The movie is SO up-my-alley! It’s about a 75-year-old woman who gets fired from her job and her son helps her make and fulfill a bucket-list of dreams. (Very much aligned with my whole Carpe Diem Day message.)
However, I had a conflict for tonight (It’s the second session of my Agile Workshop that I blogged about all last month.)
I was disappointed for about 5 minutes until I continued reading my emails and saw that Encore.org was also offering a free viewing earlier in the day – at 3:30pm MT!
So, to recap, there are TWO opportunities TODAY to see Duty Free for free!
Sarah Schwallier of Strides Life introduces herself as a nature walking health coach. She has a passion for helping others be their most healthy selves and to achieve their goals, whether that’s to lose weight, build strength, or just to get moving.
Sarah always adds an element of fun and playfulness to everything she does. I’ve gotten to experience this first-hand as I’ve participated in the Walk2Connect Community where Sarah is a core-coop-owner and leader.
Tune in to the podcast or the YouTube video and find out how you can stay motivated to keep exercising and why that’s so important to both our physical and our mental health!
Then join us on the Carpe Diem Facebook Group and let us know what your favorite type of exercise is.
When I tell people I’m an Agile coach, most people look skeptical – or at least confused. (I can be quite awkward in athletic endeavors.) The “Agile” adjective, in this case, refers to a philosophy and project management system that helps teams with productivity in the midst of change and uncertainty.
Without going into a big lecture answering the question “What is Agile?” (you’re welcome), I’ll just highlight a few of the concepts which might help you with your New Year’s goals during these very uncertain times.
And let’s face it, we are always facing changes and uncertainty, so you’ll probably find this is a better way to work with New Year’s Resolutions every year!
Break Your Goals into Iterations
One BIG problem with New Year’s resolutions is that a year is way too long to commit to a detailed goal. Too many things might derail your plan. One of the keys to handling uncertainty is to execute in short iterations. You might have fuzzy high-level plans, but your detailed plan should only be for the short-term. Then you can learn and adjust as you go along if and when you run into something unexpected.
Instead of trying to lose 50 pounds in a year, maybe your high-level goal could be to develop better lifestyle habits. Your short-term goal might be to take action designed to lose some weight in the next week. It’s a lot easier to stay motivated if you think in small iterations. Big goals can seem overwhelming, but often taking that first step is just what’s needed to get motivated. Then you can check at the end of the week to see if you lost weight and how much.
Make your specific and detailed plan just for your iteration, in this case, one week. Plan out the healthy meals you’ll make for yourself and what exercise you’ll do. Or, perhaps you’ll keep it simple by simply cutting out desserts. However, plan your details only for one week. Think of it as an experiment.
Reflect, Celebrate, Adapt
One of the most important parts of the Agile frameworks is to consistently reflect, learn, and improve. At the end of our iteration, we would take the time to measure to see if our short-term goal to lose some weight is being accomplished with the actions we’re taking.
Whether or not the goal of losing weight was achieved, what was learned? If you lost more than expected, how did it feel? How was your energy? If you didn’t lose any weight, what will you do differently next week?
Regardless of whether or not you lost weight, celebrate your complete week and what you learned in some way with a creative ceremony or ritual. Maybe share a new healthy recipe or go for a hike. Plan your meals and activities for the next week, taking into account what you learned. Personally, I’m incorporating a Self-Spa Sunday ritual, ending my week with a luxurious bubble-bath while I reflect on the ups and downs of the past week and anticipate my future week.
When the Unexpected Happens
Let’s say you have an unexpected injury and you can’t execute the short-term exercise plan you had in mind. Go back to the original purpose of your goal. You want to develop healthy life-style habits. Are there forms of exercise you can do, in spite of the injury? Can you adjust your meal plan for the next week to take into account the changes? Maybe your plan for the following week is to focus on PT or sleep to improve your overall health rather than trying to lose weight. Be flexible and adjust your short-term plans to take into account any changes, but keep your long-term end goals in mind.
I’ve used healthy habits and weight-loss as an example here, but you can use these techniques for any goal. Split big goals into smaller ones, and have fun while you learn, improve, grow and celebrate along the way.
I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new year. I know, I know… it’s just like any other day and we shouldn’t “wait” to start improving ourselves, but I just get so much MoJo on January 1rst! And, honestly, I let my normally disciplined-self slack a bit in the last two weeks of the year. You know the drill… over-eat, over-drink, and generally slack on all my “goals”.. with the knowledge I’ll be super-motivated in the New Year to get back to my healthy habits!
One of those healthy habits that I’ve developed in the past couple of years is walking regularly, often while listening to inspiring podcasts. One of those podcasts is Optimal Living Daily where it was announced that 15 lucky people would receive a free OLD workbook for talking about self-care practices that have worked. I’m supposed to respond via Vibely, which is a fun app that offers challenges to the community, but.. this would be too long to type in an app! I’ll just send a link!
I’ve figured out that living a meaningful life is not just about where we physically go or what we do, but what is occupying our minds. We only have a finite number of days on this earth and I want to spend those days wisely by making intentional decisions about how I’m spending my time and who I’m spending it with. When I’m alone, my brain is still thinking and I want those to be POSITIVE thoughts!
By listening to Podcasts about positive life-style habits (such as Optimal Living Daily) and participating in various positive communities (such as those offered at Vibely) I’m regularly feeding my mind with positive ideas! I subscribe to positive newsletters, have taken 4 different really interesting courses about the Science of Happiness, have great self-help apps on my phone, and regularly interact with people who feed my soul.
Vibely, also, is fun, for people like me who love prompts and challenges! There’s an OLD (as in Optimal Living Daily.. not “senior”) community that you can find on Vibely and participating is just a really fun way to virtually meet like-minded people and follow through on your goals! My only feedback for this is that I wish there were a version for my laptop. I much prefer communicating with a full-size keyboard rather than the tiny keyboard on my (very small) phone.
