The Author of these free mini-books has 30+
of the world's best motivational and self-help books
published on Amazon.
- HOMEPAGE - http://www.mindtech.com.vu/
His most popular one is - INTUITION:THE MAGICAL 6th SENSE –
HOW TO TRIGGER IT RELIABLY - http://www.mindtech.com.vu/intuition.htm
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Copyright James F. Coyle 2014
GOLDEN OLDIES-
HOW TO “REV” UP YOUR
LIFE & BE
HAPPIER
So you’ve recently retired around the age of 60 and
now you have nothing much to do with your life.
All the pressure is off and you can stay around the
house and annoy your wife!
And here is the unbalanced thing about the husband
retiring:
The wife usually has many interests of her own and is
normally reasonably occupied with her daily activities. If she has been a “stay
at home” wife then retirement is not a personal issue for her. She carries on as normal with her clubs,
friends and general social activities.
Then everything suddenly changes.
Her husband retires from his high pressure job......
and........ is now at home all day with little to do.
The wife finds him constantly underfoot, trying to be
helpful, but this is not really working.
The poor guy is at a perpetual loose end and is trying
to invent activities to keep himself occupied.
The whole dynamic of their life together has changed.
The existing peace and serenity in the home has been
disturbed.
They had planned to go on an extended holiday after
his retirement but so far this has not been discussed.
So.... what to do?
The critical thing here is that the husband must start
“stretching” himself and find worthwhile activities to fill in the blank
spaces.
And this is where he might have to remove himself
right out of his personal comfort zone.
Until recently he has been surrounded by workmates and
fully involved with his work related affairs. During the workday he has had
little time to himself as there were always urgent pressures placed upon him.
Life was not peaceful, but at least it was fully active.
This is no longer the situation.
And here is where a lot of long-term relationships
start to waver.
A couple of my older friends had found themselves in
this very same situation and solved the problem by purchasing a caravan and 4WD
vehicle. They rented their house out for 6 months and headed off for a
caravanning trip around the northern parts of Australia. They visited
interesting places and made a ton of new like-minded friends. Basically their
lives were changed forever as they pushed their boundaries and developed new
interests and contacts, many of which remained after they returned home.
But if this type of travelling activity does not
appeal then you will need to search locally for inspiration.
One concept that will bring you a lot of prestige and
new friends is to involve yourself with support groups that help the
disadvantaged and needy in your local community.
This can be very rewarding and brings a sense of
self-satisfaction. It can also be highly frustrating but at least it keeps your
brain active and you’re out of your house “doing things”.
If this activity doesn’t appeal then you will probably
need to look at solo or small-group activities that keep you feeling refreshed
and useful.
Ask yourself........ “What is it I’ve always wanted to
do?”
Have you ever wanted to scuba dive?
Learn to fly an aeroplane?
Rappel down a cliff face on a rope?
Go for a trip in a hot air balloon?
Ride on a jet ski?
Learn to ski?
Do an aerobatic aeroplane ride?
Do a bungy jump?
Climb a small mountain?
Ride a large motorcycle?
If some of the above seem rather alarming then you
might be interested to know that these very same activities are currently being
carried out by older individuals.... many of them over 80 years of age. In fact
I just read about a great grandmother in the USA who did a tandem skydive for
her 100th birthday. Apparently this was the third time she had done
this.
I personally spent a lot of my younger years skydiving
and flying small aircraft. But one thing I always wanted to do (but could never
afford it while raising a family) was to learn to fly a helicopter. However at
age 69 I finally attained my private helicopter licence. This involved 6 months
of home study so I could pass the theory exam and about 6 months of flight training.
In actual fact it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life as
helicopters are extremely obnoxious critters and are not easy to learn.
However if this concept is of interest you can usually
find a local helicopter company who will give you a basic 45 minute
instructional test flight at a reasonable price. During this flight you will be
shown how the controls work and will actually get to handle them yourself. I’m
told this is quite a self-satisfying experience, particularly when you produce
the photos to show your friends!
(Many of whom will think you are quite mad. But ignore
them.... it’s your life!)
If you have never done anything like this before I
guarantee it will make your heart thump louder than the overhead helicopter
rotors!
The whole point of all the above is to find an activity
that will stretch your comfort zone and your boundaries. Most people by the
time they retire have got themselves into quite a deep rut. They have been
operating within their own personal comfort zone for a number of years and it
can take quite a traumatic experience to yank them out of this mental state.
Retiring is quite often one such experience. It can make one feel lost and
confused.... an empty feeling.
You need to do something that gets you into real
“living” again, maybe in conjunction with your partner.
In fact this feeling can occur at any time among older
people, even before retirement.
It may be that you have reached a plateau in your
existence and you don’t quite know what to do about it. Perhaps your daily
activities are starting to feel mundane and pointless. They have lost their
fizz and excitement.
If so, here is what you can do:
Sit down and think about your life. What have you done
in the past that got you really revved up? There will be something there
somewhere, maybe in your earlier teenage years. Dwell on this. Try and
recapture the excitement of achievement. I am asking you here to re-live an
exciting personal event in the past. Perhaps you can recall several of these
events. If so, dwell on each one for several minutes. See them in your mind’s
eye. Try to recall the emotion at the time. Then relate these to your immediate
past few years. Have you done anything as exciting lately? Probably
not.
