DON’T MISS OUT ON LIFE BECAUSE OF YOUR EGO!

We recently did a blog on why people don’t try new things and it is often because they are safeguarding their time, effort, energy and money. In our presentations and workshops we are always challenging people to REWIRE®. We help them identify dreams, goals and resources that would lead to a more fulfilling future… at work, at play, in life overall.

Every day we meet men and women over 50 who want to rewire their life by trying something new. That “new” can be learning a sport, a language, doing yoga, even volunteering, but for whatever reason they find excuses not to proceed. We had earlier discovered that they postpone or procrastinate on moving forward because of time, effort, energy and money….and now we add …they are safeguarding their egos…to the list!

We first saw this happening with Boomers who were facing retirement, or even in retirement, and admitted to being bored and “antsy” to try other things, but holding back. Being researchers we probed why this was happening, and discovered that they didn’t want to be a beginner. They didn’t want to look stupid in front of others as they tried something new.


Many of these men and women had been highly successful in their work, and didn’t want to be in positions where they would appear vulnerable, and not able to compete at peak performance.


One man lamented that he could kick himself now for not having taken up golf years ago, now at 64 his friends played a pretty good game, and he didn’t. He told us he didn’t like to play with them, because they ribbed him about how bad he was and he hated it!

In our experience there is no possible way to go from being a beginner to an expert, or even just proficient in something, without starting out as a novice!

We all have to make some hard choices: Will our ego permit us to be a beginner, or will our self perception hold us back from new experiences? The answer is up to us but here are a few very basic tips to ponder:

1. Look into taking a private lesson or two to jumpstart your new activity.

2. Supplement your classes with books, videos and apps.

3. Don’t be a “quick quitter!”

4. Believe in the adage: “Practice Makes Permanent.”

5. Your brain has great “plasticity;” challenge and use your gray matter.

Don’t let your ego hold you back form a great future. Go out and BEGIN!

Update on Herman Wouk and Ageless Creativity

One of our October blogs was about 97 year old Herman Wouk, author of The Caine Mutiny and numerous other famous books.  His new book, The Lawgiver, has recently been released.   Brooks Barnes of the New York Times has written an article about Herman, his productive life and the significant contributions he has made to the gobal literary landscape.  Part of the article discusses how remarkable it is for someone of his age to be using email, Skype and the Internet.  He is still working to conquer text messaging. He also uses Facebook.

Herman sets the record straight: "I may be old, but I'm still aware of things." He embraced technology 10 years ago as a means to stay in touch with friends and family.  But he doesn't stop at technology.  He has a personal trainer, a yoga instructor, and a keen desire to keep on writing.  It's his passion, but it is also his job.  We always ask people who are considering retirement, "If you love what you do, why would you want to stop?"  No one had to ask him. He is already working on a new book.  Hopefully it will be out before he hits 100. 

Beyond being a great, mature author, he is a wonderful role model regardless of age.  None of us know how long we will live or how long we will continue to enjoy a vital and engaged life.  But we should never forget that there are two things in our control that are the best measure of our individual futures.  They are our attitude and effort.  A positive attitude and a committment to using the energy that resides within us is the best predictor of a more fulfilled future. 

Herman continues to get Driver fulfillment from his work.  Each new book he produces is testimony to his commitment to keep on REWIRING.

Encore! Rewiring for Your Next Act Conference

We often get inquiries from readers of Don't Retire, REWIRE! regarding when and where we are conducting Rewiring® Conferences or Seminars. We are pleased to tell everyone that on February 25-27, 2013 we will be keynote speakers at the Bowen Conference called ENCORE! Rewiring for Your Next Act. This will be a great opportunity to learn all the ingredients that go into have a great rewirement®. The conference will explore the spiritual as well as the practical aspects of creating a future you are happy about living.

The Conference is being held at the Kanuga Conference Center located in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Kanuga is affiliated with the Episcopal Church and is situated on 1,400 mountain acres near Hendersonville, North Carolina, with scenic Kanuga Lake at its center. The Conference is open to everyone who would like to attend. The cost is very reasonable and includes the program, lodging, meals and use of the recreational facilities. Commuter attendees are also welcome.

Whether you want to continue to work, volunteer, find new meaning in life or overall have more good times, you can have as many encores as you dare to imagine. We will be discussing tools and techniques to help create a fulfilling future regardless of your age or stage of life. Learn how to identify your personal drivers, which you can use to select meaningful and nourishing activities in this next act of life.

Come and join us. You will meet new people and learn new things about yourself and how you can make the most of the future. Get started planning for the Conference by taking the Rewirement Ramp Up Quiz.  Hope to see you in Kanuga in February!

