To Renew the License or Not

At a recent pre-retirement talk, a woman said, "The one thing I'm not sure about is whether or not to renew my professional license."

I asked, "Is the cost prohibitive?"  No.

"Is the continuing education requirement more than you want to complete?" No.

"Do you still draw energy and enjoyment from this field?" Yes.

That's when I said, "If you learn one thing from today's program, I want it to be this: Keep your license."

I have no idea if in the future this workshop participant will want to practice as a speech therapist. It doesn't matter. Having her license creates a mindset that she has choices—that she's open to possibilities. In fact, by keeping her options open, she's expecting opportunities to come her way.

Authors Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander in their book, The Art of Possibility, advocate for viewing life from the universe of possibility, where you set the context and let life unfold. Keeping her professional license sets the context.

Living with expectancy does not mean that you sit back and accept whatever comes your way. Conversely, you position yourself for possibility by getting involved in activities that are outside of your comfort zone. When an interesting opportunity comes your way, you jump onboard and see where the ride takes you. You commit to creating a bigger life, an expanded life by choosing action over inertia.

For my workshop participant, keeping her professional license is just one example of how to approach her future with expectancy. How about you? What can you do to create a context that will nurture a sense of anticipation, hope, belief and possibility in your retirement years?

Copyright 2017. Patrice Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.

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.