2022 May 31 Live life fully, starting now!

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website by, for, and about Baby Boomers. Thanks for joining me tonight for a look again. Tonight we're going to be looking at aging and goal setting. 

So let's get started, but first of course, we have our regular disclaimers. I'm not a medical professional, and what I'll be talking about, things that I personally find useful and helpful. If you find yourself feeling truly hopeless or depressed, please seek professional medical help, or just dial 911. The number for the National Suicide hotline is 800 273-8255.

Starting nationwide, by July 16th (available in some areas now) is the three digit code 988, which should connect you with immediate assistance. Good to know for yourself or a friend. So let's get started. I should mention tonight is going to be a pre-recorded show instead of the truly live broadcast.

I had a scheduling conflict at a children's mass. So such is life, we had to make a concession. Although I have to admit that it's a far different feeling knowing that this is being recorded and that if I truly mess things up, I could possibly do a second take, although I try not to. I apologize that I'm not here, live with you tonight, but so that's what's going on.

So this week, I'm going to talk about something that's a little different, something that's more personal, which I skirted around before, but this time we'll be talking about it pretty much head-on. That great big elephant in the room, aging and wellness, health, our abilities, and perhaps the loss of former superpowers.

I often mentioned that when we set goals, we have to look at the good side of whatever situation we're in. What I don't say is that, although I've been quite fortunate, health-wise, I'm obviously not immune to aging, we still age, and even though I try and take care of myself in most ways, time does march on, and living is a contact sport. So like all of us, I've incurred some of my share of living reminders, as I call them a bit, decisions or unfortunate situations. 

I've also had the honor of doing palliative care for a good friend of mine, and I've lost a number of friends to a variety of causes over the years. The thing all these situations have in common, at least at some level, they were not entirely predictable, especially not in the specifics. We all know that as we age things will happen, but we don't generally know something specific is going to happen today, tomorrow, in 20 years, maybe never.

But just as importantly as we set life goals, we usually make certain assumptions about our health and living situation. You can't help but figure, I want to travel when I get older, that kind of presumes that you can travel. This is why I always encourage people to make goals that are consistent with your life purpose, but that they have some degree of flexibility built into them. 

You might envision yourself teaching English in some impoverished country as something to do in your retirement, but perhaps the reality is that you actually have to do it remotely via the internet because now you have regular healthcare needs.

If you wrote a good goal, the change of specifics and the implementation really won’t change the goal, only some of the details. Relatedly, most of us have a tendency to procrastinate on difficult tasks. I know I'm just a master of it. But as we age, one of the realities is that our remaining time to reach our goals, we tend to think of it as becoming potentially shorter, but does it really become shorter?

A number of my friends have passed away at some quite shockingly young ages, and many of them had plans conceived - some of them even laid out in detail, waiting for the right time to start. So rule number one in life is: there is no right time to start living your life, because if you want to live your life to the fullest, we're talking about starting right now.

There's no right time to start living your life to the fullest, unless you're talking about right now. There will always be challenges for this - health, money issues, kids, jobs, and in some cases, even things like war and famine, political unrest, many more things. Yet some people still seem to move ahead towards their goals, even in extremely difficult times.

How did they do that? They just start. The reasons to wait are generally and our mind, throwing up roadblocks to keep us safe and in familiar territory. For example, we may dislike, or even detest, our day job, but we stay. Why is that? Because it's a known situation, and we've perceived it as something safe.

Perhaps we don't use social media to start a podcast because we say the technology is too daunting, but is it really? If my five-year-old granddaughter can get on YouTube and Facebook, then where's the difficulty? It is, as it usually is, in our own. We know the secret is starting, which is just to start. But why now? Perhaps more to the point, why not now? 

Personally, amongst all the little issues like we all have, I have chronic Lyme, and I've had it since about the year 2000. Fortunately it's been in remission for about the past four or five years, but I'm awaiting recent test results to see if it's been reactivated. One of the symptoms for many people is extreme fatigue - hard-to-describe fatigue. Truly, like the house is on fire, and you’re just too tired to get up and leave fatigue, really that bad.

It's especially difficult for me, since I was always known as the person who could always fit anything into my schedule, a super power that I've always had. Now I have to live stuff like mere mortals. I do stop. I get tired. I have to do it. It's been impacting my ability to really move our content and our courses forward, for which I apologize. But while that's a factor, is it really the reason, if my day job is taking up too much of my life? Whose fault is it that I continue to stay there and let it interfere with my passion of helping others? The answer obviously is I only have myself to blame - well, myself in the abstract, but in reality, it's my inner brain, which is trying to keep me safe.

It's those beliefs, remember go way back - Stebdar. We talked about that, that my brain has hardwired from my experience, regardless of if those beliefs still help me. So the challenge for me is to take this wake up call on aging, and living our life for our passion, and act upon it. More specifically, I'll have to revisit my goals and my vision, and start envisioning a very different life yet again, one where I've reordered the importance of many things that I've just let happen in my life.

It will take some serious juggling, potentially a lot of life changes, but it has often been said, This isn't a dress rehearsal. This is real life. So live it fully. So stay tuned and I'll keep you updated and how things are going. But there may be some changes, perhaps a different emphasis, and maybe some delays and things because of short-term priorities, but be sure that the intent is to be able to spend a lot more time doing what really matters to me, so that I can spend more time interacting with you.

That's it for the evening. Thanks for stopping by. Stay healthy. Care for others. Remember to care for yourself, so that you can always be at your best. 

The other very important thing, as always: Please don't forget the war in Ukraine. It's still raging. Putin is purposely still targeting civilian areas, hospitals and other non-military targets. Now it's been showing he’s especially targeting schools, museums, trying to reeducate the people. If you're able and interested, please, the page of donation links is still up at UKR7.com. Remember one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. If anybody asks, Well, I wish there was something I could do, point them to UKR7.com. It's a link to other places where they can make donations.

So as always be true to yourself. Live your life fully aligned with your true goals and feelings. Thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting or useful, please pass it along. And if not, please drop me a comment as to what you'd like to hear. 

Have a great week. Thanks for visiting. Remember to live the life that you dreamed up, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone, and see you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com.  Thank you.