by Joe Hearn | Apr 4, 2012 | Pursuits, Retirement
“You will be who you are becoming.”
~Gavin Johnson
One of the pastors at my church said that this past Sunday. I thought it was really insightful. You’re never going to wake up one morning and be something that you haven’t been becoming little by little, day by day, for years. A caterpillar doesn’t go to bed as a fuzzy little worm and wake up the next morning a beautiful butterfly. That transformation from egg to larva to pupa to butterfly takes about half its life.
Applying that idea to retirement, you’re not going to wake up the day after you retire and be something different than what you were becoming for the previous 5, 10 or 20 years. Yes, you’ll have a little more time and a little more money, so if those are the only things holding you back from the life you really want to live then you’ll be in good shape.
If it’s something else, however—certain skills, attitudes, fears, plans, logistics, friendships, relationships, knowledge, personality traits—then you’d better start working on those things now. You won’t just be able to flip them on like a light switch. Instead you have to form them drop by drop over time like a stalactite.
Who are you becoming?
So, if you will be who you are becoming, that begs the question: “Who are you becoming?” Maybe more importantly, “Do you like who you are becoming?” If so, just maintain course. If not—if the person you want to be in retirement is different than the person you see taking shape today—then it’s time for a change. Take a small step today that moves you in the right direction. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next. Before you know it, you’ll wake up one morning and you’ll be the person you’ve been becoming all along.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week.
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Mar 19, 2012 | Pursuits, Retirement
To get your retirement dreams off the drawing board, you need a combination of ideas and execution. Having one without the other is pretty much useless. In his recent book “Anything You Want,” Derek Sivers discussed this concept in relation to starting a business, but it can just as easily be applied to your retirement. From his book:
“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
Explanation:
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1,000
SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000
To make a business, you need to multiply the two components. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.”
As I said earlier, this “Ideas x Execution = Payoff” equation can be applied to your retirement. The payoff in retirement usually takes a different form—happiness, fulfillment and adventure rather than dollars—but you get the point. A good idea that is well executed results in a big payoff. A good idea with weak execution “pays off” with regret.
So as you plan for retirement, absolutely dream big and have a vision for your life. Just don’t forget how important it is to have a strategy to turn those plans into reality. Dreaming without doing is a recipe for disappointment.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Mar 8, 2012 | Hobbies, Learning Challenge, Pursuits, Retirement
Show me someone who loves to learn new things and I’ll show you someone who will most likely have an interesting, rewarding retirement. Why is that? Learning comes with a host of benefits like:
- It keeps your mind sharp
- It keeps you engaged with advances in society (Congrats to my mom on buying her first iPad!)
- It helps you figure out what you like
- It helps you discover new things
- It gives you new people to interact with
- It gives you something fun to do with your spouse or significant other
- It provides personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment
And when I talk about learning, I’m not talking about learning in the traditional, sometimes boring sense of the word (e.g. What year did the Spanish-American War start?), but in the fun, practical, interesting sense of the word (e.g. How do you scuba dive?). In other words, pursuing knowledge and experiences that enrich your life.
How about you? Do you like to learn new things? I love to learn. In fact, every year I pick one or two things that I’d like to know more about and spend time learning all I can about them. In years past this has included things like:
- Learning to play chess (to play me search for joe hearn on Chess With Friends)
- Learning to play the guitar
- Learning how to run a marathon (and then running one)
- Learning how to make a great omelet (hint: get the right pan)
- Joining a Master’s (a.k.a.: Old Man’s) swim club
- Taking cooking classes with my wife
- Get my motorcycle license
- Taking a travel photo workshop
One of the great things about our world today (besides the Snuggie) is that self learning (also known as Autodidactism) is easier than ever. Gone are the days when you need an expensive education or lengthy apprenticeship just to learn more about something that you find interesting. Now you can just sit down on your own time and access a plethora of resources, tools, apps, books, and videos on just about any topic that interests you.
Take photography for example. For less than $1,000 you can have a camera that is head and shoulders above anything that Ansel Adams ever had. The store you buy it from will likely offer free “Get to know your new camera” classes so you can learn how to use it. To learn how to take better pictures you can download (for free) The Art of Photography podcast on iTunes. Then you can edit and improve all those great new vacation photos you take using something like iPhoto or Snapseed (available in software and app form).
30 Day Learning Challenges
As you can tell by the name of my blog, I think being intentional is one of the most important things in life. Everyone has ideas, plans and dreams, but those never really become reality unless you intentionally make them happen.
