What Will I Do All Day? : February 2019

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Free Opportunities

"Freedom is our problem and freedom is our opportunity." –Seth Godin

I've stated Godin's quote many times in my writing and speaking, specifically referring to the extra hours we have in our days and weeks when we're no longer working full time. What we do with these extra hours can be a burden or a gift.

This past week, after reading a Forbes article on retirement, my thinking about freedom expanded beyond figuring out what to do with our extra time. It's also an opportunity to be free of many embedded beliefs, habits and practices.

Consider this list of freedom opportunities:

· Free from the expectations of others

· Free from preconceived notions of how you might live your life

· Free from the responsibility of raising a family

· Free to do what you've always wanted to do

· Free from advertising influences that tell you to spend your time and money in unhealthy and unfulfilling ways

· Free from the consequences of unconscious choices that you might have made earlier in your life

· Free to redefine your work to better suit your goals, interests, and circumstances

Now imagine you have been given three freedom tickets.

Where will you use them? How will these choices change your life?

Retirement is our opportunity to live life to the fullest. Let's make our freedom count.

Click here to read the full article.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

I wish I had...

For one day on a Brooklyn, NY sidewalk, a large chalkboard was displayed with the words "WRITE YOUR BIGGEST REGRET." Click here to view video.

At the end of the day, the word that showed up most is the regret felt for things not done. People didn't regret failing; people most regretted failing to try. Fear of risk and failure holds us back from pursuing dreams and goals. And we're left with regrets. Is there a way to manage risk and avoid regret? Yes.

Author Jonathan Fields, in his book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance, offers three questions to help you get over the fear of risk and failure.

One: What if I go to zero?

Suppose your goal doesn't work out as planned. In fact, it is a big failure. What are you going to do now? How will you recover from this place? Describe your plan in detail. This is the worse case scenario. Once you see how you will recover, you know even a failure isn't the end of the world. When you know you can recover, you proceed with more confidence.

Two: What if I do nothing?

This question will help you understand how much this goal means to you. If the idea seems too scary, too risky, and so you ignore it and do nothing, how does this make you feel? Is doing nothing okay with you or will it show up on a biggest regret list a few years from now?

Three: What if I succeed?

And now for the fun part—what if this crazy idea actually succeeds? How will this change your life? What will this add to your life?

Risk or Regret. The decision is yours. How will you respond?

"Your biggest failure is the thing you dreamed of contributing,

but didn’t find the guts to do." –Seth Godin