Social Media

Welcome back!! Today I wanted to talk about one specific “to do”, OR perhaps I should say “not to do” from my retirement list. I am talking about social media and other forms of media.

My list says that at least one day a week I will “fast” from social media…in my case, Facebook, as well as online researching or news sites. Ideally, I would like eventually to make that only 2X per week that I DO engage in these online activities. This may or my not be a problem for you, but I can tend to start looking at Facebook and at my e-mails with links to all sorts of news-related articles, and before you know it, I have lost 2-3 hours. I may not have a full schedule when I retire (though I suspect it will fill up faster than I imagine…that is a topic for another blog!), but I don’t want my free time to be all sucked up by being online, linking from one thing to another.

My goal is to keep informed but not feel I have to be “up to the minute” all the time. Unfortunately, much of what is out there online is bad news…and I don’t want that to be what I dwell on when I am trying to have an interesting, active, enjoyable retirement!

So, this short blog is just food for thought for you. I actually don’t think this is a bad goal even if you aren’t retired yet…there is just too much other stuff to do than to fritter away valuable time in cyberspace!

If you disagree, that is A-OK! Remember, this is all about having the freedom to do what YOU want to do!

See you next time…take care!!
Mary

My Revelations!

Hello! I had some revelations this morning! Seriously!

As of today, I am only 4 more months from my expected retirement date. It has been a long road…looking back over 40ish years of working, raising a family, triumphs and tragedies, it is kind of hard to realize this milestone in my life is about to come to fruition. We have worked hard, planned financially and otherwise, and now I am very excited…and, to be honest, a little scared!

As I have communicated these past few months with my manager and team at work and shared plans with family and friends, I realize that, while they see me get ready for this moment and are happy for me, there is some bit of wistfulness about some of those I know…those who have from 1 year up to probably 40 years before they too reach this milestone. I understand that since I have experienced it too when seeing others retire ahead of me.

But, here is what my real revelation this morning was…whether you are 1 year or 40 years away from your own retirement time, NO ONE has to wait till then to do what we have been talking about…that is, everyone could benefit from our “notebook of ideas” we have been talking about, to dream and plan for next week, next year, or whenever, to list things that you want to do! And, I don’t mean just things to do when you retire, but RIGHT NOW!  I realized I needed to tell this to everyone before we proceed too far down the line in this blog, not just those getting ready to retire or retired, but all of us who are living life in EVERY phase!

Life is busy…no revelation there! LOL! But sometimes it gets SO busy, just keeping up with working,  the daily stuff, relationships, meaningfully engaging with family and friends, that we don’t realize we can make time for at least some stuff that we would otherwise think of as only for “when I retire.” WHY? It is fantastic to look ahead to the “golden years” as they are called, but why can’t where we are right NOW be golden, too? I know some things just take more time, so when you retire is ideal BUT not everything you want to do takes so much time that you couldn’t do it NOW if you thought about it and planned for it!

If we don’t think about and plan for the things we are interested in doing, they won’t ever happen, whether that is in our retirement years, OR….right NOW! 

Of course, some of you may never actually “retire” in the typical meaning of the word, whether by choice or by need; or your retirement may look very different from the typical definition (e.g., a second career, your own business, foreign missionary work, or whatever!)  So that makes it even more important not to let time fritter away till there is no more, to make plans for yourself, for your NOW, and also for your typical retirement, your non-traditional  retirement, OR your non-retirement!  There’s no right way to get to this point, but everyone has a NOW we  should make the most of!

So, if you are in your twenties, thirties, sixties or anywhere in between or beyond….I challenge you to think today about the things you would really like to do or accomplish! Get yourself a notebook and brainstorm, just like we have been talking about! Check out my previous blogs to get yourself started.  Goals and plans that don’t get written down don’t happen.

EVERYONE can have fun with this, and if you start now, by the time you retire in whatever form you choose (or don’t retire!), you will be on such a roll with your habit of incorporating plans and goals into your life that your  ongoing future will just be OVERFLOWING with purposeful ideas!

I hope you take this challenge and continue to follow along with all of us on this journey. Even though this blog is called “RETIRE with Joy and Purpose”, it is really “LIVE IN ALL SEASONS with Joy and Purpose”!! We only have one life – be sure to plan now to live it joyfully and purposefully every day!

Take care, Mary

Retirement notebook ideas!

Welcome back! I hope you all got your notebook or other way to record your retirement ideas, and that you got to have an actual brainstorming session with yourself to get it really rolling! Did you have fun? Did you start to feel some excitement? I hope so, because I know I sure did! If not, put it on your schedule – you will be glad you did!

Keep that notebook handy and continue to add to it…now that those wheels are greased, the ideas will continue to flow – no more “up in smoke” ideas for you!

My notebook contained ideas like this blog, as I told you, plus:

• individual topics for blogs
• see my grandkids more and travel more (yes, I did put in those generic ones, too)
• learn more about using essential oils
• research ways to get and stay healthier so that I can really enjoy my retirement
• take some classes I would like to take (and not have to worry about tests and grades if I don’t want to!)
• more in-depth personal Bible Study than I have time for right now
• participate with my husband Dave in his workout routines and ask him to be my personal coach (he loves working out…not my favorite, BUT I know I need to and we are lucky enough to have some equipment at our house, but we could also go to the city recreation center).

