LifePower

Richard Leider on Life Planning and Sounding Boards

"Life planning is a place for you not to feel alone... going it alone is not wise anyway. 

One of the things I teach is that everybody I think needs a sounding board.  A sounding board is just some bodies... doesn't have to be a professional life planner or coach... but some bodies that they can sit around the fire with and talk about whatever needs to be talked about. 

For tens of thousands of years we have sat around the fire with elders to figure out where did we come from, what are we doing here and where we are going... if there's a drought what do we do during a drought or a problem. 

So where are the fires sitting... where are the elders today... that is life planning."

Richard Leider is the founder of the Inventure Group, author and renowned keynote speaker.  His latest book - Something to Live For - Finding Your Way in the Second Half of Life

To receive a free copy of how to establish your Sounding Board send us an email!

In the Vineyard

Trying something new can be a lot of fun if you have a sense of humour.  I have a few days under my belt at Cedar Creek.  The first few days I would describe as "awkward" as I shadowed those more in the know than myself.  For me I felt rather useless... but everytime I was asked "how's it going" I would reply I was listening, watching and learning.

The best part of hosting the wine tasting sessions is that most visitors are neophytes... just like I was before I started.  I knew the basics but no more.  Being a Monty Python fan I am threatening to pour white wine during a tasting and talk about its merits as if it was a red wine!  Perhaps not... I could be fired!

Being a shadow on a tour of the vineyards is fun as well.  Quite a few visitors want to know where I am from and what I am doing.  Since I am the "elder" on the team I am often asked if I am r-----d.  That gives me an opening to tell them there is no such "R" word in my dictionary. 

One gentleman from Ontario still working a full-time job was suitably impressed and I imagine he might go home and think about leaving his primary career - a career he told me he was completrely bored with - a little sooner.  It almost came to a coaching session in the barrel room.  Hey, there's an idea I might follow up with as a new coaching experience.  I managed to cross his palm with my business card... perhaps he will call.

The most interesting part of my week was spent watching a short DVD made in France as the coopers felled a 355 year old oak tree for barrel making.  The DVD covered the entire process.  I later found out the winery had purchased four barrels made out of this Napoleonic tree.

Then I am learning all kinds of stats like how many bottles of wine do you get out of a barrel (300) - why so many vineyards have roses growing (roses can attract the same bugs as a vine... so the roses are a kind of early warning system) and what makes a wine red when the insides of a grape are the same opaque colour (you can guess this answer)!

But I have to admit the best part is being able to taste the wine myself all through my shift.  Don't get the wrong idea... but it is a treat. 

Meet the Press

Last Friday a NBC  icon, Tim Russert, died very suddenly from a massive heart attack while at work.  He had been the champion of the Sunday program Meet the Press.

I am not at all familiar with his reporting except to say that by the massive amount of coverage his death attracted in the States he must have been brilliant.  Thousands attended his wake not only because he was Irish by ancestry but because he looked upon his job more as a pilgrimage.

"At best, work seems never-ending only because, like life, it is a pilgrimage, a journey in which we progress not only through the world but through stages of understanding" writes David Whyte in his book Crossing the Unknown Sea.

His son Luke had just graduated from Boston University and as recently as the previous week had celebrated this event as a family in Italy.  Evidently Luke has his Dad's literary genes.  The quote that struck me most during the speeches at the wake was not from Tom Brokaw or any other seasoned journalist... it was from Luke and it struck a chord with me so much that I'm writing this posting.

It can become a good question for us all to ponder each evening... "did your actions today yield respect for your family, were they a credit to your faith and a benefit to your fellow man."  It could also be used each morning to help create your mood for the day.

Working Portfolios

Many baby boomers have only had one kind of working experience... working one job at a time and being at that one job for many years.

Once you have left that primary career or job...it's time to shift gears... amazing opportunities open up to create a portfolio of jobs... yes a number of part-time jobs that can be integrated and managed at one time.  I call it building an ABC for yourself - a bigger container... for yourself.

I am currently testing this out for myself!  My current coaching and facilitation business tends to be a lot slower in the summer months.  This gives me the opportunity to experience something new.  So I have signed up at a local award winning winery... Cedar Creek Estate Winery.

