Love and Kindness

Personal Mission Statement

Backstory

I’ve always set goals and made sure my plans were in writing. It does not end when you retire. That may be the best time to map out who you want to be and where you want to go. You have a second chance to scratch things off that bucket list, get organized or mend fences. What will it be?

Click to listen or follow below to read.

Personal Mission Statement – #659

In my working days, I wrote strategic plans and helped organizations decide what their future should look like.

When I settled in the Shenandoah Valley to take things easy, I wanted a PERSONAL mission statement; something I could refer to, to see if my days are being spent on things that matter to me. It’s so easy to get side-tracked and whittle time away, when you’re not in a 9 to 5 job. I wanted to set a course and keep on it.

There’s a quote from Henry David Thoreau. It so inspired me that I have it in a picture frame in my office.

Thoreau says, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Thoreau was saying to me – “Your Personal Mission Statement should aim you toward your own version of success and contentment. Yours – not anyone else’s.”

If you are interested in writing your own Personal Mission Statement and would like to see a sample, I’d be glad to share mine with you. It outlines the RESULTS I want to achieve from the things I do each day.

Just send me an email and I’ll get it out to you.

Once you write your mission statement, be sure to post it where you’ll see it every day so you can track your progress toward ”success unexpected in common hours.”

P.S.

To request the sample Personal Mission Statement, send an email to Annette@ConsiderThisRadioShow.com. Hope you enjoy the process of creating your own strategies.

[Show #659]

People Change

Backstory

Bill and I watched a British movie the other night. The lives of a whole family changed dramatically in less than a year. Some of the characters tried desperately to cling to the way things were; others rushed blindly toward change. Contemplation on those fictitious events led to consideration about how fast change occurs in real life.

Click to listen or follow below to read.

People Change – #315

Do you think people can change? I’ll bet you’ve seen it happen in your own life. Someone is grieving and unhappy and really off balance and yet, over time they straighten themselves out. Sometimes it’s the love of another person that helps them move on, or the person himself that may learn to live with the way things are. Or she may find new interests and a new way to participate.

Psychologists say that major changes in life take four years to accomplish.

For instance, a college graduate carries the person he or she was in school into the first four years of their career. It takes that long to lose the essence of being a student and adopt to the professional lifestyle.

They say it takes empty nesters a full four years to think like a family of just two.

It takes four years before the remarried person is totally comfortable with this new person.

Do you agree?

It probably seems the change occurs a lot faster than that. But we’re talking about change to the core. Change of your very being from the previous person you were to the skin and heart and soul of the person you have become; someone who has created contemporary values for their today, not their yesterday.

P.S.

What do you think? Are we humans so flexible that we can move from one corner to the next and take it all in stride? Or do we need to give ourselves – and others – time to adjust, become familiar, get into a groove that’s comfortable. Scroll down and jot down your thinking, please.

[Show #634]

What People Think

Backstory

I was in an improv group that performed skits before groups as an alternative to speakers. In one skit, I played a mom, who cared more about what the neighbors thought than she did about her own daughter’s pain. Remembering that performance was the genesis of this episode.

Click to listen or follow below to read.

What People Think – #272

We were just talking about what people think of you. Should you care what they think? Seems it should depend on who is doing the thinking.

A friend recently told me that he likes his wife’s hair because she still wears it fluffy. That’s not the current trend in hair styles. But which is more important – being a trend setter or setting your guy’s heart aflutter when he looks at you in that fluffy hair style that he loves.

As we get older, we sometimes fall victim to what other people think. We seem to let them convince us that they know better about what we should do, or say, or look like. They say that walking on 5 inch high heels is the way to look cool. They threaten that love belongs only to those skeletal enough to wear a size 4. They warn that nobody over 50 can get a job in this new economy. None of that may be true for you. Don’t believe it. Make a judgment for yourself about what is true and act accordingly.

Every day, we are faced with decisions. We can make them based on our own values or based on what others will think. Which will you choose today?

The best advice seems to be the one frequently directed to young people as they mature – be true to yourself. If you can do that, no matter what your age, you’ll probably make out just fine.

