One more dream

Theme suggested by ChengBee Lim, Terrific Mentors International

You’re sixty-ish. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more. Retired from your main source of income, perhaps without much of a pension plan, perhaps without any. You’ve been moderately successful, not quite what you hoped for but good enough to feel you’ve contributed to the world.  No regrets, really. Could have done with a bit more money for old age but you were never the lucky one in the group. You ordered the drinks rather than challenged the cards or roulette table. Feeling a little bit tired, to be honest.

Like a woodpecker in the grass you want to look forward, need to find your next tree. It’s time to take the same view as the woodpecker. You must be a bit assertive, sell yourself more than you have in the past. But at sixty, can you do that? Certainly, you can. It’s only the will that is required. But even if you have the will, can you start over, become entrepreneurial again, pick up the reins and show what you are really made of?

Fact: You will live longer and more happily if you are truly engaged and not just playing at sitting on committees and boards. If you keep your mind occupied with being competitive at business or think tank or best of all make the tough decisions of creativity and judgment – the two-pronged fork that urges you to move on. These are the things that keep you going, earn you some money and make you realise that there is life and energy in you yet. When you resolve to do it you are halfway along the road already.

Action: Review your skills, your successes and your failures. They are all lessons. What’s your taste in work, what gets you excited, what do you find a challenge, what new-fangled technology has you shrinking from it? When you learn about yourself again you discover wealth and potential – some you never thought you had.

Starting again is joyous, brings smiles to your face and the faces of all your friends. If you don’t believe me, try it.

The woodpecker will find his or her tree.

You can find yours.