CREATIVITY IS AGELESS!

If you think creativity ends after a certain age, guess again. In April The New York Times carried the announcement that Herman Wouk, famed author of the The Caine Mutiny, The Naked and the Dead, The Winds of War, and other great works, is coming out with a new book,The Law Giver. He was born in 1915 and is 96 years old.  And still writing away! Now how is that for life long creativity?

He wrote his first novel during World War II when he was in the Navy sailing on a minesweeper in the South Pacific. What’s his secret besides having longevity? Wouk has kept a personal diary since the 1930s. On September 10, 2008, he formally presented the Library of Congress with his journals---over 90 volumes (he kept copies). He keeps them so that he can remember what happened during his life with greater detail and accuracy.

No matter what age you are and no matter what your creative outlet…painting, writing, sculpture, acting, etc., don’t be stopped from pursuing your goal, just because you are 50, 60, 70, 80 or older like Herman. Science shows that the brain is always rewiring. It is the rewiring that gives us the ability to continue to be creative. But it needs to be stimulated to keep it going. Yes, use it or lose it. What better way to use it than doing something creative.

His advice to aspiring authors: "Write a page a day. It will add up."

What you can learn from the artist, Claude Monet

If you haven’t been to the New York Botanical Garden, this would be a good time to go. There is a wonderful celebration exhibit of the artist, Claude Monet’s Garden. Monet’s original flower garden still exists at this home turned museum in Giverny, France. The New York version is a fantastic recreation true to Monet’s vision. His garden was a love and vocation that lasted most of his adult life. His famous Water Lilies paintings came from seeing the garden almost every day, every season and every year for over 50 years.

Monet kept painting them until he died at age 86, because each time he saw them, they looked different. He loved to wake up in the morning and looked forward to each day. Some would say he never rewired. Other’s would say that he rewired every time he did a new painting. We think it’s the latter. Ask any gardener and they will tell you that everyday a garden changes. Something grows. Something dies. Animals and birds cycle in and out. It is never stagnant, but always dynamic and changing. Just like us humans.

He never bored of it. In fact he marveled at his good fortune that he was able to paint so many canvases. France commissioned him to create a series of extremely large paintings of the Water Lilies now housed in Paris at the L’Orangerie, a national treasure. It is an artistic memorial to those who died serving France during the First World War. If you can’t get to Paris go on line an see them or go to one of the museums in the U.S. that has one of his paintings.

The New York Botanical Garden held its annual Patrons Lecture earlier this summer, under written by the Carnegie Foundation at Sotheby’s in New York City. Professor Paul Hayes Tucker, the foremost authority in the world on Monet and a consultant on the exhibit delighted the audience, us included, with insights on Monet, Art, and life. Monet had the good fortune of never retiring. He painted until the end. He used his creative gifts and frequently asked the question, “Why would I ever stop painting? It is what I love most.” Fortunately for the world he was never forced to retire by an age limit or a corporate policy or even a limiting disability…he had cataracts.

So for all of our readers who love what they do, keep doing it. And for those who dislike what they do, retire if you can, and Get REWIRED. Dive into new activities and interests and find one that will nourish and sustain you for the rest of your life. Once you find that special something you can evolve into someone who thrills to wake up in the morning. Just like Monet did!

THE STORY IN THE TOP 10 BUSINESS BOOK TITLES

While reading the New York Times Business Best Sellers recently we were struck by the titles of the Top 10 books and just felt the need to comment. I loved the fact that the book, STEVE JOBS (Mr. Innovation himself, my comment, not the sub-title) was in the #1 position followed by IMAGINE by Jonah Lehrer, a great book stressing that creativity is not a gift but rather a thought process that can be learned. This is something that we as co-authors of DON’T RETIRE, REWIRE! and creators of the concept of rewiring ® totally believe in.

Then in third place is THE POWER OF HABIT which fits in with innovation and rewiring and shows that you have to change old patterns to create new ones...regardless of your age or stage of life! In #4 position is the book UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES by Edward Conard about Bain Capital. It’s not the content that caught our attention but rather the title. We believe that if you don’t get creative and break some bad habits and add some new habits there can be unintended consequences, personally, financially, socially not to mention emotionally.

So it’s interesting that the 5th book title is THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman which discusses how we make choices at work and play; a perfect response to the books that came before. What couldn’t be better in this trend of titles is Brendon Burchard’s book, THE CHARGE at #6 which presents 10 human drives that help people achieve happiness and success. Now that theme is very near and dear to us since we present the top 85 reasons why people work, which we call Drivers in DON’T RETIRE, REWIRE!

