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The Relevancy Project

I am finding many encouraging and inspiring books have been written that guide Boomers as to how to create their “second act” and make the most of the rest of their lives. One is Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life, by Marika and Howard Stone.  A quote from the book’s introduction:

You can expect not only to live longer than previous generations (a bonus of twenty or thirty years according to the latest research), but to enjoy good health for more of those years. You can look ahead to choices inconceivable to your parents and grandparents—opportunities they could barely dream of. The one-size-fits-all formulas that served as retirement planning in their day are inadequate in ours. Life is too long for a single-minded pursuit of safety and material comforts.

Sometimes all it takes for a jump start is to hear how others are going about the business of living more enthusiastically, to be informed about just few of the untold opportunities that are available to you.

For example, the authors Stone cover the major categories to consider in the “reinvention process,” such as the money you will need and how to make the most of what you have; wellness; work related issues such as retirement, downsizing or entrepreneurship; rediscovering volunteerism; and considering radical changes such as chucking it all and traveling the world.

This last one resonated with me. I love stories of those brave enough to just say Why Not? and just go exploring. The authors introduce so many options and so many places I have never heard of, that are extremely intriguing. For example, centers dedicated to personal growth and transformation such as the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck New York and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox Massachusetts. (Yes, they are rather costly). But what about the Road Scholar program, started as Elderhostel in 1975, a learning program that combines not for credit classes at various colleges, with inexpensive lodging for older adults (www.roadscholar.org),….Or saving money while staying in an exotic local by caretaking (www.caretaking.org) or via a home exchange (www.digsville.com)? Who knew?!!

Truly, the possibilities seem endless for the Baby Boomer willing to get out of the comfort zone of a lifetime and embrace that second act. More to come. In the meantime, please tell us about your plans and adventures!

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Cherie is a late bloomer Boomer, born at the tail end of the Boomer generation. She was playing with Barbies while her older sisters marched on Washington and fought for equal rights, but watched and learned. Now she is an empty nester with a whole new future to explore and share at www.BoomerConnections.com! As “Philosopher in Chief” Cherie merely wants to change the world with this blog: to encourage those of us in the midst of our “second act” to look at life with new eyes, open to a life filled with new beginnings rather than endings, and to apply all we have learned to a way of living that is more meaningful and profound. There is SO much to live for, up until the very end.

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