All of this has changed my overall mindset to one which is much happier. Though I’ve heard it’s natural for our brains to first see the negative in the events of our day, these practices have helped me train my brain to naturally see the positive in each event… even things that in the past would have made me feel upset, I view as a challenge to find the positive. When I get criticism, it doesn’t feel good, but I now am much more able to be grateful rather than defensive about the feedback.
By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve given a shout-out to the Optimal Living Daily podcast! It was also the spark that I needed to start my own podcast, Carpe Diem Connections!
This week on the Carpe Diem Connections podcast, Becky Burns and I continue with the next topic in The Joy Makeover. We talk about foods that bring us joy and energy and how to be intentional about our eating habits.
We discuss the video interview between Ingrid Fetell Lee and Sarah Copeland and how coming from a mindset of abundance can help us resist overeating.
We each set goals for ourselves about how we could increase our joy with food and mine was to have a weekly new, healthy recipe. Becky suggested we check into Sarah Copeland’s recipes. What a great idea!
What exactly is an “Authenticity Architect?” Patti explains in this video, but basically, she provides courses, tools, and resources to help you “excavate your authentic self.”
During my conversation with Patti, and then follow-on conversations with friends, I realized how many times we don’t talk to others about our problems or relationship challenges.. and then when we do, we learn that others are having very similar problems.
Often we don’t talk about our challenges out of shame, embarrassment, or perhaps we feel we shouldn’t be negative.. However, when we do share and are met with empathy, and find we aren’t alone, we can move forward with authenticity.
Come join my new group: Carpe Diem – Single Snowbirds if you’re single and like to enjoy warm weather in the winter. Whether for a quick vacation or the whole winter, I’m trying to form a network of singles who are retired or close to retirement who like to travel to warm weather places in winter.
Though I love my life and my Colorado home, I have always dreamed of being a snowbird once I retired.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been exploring different snowbird locations, and really loved the extended time I was able to spend with my friend, Becky, in her townhome in Sarasota in March and April, 2020. (It turned out to be a safe haven for the Covid-19 lockdown!)
That being said, I also loved the fun of travel and exploring a variety of places and cultures. In the last couple of years, I’ve explored Phoenix, San Antonio, Southern California, Las Vegas, Mexico, Costa Rica, Orlando, and Sarasota as potential snowbird spots.
I really think that rather than buying a second home, I’d rather keep exploring a variety of places, and include extended time in Spanish-speaking countries, as well as ending with some extended time at Becky’s, as long as she’s up for it!
It’s very rare that I hear of anyone who is single and doing the snowbird thing. I think this is for two reasons: 1) It’s really expensive and hard to maintain a second home on your own (it’s actually hard to maintain any home, if your traveling!) and 2) It can be really lonely and hard to make new friends in a secondary short-term place.. especially if you’re just passing through.
These things are difficult for couples, too.
I’ve found a lot of things that have helped me in my couple of years of snowbirding.
Rent out rooms in your primary home to people you trust. They can keep you posted about anything you need to know while you’re traveling and you’ll be making rent money at the same time!
Use Meetup, Facebook Groups, and other social media to find new friends, especially in the locations you’d like to explore.
See if you can work out “host trades” with friends… you host in summer when it’s too hot where they live and they host in winter when it’s too cold where you live.
Make friends with people where ever you visit… maybe your AirBnB hosts, or people you might meet at an event, class, Meetup or group activity, and then connect on social media so you can stay in touch. Share a business card with your information and stay connected. These may be people you’ll visit again or invite to visit you when you’re in your home state.
By the way, here’s another article I found with tips for Single Snowbirds. (I stole the image to use for this blog post). It’s from an association based out of Canada, though, and looks like you need to be a Canadian to sign up for their newsletter. Maybe I can see about creating a similar service for Americans!
Even though I’m not sure when all the restrictions will be lifted, I’m getting excited already about planning my next Winter season snowbird tour!
Watching the stories of these elders made me realize what an easy life I’ve had. I know we’re in the midst of a pandemic, but hearing stories of people who were impacted by Hitler and Stalin and the challenges that they and their families endured makes me feel so grateful that the biggest challenge in my life right now is the inconveniences of self-isolation.
Seeing the energy and hearing the stories from these upbeat seniors is a good reminder that life can be wonderful, and also difficult, at every age. One woman talked about moving to France after her kids were grown and that gave me renewed excitement about the extended traveling abroad I want to do when I can! In the mean time, it’s fun to plan! (And learn Spanish!)
All of the seniors offered up words of wisdom about living life fully, with kindness and grace.. messages we all hear often and wonder if we’ll still be able to do that as our bodies and minds start to decline. It certainly gave me hope and renewed motivation to keep practicing all of those healthy habits.
There was one couple who talked about finding each other… I think in their 70’s. I know I go back and forth about whether or not I want to find another partner, and have often thought that I’m happier single. But in the movie, the woman talked about how happy it made her to share life’s joys with a partner and I did think: Yeah… I really do miss that.
Sharing life’s joys and challenges… that’s so important for a happy life. And there’s nothing better than sharing those with an intimate partner.. after all, that’s what creates intimacy, right? But if you don’t have an intimate partner, then we can still share those ups and downs with our friends, family, and people in our lives. But yeah, I’m really missing those face-to-face connections right now.
How about social media? I keep reading it actually makes us lonelier, but I love having a place to share things that make me happy and reading about what’s happening with others.
So I’m going to try and get back into the habit of sharing more happy things every day.. and hope to follow the wisdom from these sages about how to live well each day.