THE PRICE OF INEQUALITY by Joseph Stiglitz at #7 brings you back to reality with the focus on the consequences of America’s growing inequality and argues that this inequality is not inevitable. This all ties back into changing habits, rewiring mindsets and action, and basically taking charge. We hope you see an interesting pattern here –or are even creating one of your own!

We laughed when we saw #8 SCREWED by Dick Morris, an exclamation that many may be feeling when they see a book list of titles that focus on change. Let’s face it, we need to undertake change to make our lives, our businesses even the world, a better place. By this time I couldn’t have asked for a better book #9, HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE by Clayton Christensen, which is about finding meaning and happiness!

And then the culmination was #10 END THIS DEPRESSION NOW! by Paul Krugman. It wasn’t the message that interested me but rather where this title came in the list of 10. After reading the titles of the first nine books you could be feeling depressed, or energized and ready to rewire!

The above was just a little game we played for ourselves, but don’t you begin to wonder what would happen if we really did change some of our habits and used our drivers—our motivators--- to help us make choices and really took charge of our lives so we didn’t feel SCREWED.

…And She Never Mentioned Sex!

You can imagine how stunned and dismayed we were when a friend recently said “only young people are creative.” We couldn’t believe that she actually felt that way! We are true believers in ageless creativity and asked her, what about Grandma Moses, Colonel Sanders (founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken) and the architect, Philip Johnson? They were all up in years when they were achieving great things!

“Does that mean an older person can’t be creative?” we asked. She tried to back pedal but we didn’t let her up for air. “So you think every young person is full of innovation and creativity?” Well not always, she mumbled. Truth is we know many young people who don’t have a creative bone in their body! Yet somewhere in the last twenty or thirty years, it became standard to assume that brilliance was the exclusive territory of the young. Wrong! There have been many flashes of creativity, even works of brilliance generated by those not typified as fresh or new. Let’s face it, a 60, 70, even 80 year old person can look at life with an experienced eye that can lead to all sorts of creative possibilities. And yes that usually happens when the person themselves are flexible and open to change.

Authors and composers often maintain their creativity well beyond what is considered normal “retirement age.” Herman Wouk, author of The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War, might just have celebrated his 97th birthday in May but just a few days earlier the 96-year-old novelist had sold his latest novel to Simon & Schuster. The book entitled, The Lawgiver follows the production of a movie about Moses through “letters, memos, emails, journals, news articles, recorded talk, tweets, Skype transcripts, and text messages!” Talk about innovation and using the latest in technology and social media! And this from a man in his 90’s!

Ray Bradbury, the science fiction fantasy master, recently died at 91. Although slowed in recent years by a stroke that meant he had to use a wheelchair, Bradbury remained active, turning out new novels, plays, screenplays and a volume of poetry up until the end. He wrote every day in the basement office of his Cheviot Hills, California home and appeared from time to time at bookstores, public library fundraisers and other literary events around Los Angeles.

And what about LeRoy Neiman, artist of bold life and bright canvasses, who died at age 91? He once told an AP reporter, "I just love what I do. I love the passion you go through while you're creating, and the public's "very thoughtful and careful studied and emotional reaction of what you're doing."

Then there is the composers we all know and love, like Handel, Bach, Liszt, and Puccini who continued to produce new scores well into their 70s. And think about this--when they lived the life expectancy of a male was around 40-47 years old.

But we think that the award for creative longevity goes to Jean MacLeod, Britain’s oldest romantic novelist. She spent her 101st birthday, 2 years ago, beginning her 130th novel. She said at the time that money was never her motivation for writing. She simply loved knowing that people were enjoying what she wrote. That was reward enough. The money earned was a simply a bonus. And the most amazing part is that she never mentions the word “sex” in any of her novels. Love, romance, tenderness, but not “what goes on in the bedroom.”

So have you let your creativity dry up? Or are you someone who still wants to find your creative bone? We believe that this is all a part of the Rewiring® process; but a lot depends on your attitude and how hungry you are to make it happen.

You don’t have to write, compose music, or even do something that is creative by traditional standards. What we are saying is don’t be put off by thinking that creativity belongs to the young. How you define creativity is up to you but if you want to take that piano lesson, take it, If you want to sketch, go out and buy a sketch pad. This is a way to rewire your life and your brain at the same time. Using your imagination engages your brain and actually keeps you healthier and more engaged with life. What could be better?

Think about taking a class in the Fall; or how about going on a learning vacation? Don’t forget about your local library or YWCA to hear a speaker on a topic of interest. And remember it is NEVER too late to discover a hidden talent or two. Do it for yourself.