And Why Are You Doing This?

For the past couple years, I've talked about creating an online retirement planning course. I wanted to reach the individuals in work environments where it's not "safe" to talk about retirement. I also wanted to offer my workshop participants a resource that would continue to support their transition into retirement.

At the beginning this idea was mostly talk. I didn't know how to create an online course. But then the more I talked about it the more I started to gather the pieces I needed to make it happen.

Eventually I was past the point of talk. My house started to look like a recording studio with camera, lights, and an iMac for editing. At that point my husband quizzically asked, "And why are you doing this?"

I have my reasons. I want to expand my outreach to a corporate audience. I want to create the next product. I want to stretch myself. But mostly I'm creating this course because it brings me great satisfaction. This project has required learning iMovie and editing. It has required creating new content and expanding my topics. I'm having fun being the person I get to be on the project: writer, creator, teacher, editor, and more.

In Rob Bell's book, How to Be Here, he says, "Some things you do for you. You do them because it gives you great satisfaction and it puts a smile on your face and that's it. And that's fine. It's not just fine, it's necessary. It makes you a better person, it fills your soul, it opens you up to life in its fullness."

If I created this course only for this reason—to have the experience fill my soul and open me up to life in its fullness, then this is my answer to "And why are you doing this?"

Copyright 2017. Patrice Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.