Personal Development 101
A year ago I was still an employee. I was chaffing at the limitations of that role and some personality conflicts that would eventually convince me to retire. At that point, however, I was not feeling like a ‘short timer’ as we used to say in the Army. I was still committed to my job and employer. The task at hand was a speech to an industry group. I had been a regular speaker to this group over the past 20 years. I wasn’t uncomfortable about doing it but I did feel that my skills could be improved. My style was authoritative and I never persuaded anybody to change their thinking. I just lectured.
Add Some Humor
I decided this time to change myself and improve my technique. This involved a different method of organizing the talk which is a normal part of my skill set and telling a joke which is not. I decided that just because I never had been able to use humor in my talks and believed myself unable to relate to an audience through humor, I was going to do it anyway. After all, what is the worst thing that could happen? If people didn’t laugh then it would be just like my other talks. My talk went well. People laughed at my joke and got more involved in my talk.
Lifestyle Design: Growing my vision of myself
This was my first acceptance of the idea that I can change who I am. I began to believe that my definition of myself only set limits on what I could achieve. It did not identify my potential. I am capable of more than I think I am. This is the way I am dealing with my retired life. What I think I am or am capable of doing is only a starting point. I am a blank slate ready to fill with my outrageous retirement story. I am still constantly struggling to get past the limits I place on myself and focus on the person I want to be but I also surprise myself with what I can do.
Don’t Limit Yourself
I think that we all have a person inside of us with amazing abilities. The only thing keeping that person hidden is our limiting belief in who we are. Any time is a good time to open your thinking and be that person but retirement is special because there are no longer outside forces telling us what to do. What do you want to be? What would you like to be remembered as? Do you want to change who you are? What changes are you making to be the person you want to be whether in retirement or anytime? Share your thoughts or feelings in a comment.
If you don’t get it at retirement age, you never will. Everything is clear, you can see it all, the things you did and didn’t do. If ever you can view your life this is the time. Wisdom starts and it’s the time to harvest everything you learned. It can be the most powerful time in your life. You now have insight and the only thing left is to use this knowledge.
The length of the time ahead is a little shorter, but the width of your understanding is much larger. Retirement is the time to see what you been missing, and use all your stamina and strenth to rescue the real you. The one that wasn’t available before, and watch the real effect of your knowledge and power blossom.
Blanche,
You make a good point about using what you have learned in your life up to now to make something new in retirement.
i’m probably the least qualified person to talk about retirement as I am so far away from when im supposed to retire – but i think there is another way. How about removing those outside forces that tell us what to do, before we retire.
I work for myself, and plan to continue my lifestyle like this well past retirement age. I’m not going to wait until I retire to enjoy myself – what a crap way to live. I’m going to live now.
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Davis,
You are exactly right. Now is the time to change your life whether you are retiring or just starting out. My focus is on retirement thinking because it gives people who have never thought about controlling their life a reason to change. Thanks for your comment.
The one thing that is different when you retire is the wisdom. Your focus changes and you see things in a new way. Yes, I agree why wait to retire to get the most out of life. However, when you are younger you have more vitality and energy, but the miracle of life is less clear. As you age you really can view what’s important such as relationships in a new more mature way.
It is a time when you see the accumulated waste, things that really turn out to be of no real importance. I like contributing to the world, but I am much less self absorbed with the outcome. The reward is in the doing not in preceived rewards.
Now. if you get the big picture and have the wisdom sooner that is even better.
I think the bottom line is that when push comes to shove would we do the same things in the same way again.
Blanche,
You are probably right. What is important is getting things finally right, not how many mistakes you make along the way. And maybe those mistakes help you discover things your wouldn’t have know otherwise.
Getting it before retirement is even better!
Back to the salt mine…
Absolutely Dave.
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