Retirement is a journey, not a destination.

Retirement is a journey, a chance to have adventures, live life to the fullest and to find answers to questions you want about yourself and your attitude toward life and happiness. When it comes to trying to find these answers, you have to look deep inside yourself, to dig deep into your soul and your mind to find the answers for which you are looking. 

This is not an easy or a short process, and it requires an effort. How do you learn how to get started? Start by searching your mind and hold on to the insight you find about your hopes and dreams. Use these insights to get motivated enough to make your wishes come true.

It may take some time to become the person you want to be in your retirement, but as you grow, you will find that it will be easier to become that person.
To be the person you want to be in retirement is not going to be something that does not take any time or effort; this is going to be your ongoing duty. 

Over your life, you may have experienced some hard time but you learned to overcome these adventures. As you moved through life, you may have felt, anxiety, fear, resentment, guilt and a lot of uneasiness. But you also experienced love, joy, peace, and contentment.

Do you remember how you got to those positive experiences? As you set your sites on becoming the person who is at peace in retirement it will all depend on you and your mind frame on how fast you will progress. It is going to take some time but as you learn to work on it, it will come to you faster than someone who only thinks they want it.

Some of the things that you may want to do to get where you want to be is to make some new goals. Once your goals are down on paper, then you are going to have to learn to work at achieving your goals. Once you have your goals you will see that the rest will come, natural to you and it will help you to become a very successful person in your retirement.

Pondering on Monday morning

We all have made mistakes in our life doing some things wrong along with our journey. We often feel trapped because good does not associate with bad. It doesn’t necessarily mean we are a bad person, it means that we are misinformed and confused in some areas. In addition, it means that we have held resentment and guilt, which we should have let go, a long time ago.

There is nothing wrong with forgiving yourself for mistakes we have made. Forgiveness only goes so far. If you continue to ask for forgiveness for the mistakes and continue making the same mistakes thinking that you will be forgiven, you won't be forgiven. 

We must strive to do what we know is right in order to enjoy peace of mind and true happiness. What we put in our thoughts will come out later. To keep your mind and body pure as much as possible, do not dwell on guilt, hate, and other negative feelings

I sometimes wonder if a person feels entrapped if it is difficult to discover their needs. Does the person feel empty? From experience, I know that to be open to self-growth it is important to purge guilt, hate, and other negative thoughts from your system.  

When your self-awareness expands and you get to the point where you can forgive yourself for imagined or real wrongs you have committed, then you need self-discipline. Having self-discipline will help you to avoid repeating the same mistake. With self-discipline, hopefully, you will recognize temptation and walk away. 

One way to develop self-discipline involves accepting the consequences of your behaviour. This is hard but over time, with self-love and practice, you will succeed.  

Self-development or building self-discipline is not easy; it takes effort and practice and you may fall on your face along the way. Persistence and practice are important and you will be rewarded if you continue. 

A goal in life should be to bring your mind and body into harmony so that they work in union to assist you in maintaining good health and happiness. 

Identifying who you really are will make you feel good. This is hard, so my advice as you are moving forward in your attempt to find self-discipline and peace of mind is:

Keep it simple, smart (KISS)! 

A new-Age-well initiative doomed to fail

My university announced a new AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub unveiled this week at SFU's Surrey campus will address ageing challenges through digital technologies aimed at improving seniors' quality of life. The hub will benefit from $3.5 million announced by Western Economic Diversification Canada during its launch.

The AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub: Digital Health Circle will bring communities and experts together to tackle age-related challenges, support partnerships to create real-world solutions, develop talent to meet the needs of B.C.’s tech businesses and help older adults in B.C. and across Canada live well. 

“Our aim is to leverage the extensive resources already established in B.C. to spur the development of technologies and services in the digital health sector,” says Andrew Sixsmith, scientific co-director of AGE-WELL and an SFU gerontology professor. “The new ideas that are generated and products created will benefit older people and caregivers right across Canada.”
The hub will also help B.C. companies, community and academic partners design solutions that fit the needs of their users and stakeholders. 

Leading the Digital Health Circle’s team of experts is Sylvain Moreno, an associate professor of professional practice at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), who specializes in neuro-technologies related to interactive digital media and brain health solutions.

“The Digital Health Circle’s focus on translating knowledge into new technologies is essential for British Columbia to strengthen our research and innovation while growing the health technology sector in B.C.," says Moreno. "The hub will coalesce these objectives to deliver real impact and improvement to the ageing population in B.C."

Sounds great, but this appears to me to be another initiative that does not have any seniors working with them. I could be wrong but when I tried to find out information on the net I was led to press release documents that did not have any useful information about the team that SFU has working on this project. The information about them showed that they had great academic qualifications but they were all looked below the age of 50.

Any program that purports to deliver real impact and improvement to help "the ageing population" that does not have seniors represented on its staff or on its planning board, is wasting its time. I am sure the young people (under the age of 60) at SFU think that they are/will be doing great things but they are, in my humble opinion wasting their time unless they start to listen to seniors and those seniors have some voice in the setting of objectives.

There are too many programs and agencies out there that have a very paternalistic view of seniors, this attitude is, to me evident, in this latest announcement from SFU. The University will make money and the scholars will deliver great papers that will not be read or used by seniors because there appears to be no path to reach seniors. 

Xmas bills arriving, time to get control

We are two weeks into 2019, and the Xmas bills may be just starting to arrive. Hopefully, the Christmas season was not one where control was lost and more money spent than anticipated. 

Life is expensive, especially during the festive season. We want to be generous and be seen as giving, but that is no excuse for using credit cards to support your lifestyle. Credit card debt is not a fact of life or should not be a fact of life.  We have the ability to save for our next purchase or we have the ability to put off instant gratification if we use self-discipline. This may come as a shock but we can save up in advance for a vacation or new kitchen appliances.

A survey done in 2016 in the US found that Americans cite credit card debt more often than any other form of debt. Of those respondents that have debt:

• 62 percent have credit card payments
• 32 percent have car loans
• 29 percent have home loans
• 19 percent have medical bills
• 19 percent have student loans
• 13 percent have personal loans

According to Nerdwallet, the average household that’s carrying credit card debt has a balance of $15,482. Households with any kind of debt owe $134,058 (including mortgages), on average.

Nothing can ruin your finances quite like high-interest credit card debt compounding every month. Credit card debt comes with a cost. The average household with revolving credit card debt pays $904 in interest annually. 

Stop everything and assess your income and expenses. Cut discretionary spending, put any savings plans on hold, and throw every cent towards your highest interest debt until it’s gone, you only have yourself to thank when you have taken control. Make this one of your late New Year's resolutions.