Monthly Archives: February 2014

Living in the Moment – Making Every Day Count

Back at it, after a break to take in the Winter Olympics.  How amazing are these athletes today?  Seriously, how many revolutions in the air can one snowboarder possibly achieve? Incredible ability that defies logic.  Kudos to all of those athletes who have spent hours training for their specific event.  Despite all of the attention paid to the medal winners, everyone who competes is a winner.  Congratulations to our team Canada Men’s and Women’s hockey teams who won gold medals.  There is no doubt they are living in the moment and making every day count.

“The miracle is not to walk on water.  The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive”  –  Thich Nhat Hanh

I am by no means a philosophical person.  I am however in favour of feeling truly alive.

Retirement has brought me great joy.  A time to reflect, a time to meet new people but most of all, it has made me realize that I don’t want to grow old without learning more and giving something back.

To Learn and to Serve

The more I read the 4 – Hour Workweek book by Tim Ferriss, the more inspired I get about making every day count.  In fact, I think I found the nugget that can be my mantra for the rest of my life.  I really, really want “to learn and to serve”.

For example, here are some of the points that really hit home with me from the Tim Ferriss book – Let’s face it, we could spend our whole lives learning something new and we should. Learning to eliminate clutter and waste.  Learning to be more effective.  Learning to feel good about ourselves.  Learning to get rid of doubts and worry.  Learning to use our time wisely without the need to see a million things just the really important ones. Learning to share that wisdom gained over the years and to serve others.  Serving is doing something that improves life besides our own.

I love learning about blogging, entrepreneurship, webinars, podcasting, mastermind groups, Facebook advertising, membership sites and this whole world of internet marketing and digital products.  The bottom line, I need and I want to help my son grow his entrepreneurial business.  This is one way I can give back.  This is what makes me happy!

An interesting quote about learning from our children caught my eye.

“Adults are always asking their kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas”  – Paula Poundstone

Besides, we need to be nice to our kids because they are the ones who will be picking out our nursing homes.

A few days ago I met this incredible couple from England.  They have their own web site www.lizzybus.com.  Their goal is to travel with their Land Rover, aka lizzybus, over all 7 continents.  Granted they need to transport their Land Rover by ship where required, but how amazing is that.  They have traveled through some rough countries and they have a sticker flag for every country they have visited pasted onto their Land Rover.  Talk about making every day count!

Today, I learned how to incorporate a new company for my son’s growing entrepreneurial business.  Tomorrow, I  plan to walk on the green earth in an enjoyable game of golf.  I too want to make every day count, in my own way, with an opportunity to learn and to serve while enjoying each day as another day in paradise.

How will you learn something new?  What would really excite and inspire you?  Who will you reach out to help?  Make it count!

 

 

Is your Social Network Growing?

It’s inevitable, the more time on your hands, the more you want to reach out to people.  It’s just basic human nature to want to share stories and noteworthy experiences.  Now with all of this new instant communication technology at our fingertips, we can text, email, Skype message, Facebook message, Facebook post etc.  and always keep in touch with those who make a difference in our lives.

Sure we all made acquaintances with business co-workers and perhaps met after work for drinks to gossip.   But that was work related.  Once you leave the work place, we might manage to keep in touch with a few of these co-workers but typically that network would tend to decline over the years.  What then?  There’s always the option of retreating to the couch to hibernate.  That might work for some people, but that’s just sad!  People need to connect with people.  We need to enjoy each other’s company.  We need to smile and laugh until it we cry.

The Super Bowl

What better opportunity is there for a gathering of friends and family than hosting or being at a Super Bowl party?  With only one common objective,  to watch a football game while munching on some great food and sharing stories with a group of people.  Some people you will meet for the first time and who knows they could then be part of your growing social network.  I was at a Super Bowl party last night and despite the blowout game result, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and of course the food.

Friends and Family Forever

I have to admit that since my retirement my social network has grown exponentially.  I never realized that my work was so time consuming.  I never really made the effort to grow my social network back then.  Today, it’s so much easier to meet new people and stay connected.  However, family is always first.  It’s so important to be involved with your family and to help out whenever there is a need.  That connection has to be forever.

Moving to an Active Lifestyle Community has proven to be a game changer for making new acquaintances and new friends.  So many people, with similar interests, are willing to share their experiences.  Many are willing to mentor you and to provide guidance for new life adventures.  It’s just so amazing to me how we can open up to each other, so willingly and easily. I really cherish it.

Perhaps the best example I can share with you is how friendships can be created by simply volunteering for something.  I volunteered to set up an invitational senior men’s golf league at our local golf course.  It wasn’t a big league, only 20 players with 10 spares.  After one full season, I can truly say, it was a blast.  There’s something about a little match play competition and a group of men together.  We all had grown our social network to another level.  As spring approaches this year, our league will be expanding to 24 players with 12 spares (already a 20% growth).  Without any doubt there will be even more kidding and laughing.  Even better, more friends for life.