It would be nice to win $5,000 a week for life but I think they are fraud or something.

by Iamallcool 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  jgnat

  titch, the retirement planners that helped me look ahead recommended writing a life slogan or statement, put it on a business card, and carry it around. The western concept of tolerating work for a deferred leisure in retirement is so contrary to how people live and enjoy their lives. I just came out of two years of underemployment. There were days I enjoyed watching the flowers grow (literally!). I know that I can DO retirement. I can slow down and move through my day like molasses, savouring every moment. But I will never be bored. I make sure I do work I enjoy.

  I am a little passionate about this, because the alternative is intolerable to me. I saw enough civil servants who were dragging themselves to work every day, hating their jobs, "trapped in golden cage" of their own making. They were going to eke out every penny of pension that was owed them. In the meantime, they corroded their insides with misery.
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  talesin

  Titch, that is a tough one. I found a passion in volunteering. Around 1990, my physician recommended that it may help with my depression. To my surprise, I found it did. It became something to look forward to, on Sundays, my only day off from work. It led me into new ways of thinking, and I started in a different career direction. Unfortunately, that career got nipped in the bud by a long-term illness, but the volunteerism has continued to this day. Now, I create recipes for a special group, that are inexpensive, healthy and easy to make, and present one each month in a newsletter. Cooking has become a passion, and that opened up my creative side. For almost 15 years now, I have been creating art, and have successfully sold over 120 pieces. I'm looking forward to retraining with a goal to working with digital media, using my old computer skills (that I learned at my more mundane job, back in the day) and my newer artistic skills.

  Take a new path; you never know where it will lead. Statistically, you are more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to win the lottery. But one step at a time, exploring new avenues of work (be it volunteer, or paid), may help you to find your bliss.

  tal