Worry

This is a guest post contributed by Betty Jameson

Are you scared of old age when you think of entering this phase of life after sixty? Don’t be. While the fear of death is a natural one, there is nothing to fear from living life as an older person.

Yet, many of us do have that fear. It’s understandable: fears that our health may not be what it was, or that we won’t have enough money, or that we won’t have enough to do are common ones. However, while some things are unpredictable, we have the power to influence many of the outcomes we fear the most.

If you’re heading towards sixty or have recently been congratulated for that big ‘six-zero’ birthday remember that much of your life is within your control, in more ways than you might realize. Address whatever fears you might have about getting older, rather than allowing them to hold you back.

Health

Loss of good health is a major worry for many people as they age. Now, it’s fair enough to be concerned. Part of the aging process is that our bodies slow down and begin to wear. We can’t prevent this from happening, in fact our body starts to slow down in our twenties!

While we can’t magically turn back the clock, a healthy and active lifestyle will greatly minimize the effects of aging and the minor health problems that happen to most of us. Some of us mignt have to face major health problems at some future time, but it’s best to avoid any useless worrying.

 People

Being older can be an isolating experience for some. If you’re in a relationship, this is often a good time to re-connect if you feel you have drifted apart. If you cannot, or you’re unhappy, get out, give yourself a chance to find someone new. Being single and happy is much less lonely than being coupled and unhappy. Don’t think, either, that being older means you have to forget about sex … over half of those aged 75-85 have sex at least twice a month.

When it comes to friends and family, make an effort. When you retire and lose your routine, it’s often easy to become isolated. Find a new routine that involves regular social dates.

 Identity

Many people’s biggest fear once they retire is that they will lose their identity. If you’ve worked hard for years and built your life around your job and the status it entails, then it’s hard to suddenly lose it. Retirement from full-time work can be a sudden shock for some. If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent much of your life, then children leaving home can cause the same worries.

Remember that identity does not need to come just from work. If you’re worried about being an ‘invisible’ person at home alone, then do something to prevent that from happening. Perhaps you have skills that you can put to use in a local charity? Or perhaps you could go back to education? Earlier in life, both work and education are pursued for a purpose. Now, you can do them just for fulfillment.

 Money

If you’re worried about money once you retire, that’s understandable, especially in today’s uncertain economic climate. Sit down and work out your likely income and expenses, and see if there’s a gap to be made up, or if you’re just not going to have enough to do the things you want to, look at ways you can make up the difference. Perhaps you could sell your home and downsize? Or perhaps you could find a way to make some extra income? Retirement is not necessarily as sudden a change as it used to be. Why not look at starting a small business from home? We all have business ideas that we’ve just been too busy to pursue while working full-time. Retirement could be the opportunity you need to do just that.

Opportunity

Retirement is also a chance to work towards whatever other things you want to do, but never had the chance to. Have you ever heard a retired person say that they ‘don’t know how they had the time to work’? Busy people are normally happy people, so get out and do things. Japanese people like Shukan Shincho call retirement their ‘second life’. Perhaps their example is the one to follow.

Betty Jameson is just back from a Caribbean Cruise where  she stopped off to do some mountain biking in the beautiful Dominican Republic. As soon as she returned home it was time to get a bicycle insurance comparison and a new bike as she had found a new hobby.

Picture credit: http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Worried_People_3.jpg

Related posts:

1. Creating Your Own Digital Pension Income
2. Year 2011:Making My Blog More Profitable
3. Retirement:Are You Getting The Life you Wished For?
4. Is Your Road to Success Paved with Fears of Defeat?
5. Life After Sixty! Are New Beginnings Possible?

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Here are questions 7 through 12 - for you to check off  to what degree they might apply to you:

Y = “Yes, this is what I’m like.”
S = “Somewhat, and I feel I could develop this trait.”
N = “No, I’m not like this at all.”

Download the free 14-page report by clicking here: Working for Yourself.pdf

7. You are organized
You can manage your time and resources. Running your own business,
you often have to wear a number of hats and some days may see you
tackling a bunch of tasks. If you’re not organized, you can end up
wasting a lot of valuable time, and being distracted by non-productive
activities.

8. You are independent
As a home-based business person, you usually have few people to rely
on. Sure, you can become part of business networks and get support at
forums, but in the end it is you who must do all the work to build your
business. A successful entrepreneur is independent, and relies on
themselves.

9. You are a problem solver
You can’t let a problem interfere with your purpose. To succeed, you must face problems
head on and figure out a way to go through, over, or around the
problem.
In fact, successful entrepreneurs see opportunities in problems. Solving
other people’s problems is how your business can make a lot of money.

