From the time that my husband and I started even thinking about retirement and also in our work with aging programs for so many years we have seen so many "studies" about retirement.
I, myself, started to get skeptical about all of the surveys. But after we retired and started to think about how we could help people who were interested in retirement and especially early retirement and with the baby boomers; I started paying more attention to them. This is one study/survey that I found interesting and thought that some of you might as well. You must keep in mind that any time that you read one of these you need to remember that they are usually conducted with a specific purpose in mind. But, also keep in mind that the people being interviewed don't know what that specific purpose is.
As always, we are very interested in what any of you who read these posts on our blog think about the information that we include. Any comments are welome. Heres to a happy, healthy and hearty retirement for us all!
seniors : US: New Merrill Lynch Retirement Study [TheMatureMarket.com]
Retired and Ready!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
BABYBOOMERS AND RETIREMENT
Baby Boomer Facts You May Not Know
Welcome to Older-Americaville to Presidents Bush & Clinton, Cher, Donald Trump, Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone
Dec. 12, 2005 - In 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, will turn 60 years old. Among the Americans celebrating their 60th will be our two most recent presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Other well-known celebrities reaching this milestone include Cher, Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. To commemorate this occasion, the Census Bureau has compiled a collection of facts relating to, perhaps, our most celebrated generation.
78.2 million:
Estimated number of baby boomers, as of July 1, 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
7,918:
Number of people turning 60 each day in 2006, according to projections. That amounts to 330 every hour. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/
James & Mary:
The most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 1946. Today, the names Jacob and Emily lead the list; James ranks 17th among boys and Mary is 63rd among girls. (Source: Social Security Administration, at http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html )
50.8 percent:
Percentage of women baby boomers in 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
9.1 million:
Estimated number of baby boomers in 2004 who were black. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
32 percent:
Proportion of Alaska's population that was part of the baby boom generation, as of the last census. Baby boomers also comprised 30 percent or more of the population in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. In contrast, Utah (23 percent) was the only state where baby boomers constituted less than 25 percent. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-12.pdf
Then and Now -- 141.4 million:
Estimated U.S. population in 1946. Today, the nation's population stands at 297.7 million. http://www.census.gov/popest/archives/1990s/popclockest.txt and http://www.census.gov
33 percent and 5 percent:
The proportions of adults age 25 and older with at least a high school diploma and at least a bachelor's degree, respectively, in 1947. By 2004, the respective proportions had risen to 85 percent and 28 percent. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html
The Future-- $2,695:
Average annual expenditures on health care in 2004 for people ages 45 to 54 the age group that is the heart of the baby boom generation. When budgeting medical expenses, baby boomers should expect increased health-care spending as they age; for instance, those age 55 to 64 spent $3,262 and those 65 and over, $3,899. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://www.bls.gov/cex/2004/Standard/age.pdf )
57.8 million:
Number of baby boomers living in 2030, according to projections; 54.9 percent would be female. That year, boomers would be between ages 66 and 84. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/
2.1:
The number of workers for each Social Security beneficiary in 2031, when all baby boomers will be over age 65. Currently, there are 3.3 workers for each Social Security beneficiary. (Source: Social Security Administration, at http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/basicfact.htm )
4,041:
Number of continuing care retirement facilities in 2003. Many boomers could have parents in need of such facilities or may have to move into such a facility themselves in the future. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
Staying Young and Fit: 27,813
Number of fitness and recreation centers nationwide in 2003. These are good places to visit on a regular basis for boomers who are trying to become or stay physically fit. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
11,938:
Number of cosmetics, beauty supply and perfume stores in 2003. These stores carry numerous antiaging skin care products aimed at people in this age group. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
"Special Editions" of the U.S. Census Bureau's Facts for Features are issued to provide background information for less known observances, anniversaries of historic events and other timely topics in the news.
