to check what your passion is, click here to take our FREE preliminary passion test, the test we give those who sign up for Discover Your Passion coaching with us. You may find your answers right there. If you want to go further, sign up for the 30-day Explore Your Passion course, which will be available next month. Check out our website, Retired-NextPhase.com. |
|
INTERVIEW - "Ron" in New Hampshire | | |  On a recent trip to the Carter Notch Inn, an outstanding B & B in New Hampshire, where we enjoyed the fantastic Fall foliage colors in that area of the White Mountains, I had the good fortune to interview a recent retiree. Ron has been retired for fourteen months after spending the past fifty-one years working on the family farm in upstate New York. Ron had aspirations to go on to college following high school and pursue a career as a teacher when fate stepped in and detoured those hopes and plans in dramatic fashion. During Ron's senior year in high school in 1963, Ron's father was crippled in an accident involving a piece of heavy duty farm equipment, and responsibility for running the family farm fell squarely on Ron's broad shoulders. Fast forward forty-three years. Ron's wife has just retired from her position as a court stenographer, the family farm has been sold, and Ron, at age sixty, is unemployed for the first time in his life. Ron readily admits that he and his wife were totally unprepared for retirement. During the first six months into retirement, he and his wife did some of the things they had not been able to do because of the total commitment required of him in running his farm. Personal travel had never before been an option, so they thoroughly enjoyed taking their first-ever cruise to Alaska. A few other trips followed during the next six months, and, although they enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, ate too much and saw some of the places they had only read about during their working careers, they soon found that they were "all traveled out." Three months ago Ron did a favor for an old friend that led to an experience he could never have predicted would change his view of retirement and how he would live it. Ron has become the primary driver to fulfill the transportation needs of the local Amish community. He travels weekly, taking members of the community, who don't drive vehicles other than horse and carriages and only locally, to locations all over New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. His trips are rarely of the one day out and back variety. He most often spends one to three nights a week on the road and is loving it. He recently said he feels that what he is doing is not simply working as a driver delivering people between locations, but helping a very unique community of people overcome a logistical hurtle, and his sense of service to them has proven to be highly rewarding. It is that sense of service he feels that has turned his very uneventful retirement days into days he eagerly looks forward to. |
|
BOOK REVIEW - See entire summary at our site
|
THE MAGIC OF BELIEVING
by Claude Bristol
(These are my underlines from this incredible book written in 1949. It is timeless!! And it is pertinent to this special time of your life. Enjoy!)
Belief is the motivating force that enables you to achieve your goal..
Hard work alone will not bring success. Something more is necessary: it is creative thinking and a firm belief in your ability to put your ideas into action. The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking.
Another important point is that one necessity for success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be coordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup. You can realize your desire provided you are willing to make the objective the burning desire of your life.
The first thing to determine is precisely what you want. You must have a mental pattern clearly drawn in your mind. Ask yourself, Where am I headed? What is my goal? Have I visualized just what I really want? If success is to be measured in terms of wealth, can you fix the amount in figures? If in terms of achievement, can you specify it definitely?
Read this entire book summary on our website. |
|
Ed & Gail's Retirement Passions
|
This photo was taken during one of the classes that Gail and I had the opportunity to teach during the summer of 2009 in Lithuania. We are being presented a book on teaching methodologies (written in Lithuanian) by one of the participants in our training class. On our right is our translator, and on the left is the student in charge of keeping attendance. Gail and I were teachers early in our careers, and we both have always had the desire to return to the front of the classroom at some point. Retirement has afforded us that opportunity to seek what had been an underlying passion for all those years we were pursuing careers in other areas. We have been fortunate enough to participate in a volunteer in-service training program for school administrators in Lithuania, a beautiful country that continues to update their education system after suffering through fifty years of Soviet occupation. Gail and I happened upon this opportunity which allowed us to share our knowledge and experiences with these school administrators through an association with an organization that works in concert with the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science. Being of Lithuanian descent, I had been attracted to the pursuit of my Lithuanian roots. Retirement allowed me the time to follow that passion which ultimately led to the discovery of this effort on the part of the Lithuanian government seeking help for their school personnel from American educators. In addition to the challenges associated with that assignment, we were rewarded with that totally uplifting inner feeling that we experienced when we realized that our efforts had made a positive difference in the lives of others. These gratifying rewards are the result of pursuing our own personal passions. | |
|
RETIREMENT and RELOCATION
|
Retirement frequently entails moving away, whether it is you or one of your close friends. Maintaining friendships from afar is certainly still doable, but it is not the same as when you see each other a couple of times a week and share laughs, memories, ideas, and future prospects.
