For more than 30 years I’ve written quite regularly in a journal. Some entries are lengthy with heartfelt emotional outpourings; others are brief describing only mundane (uneventful) aspects of daily life. I continue to write journal entries on most days. If life gets in the way and I miss doing any entries for a few […]
Personal Growth
Forgiveness — A Fresh Start for the New Year
Do you want a fresh start for the New Year? Do you want a clean slate? Making a fresh start often means practising forgiveness. Without forgiveness, you will have more difficulty moving on and getting the benefits from New Year’s resolutions. You may need to ‘mend fences’ with people close to you by forgiving them […]
Retirement Happiness — How to use your ‘Elder’ Wisdom
If it’s true that we achieve greater wisdom as we grow older, how can we enhance and use our ‘elder’ wisdom? It’s commonly understood that wisdom increases with age. The storehouses of experience, knowledge, insight and capacity to see life as a ‘big picture’ are said to improve as we grow older. How can we […]
Retirement Happiness — Watching your children become parents
What a joy to watch your children learn how to become parents! Six months ago we became grand parents. More importantly, our son and daughter-in-law became parents. From the first day their pride was visible. They handled the baby carefully and displayed the hyper-vigilance common to all new parents. Diapering and feeding were time-consuming with […]
How to leave your work and enjoy retirement
Have you truly left your work and career behind? Have you moved past who you were during your career? Do you find yourself beginning too many sentences with words like ” When I ……” and then recounting achievements from career days? Do you struggle with answering the question “what do you do?” at social gatherings? […]
Retirement Happiness — Get pleasure from your habits
Let’s face the truth — we get pleasure from our habits. Habits govern most aspects of our daily lives. They give us a sense of security. Our internal GPS loves habits and drives us to repeat them. Habits give us pleasure because we are emotionally and psychologically attached to certain behaviours and activities. We do […]
Happiness in Retirement — How to Understand Gossip
Do you understand gossip? Do you take part in gossip? Do you ‘share’ information with others? Wikipedia defines gossip as “idle talk or rumor, especially about personal or private affairs of others. It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts, views and slander.” The word gossip implies mean, malicious, negative talk. […]
Retirement Happiness requires time and effort
The great things in life always take time and never come without effort and patience. A successful retirement journey needs planning, work and periodic adjustments. Retirement happiness won’t happen without some forethought. During the summer while hanging out at the cottage, I thought about how I felt about my retirement three years ago. Although I […]
Happiness in Retirement — Quick Fixes for Staying Happy
On most days I am a happy person. But sometimes joints hurt, morning coffee tastes a bit off, the sky outside is cloudy, and there are pesky tasks to complete. It’s easy to sink into a dismal mood. The promised land of retirement happiness feels elusive. On such days it’s worthwhile to do a quick […]
Happiness in Retirement — Gains and Losses in Life
Our lives are filled with gains and losses. When we look back at the successes and failures of our lives, it is not uncommon to consider that, with different life choices, the outcomes may have resulted in greater happiness or a better/easier result. That may or may not be true. Certainly different choices would create […]