Living on the northern edges of a great wine region in British Columbia I have always told myself I wanted to know more about wine than just pulling the cork and drinking!  Cedar Creek is just five minutes away so it is very easy to work part-time... a couple of shifts a month.

The environment is very healthy... outside conducting tours for visitors from all around the world.  Inside staffing the wine shop and leading wine tasting experiences for the visitors.  I even get paid for tasting the wine myself and if I get hungry there is a first class lunch experience available on the patio.

To compliment this activity I am checking out another part-time job with a non-profit organisation.  Non-profits have always been on my radar.  Make-A-Wish Canada is a favourite so I think I can use that start-up experience and work with a new group locally. 

So there are many benefits.  It just takes a little courage to go out there and try something new.  I don't worry about the money... it will almost always be far less than you have been used to earning.  It is all about the experience and having fun and for me meeting new people in the right circumstance.  It beats wandering around in a daze!

Check this site later for an update... I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories!

Pilot's Check List

Several years after arriving in Canada I found myself living in Fort McMurray, Alberta in the early 70's.  One of the activities I took up was flying... my instructor being a French Canadian bush pilot.  To this day I remember him stressing the importance of using a check list before take-off and even during flight. 

His training saved me from a likely accident one-day when I attempted to take-off with too much flap threatening to send the plane into a stall.  Despite my inexperience and the threatening, slightly scary situation I followed my check list and corrected the problem. 

Recently I met a couple of veteran commercial pilots and I mentioned my story to them in conversation and they told me they too still relied on the check list to cover the many processes and procedures involved with flying... despite the computer sophistication of planes today.

So why don't we use check lists more in business?  Perhaps we do, after all a list of goals could be a type of check list to remind us about the direction we want to take. 

Along with the goals we can determine the skills we have or need to complete the goal.  Perhaps we need to develop a team approach in solving the obstacles that threaten completion of the goal.  If the goal is large enough you might want to create a Sounding Board of individuals to provide specific input and to help maintain perspective for the goal at hand. 

And finally the plan will define what one step is required to get us off the runway and flying towards our destination.

Veteran coaching guru and author Brian Tracy suggests in his new book Flight Plan that you can reach any important destination using this approach. 

For information on how to create your own Business or Personal Sounding Board send an email request or visit www.lifeplanningmatters.com

 

Nova Scotia Might Add Years to Your Life

This article profiles William Walker who will be 102 in August 2008.  Read this Toronto Star article and then check out your own life expectancy.

Becoming Connoisseurs

It's no secret that boomers have greatly influenced marketing and consumerism ever since they were old enough to have some form of consumer intelligence.

They continue to change the consumer landscape and demand more glamour, culture and high-end experiences.  Just this week in the course of my daily travels I learned of boomer friends starting to collect fine scotch (having already made the trek to Scotland) and having "must have" cool (no pun) cellars in the homes they are building 

Another friend of mine, who once toured Europe with his own rock band in the back of an old van, has started to collect so-called celebrity labelled wines - his latest being the Rolling Stones ice-wine Symphony for the Devil complete with the red tongue label.  Will he eventually open the bottle so that his own red taste buds get a taste?  

It seems that everything from salad, to travel, to loft condos and not to forget volunteer travel has a designer rustic option.  And now that the price of gasoline has gone through the roof even those bling accessorised Hummers might well be replaced by bling hybrids or bicycles.

Perhaps my own trip last year to the English Lake District in the company of the poet and philosopher David Whyte and friends might have been classed as a boomer travel/education experience.

Everyday language is changing.  Personally I am leading my own charge to delete the "R" (re-----ent) word from the dictionary and replace senior with elder hopefully to elicit increased respect for those folks.

Another good boomer friend (an electrician) is talking about his dream of the coming solar age and his vision for being ready to start a solar-panel manufacturing or import business.  It's all heady stuff but fun only if you have the designer ethnic wallet to match.  Perhaps a little later the bling accessorised casket will become a parting designer trend!