When one of my closest friends told me recently that she and her husband were moving half way across the country as soon as they sold their house, I immediately began to feel the loss, as if it had already happened. When I got home, my sadness got worse with each passing hour. I rarely experience true depression, but I did that day, even though I knew we would continue to share our fun times until the house sale was finalized. I also knew that once they moved, our meetings would stop--meetings that could not be duplicated from a thousand miles away, even on SKYPE.
I'm a firm believer in William James' quote: "Change your thoughts and you change your world." Well, I tried that, and I was still sad. The impending loss was too great! The deflated mood stayed with me for a couple more days. I couldn't get it out of my mind.
As I lay in bed one morning a few days later, I thought of all of the things I've learned from my friend over the years, and suddenly I realized that "perspective" is what I need to focus on in order to be able to handle the end of this special friendship. Perspective makes the difference, not just "thoughts," although it could be argued that they are one and the same.
I'm talking about perspective relating to valuing what I have had the opportunity to learn, learning what I had never experienced, building on what I've learned, not only for myself but also for those I work with, and being grateful for the gift of time I have had with my friend.
The older we get, the more terminal relationships we have, and that's sad. The wonderful benefit of this special relationship is the gift of the friendship and its accompanying memories. They are our lasting treasures, and I do feel better. Now I have to focus on keeping that special gratitude in the forefront of my mind. I do that by referring to her as "My gift" - Good Morning, My Gift!! |
|
|
AWHERE WERE YOU WHEN......?rticle Headline
|
1970 - Kent State shootings
1974 - Nixon resigns over Watergate 1977 - Elvis Presley dies at 42 1980 - Mount St. Helens erupts 1980 - John Lennon shot 1989 - The Berlin Wall comes tumbling down 1995 - O.J. verdict 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing 2005 - Katrina hits New Orleans
SOURCE: http://www.slate.com
|
|
ATHE ADVANTAGES OF LIVING AFTER FIFTYrticle Headline
|
|
1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.
3. No one expects you to run--anywhere.
4. People call at 9 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?"
5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
7. Things you buy now won't wear out.
8. You can eat supper at 4 p.m.
9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.
10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.
|
|
WHAT I REALLY KNOWArticle Headline
| About Freedom
by Carol Wiseman Whidbey Island, Wash. |  At 66, I've finally found the freedom to be myself. Five years ago I started shedding the "shoulds" in my life and began to liberate myself from a lifetime of doing what was expected. It all started with dance. The flier said you didn't need a partner to take swing lessons, so I took a risk and tiptoed into a world I'd abandoned after college At first it was hard, What if I looked foolish? Walking into the roomful of strangers took me back to those eighth-grade wallflower days. But after three classes, I stepped on fewer toes and panted less. I endured. A year later, the lessons had smoothed my moves. Better still, taking that risk changed my life.
I learned that the rules I'd been living by (e.g., can't dance if your husband doesn't; always look your best in public) were all in my head. And when I replaced the "shoulds" with "coulds," possibilities sprang up everywhere, My brain was no longer cramped by a code, and the free space created a vacuum that sucked in new opportunities to grow.
Now, I seldom look back wishing I could repeat the past. Sure, I yearn for the peachy-smooth skin I used to have, but no longer feel compelled to look my prettiest at all times. I leave the house without mascara, pull a hat over bad hair and never buy pointy torture shoes. I say what's on my mind more often, apologize before regrets fester and stop ruminating over "What did she really mean by that?" I'm no longer polite to the nth degree and have stopped taking things so personally.
I never knew how heavy my should-bag had grown until I threw it away. Luckily, my shoulders bounced back when my feet started hopping.
I even ask strangers to dance. WHAT GREAT INSPIRATION!! |
|
|
Profit From Your Passion - a thirty-day E-course
|  Treat yourself to a thorough review of all of your likes, dislikes, successes, challenges, and everything that has made you who you are today. Find not only your passion but also your purpose in life. In thirty days you will unlock the secrets of who you really are. Introductory Price: $97 - Six weekly teleseminars plus five sessions a week via e-mail. AVAILABLE NEXT MONTH. |
|
  
Gail Cassidy, gail@coachability.com; (908) 654-5216
http://www.Coachability.com
Ed Topar, edtopar@gmail.com |  |
|
|