With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to do periodic “challenges” where I intentionally learn about something that interests me and then write about it here at the blog. And of course, if the topic interests you, you are more than welcome to follow along at home and pick up a new skill as well.
Some of those things I can probably learn to do in 30 days (like how to make a good omelet). In those cases, I’ll write about the topic, why I want to know more about it, the tools I used to learn about it, what I was able to learn after the 30 days and a plan you can follow to do the same thing.
In other cases, it will take much longer than 30 days to learn something (learning to speak a second language, for example). In those cases, I will spend the 30 days learning everything I can about how best to teach yourself that skill. Then I’ll write about what I learned and try to give you a road map to follow if you’re interested.
In either case, the idea is to become intentional learners through a combination of reading, researching, asking experts, experimenting, practicing and improving. Sound fun?
The first challenge
The first thing I’ll be doing is a smaller challenge, but something I’ve always wanted to know. I would like to be able to locate every country in the world on a map. You may remember the painful video a few years ago of the Miss Teen USA contestant explaining why most “U.S. Americans” can’t find the United States on the map (If not, you can watch it here).
I chuckled at that video, but in reality, my knowledge of world geography is nothing to write home about. If you asked me to find places like Suriname or Macedonia, I’m not even sure I could get you on the right continent. For someone who loves to travel and eventually wants to visit most of the countries in the world, that geographical ignorance will not abide.
So in the next 30 days, I will learn how to locate every country in the world (about 195 depending on how you count) on a map. To do this, I will be using an app from Brainscape called Learn Geography. The app uses a scientifically optimized algorithm to repeat flashcards in just the right pattern so that your brain will absorb the information. I’ll be learning the countries one continent at a time and in 30 days I’ll report back to you on how I did. If that sounds like something that interests you, I’d love to have some of you follow along as well. Just download the app from the App Store and get started.
Don’t worry if this challenge doesn’t interest you. I’ll make a list of some of the other ones I’m considering below and I’ll be adding new ones all the time. Hopefully, something on the list will pique your interest (or absolutely feel free to suggest something to me) and we can channel our inner Polymath and learn something fun together.
- How to plan an around the world trip
- Learn video and photo editing software
- How to tell a great story
- How to play tennis
- Gardening
- How to simplify/declutter my house
- Scuba diving
- Learn about particular foods (coffee, beer, wine, olive oil, etc.)
- How to snowboard
- How to make great croissants
- Photography
- How to pack light for a trip
- How to hike and camp (e.g. navigating with a compass, starting a campfire, backwoods first aid, planning a hike, etc.)
Thanks for reading!
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Feb 28, 2012 | Pursuits
I had the following text message exchange about a month ago with a friend of mine:
Him: Call me when you have a second.
Me: Will do. I’ll call you when I leave my nephew’s birthday party.
Him: I am buying a Volvo SUV and I can save 6% if I go to Sweden and pick it up. They cover the flights for 2 people and some hotel cost. We could stay from 1 night up to a week. Window April 15-May 30th.
How would you respond? We’re all presented with situations like this in life. OK, maybe not this exact one, but we all face situations where opportunity knocks and we need to decide whether or not to answer the door.
When responding, I’ve found that people usually focus on one of two things: either the opportunity or the obstacles. Those who focus on the opportunity say “Sounds great. Let’s make it happen.” Those who focus on the obstacles say “I’d love to, but <insert excuse here>” (e.g. I need to work, I don’t have the money, my spouse won’t let me, I don’t know how, etc.).
So how did I respond? It took me about five seconds (mostly because I type slowly):
Me: I’m in.
Him: Awesome! I need your Social Security number and date of birth to send to the Volvo travel office.
No one wants to get to the end of life and have a long list of things that they wish they’d done. Unfortunately, human nature is such that we tend to reach for excuses when presented with something (even a good something) that might take effort, be a risk, or take us out of our comfort zone. Not surprisingly, everything in life that’s worth doing takes effort, is somewhat risky and takes you out of your comfort zone. If you constantly say no to those things, your “yes” muscles atrophy and you end up living a pretty unsatisfying life.
So how can we do a better job at embracing adventure and living a life that provides meaning and purpose?
Decide what’s important to you. As I have said on this site before, each of us needs to decide what we really want out of life and then take those things very seriously. For my family, travel is a key priority. I didn’t even ask my wife before texting back about the Sweden thing, because I knew the answer would be yes. When you have a clear understanding of what you want out of life, decision making becomes pretty easy.
