My Plan After 50 Blog

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The Wisdom Worker Solutions/My Plan After 50 Team

The Value of Coaching

Posted by Keitha:

George Elliot said, "The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." However, to take advantage and learn from those choices a person must be able to take the time to reflect and discern those choices.

I recently went to a state conference for human resource management. One of the workshops I attended was about the importance of meaningful conversations. In our busy world of activities, meetings and deadlines it often seems that all we have time for in human exchanges are surface amenities. Coaching is one way to carve out intentional time for substantive interactions with another human being who is focused on you. What a gift to yourself!

The primary purpose of coaching is to define and achieve goals designed to enhance the quality of your life. Coaching is about co-creating and collaborating on a plan and a path that will move you forward to whatever you decide should be the outcome.

The assumptions of a coach working with you are that you are capable, competent, and complete. You already possess the knowledge and solutions to your challenges and are simply requesting help to unlock those hidden solutions through the use of powerful questions. In order to find those hidden solutions, you must take time for yourself, reflect and answer some of those powerful questions that might come up such as:

What do you want from your life?

What do you want to become? (You are never too old to ponder this question)

What accomplishments have been satisfying to you?

What activities or commitments give you energy?

What activities or commitments drain your energy?

The most valuable intent of coaching is that the coach is there for YOU!

"It’s the economy, stupid."

posted by: Paul

James Carville’s now-famous 1992 slogan helped Bill Clinton defeat a very popular George H.W. Bush. Sixteen years ago, even the oldest of us Boomers were in our mid-40s, and believed we had the time-value of money to recover from the recession.

Today, as we seem on the brink of another recession, time is less on our side and Carville’s observation may seem better tweaked to read, "It’s the stupid economy." Even before the downturn in the housing market, more than 3 of 4 Boomers indicated they would want (or need) to continue working beyond the traditional age of retirement. What might that percentage be today? How many additional years might you be thinking you’ll need to keep gainfully employed in order for your money to last throughout the "longevity bonus years" of your life?

Once more, truth is found in Plato’s saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." The occasion for meaningfully beneficial partnerships between U.S. employers and their Boomer employees is here. Employers are slowly awakening to the workforce shortage now visible on the horizon. Their aging employees are researching their options, looking for ways to remain financially afloat while reducing their current levels of time and stress at work.

It’s truly exciting to be on the solutions side of this problem:

• Working with employers to create ways to retain the institutional knowledge, experience, dedication and work ethic of their Boomer employees, and,
• Providing holistic planning resources (including coaching) to those Boomers who choose to live proactively into the future.

Throughout their lives, Boomers have seen things as they are and taken action for things to become more as they should be. Today, we Boomers see and feel the economy and looming workforce issues as they are. Our commitment, life experience, life longevity and economic need can work together to strengthen our businesses and our individual and national economies!

New Years Theme

Posted by Margy:

Once again, January is here - a time to renew, refresh and recommit. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, most evident by the lines for the treadmills and the weight benches at the local fitness center. The lines get shorter by February 1^st, and don’t exist by February 15^th. It’s not that people go into resolutions lacking in commitment to change; it’s a measure of how difficult it is to make changes in one’s life style.

Here’s an alternative I’ve learned from a friend. She identifies a theme for the year in lieu of making individual resolutions. Last year, based on a self-assessment that pointed to the need to make overall changes in her life, her theme was "Bold and Daring." Six months into the year she learned to fly and she changed employers, after working for the same company for 15 years. This year, she has identified "Compassionate Creation" as her theme. I’ll be interested to see where this approach to her life throughout 2008 takes her.

What I like about identifying a theme for the year is that this allows one to become intentionally conscious of what is important each year.  The selected theme then serves as a guide post in all aspects of one’s life. By following a singular theme throughout 12 months, meaningful change occurs without the pressure that accompanies a New Year's resolution.

Thanks to my friend’s example, as I approached 2008 I thought about what would be appropriate themes. My list consisted of:

• Gentle Contemplation
• Purpose and Meaning
• Courageous Journey
• Bravery
• Peaceful Dignity
• Adventurous Introspection
• Celebrate
• Focus
• Balance

Since my 2007 was marked with challenges and loss, I have decided to choose "Gentle Contemplation" as my theme for 2008. I will keep in mind throughout the year that I will treat myself with kindness and take time to find meaning. I will use this theme to make decisions about how I will use my time as well as my emotional, financial, and physical resources.

Happy entire New Year to you!

Resilience and Traveling

posted by Beth:

This last month my husband and I were fortunate enough to travel away from our snowy climate to the warmth of Australia. Despite our excitement about getting away from the responsibilities of our jobs and the snow that was falling in our home town, we found that life was still not perfect.

To start the trip we had travel problems due to the weather. It took us 7 hours to get from Denver to Los Angeles. Fortunately we had a late night flight leaving LA so all worked out except for the anxiousness of wondering whether we would make our connection.

The weather in Australia was not the sunny 75 degrees we had expected. Instead it was a wet 55 degrees for four days straight. We found that we had not packed the appropriate clothing for this type of weather. But, ever-resourceful, we quickly found rain jackets and umbrellas and we continued touring.

Australia has been experiencing a drought so the when the sun did shine we were besought with flies. Annoying but manageable.

Our "misadventure" continued when we arrived in Melbourne to find that the hotel reservations we had so diligently made in advance were not on the hotel docket. We found ourselves scrambling to find a place to stay that night. Happily, we found a better, less expensive hotel closer to the center of the city.

In retrospect all of these problems were just blips on the screen. We were able to deal with each of them as they arrived and did not let any of them affect our trip. In fact now they actually are a part of the fabric of the story we tell about our wonderful trip. We didn’t let the Australian flies dictate our activity and I now am the proud owner of a beautiful Australian rain jacket.