Welcome to Older-Americaville to Presidents Bush & Clinton, Cher, Donald Trump, Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone
Dec. 12, 2005 - In 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, will turn 60 years old. Among the Americans celebrating their 60th will be our two most recent presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Other well-known celebrities reaching this milestone include Cher, Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. To commemorate this occasion, the Census Bureau has compiled a collection of facts relating to, perhaps, our most celebrated generation.
78.2 million:
Estimated number of baby boomers, as of July 1, 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
7,918:
Number of people turning 60 each day in 2006, according to projections. That amounts to 330 every hour. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/
James & Mary:
The most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 1946. Today, the names Jacob and Emily lead the list; James ranks 17th among boys and Mary is 63rd among girls. (Source: Social Security Administration, at http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html )
50.8 percent:
Percentage of women baby boomers in 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
9.1 million:
Estimated number of baby boomers in 2004 who were black. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
32 percent:
Proportion of Alaska's population that was part of the baby boom generation, as of the last census. Baby boomers also comprised 30 percent or more of the population in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. In contrast, Utah (23 percent) was the only state where baby boomers constituted less than 25 percent. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-12.pdf
Then and Now -- 141.4 million:
Estimated U.S. population in 1946. Today, the nation's population stands at 297.7 million. http://www.census.gov/popest/archives/1990s/popclockest.txt and http://www.census.gov
33 percent and 5 percent:
The proportions of adults age 25 and older with at least a high school diploma and at least a bachelor's degree, respectively, in 1947. By 2004, the respective proportions had risen to 85 percent and 28 percent. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html
The Future-- $2,695:
Average annual expenditures on health care in 2004 for people ages 45 to 54 the age group that is the heart of the baby boom generation. When budgeting medical expenses, baby boomers should expect increased health-care spending as they age; for instance, those age 55 to 64 spent $3,262 and those 65 and over, $3,899. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://www.bls.gov/cex/2004/Standard/age.pdf )
57.8 million:
Number of baby boomers living in 2030, according to projections; 54.9 percent would be female. That year, boomers would be between ages 66 and 84. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/
2.1:
The number of workers for each Social Security beneficiary in 2031, when all baby boomers will be over age 65. Currently, there are 3.3 workers for each Social Security beneficiary. (Source: Social Security Administration, at http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/basicfact.htm )
4,041:
Number of continuing care retirement facilities in 2003. Many boomers could have parents in need of such facilities or may have to move into such a facility themselves in the future. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
Staying Young and Fit: 27,813
Number of fitness and recreation centers nationwide in 2003. These are good places to visit on a regular basis for boomers who are trying to become or stay physically fit. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
11,938:
Number of cosmetics, beauty supply and perfume stores in 2003. These stores carry numerous antiaging skin care products aimed at people in this age group. http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html
"Special Editions" of the U.S. Census Bureau's Facts for Features are issued to provide background information for less known observances, anniversaries of historic events and other timely topics in the news.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
EARLY RETIREMENT AND YOU
One of the things that we have enjoyed since our early retirement and then starting this blog is doing the research on retirement issues and especially the increase of babyboomers and their issues. The Internet is such a wonderful resource and blogs just add to that wonder. We would encourage you to do some of this research yourself, but if you are still involved in a job, or have other things in your life that prevent you from doing that research; remember -- we see this as one of our "jobs" in helping you. We hope that perhaps we can all help one another in the adventure of life-changing proportions commonly known as Retirement.
It is important to be aware that what retirement has been in the past in not the same as it is for a lot of the current babyboomers. What an exciting time, despite all the doom and gloom that we keep hearing about pensions, social security and our lack of saving and planning. I have always been an optimist and have believed that a positive attitude will make any adventure, no matter how difficult it may be at times, a lot easier and afford more opportunities. Now that I have convinced my husband to join me in the "half full glass", we view our retirement with open eyes and an open mind. We hope that you will do the same.