P.S.

What experience do you have about what people think? Want to share something with our listeners and readers? Scroll down and write on.

[Show #272]

Winter In the Bubble: The Villages

Backstory

After 25 years in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we are wondering whether to spend retirement somewhere else. We’ve been weighing pros and cons, like these.

Click to listen or follow below to read.

Winter In the Bubble – #656

We lived in a bubble in the winter of 2018. We spent the coldest, snowiest months of the year at The Villages, a huge community for active adults over 55. The winding streets have beautiful landscaping, flowers bloom all year long, there is nightly dancing to live music, dozens of golf courses, a polo field, eleven country clubs and recreation galore.

It is Florida’s magic kingdom for mature adults.

A 50 page newspaper lists hundreds of events each week by different interest groups. You can go to the card game, the lecture, the swimming pool, the pickle ball court or the talent show.

But it is indeed a bubble. What’s missing? The sound of children playing in the streets, neighbors with hair that is not gray or white, anything messy.

The Villages is pristine and perfect. Over 100,000 retirees call it home. Every resident you meet sings its praises.

Critics say it is too sheltered from the outside world and lacks diversity. Residents feel they have earned this perfection in retirement and they make no apologies for their lifestyle. They volunteer, donate, support churches and tend to local underprivileged kids.

We have to decide whether we’d like to live there someday.

P.S.

What things would you take into consideration when deciding where to spend your retirement? Scroll down and share in COMMENTS. Thanks.

[Show #656]

Rewards for Successful Aging

Backstory

Working on the Council for Aging In Place, I’ve been doing research on how and where people like to age. That led me to the book, Script & Flame by B. K. Haynes. And that led to writing this episode.

Click to listen or follow below to read..

Rewards for Successful Aging – #654

For a century, mankind believed that old age started at 50. Now the aging process seems to be racing on past 80. An example is the author, B. K. Haynes.

An old-time rural land developer, B. K. has written four books, since the 1960s, when he ruled the recreational property development boom.

His last book was written at the age of 80. It’s titled Script & Flame and one segment talks about rewards for successful aging.

The first reward is – Freedom from Fear – Imagine what contentment that would bring. Next is Love of One’s Work. B.K. never wants to stop. Harmony with Others is number 3.

With Good Health and Economic Security, the next two items on the list, B.K. says you should have Definite Future Plans and Hope for the Future. He advises Breaking Bad Habits, adding, “Your objective should be to restore and form good habits and to become a slave to them.”

Sharing with Others is the next step in successful aging. Then Control of Self and A Positive Attitude Toward Life. Lastly – Having an Open Mind and Having Concern for Others.

You’ll find more advice, deeply spiritual observations and downright entertainment in the book, Script & Flame by B. K. Haynes, available on Amazon.

P.S.

What rewards would you add to B.K.’s list?

[Show #654]

Great Moments

Backstory

It’s a spot; a moment in time that is indelible in your memory. It may be a seminal moment – or a simple gesture or word. But it is burned into your mind, to be remembered forever.

Click to listen or follow below to read.

Great Moments – #707

What great moments of your life do you remember?

One of mine, was my Mom’s 75^th birthday. My sisters’ and I wanted to throw a party at a nice hotel. But she wanted a family affair at our farmhouse here in the Shenandoah Valley.

We had just recently bought the house as a weekend retreat. It was over 100 years-old and it needed everything. The plaster walls had cracks, the kitchen had a rickety stove from the 1930’s. We had very little furniture yet, and you just might fall through the floor in one or two of the rooms.

But Mom was adamant that this was to be the site of her big birthday shindig. So, we hung crepe paper on the walls to cover the cracks, sat a door on saw horses as a party table, brought in mix-matched folding chairs, turned up the radio, invited the neighbors and had so much, that 15-years later it still pops into my mind as a great moment.

Just think, something that happens to you today may become the great moment that you’ll talk about 15-years from now.

You just never know what life holds when you go around the next corner.

Ain’t it just great!

P.S.

What great moment pops into YOUR mind? Scroll down and share it, if you can.

[Show #707]

« Previous Page