Fear of Retirement

Just the other day I was reading the column of a well-respected newspaper columnist telling of how she had recently attended a couple of retirement parties for two well loved colleagues.  Despite the jokes and humourous stories of the evening she left feeling emotionally drained.  Later, using some fairly stark language, she confided that she "feared" retirement.

Like several other enquiries from women received this month the columnist explained that long ago she had chosen a career over family and that at this time she was single, childless and a workoholic.  Translated this meant to me she had no family and less of a community outside of work than she might have enjoyed or needed at times.

The phrase "fear of the great unknown" came to mind.  For many "zoomers" this is the case as they close in on their second half of life.  Many of us have just been too busy doing things to give serious thought to the repercussions of leaving our comfortable offices, business networks and over-crowded daily schedules. 

Assumptions are made that everything will be alright when the time comes.  If the worry becomes too great many will default to doing even more work in order to forget the real issues.  The result?  The fear factor increases until we face the issue head on and with courage.

And like so many other things we have to face with courage, the sooner we do the sooner the fear factor magically reduces and heck the sun might even come out in our lives once again.  The key is to take meaningful action and not just write about our fears.  Face them head-on. 

"We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.” Fulton Oursler

How ready are you to move beyond your primary career?  To receive the assessment "Transition Readiness" simply send an email request.

 

 

Start Fresh

In midlife being able to start fresh has to be some kind of gift!  Enter good friends Diane and Doug Clement and their newly published food and fitness book Start Fresh - A Complete Guide to Midlifestyle Food and Fitness.

With so many cook and fitness books in the aisles of every bookstore why read this one?  Because of their very impressive backgrounds... if anyone knows the facts they should!

Diane is a chef, author of seven other health-conscious cook books, restauranteur and lifetime partner of a sports medicine doctor.  Before many people could even spell the word organic I remember stepping inside her new restaurant Tomatoes in Vancouver and thinking how I loved her menu.

Doug was I think the first sports medicine doctor in British Columbia if not Canada.  My first introduction to him was as a patient at the University of BC's Sports Medicine Clinic in the early 80's as a first-time marathon runner.  An Olympic runner in 1952, coach, educator and medical innovator he is also a recipient of the Order of Canada and an inductee into the UBC and the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame.

This book is a must read for midlifers because the authors are living proof that a balanced healthy lifestyle is one substantial key to vital aging.  Reconnecting after about twenty years I was energised watching them meet and greet at a special Vancouver event promoting sport to inner city youth.  The event was attended by other Olympian forces to be reckoned with including 2008 medal hopeful Gary Reed and past Olympian Charmaine Crooks.

Start Fresh is about one-third fitness oriented and two-thirds nutrition.  If Diane uses the recipes from her book it is not surprising that Doug has overcome long term heart problems and a stroke in 1998!  They are both the epidemy of fitness for their ages and are totally engaged in life.

I am totally impressed with their on-going contribution to the lives of others through substantial volunteerism.  Now go out and buy the book, eat well and check your fitness levels!  (Whitecap Books, CAN$29.95).

Keep an eye on our web site www.lifeplanningmatters.com as I would not be surprised if they are involved in a future learning event.  Hint, hint!

 

Play Golf - Live Longer

Despite the fact I live in the epi-centre of golf in British Columbia, I have never been tempted to hit the ball beyond enjoying a relatively simple putting green.  In fact, I have always done my best to redirect golfing conversations especially when it is suggested that golf might provide "meaningful activity" in the second half of life.  But I might have to eat humble pie!

Research coming out of Sweden, one of the world's centres for advanced vital aging policies and longevity, suggests that golfing might add as many as five bonus years to your life.

The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, reports on a study involving more than 300,000 Swedish golfers.  It found that golf could have greater health benefits than walking and even some other forms of more strenuous activities.

The lowest death rates were found among players with the lowest handicaps and those from blue-collar backgrounds.  This supports the idea that it is the game itself that is good for the health.

It was only within the last year that Elsie McLean shot a 100-yard par 3 hole-in-one at the age of 102, making her the oldest golfer to shoot a hole-in-one on a regulation course.

Anyone for tennis?!