In that line of thought, we would like to direct you to a link from a gentleman with his own personal views of retirement and some interesting thoughts.
philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement
It is important to be aware that what retirement has been in the past in not the same as it is for a lot of the current babyboomers. What an exciting time, despite all the doom and gloom that we keep hearing about pensions, social security and our lack of saving and planning. I have always been an optimist and have believed that a positive attitude will make any adventure, no matter how difficult it may be at times, a lot easier and afford more opportunities. Now that I have convinced my husband to join me in the "half full glass", we view our retirement with open eyes and an open mind. We hope that you will do the same.
In that line of thought, we would like to direct you to a link from a gentleman with his own personal views of retirement and some interesting thoughts.
philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
7 STEPS FOR CREATING A SATISFYING RETIREMENT
As my husband and I get further into our own retirement, we realize the importance of having some very good advice or steps if you will and so anytime we see someone offering such steps; we will pass them on to you. Since we don't know for sure where you are in your retirement, whether that is already retired or still want to be; we will pass on to you any of those steps that we think are good ones. We know that everyone has different views of when, where and how they plan their retirement. If any of you would like to share some steps you see as critical in the retirement process; please add them in the comments section.
Seven Steps for Creating a Satisfying Retirement
from Gary Billings, Ph.D.
by Gary Billings, Ph.D., Guest Author
According to the AARP there are 76 million baby boomers who are beginning to retire in droves. In fact one boomer reaches age fifty every 7.5 seconds! Most will retire within five years. Because boomers are chronologically, physically and psychologically younger than their parents were when they retired retirement will be very different for them. So, if you are a boomer here are seven suggestions for making retirement more satisfying.
§ Think of your retirement as an opportunity to transition from first adulthood to second adulthood something akin to moving from infancy to adolescence. In this way your retirement can be properly seen as an opportunity for growth, learning, and discovery.
§ Listen to your inner voice when it begins asking, "Who am I?" "How do I use my talents? and "What do I really believe?" These questions offer an opportunity to live unfulfilled dreams and use hidden talents-- something that is often illusive during First Adulthood.
§ Allow yourself to dream about all the things you'd like to do, to have and to be.
Perhaps it's buying a vacation house, or taking piano lessons or starting a new business. A well-known person reluctantly thrust into Second Adulthood and anxious and depressed dreamed about opening a fried chicken restaurant using a recipe that had been in the family for years. Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are now part of popular lore about the power of dreams.
§ Evaluate your situation remembering your life is made up of many different parts-- career, finances, family, social relationships, health, intellectual development, values and beliefs. One of the goals of Second Adulthood is to create a more balanced life by placing equal emphasis on each area. So assess each one. List your strengths and areas in which you'd like to improve. Be sure to identify your achievements. You'll find you've accomplished a lot more than you think. This gives you an opportunity to build on existing strengths.
§ Develop goals and priorities in each area of your life to help organize your time and energies. Goals create action and its action that gets results. One of the reason people often flounder during the initial phases of Second Adulthood is they don't have specific, measurable goals. Time becomes something to fill in, not something that bring them closer to their hopes and dreams.
§ Organize your time and get a day planner because after a life of hard work and stress it is easy to lapse into doing things are fanciful at a given moment. When we do this for too long we fritter away the day doing things that take us away from achieving our goals. As someone once said, life is what goes on while we're doing other things.
§ Eliminate negative self-talk because it works against a successful transition into Second Adulthood. The challenge is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones that help us achieve our goals. For each goal you've developed; identify negative attitudes that get in the way. For, example, if one of your goals is to find a part-time job doing something that is completely different and you find yourself thinking "No one is going to hire me at my age," or " I am too experienced for the job". Or, you've decided to buy a vacation home and you find yourself thinking, "It'll cost too much", or " I'll never find one in my price range." Once you've identified negative, self-limiting thoughts, develop positive ones to replace them. Just as you developed negative thoughts, you can just as easily re-program your mind to develop positive ones.
The transition from First Adulthood to Second Adulthood is often a jarring and unsettling experience. One doesn't move seamlessly and painlessly from one stage to the other. There will be periods of uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. These reactions are normal. Making the transition often involves going up a lot of different paths until finding the right one.