At this point you probably fully realise that your
life has become somewhat mundane and boring.
So....... what are you going to do about it?
Shock your wife by telling her that you have booked in
for a tandem parachute jump this weekend. Or that you just joined a rappelling
club and you will be sliding down cliff faces on a rope this weekend. Or tell
her that you have booked a hot air balloon ride this weekend.... for both of you.
This all sounds very dramatic, doesn’t it?
And it is....... because....... it is what you need to
improve your overall happiness.
It is basically way outside your comfort zone.
Look at it this way: you have spent a lot of your life
working and probably raising a family. This has caused you stress and sometimes
financial pressure. But now this should all be behind you.
So isn’t it time you started looking after yourself?
Doing things that are fulfilling and worthwhile? Activities you have only been
able to dream about in the past? Don’t you owe it to yourself to end your time
in this mortal coil in a reasonably blissful and happy state?
I have one acquaintance around my age who started writing books some years ago to fill in his
time. Now that his material has been released on Amazon Books and is selling
worldwide he was able to capture the attention of two movie companies and last
I heard two of his war story type books were being made into full length films.
I imagine this would be a very satisfying experience. I give this gentleman
full marks for getting out there and doing something!!
In fact quite a few older folk that I know are experimenting
with writing. It is so easy now to get published. Once you finish your book you
can load it up on to Amazon books (The world’s largest bookstore) and publish
it for free. Both in e-book format (for Kindle reader
devices) and in hardcover. Templates
are supplied for the hardcover’s and when they finish
preparing your book they do not actually hold any in stock, so it costs Amazon
nothing. Instead when a client orders a copy of your book they hastily print a
copy on an absolutely amazing photo-copy type machine. This is called
print-on-demand. This takes the content of your book and not only prints it out
to the correct size, but prints the colour covers also then glues the whole lot
together. Then the final process is to trim the edges with a guillotine and the
book is ready for sale. Takes less than 3 minutes from start
to finish.
If you’d like to watch a U-Tube video clip of this
extraordinary machine click on the link below -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q946sfGLxm4
I currently have 38 books published on Amazon. All of
these are available on Kindle and three of them are also available in
hardcover. The monthly royalty payments from these make for a
nice extra income and pays most of our monthly household bills.
But the really impressive thing is that they cost me
absolutely nothing to publish!
Does this give you any ideas?
And who knows, one of your publications might hit the
big time by appearing on the Amazon Top 100. So suddenly you’re selling several
thousand books a day worldwide and looking at an income of hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
There are a multitude of activities you can become
involved with. And just remember, at your age you have a vast amount of
experience that younger people generally don’t have so you can view potentially
new experiences from a mature point of view. As such you are less likely to
make errors of judgement.
The only thing that might discourage you is the
attitude of your friends, family and associates. Many of these will be stuck in
a serious rut and there can be quite a lot of envy emerge if you are seen to be doing activities
that they would never consider.
So the best thing is to say nothing until you actually
achieve something.
Your conversation at the local club on a Friday night
would go like this....... “Hey guys,
guess what? Been meaning to tell you but I forgot. Weekend before last I did a
tandem parachute jump. And this last weekend I went on a hot air balloon ride”.
Well...... what a conversation stopper. Chances are
you won’t be believed. So you pull out all the nice colour pics you took. Then
tell them you’re trying to figure what adrenaline activity to do next. You will
find it fascinating to study their reactions. Some will applaud your efforts
while others (the lazy envious ones) will criticize you. Now pay close
attention to this latter category because these are the ones who will attempt
to hold you back. Quite personally I avoid these types and you may feel
inclined to gently remove them from your social circle.
At your age you do not need this critical negativity
around you.
Think about this: For the past 10-20 years you have
been inadvertently compelled to associate with a variety of workmates you
didn’t like, or didn’t relate to.
Now, because of the change in your circumstances, you DO NOT have to
accept this. You are free to choose your friends and associates.
At my current tender age of 74 I refuse flatly to
associate with types I don’t feel comfortable with. Why should I? I’ve been
stuck with dropkicks, drongos, deadbeats, dills and dopeheads
all my
working life. These days I don’t feel any compulsion to mix with these various
idiots and clowns. I guess this is why I am so keen on writing. I can lock
myself in my office and avoid all the neurotic behaviour. At least my computer
has no neurotic tendencies. On second thoughts......
I’m not sure about that. It’s fitted with Windows.
But getting back to the main theme of this
mini-book......have you developed any ideas from what you have read so far? Is
it making you think...... and helping you develop a happiness freedom plan?
If not then maybe you are happy where you are and you
don’t feel inclined to make any changes.
As always.... the choice is yours!! But it is yours
alone because you no longer have to suffer from peer pressure.
After all.... it’s YOUR future happiness at stake.
...........................................................
INDEX TO ALL THE AUTHOR’S OTHER FREE MINI-BOOKS
http://www.mindtech.com.vu/PK-luck.htm