LifePower

100 Year Old Breaks Swim Record

On May 16 I posted a link to a story about Jaring Timmerman... Canada's only centenarian swimmer.  He was about to swim the 100 metre backstroke in the hopes of breaking the four and half minute world record.

Competing in the 100-104 year old class he broke that record... his time 3 minutes and 52 seconds.  Jaring started competitive swimming at age 80... It just goes to show you -- you're never too old to accomplish your goals!

E-Mailing Promotes Better Health

While using the computer may be a sedentary pursuit, receiving e-mails that urge you to eat more healthfully or get more exercise can significantly improve your health habits according to a study reported in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Participants in this worksite program walked more, ate more fruits and vegetables, and consumed less saturated and transfats. A key ingredient was having on-site support from fellow workers. To learn how to find an online program, read more

Exercise Your Brain Now

Take advantage of a 7-day free trial... Exercise Your Brain... www.happy-neuron.com

HAPPYneuron's mission is to apply knowledge and research from the field of Cognitive Neuroscience to the stimulation and enhancement of the brain's natural ability to learn at any age and to improve overall brain health.

Our goal is to provide scientifically rigorous and validated brain training programs that offer challenging yet fun ways to stimulate the brain, while enabling users to effective manage their performance over time.

In doing so, we hope to contribute to improving brain health and vitality, and make a positive impact on individuals and the health care system by helping decrease the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Brain Fitness Poised for Take-Off

Growing interest in brain health, combined with efforts by employers and insurers to keep down health care costs, has the fledgling discipline poised for takeoff.

Consumers and retirement homes have turned brain-fitness games and exercises into commercial hits, and now some insurers and employers are incorporating them into wellness programs that promote health for the mind as well as the body.

The U.S. market in brain-fitness software generated $265 million in revenue in 2008, an 18% increase from $225 million in 2007 and up from $100 million in 2005, according to a report this month by SharpBrains, a San Francisco company that tracks the cognitive-fitness industry.

Sales have been driven mostly by retirement homes, more than 700 of which now offer computerized cognitive-training programs, and by consumers doing programs on their home computers or visiting brain "gyms," said Alvaro Fernandez, a co-founder of SharpBrains and its CEO.

Approximately 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease, and many more will experience mild cognitive impairment, an early stage of memory loss that may indicate the development of Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The combined health cost impact could top $100 billion.

"It's a major health care crisis that has the medical world looking down the barrel of a gun," Michel said.

Still, it remains unclear whether brain games really do improve cognitive health.

"The best you can say is that they are not going to do harm, and they might do some good," Lah said. "But it's going to take years and decades to study the differences between people who participated in these activities and those who didn't." ***

***Dr. James Lah, an associate professor of neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN NOW!  www.happy-neuron.com - It's FREE

Coming Soon - Brain Fitness Booming

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking for the latest investment opportunity or someone 50+ wanting to stay alert as you age, you may be happy to learn that the fledgling discipline of brain health is gaining acceptance. With an emphasis on brain games and other ways to keep up cognitive skills, these activities are being actively promoted as a way to keep health care costs down... and people more "with it

Changing Jobs in Midlife a Planning Challenge

Bored, laid-off, less healthy... what ever your reason for wanting to change your job it is best planned for and creating financial flexability during transition is one of the keys to making the change successful.

The very first step is to check your financial plan.  Hopefully you have a "written" financial plan.  I am constantly amazed at how many people don't and how they attempt to make sense of all the different scenarios in their heads.  It must cause a gigantic headache.  Who would buy a house if it had been built without plan.  And the written plan should be more than a few notes on a napkin... it should be detailed.

Once you have the plan check to see if you need to change any priorities.  Consider any change in employee benefits and if you are becoming self employed pay special attention to changing disability and life insurance needs.  Perhaps continuing to contribute to your RRSP becomes more important than paying down your mortgage.  Make sure you have a minimum of three months and more like six months of emergency cash flow to fund any breaks in what might otherwise be a smooth transition.

Then watch your expenses.  When life has been on cruise control with a steady job many Canadians do not watch their monthly spending.  Find some painless ways of reducing your expenses.  Even small things add up significantly.  I have just finished reading about people who never spend their change, putting it in some kind of container instead.  It's amazing how this can add up to thousands of dollars.