If you find yourself losing sleep over leaving your First Adulthood, give yourself a break and remember what Henry David Thoreau said: "If one advances confidentially in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live their life which they imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hour." So, if you are losing sleep, get out of bed and listen to your inner voice, allow yourself to dream about what you want to do in your Second Adulthood, assess important areas of your life, set your priorities and your goals, organize your time, and stop the negative self-talk. If you do this with confidence and purpose, as Thoreau implied, you can't fail.
~ Gary Billings is a Personal Coach. He is an expert in adult development. Much of his work centers on helping people make life transitions that enable them to do more and be more. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he earned a Ph.D. in Education.
Seven Steps for Creating a Satisfying Retirement
from Gary Billings, Ph.D.
by Gary Billings, Ph.D., Guest Author
According to the AARP there are 76 million baby boomers who are beginning to retire in droves. In fact one boomer reaches age fifty every 7.5 seconds! Most will retire within five years. Because boomers are chronologically, physically and psychologically younger than their parents were when they retired retirement will be very different for them. So, if you are a boomer here are seven suggestions for making retirement more satisfying.
§ Think of your retirement as an opportunity to transition from first adulthood to second adulthood something akin to moving from infancy to adolescence. In this way your retirement can be properly seen as an opportunity for growth, learning, and discovery.
§ Listen to your inner voice when it begins asking, "Who am I?" "How do I use my talents? and "What do I really believe?" These questions offer an opportunity to live unfulfilled dreams and use hidden talents-- something that is often illusive during First Adulthood.
§ Allow yourself to dream about all the things you'd like to do, to have and to be.
Perhaps it's buying a vacation house, or taking piano lessons or starting a new business. A well-known person reluctantly thrust into Second Adulthood and anxious and depressed dreamed about opening a fried chicken restaurant using a recipe that had been in the family for years. Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are now part of popular lore about the power of dreams.
§ Evaluate your situation remembering your life is made up of many different parts-- career, finances, family, social relationships, health, intellectual development, values and beliefs. One of the goals of Second Adulthood is to create a more balanced life by placing equal emphasis on each area. So assess each one. List your strengths and areas in which you'd like to improve. Be sure to identify your achievements. You'll find you've accomplished a lot more than you think. This gives you an opportunity to build on existing strengths.
§ Develop goals and priorities in each area of your life to help organize your time and energies. Goals create action and its action that gets results. One of the reason people often flounder during the initial phases of Second Adulthood is they don't have specific, measurable goals. Time becomes something to fill in, not something that bring them closer to their hopes and dreams.
§ Organize your time and get a day planner because after a life of hard work and stress it is easy to lapse into doing things are fanciful at a given moment. When we do this for too long we fritter away the day doing things that take us away from achieving our goals. As someone once said, life is what goes on while we're doing other things.
§ Eliminate negative self-talk because it works against a successful transition into Second Adulthood. The challenge is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones that help us achieve our goals. For each goal you've developed; identify negative attitudes that get in the way. For, example, if one of your goals is to find a part-time job doing something that is completely different and you find yourself thinking "No one is going to hire me at my age," or " I am too experienced for the job". Or, you've decided to buy a vacation home and you find yourself thinking, "It'll cost too much", or " I'll never find one in my price range." Once you've identified negative, self-limiting thoughts, develop positive ones to replace them. Just as you developed negative thoughts, you can just as easily re-program your mind to develop positive ones.
The transition from First Adulthood to Second Adulthood is often a jarring and unsettling experience. One doesn't move seamlessly and painlessly from one stage to the other. There will be periods of uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. These reactions are normal. Making the transition often involves going up a lot of different paths until finding the right one.
If you find yourself losing sleep over leaving your First Adulthood, give yourself a break and remember what Henry David Thoreau said: "If one advances confidentially in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live their life which they imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hour." So, if you are losing sleep, get out of bed and listen to your inner voice, allow yourself to dream about what you want to do in your Second Adulthood, assess important areas of your life, set your priorities and your goals, organize your time, and stop the negative self-talk. If you do this with confidence and purpose, as Thoreau implied, you can't fail.
