Archives: December 2008

31 Dec 2008, Comments (0)

Life long learning in retirement and new opportunities

Author: Susan Kersley

Everyday brings new ways to use the internet. I'm learning something different each time I 'play' with my computer.
So many ways to connect one thing with another! 
New ways to connect one person with another, one event with another, one year with another.

Sometimes it's overwhelming and quite amazing to see the connections linking people all over the world.

When you prepare to retire you are entering a new and different phase of your life. You have the chance to do things you’ve never had time to do before. If you sincerely believe retirement is about opening new doors, then those doors will appear for you. Be willing and ready to recognise and open them.

Too many people believe retirement is only about closing old doors.  Do you see retirement as the end of the road or as a chance for new opportunities?

Your beliefs tend to be related to what happens to you and can become self-fulfilling prophesies. That’s why affirmations are so powerful. When you repeat a phrase over and over several times each day, your subconscious mind takes it ‘on board’ and believes it to be true. So saying a positive statement in the first person, present tense and stating what you want to happen, as though it is already happening, is a very powerful thing to do.

24 Dec 2008, Comments (0)

A few days for something different….

Author: Susan Kersley

It's that time of the year again. Plenty of goodies to eat and drink, people to stay for a few days  and a time to do some different things. 

It's great to see them and eat nice food and it's great too when they go home again and normal routines can happen again.  

Trouble is when you retire you don't always establish what your 'normal routine' is!
Is that 'trouble'? Or is that part of the joy of not having to go out to work to someone else's agenda? What do you think? I'd love to read your comments.

For me, I love the opportunities retirement brings: to learn and do new things, acquire new skills, do those things put aside years ago because of the demands of family and work.  

I explore these issues in my book 'Get ready for Retirement – how to have a life after work' Have a look at http://www.lulu.com/sekersley

However it's easy to just while away the hours without achieving very much at all. Work-life balance is important in retirement. Perhaps it should then be called : Life -life balance- balancing the opportunity to take things more easily and the chance to do new things to. So as we approach the end of the year and the beginning of 2009, make some decisions about what you want to do this year and then plan when and how you will achieve your goals. Good luck!
16 Dec 2008, Comments (2)

These boots are made for walking

Author: Susan Kersley

I bought some boots recently, a bargain from Cotton Traders. They are 'fur' lined and waterproof like wellies in front and zip up swede. My feet have been 'like toast' as I go for walks in Sweden this week. Last visit I had cold wet feet each time  I went out. Someone once said to me: 'there's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.'  Maybe this idea could be transferred to other areas of life which one finds challenging: think do you have the right clothes or the right equipment or the right time of day, or the right month of the year?

Retirement is the time of your life to get going on lots of new things which weren't quite ''right'  before when you were working. Now you have the time, the inclination and you can acquire the equipment, the clothes, the skills and the passion to do it all now! Go for it! What are you doing now you are retired you never had the time to do before? 

Please let me have your comments!
11 Dec 2008, Comments (0)

Why does everything take so long to do?

Author: Susan Kersley

Is this part of getting older I wonder? Or perhaps it's part of too many ideas and not enough action!

I've put together a package about managing time for doctors and am in the process of uploading and updating my www.thedoctorscoach.co.uk web site. However keeping in mnd that life is not all work and there is a life out there too I'm getting ready to go to Sweden tomorrow, to see my grandchildren so I think the final bits will be completed when I return.

I've been reflecting about what it is about retirement which makes some people apprehensive. Maybe it's because of the change in identity which happens. If you have spent all your working life dealing with people, then there is a certain enjoyment and pleasure about people making contact and being able to guide and help them. As a doctor I really enjoyed that part of my work and to some extent I get similar satisfaction from coaching too. So when I think about when might be the time to retire from coaching I get the same sort of emotions as when I considered retiring from Medicine. So no retirement for me yet!

4 Dec 2008, Comments (0)

It’s a new day and I’m back on track!

Author: Susan Kersley

Am recovering well from the removal of my gall bladder and today the sky is clear and a new day full of possibilities has dawned.  I'm determined to get on with several projects and get them done before too long. 

So I have to set some goals! SMART ones too.

Specifically – what do I want? I want to finalise several product ideas I have nearly completed. I will be more  specific soon but first want to get some new  web pages up and running.  Yes it's a realistic achievable goal and there will be some or all up and running by January if not before!

I know for sure I don't want to retire yet!! But I think the nature of what I'll be doing is more about creating products than in lots of one to one coaching. I will still be available occasionally for the one to one work when I'm not involved in travelling, writing, walking on the cliffs, going to the beach and all the other things which make life wonderful!!

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