10. You take action
Planning is an important part of your success, but without action your
plans will never be achieved. Over analyzing a plan can lead to
“analysis paralysis”, where you never put the plan into action and
nothing is achieved.
Successful entrepreneurs consider their path of action, and then they
soon take action. They never wait for things to happen – they make
them happen.

11. You have imagination
Being successful often involves using your imagination to be that little
bit different – to stand out from the crowd. Sometimes, you’ll have to
think outside the box to put you above your competition.

12. You are observant
You watch what others are doing, and you learn from it. Successful
entrepreneurs know what is happening in their niche. They see what
their competition is doing right, and what they’re doing wrong.
While it’s wise to learn from your mistakes, it’s safer & cheaper to learn
from your competition’s mistakes.

Y = “Yes, this is what I’m like.”
S = “Somewhat, and I feel I could develop this trait.”
N = “No, I’m not like this at all.”

part 3 to-morrow…

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In  Working for Yourself.pdf a 14 page pdf report, Kevin lists 19 questions you could ask yourself if you’re thinking of making a change in your life.  He suggests that you consider each statement in this checklist, and then check off to what degree it applies to you:

Y = “Yes, this is what I’m like.”
S = “Somewhat, and I feel I could develop this trait.”
N = “No, I’m not like this at all.”

I’m listing 6 of Kevin’s questions here and you can decide if it fits your purpose. This is a
free report  and you can download it by clicking here:

Working for Yourself.pdf

1. You are a hard worker
When you first start a home business, you must be ready to sometimes work
longer hours than the regular 9-5. There’s no fellow employee or boss to
take up the slack. You are the one who has to put in the extra hours.
If you are still working a 9-5 job while starting your business, are you
willing and able to sacrifice some of your leisure time? Can you invest
an extra 2-3 hours per day into building your business?
The time you invest in your business during the building phase will pay
off with big dividends later, when you can take long vacations and have
a flexible schedule.

2. You like to take charge
You don’t wait for others to make the decision or take the lead.
Successful entrepreneurs see an opportunity, seize it, and take full
responsibility to see it through.
When a task or challenge comes up at work, do you seize the
opportunity and take charge? Or do you wait for someone else to take
the initiative?

3. You are a decision maker
As an entrepreneur, you often have to make important decisions, and
make them quickly. You cannot agonize over decisions, or keep putting
them off.
In business, the old adage “You snooze, you lose!” has a lot of merit to
it. Often, opportunities will present themselves, and you must decide
quickly if they are advantageous for your business.
As the boss, you must make important decisions on a regular basis.

4. You are persistent
Success usually does not come overnight, and quite often it’s only those
who persist and push past obstacles that succeed. If you easily give up,
it will be difficult for you to be successful running your own business.
Successful entrepreneurs carry on and do not let minor obstacles stop
them. They keep their eye on the goal and keep moving towards that
goal, even if they have to take detours to get there.

5. You can weather criticism and rejection
Running your own business is not always smooth sailing. There will
always be those who criticize your decisions or reject your ideas. While
you should always be open to bounce back from criticism and carry on,
you can’t let it stop you.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t take criticism personally. Instead, they
learn and improve from the feedback.

6. You desire to create your own destiny
For successful entrepreneurs, it’s not just about making lots of money.
It’s about being your own boss and enjoying the freedom to run your
business as you see fit. Money is not the only reward.

Y = “Yes, this is what I’m like.”
S = “Somewhat, and I feel I could develop this trait.”
N = “No, I’m not like this at all.”

to be continued…

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For the most part, you are on your own. Oh yes, there are
those who can give you some direction (which I hope to do)
but ultimately, you have to do the work.

Eventually, as you build a name for yourself you may get
somebody to go into a Joint Venture with you, but I’m getting
ahead of myself there.

The point is, at the beginning, you truly are ON YOUR OWN.

So there you sit, staring at your computer screen …
And the first thing that comes into your mind is one question…

Where Do I Start????

If you think this isn’t a scary thought, it is. I’ve been there…
there was a lot of information out there about internet marketing,
but although it was all kind of confusing, I didn’t turn to people
to ask questions.

It was a few years ago and I was REALLY new to this … I thought
I could process all the information that I was buying on my own…
with no one to give me some direction!

Well, I’m here to give you some.  But if you’re expecting that I’m
going to just lay out some step by step game plan, it’s just not
possible!

Why is it not possible?

Let’s say I said to you that the first thing you want to do is learn
how to write really well because that is going to be one of the
keys to making an income on the Internet and you said:
“But I hate to write!”