~ Gary Billings is a Personal Coach. He is an expert in adult development. Much of his work centers on helping people make life transitions that enable them to do more and be more. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he earned a Ph.D. in Education.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
MORE STEPS FOR RETIREMENT
As we have gone into our early retirement and even for our daily living, we are always looking for systems, processes, steps if you will. It seems easier to think through what your own plan will look like if there are a list of steps to use as a guide. So when we started this blog on retirement, we decided that in our research for interesting articles, we would always be on the lookout for steps or guides to help those of you ready to take on that same adventure.
Seven Steps for Creating a Satisfying Retirement
from Gary Billings, Ph.D.
by Gary Billings, Ph.D., Guest Author
According to the AARP there are 76 million baby boomers who are beginning to retire in droves. In fact one boomer reaches age fifty every 7.5 seconds! Most will retire within five years. Because boomers are chronologically, physically and psychologically younger than their parents were when they retired retirement will be very different for them. So, if you are a boomer here are seven suggestions for making retirement more satisfying.
§ Think of your retirement as an opportunity to transition from first adulthood to second adulthood something akin to moving from infancy to adolescence. In this way your retirement can be properly seen as an opportunity for growth, learning, and discovery.
§ Listen to your inner voice when it begins asking, "Who am I?" "How do I use my talents? and "What do I really believe?" These questions offer an opportunity to live unfulfilled dreams and use hidden talents-- something that is often illusive during First Adulthood.
§ Allow yourself to dream about all the things you'd like to do, to have and to be. Perhaps it's buying a vacation house, or taking piano lessons or starting a new business. A well-known person reluctantly thrust into Second Adulthood and anxious and depressed dreamed about opening a fried chicken restaurant using a recipe that had been in the family for years. Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are now part of popular lore about the power of dreams.
§ Evaluate your situation remembering your life is made up of many different parts-- career, finances, family, social relationships, health, intellectual development, values and beliefs. One of the goals of Second Adulthood is to create a more balanced life by placing equal emphasis on each area. So assess each one. List your strengths and areas in which you'd like to improve. Be sure to identify your achievements. You'll find you've accomplished a lot more than you think. This gives you an opportunity to build on existing strengths.
§ Develop goals and priorities in each area of your life to help organize your time and energies. Goals create action and its action that gets results. One of the reason people often flounder during the initial phases of Second Adulthood is they don't have specific, measurable goals. Time becomes something to fill in, not something that bring them closer to their hopes and dreams.
§ Organize your time and get a day planner because after a life of hard work and stress it is easy to lapse into doing things are fanciful at a given moment. When we do this for too long we fritter away the day doing things that take us away from achieving our goals. As someone once said, life is what goes on while we're doing other things.
§ Eliminate negative self-talk because it works against a successful transition into Second Adulthood. The challenge is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones that help us achieve our goals. For each goal you've developed; identify negative attitudes that get in the way. For, example, if one of your goals is to find a part-time job doing something that is completely different and you find yourself thinking "No one is going to hire me at my age," or " I am too experienced for the job". Or, you've decided to buy a vacation home and you find yourself thinking, "It'll cost too much", or " I'll never find one in my price range." Once you've identified negative, self-limiting thoughts, develop positive ones to replace them. Just as you developed negative thoughts, you can just as easily re-program your mind to develop positive ones.
The transition from First Adulthood to Second Adulthood is often a jarring and unsettling experience. One doesn't move seamlessly and painlessly from one stage to the other. There will be periods of uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. These reactions are normal. Making the transition often involves going up a lot of different paths until finding the right one.
If you find yourself losing sleep over leaving your First Adulthood, give yourself a break and remember what Henry David Thoreau said:"If one advances confidentially in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live their life which they imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hour."