How about making the change gradual as opposed to all or nothing.  Perhaps you are not sure what you want to do next.  Make your career job a kind of base camp going out and trying alternative jobs.  If you don't like one choice beat a retreat back to base camp and plan for another.

Become a job detective and very curious.  Speak with friends, send email requests for more information, watch the various social sites for postings that might not otherwise be heard about.  Subscribe to blogs and keep your awareness quotient high.

If things are not working out the coaching process can help clarify new objectives and help manage any emotional turmoil.  Not facing these issues can quickly lead to a mild or even severe depression in which case your actions will become tainted, slow or even frozen.  We all have unique abilities and sometimes it takes an outsider to point these out.  Clarity leads to greater momentum,  Momentum leads to more action and action leads to a successful finish line.

 

Second Career Portfolios

Gone are the days when boomers can rely on one source of income.  Things happen like the current economic crisis, business ideas change, folks are laid off... all manner of changes occur that prior to them occuring might never be imagined.  So for more reasons I can think of it makes sense not to rely on any one income strategy.  Having more than one will also create a new form of engagement, curiosity, challenge and more.

Take my current portfolio for example!  It's important to me to walk my own talk.  In the summer months my facilitation business softens.  Currently I am working on booking workshops for the fall and early 2010.  So what to do in the summer months?  Last year I worked at a winery as a tour guide and tasting host.  I had great fun waffling about wine on the tours and introducing palates to tastes previously unknown.  And... I made friends with the wine maker and learnt more about wine in two months than I had in two decades... all while I was being paid!  Fun.

This year I have been following the Blue Zones adventure in the Aegean Sea.  Out of this research came the message it is important to do some form of consistent manual work.  I live in a condo so I don't even have gardening to do.  I also know that being outdoors in nature is a powerful influence.  And horses... well they are now using the horse experience in management consulting. 

With these facts in mind I am working at a horse barn for three hours each early morning.  You might say what is a professional person working at a horse barn for.  My answer... for all the above reasons!

Next I have a contract to do some marketing for a friend of mine who has just purchased a new business franchise.  This gets me out meeting new people and chasing down the prospective client.  It fits my values... so doing this for 20 hours a week is another terrific deal.

On the back of my portfolio shelf is yet another business that I have not given much time to so far.  This one is all about supplementation for better health.  Again it is a people business and something I can do as much or as little of whenever I like.  The product (USANA) is one of the independently best rated of their kind in North America. 

Again... what I am doing is creating a portfolio of jobs that I control and turn on to whenever I like.  They all build upon my personal values, unique abilities, and my personal needs during the year.  They also introduce the word variety... which they say is the spice of life! 

On a different note... read about Jaring Timmerman, a centenarian competitive swimmer from Winnipeg.  He's going for one last title - the 100-meter backstroke.  Very inspiring.

The Shining Business

No... this is not about Jack Nicholson in one of my all time scary movies, The Shining!  It's about getting my shoes shined on my way to a wedding.

Having been in the army and spent countless hours shining my boots until they looked like glass I appreciate a good shoe shine.  This is not a service I look for but this last weekend I was passing through an airport... I heard someone say "shoe shine"... when I looked at my shoes I said "yes" and found my way up into one of those high shoe shine chairs.

The Happiness and Grateful Shoe Shine business is run by Khadija Hashi at Kelowna's airport.  Originally from Somalia this lady is someone special.  She is generous of spirit.  Perhaps this is because she once met  BC businessman Jimmy Pattison who was also once a shoe shiner and certainly a man of generous spirit.

Rather like sitting in a barber's chair we were chatting about this and that...  when Khadija spotted the Make A Wish logo on my luggage.  Once I explained my connection with MAW she said "this shoe shine is on me!"  Suddenly my airport experience became enjoyable.  Aren't we all after a good experience?

Her questions of me continued and we laughed... like a barber she must hear some great personal stories... perhaps she should write a book The Shoe Shine Lady.

Everytime I looked at my shoes shining over the weekend I thought of Khadija.  She probably arrived from Somalia with very little and here she is making a difference in the lives of the travellers she meets.  In return their stories give her hope... and my shoes are still shining five days later.  I'll have to check out her technique the next time!