Still Clickin

Call me lazy, but I gave myself a week off for a bit of surgery. It also gave me time to reassess “attitude”, which is not a big thing, it’s Everything!

It made me remember Florence, who was in the hospital room across from my Dad. When I once heard her call out, I went across the hall to see if there was anything I could do. As I entered the room, and she recognized I wasn’t the nurse, her expression changed from distraught to welcoming. She immediately put aside her issues and inquired about my Dad. She was determined not to spoil anyone else’s day. “I learned a long time ago,” she said, “that people have enough of their own troubles. They really don’t want to be burdened with any more.”

Like Florence, every time we wake up and face a new day, we each have a choice to make. We can decide to make it a terrible day, a so-so day, or a great day. The choice is really belongs to each of us.

This can sound like a platitude, but it is largely true. Of course, there are certain days, like those when you have a kidney stone, when immediate issues can suddenly overwhelm any mindset. For most of us, however, those days are few and far between.

Yesterday, when the lack of any available parking place at the doctor’s office started making me furious, I suddenly realized how foolish my behavior had become. Hitting the mental reset button, I forced myself to decide to have a good day. The timing could not have been better. When I turned too quickly in my own drive coming home, and dented the passenger door against a cement post, I surprised myself that I was able to cope with the event calmly and rationally. Compared to EKG’s and cancer cells, dents are nothing!

What is wonderful about an upbeat attitude is that it is infectious. Seeing that glass not only half filled, but sparkling, not only lifts your own boat, but the boat of everyone else you encounter. We all recognize this truth. We have all experienced the impact. But it does take a constant determination to make it happen, every time you greet a new day.

If you interested, I found some additional tips on attitude at recoverymedicine.com.

N. B. Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior.com and click on edit.

Have you noticed that there are more and more web sites with a font size adjustment (A A A) at the corner of the screen? As the words become progressively fuzzier, I appreciate these efforts of help.

I’ve learned, however, that there is a more powerful tool readily available. If you find it difficult to read articles on your computer screen, it is easy to change the size of the text that is displayed by your browser.

In the control bar at the very top of the screen -

1. Click on the “View” button, then
2. Click on the “Text Size” option.

The Text Size option will display choices for “Larger” or “Smaller” or for “Increase” or “Decrease”. Click to make it bigger and see how you like the results. Try it now and see how this screen changes. I find that these choices offer a broader range of change available than the “A A A” option usually provides.

Depending upon the software version on your computer, the choice you make will either be temporary, lasting only during this session, or fixed until you choose to change it again.

Like Déjà vu all over again.

One of my most favorite jobs was coaching a high school team. It was a swim team in the middle of an island named Manhattan. The team members possessed a wide disparity of talents, but they all shared one thing in common, adolescence.

I felt it was a privilege to work with these kids. They were all coping with the dramatic changes forced on them by adolescence - excessive skin oils, excessive hormones, and excessive imaginations. But once they realized that they were supposed to be miserable, they adapted well and thrashed that water with a persistence and energy that I both respected and admired.

I think about them now, because I am back into adolescence, only this time it is in reverse. It has a different name, senescence, but the essentials are still the same, i.e. a wide variety of physical and emotional change over which you have little or no control. Rather than too much skin oil, there is too little. There are more hormones in the memory than in the blood. It is still frustrating, however, “to supposed to be miserable”. Why can’t change be easier? I sound like a typical senescent.

The changes are subtle at first. Your grip isn’t as strong. Your memory isn’t as sharp. Your response isn’t as quick. Your attitude isn’t as positive.

But with these changes comes a new sense of vision. You are not as vexed by picayune rules. Forgiveness becomes a more accessible option. The “Joneses” have moved, so there is no need to keep up. That rare essence of true (selfless) love becomes a more familiar scent. The sense of daily striving is modulated by a sense of meaningful peace.

There were so many of life’s realities we had to learn during adolescence. There is so much wisdom we have to garner during senescence.

Don’t fight the ride, roll with it. Thrash that water!

N. B. Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior.com and click on edit.

So much attention and advertising is given over to the financial aspects of retirement planning that the critical question is often ignored. That question is, “How are you going to spend your Time?”

Age 60 is a good tripwire for starting a detailed retirement plan. At that juncture, you still have some leverage and contacts in your work environment. You also have some flex time to explore options.

A solid plan answers three critical questions. Listed in priority order, these are -
1. How am I going to spend my Time?,
2. Where am I going to be spending my Time?, and lastly
3. How will I pay for choices 1 and 2?

Other than medical problems and wrinkles, the biggest gift you receive during retirement is Time. Unfortunately, few of us are prepared to receive that gift. There are abundant possibilities, and your choice is not limited to just one or two.

• Susan, a teacher, and Gerry, and HR manager, loved their neighbors and neighborhood, but they also had the itch to travel the world. Their resources, however, were limited. To prepare for retirement, she secured a part-time job at a travel agency, and he used his contacts to begin selling corporate insurance policies. They setup an efficient home office, and once retirement hit, they spent the first ten months making their business efforts work. Then, they spent a delightful month in Spain. With flexible work schedules, they now travel as the spirit moves them.
• Jeff decided he wanted to fish, and New England was the place he wanted to do it. To make that happen, he sold his home, and used the proceeds as down-payment on a lakeside cottage and two nearby college apartment houses. The rental income on the college apartments services all three mortgages, and he fits in his landlord duties whenever the fish aren’t biting.

These folks were successful, because they first figured out how and where they wanted to spend their time, and then did what they need to do in order to make that happen. They feel quite comfortable with their choices, but also continue to explore new possibilities. They are the engaged type of people that remain open to new adventures.

Following their lead, the best way to answer the three critical questions for retirement seems to be -

• If you love what you do and want to stay where you are, explore the opportunity of downsizing the job, e.g. working two or three days per week on a contract basis. The time to arrange this is while you are still very involved in the job, not one day after.
  
• Use the leverage of your current contacts to explore new activities, e.g. becoming an agent for one of your suppliers.
• Research, research, research to learn if you want to startup your own enterprise or buy into a franchise situation.

Certainly, retirement grants the opportunity to follow your passion. The questions remains, “How do you want to spend your Time?”

N. B. Click below to make a comment. If you would prefer to make an enhancement to the original article, please go to wikiSenior.com and click on edit.