Transitions Life Coaching

You're Never Too Old - By Char Elle En- Lafayette, Indiana.

Have you heard of Transitions Life Coaching?

In this article on empowering and limiting beliefs around retirement, my guest contributor illustrates from personal experience the oft quoted Henry Ford maxim "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right.":

My father died in 1994, and one thing I know for sure is that he stuffed his life to overflowing while he was alive! He was a practicing United Methodist Minister all of his adult life, as was his father before him.

Around the time of my Dad's retirement from the ministry, he became interested in Black African History, began to study the subject, and completed a Masters and PhD in Black African History from the University of Chicago at the ripe old age of 76-77. He was very active in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa and passionate about equality!

So, let me repeat ... You're NEVER too old to have the life you want at every moment you are living!

Let me also provide a personal and poignant example of a belief that is much less empowering - the belief that there comes a time when you are too old to do what you want to do.

My brother's marriage ended when his son was 3 months old. He believed he was too old to "start over" at the ripe old age of 29, and committed suicide.

We all have the capability to choose how we will perceive the world, what beliefs we will cling to, and which beliefs we will assess and modify in order to allow ourselves to move forward with our lives in more positive and satisfying ways.

Make no mistake about it, the way we think about things, and the conclusions we come to based on these beliefs, has a powerful influence on what we believe we can do, and what we believe we can make of our lives.

That's where I come in! I am a Transition Life Coach, and as such I often work with folks who are either contemplating retirement, or have already retired.

There are as many opinions, and beliefs about, retirement as there are baby boomers in the world, and that's a lot! Everybody thinks they know what retirement is about, what it will be like to retire, and whether they will be able to, or want to retire.

Many of our ideas about retirement are not as accurate as we might hope. What we think we know, and what we believe is true, guides and informs the decisions we make and therefore, the quality of the lives we are able to create.

Don't short-change yourself! Make sure you have as much information as you need to make informed decisions about what possibilities are available to you at the retirement life stage, or at any transitional point you find yourself in.

You can't know what you don't know ... and what you think you know may not be true!

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but he did not die with regret!

Char's conclusion reminds me that we should often challenge what we believe, and not generalize from experience. The cat who sits on a hot stove won't sit on it again ... or on any other stove!

Char Elle En is a Transition Life Coach and on her website www.nextinlifecoaching.com she states the case for retirement planning and retirement coaching.

Char's comments about her father's active and fulfilled retirement remind me of another Henry Ford quote "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

As a Cork man, I'm pleased to record that Henry Ford's father William Ford (1826-1905), was born in County Cork Ireland, and both his father and his maternal foster grandfather were from Cork.

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