Be willing to make things happen. Saying no is easy because that’s the end of it. Saying yes means that you will need to put forth effort and overcome obstacles. It means having to plan, practice, take risks and make sacrifices. No is easy, but it has no payoff. Yes takes effort, but it is an investment that produces a return.
Time and money will never be perfect. Time and money are the “go to” excuses for most of us. Looking at it honestly, however, we have more of both than just about any civilization in the history of the world. Time and money are almost always red herrings. You can find a way around both if you really want something. Our true obstacles are things like inertia, fear, laziness, and being unwilling to sacrifice or put forth the effort required.
Get comfortable with risk. One of my all time favorite advertisements is Michael Jordan reciting a huge list of his failures. At the end of the commercial he says “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” (Watch the ad on YouTube here). Be like Mike. Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks in pursuit of meaningful goals.
Thanks for reading! I’ll give you an update on Sweden in a later post. In the meantime, be on the lookout for opportunity.
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Feb 20, 2012 | Pursuits, Retirement
Happy President’s Day! I learned recently that President Lincoln’s favorite poem was “Mortality” by William Knox. For me, the poem is a great reminder for how quickly life goes by. As Knox says: “’Tis the twink of an eye, ‘tis the draught of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death.”
In my book The Bell Lap, I introduced a concept I call the “Someday Window.” Retirement is often viewed as a time when you will do everything you didn’t have time to do while you were working, raising kids, and generally focusing on other priorities. Year after year, you tell yourself “someday” this and “someday” that. If a person retires at sixty-five and lives until seventy-five, he or she has a ten year Someday Window. The clock is ticking.
The takeaway from that concept is simple: We should all begin treating today like the someday we were planning for yesterday. So in memory of Honest Abe on this President’s Day and as a reminder to live your life to the full, I give you “Mortality” by William Knox.
(P.S. I drew twenty names from the Valentine’s contest entries. I will email the winners later today and the books will go out in the mail tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who participated!)
Mortality by William Knox
O why should the spirit of mortal be proud!
Like a fast flitting meteor, a fast flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave –
He passes from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willows shall fade,
Be scattered around, and together be laid;
And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie.
The child that a mother attended and loved,
The mother that infant’s affection that proved,
The husband that mother and infant that blest,
Each — all are away to their dwelling of rest.
The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,
Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by:
And the memory of those that beloved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.
The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.
The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman who climbed with his goats to the steep,
The beggar that wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.
The saint that enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner that dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
So the multitude goes — like the flower and the weed
That wither away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes — even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that hath often been told.
For we are the same things that our fathers have been,
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen,
We drink the same stream, and we feel the same sun,
And we run the same course that our fathers have run.
The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think,
From the death we are shrinking from they too would shrink,
To the life we are clinging to they too would cling —
But it speeds from the earth like a bird on the wing.
They loved — but their story we cannot unfold;
They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved — but no wail from their slumbers may come;
They joyed — but the voice of their gladness is dumb.
They died — ay, they died! and we, things that are now,
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
Who make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the change they met on their pilgrimage road.
Yea, hope and despondence, and pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together like sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, and the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other like surge upon surge.
‘Tis the twink of an eye, ’tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud –
O why should the spirit of mortal be proud!
by Joe Hearn | Feb 9, 2012 | Pursuits, Retirement
Delayed gratification is great if it’s allowing you to work toward something. For example, saving for that trip you’ve always wanted to take or giving up that extra hour of sleep so you can make it to the gym. You’re giving up something good now in order to get something better later.
Where delayed gratification becomes a problem is when it is used as an excuse for life avoidance. Rather than allowing you to work toward something, it is keeping you from something. Sure, it’s hard to decide what you really want out of life. It’s risky to pursue big goals. Rather than rising to the challenge, we tell ourselves we need a little more time or a little more money. Not yet, but soon. Someday.
Here’s the thing. The longer you wait, the less you believe yourself when you say “Someday.” Your dreams begin to atrophy. Your opportunities begin to vanish. You aim lower. You talk yourself out of things. Before you know it, it’s too late.
If you’ve been around Intentional Retirement for awhile, you’ve seen the quote from Mark Twain below. Your biggest regrets in life will be the things you didn’t do. So don’t delay. Decide what you really want out of life and get after it. Start small if necessary, but start.
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