And, on and on…I don’t want to make my ideas yours, but I do want to help you realize the freedom to flow from one idea to the other…they don’t have to be connected…and you won’t have to do any or all of these every day! If you change your mind when you actually retire and say, “What was I thinking!?” then toss it! This truly is “your way”!

So continue on with your list…I hope my partial list above gets your creative juices flowing to help you with YOUR list.

ON to more fun stuff next time! Take care!

Mary

Begin your retirement preparation journey with me!

HI everyone! Thanks for joining me again! I am hoping that means you are looking forward to starting YOUR retirement preparation journey…or continuing your actual retirement leg of your journey…or just wanting to find out want this crazy lady has to say! LOL! Whatever the reason, WELCOME BACK!

When I started to realize that retirement preparation was a journey, I tried to find some good resources to help me…cause that is what I do. I did find a few good books, and I have the ones I especially liked named below if you are interested.

But they mainly made me thirst for more…brought up the questions in my mind they were meant to bring up…and made me realize I didn’t have the answers I really wanted yet. They made me think about the fact that I really should have some sort of idea of “what’s next?” It’s all great to wake up your first morning of being retired, linger over coffee, but really, there are just so many cups of coffee you can drink before you wonder “what do I do now?”

I wanted to get ahead of that curve…I wanted to have some specific things I knew I wanted to do…and I don’t mean “travel more”, or “see my grandkids more”, or those kinds of generalities. All of those are true…in fact, yes, I DO want to see my grandkids more, and even though I am not retired yet, I DO travel at least couple of times a year and would like a couple more times per year; in fact, I am writing this blog in Roatan while my husband scuba dives! (No I don’t dive…long story…my head underwater is just not a good thing for me! But, I am looking over a lovely ocean with a cool tropical breeze! Can’t beat that!)

Anyway, my first retirement-preparation idea was to keep a notebook handy for those miscellaneous times something popped into my head and I said, “I would really like to do that when I retire!” Those are cool moments…but if you are like me, the next day when I try to recapture that great idea, it is gone in a puff of smoke…sigh…and I still don’t know what I want to do when I retire. OY!

So, I got myself a little notebook. I decided to recapture as much as I could recall of previous “up in smoke” ideas immediately, then just have a half hour brainstorming session specifically on the question of “What do I want to do when I retire?” It was SOOOOO fun! I wrote down about 35 numbered ideas in about a 30 minute timespan! None of them, mind you, were things that I would do every day, but were just sort of “bucket list” things I wanted to do, both big and small.

One of my ideas was writing this blog…because I really felt like I couldn’t be the only one who didn’t want to wake up on my first day of retirement and say “Now what?”

So, get yourself a little notebook, schedule yourself a 30 minute (or more!) brainstorming session, and set yourself free! This notebook does not COMMIT you to anything! It’s really a lot of fun! Write down anything…this is just for you! Share it with someone only if you want to!!! If you aren’t really a writer like me, find a way to capture your ideas that will work for you…we all have these ideas and they are too powerful to go up in smoke!

We’ll talk more about your list next time…See you then!

Mary

As promised, here are a few books I have read that got my brainstorming juices flowing!  Enjoy!

Don’t Retire, Rewire by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners
How to Retire Happy – The 12 most important decisions you must make before you retire by Stan Hinden
Retire Smart, Retire Happy – Finding Your True Path in Life by Nancy K. Schlossberg

Introducing…Retire with Joy and Purpose!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my page retirewithjoyandpurpose.com!

I hope the website name itself tells my goal, but I wanted to introduce myself and where I am on this retirement journey. I also want to tell you my purpose in writing this. I hope you enjoy the ride!

My name is Mary Powell… I guess that is important to know WHO I am first! Also, in the interest of letting you know right up front, this blog is NOT about the financial part of retiring. I don’t have that expertise, and I strongly recommend you talk to a financial planner to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row (or AT LEAST in the same pond!).  At some point I may have some guest bloggers who can address that, but it definitely won’t be me talking about money!

Secondly, no, I am actually NOT retired yet! Shocked? Wondering how I can write this, then? LOL! (i.e. laughing out loud!) Well, let me tell you about that!

My husband Dave and I have been looking toward our retirement future with great anticipation! About 5 years ago, we started to think about the “when” instead of the “pie in the sky” that it had been before that. We had a financial planner and felt the money part would be OK, (though I must admit we didn’t really see the “how” of that and have “assurance” of that till about a year ago….a future blog topic, not in money detail, though as discussed above). But now, it was time to start really thinking about it…for REAL.

My first realization as I began to think about this, is that it wasn’t all about the practical “when,” though that is important. What I have realized is that getting ready to retire is a journey! It isn’t (or at least, in my opinion, it is BEST if it isn’t) an instantaneous decision without planning for the “what next.” When I actually DO retire (hopefully later this year), I expect that to be a totally NEW LEG of the journey!

The “what next” is what this blog is about… and making sure your “what next” gives you joy and purpose in your retirement years! You worked hard for it…now, whatever form it takes (and there are MANY forms, whatever YOU want or whatever you can do), it’s time to enjoy it!

I wish you each a fun journey along with me! Let’s go!

See you next time…can’t wait!

Mary