This is the 4th and final chapter in this series that provides dozens of strategies and resources for living a healthy and impactful 2nd half of life. All that is in this series is also relevant for earlier life stages.
#1. Finding Time to Take Necessary Actions to Extend and Improve Your Life
The best time management model I have found is Stephen Covey’s four quadrant model from his powerful and extremely popular international bestseller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
His focus in this model is to pay attention to those actions that are in Quadrant One: IMPORTANT AND URGENT(crisis and pressing problems) and more importantly in Quadrant Two: IMPORTANT AND NON URGENT (strategies and values). He stresses that most people who are effective at reaching their goals spend time acting on their values and strategies that relate to them and significantly lessen time in Quadrant Three: URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT and Quadrant Four NOT IMPORTANT AND NOT URGENT.
We are talking about making decisions that will extend your life and the happiness and fulfillment that you experience. If you choose to let busy work, trivial and wasteful activities dominate your life you are deciding to possibly lessen your happiness, positive impact and the length of your life.
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Answer the following question. Do you organize your time in a way that lessens the time wasters and has you focusing on activities that will promote a brain and body healthy lifestyle?
#2. Creating Flow: Who Were You When You Were at Your Best?
Past flow states provide pivotal clues about what generally makes you happy.
-Think back to those environments or situations in which you have been most creative, when you felt completely satisfied to be doing what you were doing.
-From that list pick the one where time just seemed to slip away. Write a story about it. What did it feel like to be there, who were you with, what were you trying to accomplish?
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Make time available to provide honest, thoughtful answers to the following question and the suggestions that follow:
-What does this story tell you about your interests, style, needs, skills, values, situations in which you flourish?
“Your Retirement Your Way.” Alan Bernstein & John Trauth
#3. How Would You Like to Spend Your Time in The Next Phase of Your Life?
Take time to reflect and answer these two questions:
1. What elements would I love to have in the next phase of my life that will satisfy my heart and soul? Here is another way to ask that question:
2. How will I like to spend my time in the next phase of my Life?
“The Retirement Boom: An All-Inclusive Guide to Money, Life, and Health in Your Next Chapter.” Allen, Bearg, Foley and Smith. Self-disclosure, Jaye Smith, one of the authors of this book, is a good friend.
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Please take time thinking about and add additional answers to the previous questions to identify what you really want to be focusing on moving ahead.
#4. Peak Performance Mindset: Your Professional Mission Statement
What follows are ideas from Charles Garfield, PhD in his best seller, “Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World’s Greatest Athletes.” I have found that sharing what he learned from training world class athletes is very appropriate for individuals who are looking to create a plan to move their lives forward effectively.
He pushes individuals to identify their volition in this way – “Your commitment to move toward something you want and are willing to work for… Write down your mission statement by developing what peak performers call a sense of mission, a passionate belief in a personal philosophy that establishes the basis for setting goals. By doing this you can control your own energies and generate that special drive essential for personal satisfaction/success.”
Creating Your Mission Statement/Action Plan
I now ask you to take all the self-information from the different exercises in this Make The Most Of Your 2nd Fifty Years series, or only the ones you felt you needed, and create the rough draft of a Mission Statement/Action Plan that will focus and energize you to have an outstanding 2nd fifty years.
THE FINAL PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: What are one or more actions you would be crazy not to take in the next two months to increase the likelihood that you will be very successful at making the most of the 2nd fifty years? Write down these immediate and future actions in your Planning Guide or wherever you have been storing your notes. I strongly urge you to create a paper or online folder where you store the data you generated for yourself and keep a written record or journal about how effectively you have moved forward with your plan during the coming months and years.
An exercise I have used with individuals and teams is to have participants write their commitments for the next two months in a letter they put in a sealed and stamped self-addressed envelope they give to a friend they trust who will mail it to them in two months so you can see how well you did with your commitment. I have been told that this exercise was a good motivator with those individuals knowing that the letter containing what they have committed to have done would be coming in two months. You can also do that online with a friend but individuals have told me that with all the emails and texts they get, receiving a mailed letter is more likely to get their attention.
We have concluded this series. I hope you have found it impactful. This process is also helpful for individuals who are not in their 2nd Fifty Years, so please feel free to pass this process on to them as well.
The five posts in this four chapter series (chapter one was divided into two posts) are available for free in the BLOG section of my website. There is no website registration and I do not look to access information identifying who used my website: https://havepositiveimpact.com/
My International #1 Amazon International Bestseller and Readers Favorite 5 Star Award Recipient – “Have a Positive Impact During Uncertain Times” – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732793808 also contains additional information regarding how to make the most of your life at any age.
Stay safe and I wish you much success and happiness as you move forward,
Peter Prichard