So there goes one of my suggestions!  I better switch to giving
you options instead of suggestions… lots of them. Because
believe it or not, there is more than one way to make money on
the Internet with a home business.

I will give you as many ways as I know of.  I certainly don’t
know them all,  but I know now where to get the best information.

In the series of articles to follow, I will point out to you a number 
of ways that might fit in with your interests and preferences as a
starting point to fulfilling this new purpose in your life.

So after reading this article, I want you to sit down with a pen
and paper (yes, get away from the darn computer) and write down
ALL your interests. That’s right, ALL of them. I don’t care how
silly they seem or how unlikely they are to make money.

Just write them down and this WILL lead to some answers to the
question “Where To Start?”

Here’s my list.
1. Writing
2. Music
3. Computers
4, Games
5. Health

Okay, make your list and then we’ll pick it up from there in our
next article.

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Dr. Dychtwald

Reading and listening to warnings and predictions about the poor prospects retiring baby boomers might soon be facing,
I was reminded of an expression I’ve often heard “when one door closes another one opens” sometimes offered to someone who has
just suffered some major disappointment such as losing a job or maybe not getting the house or apartment they were hoping to get.

With the national economy crisis we are all going through now, the option to hang on to their job for a few more years after 62 or 65 might not even be in the cards for boomers, but the internet – another door – has opened up new possibilities!

In an earlier post I wrote about a very good book  “With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life” written by Dr.Dychtwald, a psychologist, gerontologist, documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and
best-selling author of fifteen books on aging-related issues.  He predicts
that with the potential of a longer life, boomers could be heading for a satisfying new career.

I believe that the internet offers many opportunities without requiring
expensive training… people who have worked in the business world are quite capable of carving out an interesting and maybe lucrative home business… heck, some young people who have never worked in
business are learning to make money on the internet!

We are now living through a time of upheaval as definitive as anything
experienced since the industrial age replaced our agrarian society…
the tiny iphone contains way more information than the first computer I
bought in 1993 and we ain’t seen half of it yet!

Dr. Dychtwald predicts changes in the meaning of success, work, relationships, adulthood and retirement… I say we might as well keep
a positive attitude

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Now in MP3

Napoleon Hill was born into poverty in 1883, and as a teenager, began writing as a reporter for small newspapers.

Then in 1908, industrialist Andrew Carnegie commissioned him to interview hundreds of successful men and women, in an effort to prove his theory that success could be simplified down to a clear-cut formula.

What the Mind Can Conceive and Believe it Can Achieve – Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich – Now in MP3 Audio!

Napoleon Hill interviewed the most famous – and richest – people of the time, and from this information, distilled his famous Success Formula. Now, the most famous of his works, Think and Grow Rich is available in professionally-recorded, CD Quality, MP3 Audio …

This book has sold more than thirty million copies Word-Wide and been responsible for creating more millionaires than any other philosophy of achievement..

Now, the most famous of his works, Think and Grow Rich is available in professionally-recorded, CD Quality, MP3 Audio …suitable for MAC & PC

Watch the interesting story of this famous life on two videos.

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Image via Wikipedia

Last Saturday afternoon I watched a special on one of my local PBS stations: KBTC, titled:
With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life

As a psychologist, gerontologist, documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and best-selling author of fifteen books on aging-related issues,
Dr. Dychtwald has been exploring the implications of the longer age expectations for this boomer generation.

He spoke at length about the prospect of rethinking the meaning of success, work, relationships, adulthood and retirement.

He has explored at length various aspects of this longer living generation of boomers… how will be they handling matters of lifestyle, marketing, healthcare and workforce?

How will the expectation of probably living longer, maybe much longer than previous generations,change our thinking about goals? What is success for this new stage of our lives?

What happens to retirement?

With new aspirations regarding the potentials of a longer life and also today’s economic instability will we head off to the playing fields or perhaps try a satisfying encore career?

Dr. Dychtwald introduced some incredible men and women,the new
role models for this age-wave investment,who are providing
inspirational glimpses into the future.

How could new purpose be added to this next stage of life?

Could having new purpose contribute to continuing vigor and good health… after all how old would you be if you didn’t know how old
you are?

I thought it was a very thought provoking and inspiring show…
invigorating even!

With Purpose: Going From Success to Significance in Work and Life (3/09) is Dr. Ken Dychtwald’s newest book. In 2007, he had his debut as a documentary filmmaker and host with the highly rated PBS special “The Boomer Century. (he recently turned 60)

Related articles

• The Nuclear Family Goes Boom! (time.com)
• Ken Dychtwald Ph.D.: Long Term Care: The Solutions You Should Be Talking About Now (huffingtonpost.com)
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