Suppressing the Warbles x

Henry David Thoreau once wrote "As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so I had my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my nest." As I stepped outside to pick up the paper on this chill February morning, I took a breath, sighed and walked to the mailbox. Nothing wrong with hanging around here. No suppressed warble though, as I spotted my neighbor and first greeted him, then greeted his dogs by name--dogs are people, too, you know. Even on a Saturday morning, the notion of just watching, remains just out of reach, natural as it is. Years of conditioning have reinforced the other natural activity--constantly flowing thoughts of everything but just sitting still. Even so, I'll settle for what comes along, just being here. I listened to two friends talk about last night about their lives, one remarking he was just glad to make it this far alive, "With each year better than the last," he says, "what could be better than just being here?" The other talked about the joy of just being free to experience life in such a beauiful place. He said he has no room in his life for people who whine about their situation. Look on the bright side, he urges. So this morning, I will join them and enjoy just being here, and I'll warble if I want to.

Economic Stimulus and Me

Economic Stimulus and Me

Not that I believe the world is "all about me," but I've now seen what Washington prescribes to help us through the next two or three years of the inevitable business cycle... I'm still looking. I'm not looking for the federal government to take care of it, but I'm looking to me. What is it I am going to do?

The fact is, after whipping up all the hysteria the past several months, our leaders in Washington don't have any better answers than they had at the beginning. These are probably people with mostly good intentions, trying out what they think are their best ideas for turning things around. The sad fact is they don't know what, if anything, they can do to move things in an upward direction. It is a cycle, after all, and we're bound to have downturns like these. While many think they have the answers, the only certainty we have about what works is by hindsight. Oh, well...

So what do I do to get through the next 2-3 years? I'm looking at what I have and what is truly important to me. I have a family, I have friends and I live in a caring community. What's so bad about that? Would I trade any of those things for a few more dollars in my 401K, or a newer car to drive? No way in the world! But here's the challenge--what will I do, now that I am reminded of what is important to me? I can find ways, I think, to spend more time, give more attention to the people I love and the people who are important to me. The researchers on life transition at MetLife's Mature Market Institute have asked the question--"how can we discover what matters?" In framing the question they have hit upon a structure for meaning in life that I like. Meaning is found

• spending time with friends and family you love,
• helping make things better for others,
• using your talents to accomplish things that matter and
• enjoying personal interests like hobbies.

Talking with people of a certain age, they have found that meaning (loosely defined as our family, friends and community) is more important to most Americans than money. So ask yourself this question--what am I doing to put more meaning into my life? There are a host of other questions, but I think this makes a good one for starters.

What Do You Want to Do?

What Do You Want to Do?

It seems like an obvious question, doesn't it? But it has multiple dimensions, especially for people entering the 2nd half of life; including time, type of work and compensation. Many people I talk to are looking for non-traditional schedules. They mean to work, and not necessarily just any time they feel like it, but perhaps only for certain months out of the year. Others want to work only on a contract-basis, perhaps a month or two at a time. This variety of approaches may make these people a form of contingent workforce. That can be attractive to employers needing help, but not in a hurry to expand their full-time, permanent workforce in the face of economic uncertainty. Others simply want to work part-time, a few hours at a time, a few days a week. This can sometimes make finding suitable work difficult. Then again, in certain fields, part-time employees are the norm, rather than the exception.

Next, what kind of work do you want to do? Is this your way of giving back? Is it a way to meet and talk with new people? Do you have a hobby or other special interest you'd like to pursue? I know people who have picked up enough know-how to be dangerous in web-site design and related work to take that up as a part-time occupation, helping those who know a lot less about it than they do. Still others were always intereested in books, so working in a bookstore suits them perfectly. Have you left your first career intending to get as far away from what you did in that time? Do you want to continue to work in the field in which you worked during your first half of life? That is sometimes the best way to maximize your income. Which leads us really to the next question.

Yes, there's the question of compensation. I have heard it said that volunteers are under-valued by their "employers." The mind-set apparently is that volunteers aren't getting paid, so you can waste their efforts with impunity. Much of what I read about the social dividend from retired baby-boomers engaging in the volunteer workforce actually provides dollar-estimates of the value of all the volunteer work being offered by this workforce. Whichever camp you are in, placing real value on their contribution seems to make better sense. The fact remains that you have to gauge what you want out of this new form of employment. If you plan to do it for money, how much will you want to make this employment suit your needs? If you just don't want to fall into the trap of being undervalued (or asked to do very little of any importance) because you are uncompensated, how much will be enough?

There is a growing segment of the population (especially under 65) who want to work to obtain health care coverage. This is not as common in smaller businesses, so it may narrow your options a bit. In the alternative to having employer-provided coverage, you may just want to ratchet up the target for wages you wish to earn to cover the cost of getting it for yourself through someone like AARP (anyone over 50), MegaLife or other health insurance provider.

The bottom line is, think these things through ahead of time and you can avoid chasing rabbit trails that are leading somewhere you really didn't want to go in the first place.