Where will you spend the rest of your life?

July 29, 2024
The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 7/29/24 – Originally sent March 14, 2018.
“My interest is in the future, because I’m going to be spending the rest of my life there.” (Charles Kettering) This quote was often used in Kettering speeches until he died in 1958. He was one of America’s great inventors, particularly in the auto industry. With his inventor’s mind he foresaw the future as a wonderful place to live. If he was alive today, would he agree? Although there can be fear about the future, we can live a more satisfying life by enjoying today and looking forward to tomorrow. 😉  Jack  

Sadly, too many people get caught up in looking back at their past, usually with regrets. One can easily get sucked into the abyss of “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” and waste the future away by becoming fixated on what might have been. Instead, focus on what is and what is yet to come. Live in the moment and anticipate the future.

An interesting phenomenon that I associate with getting old is the foreshortening of the future. When one is in their youth or even the early years of adult life, thinking about what one might be doing when they hit 95 seems so far away as to be ridiculous to even consider. Now, at age 80, thinking about being 95 seems close at hand and worthy of some planning.  Being 95 years old is not something that is too far off in the distance to waste time on. It is just around the corner. What do I want to be doing by then does not seem as ridiculous to contemplate and helps to encourage goal setting.

walking man

As for me. I was happy to wake up this morning with a whole day ahead of me. I have things that I need (or want) to get done. I’m also in the midst of things that will take a while and have thoughts about things that I haven’t started yet , but would like to do. I can see the age 95 from here and look forward to experiencing that birthday, but there’s lots to do between now and then.

For me it helps to have a faith that I can tap into from time to time – a faith that says there is life after death. That makes what lies beyond 95 seem a lot less scary. Fear is often the biggest thing that holds us back from living life to the fullest. Once you can overcome the fear of death through faith you can live each day to it’s fullest no matter how many you have.

It really doesn’t matter how old you are. You need to answer the question posed by the title to this post. Where do you want to spent the rest of your life? Will you get stuck in the past or will you continue to look ahead to the future? Your answer to that question will dictate the quality of life that you will have in that future.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Never stop dreaming…

July 23, 2024

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 7/15/24 – Originally sent June 27, 2008.

“The world ages us too fast. We grow up too quickly; we stop dreaming too early, and we develop the ability to worry at far too young an age.” (Doug Wecker) I don’t know who Doug is, but I think he’s hit the nail on the head. If we would just dream more and worry less, we’d be in better shape. Sigmund Romberg wrote the song, When I Grow Too Old To Dream. Too old to dream? How sad. Dream on and stay young. 😉  Jack

I recently saved this graphic, which seems to be appropriate to today’s post…

As I get older, I seem to find more meaning in quotes like that from Jack’s Winning Words and from graphics like this one. Perhaps it is because I have recently had to confront and accept that I am now considered to be elderly.

Certainly, I could feel the changes in my body – the lack of stamina and strength that used to be there – but my mind had not changed and I did not feel old in my mind. I had not thought of myself as elderly. That was always someone else. Then, I experienced some health issues that put me in the hospital and left me weak and unable to walk around the block with my dogs without getting winded. Suddenly I was elderly. Yikes!

Episodes like the one that I went through serve to interrupt our “normal” lives and force the issue of setting new goals or having new dreams. New boundaries of what is physically possible must be set and the sustainability of the status quo must be examined. Dreams and goals for the future must be re-directed to take into account the new reality of the present. Often purpose in life gets lost in the changes and must also be reset or at least be re-thought and that’s a good thing.

So here I am – elderly Norm – working to reset my goals and dreams to more closely align with the reality of my age and health. Just as important, I have to factor in my wife’s health and current abilities. We choose not to let happenstance dictate our future. Our new goals and dreams are focused more on improving our quality of life going forward.

No one knows how much time they have left, but everyone can takes steps to make whatever that time is the best that it can be. At this stage in our lives that means simplifying, decluttering and downsizing.  It also means letting go of some old goals or dreams and finding new ones. I’ll let you know how that works out.

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Posted by Norm Werner