So, if you are losing sleep, get out of bed and listen to your inner voice, allow yourself to dream about what you want to do in your Second Adulthood, assess important areas of your life, set your priorities and your goals, organize your time, and stop the negative self-talk. If you do this with confidence and purpose, as Thoreau implied, you can't fail.
~ Gary Billings is a Personal Coach. He is an expert in adult development. Much of his work centers on helping people make life transitions that enable them to do more and be more. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he earned a Ph.D. in Education.
Seven Steps for Creating a Satisfying Retirement
from Gary Billings, Ph.D.
by Gary Billings, Ph.D., Guest Author
According to the AARP there are 76 million baby boomers who are beginning to retire in droves. In fact one boomer reaches age fifty every 7.5 seconds! Most will retire within five years. Because boomers are chronologically, physically and psychologically younger than their parents were when they retired retirement will be very different for them. So, if you are a boomer here are seven suggestions for making retirement more satisfying.
§ Think of your retirement as an opportunity to transition from first adulthood to second adulthood something akin to moving from infancy to adolescence. In this way your retirement can be properly seen as an opportunity for growth, learning, and discovery.
§ Listen to your inner voice when it begins asking, "Who am I?" "How do I use my talents? and "What do I really believe?" These questions offer an opportunity to live unfulfilled dreams and use hidden talents-- something that is often illusive during First Adulthood.
§ Allow yourself to dream about all the things you'd like to do, to have and to be. Perhaps it's buying a vacation house, or taking piano lessons or starting a new business. A well-known person reluctantly thrust into Second Adulthood and anxious and depressed dreamed about opening a fried chicken restaurant using a recipe that had been in the family for years. Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are now part of popular lore about the power of dreams.
§ Evaluate your situation remembering your life is made up of many different parts-- career, finances, family, social relationships, health, intellectual development, values and beliefs. One of the goals of Second Adulthood is to create a more balanced life by placing equal emphasis on each area. So assess each one. List your strengths and areas in which you'd like to improve. Be sure to identify your achievements. You'll find you've accomplished a lot more than you think. This gives you an opportunity to build on existing strengths.
§ Develop goals and priorities in each area of your life to help organize your time and energies. Goals create action and its action that gets results. One of the reason people often flounder during the initial phases of Second Adulthood is they don't have specific, measurable goals. Time becomes something to fill in, not something that bring them closer to their hopes and dreams.
§ Organize your time and get a day planner because after a life of hard work and stress it is easy to lapse into doing things are fanciful at a given moment. When we do this for too long we fritter away the day doing things that take us away from achieving our goals. As someone once said, life is what goes on while we're doing other things.
§ Eliminate negative self-talk because it works against a successful transition into Second Adulthood. The challenge is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones that help us achieve our goals. For each goal you've developed; identify negative attitudes that get in the way. For, example, if one of your goals is to find a part-time job doing something that is completely different and you find yourself thinking "No one is going to hire me at my age," or " I am too experienced for the job". Or, you've decided to buy a vacation home and you find yourself thinking, "It'll cost too much", or " I'll never find one in my price range." Once you've identified negative, self-limiting thoughts, develop positive ones to replace them. Just as you developed negative thoughts, you can just as easily re-program your mind to develop positive ones.
The transition from First Adulthood to Second Adulthood is often a jarring and unsettling experience. One doesn't move seamlessly and painlessly from one stage to the other. There will be periods of uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. These reactions are normal. Making the transition often involves going up a lot of different paths until finding the right one.
If you find yourself losing sleep over leaving your First Adulthood, give yourself a break and remember what Henry David Thoreau said:"If one advances confidentially in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live their life which they imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hour."
So, if you are losing sleep, get out of bed and listen to your inner voice, allow yourself to dream about what you want to do in your Second Adulthood, assess important areas of your life, set your priorities and your goals, organize your time, and stop the negative self-talk. If you do this with confidence and purpose, as Thoreau implied, you can't fail.
~ Gary Billings is a Personal Coach. He is an expert in adult development. Much of his work centers on helping people make life transitions that enable them to do more and be more. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he earned a Ph.D. in Education.
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