Challenge is essential to my happiness. When someone asked me to imagine my best life, it would include some challenge. But finding the right amount of challenge is key. I can’t imagine a life without any problems to try to solve. I’m not talking about where to buy new winter tires or how to fix… Continue reading Happy Challenges, Happy Self
Category: Retirement Tools
Shaking Up What You Think You Know About Yourself.
Have you ever seen the moon when it’s on the horizon? It looks massive and yet we know it hasn’t changed size. It’s a matter of our perspective: the way our brains are processing the information. Did you know that if you look upside down at the same moon, it will appear its normal size?*… Continue reading Shaking Up What You Think You Know About Yourself.
Check Your Big Picture
I forget to look at the big picture and so I miss correcting important issues until they’ve been left for too long. I suspect we all do this. This is your reminder to step back today and assess where you are and how things are going. How Does The Big Picture Help? When we look… Continue reading Check Your Big Picture
Difficult Emotions And Toxic Positivity
I find it one of the hardest things to do, to just sit with uncomfortable emotions. I want to talk about them and fix them. I look for a way to make these feelings go away. I really need to work on sitting and observing them. Toxic Positivity. The belief that everything should be rosy… Continue reading Difficult Emotions And Toxic Positivity
Find Your Passion In How Things Work
I have no idea how most of the things that I rely on everyday work. It’s a mystery to me how my electric kettle boils my tea and how my phone sends texts. I know how to operate these items, but I couldn’t build one. I find I am increasingly accepting of the fact that… Continue reading Find Your Passion In How Things Work
Building On and Moving On
“She failed retirement,” laughed a retired work colleague as she spoke about her partner. Her partner had tried to retire for a year or so but was lured back to work in a job that used some of the skills she had developed from a career in education. It wasn’t the same job that she… Continue reading Building On and Moving On
What are you keeping that no longer serves you?
I’m the first to admit that teachers are incessant collectors. We can’t help it. In a chronically under-funded education system, elementary school teachers use scraps of coloured tissue paper, dried leaves and wine corks for art and science lessons. Paper towel rolls can be sculptures or bird feeders or the axles of rubber band cars.… Continue reading What are you keeping that no longer serves you?
Learning To Say,“No.”
Working full-time gave me permission to opt out of things that I didn’t want to do. There wasn’t enough time to say, “Yes,” to everything. My time was occupied. Others understood this and I did too. The Guilt Of Job-Free Time. Now, I have lots of time that isn’t formally structured. It’s like having a… Continue reading Learning To Say,“No.”
Routines: good riddance or good idea?
One of the great joys of retirement is getting away from the daily grind: that routine. At first, it’s the most obvious benefit. I get to choose when I want to do things and no one will impose their routine on me anymore. It’s so freeing! It’s not unlike being on holiday and knowing that… Continue reading Routines: good riddance or good idea?
Speed Of Life
“Efficiency isn’t always the goal. Do you want to live your life in half the time it takes the average person?” – a comic titled The Type A, Rhymes With Orange 2/24/2010. 13 years ago I cut out this comic when I was so super-busy with work and family that retirement was a far off… Continue reading Speed Of Life
Retired, And Now What? 