I’ve set my goals for 2019. Have you? If you haven’t, you really should consider doing so. This is not about New Year Resolutions, albeit the process is similar. This is about you and where you want to be many years hence.
Why do I need goals, I hear you say? You’re retired, you don’t have to do anything at all. However, my attitude is that I will probably live for another 30 years. Why should I just drift through them, there are so many examples, particularly of creative people who produced their best work when they were older than 60!
I posted a few days ago, about a goal setting process, published by Jack Black Mindstore. Sadly his 4 day goal setting videos have just come down. I followed his process. I have decided what I want in my life (Day 1), what I don’t want in my life (day 2), the most random list of goals I could possibly think of in 11 minutes (imagination on steroids!), and then finally what are my 7 goals for the coming year. However you look at it, this is a great process to follow. It makes you focus on what you really want.
I have my 7 goals. (Some are very personal so I wont be sharing them …)
But here are parts of the rest , just to give you ideas
Personal development
I learned French at school, and over the last 2 years I have been learning Spanish (with a little bit of Italian given my 6 weeks in Rome). However, I am determined to become fully fluent in both these languages. I am continuing with my weekly Spanish classes, supported by Duolingo. While sometimes it feels like I am not making progress, I know I am. I make fewer mistakes and I can definitely form better sentences.
I also intend to reduce the time I waste… I have removed from my iPad, all my ‘time-waster games. I have left Facebook and Twitter for the moment. Partly because I use them to publicise this blog. However, should I find that I have transferred my time-wasting activities to them, they will go too!
I intend to read at least 1 sensible book each month. When I was in Rome last year, I read 3 books, I did a book review of Thinking Big, one of them I still have to write up, and the other I have since re-read – The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy. If even a fraction of this is true, it is mind-blowing. I’ll write a full review shortly on it, I keep pondering it because it has given me so much food for thought. I particularly liked the statement below.
What a good way of putting it. My ethos entirely and the reason I started this blog. Just yesterday there was a report on the news of a lady aged 99 who went to the local climbing wall, to see her daughter aged 77 climb it for charity. So she decided to give it a go herself and made it to the top with a little assistance from her grandson. Way to go!
This month, I am reading ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill – another timeless classic.
Where do I/we want to spend my/our retirement?
My in-laws retired to Bexhill-on-Sea, in the UK. It is a town with quite a large proportion of retired people. The bonus is the weather is mild and there are a huge number of people in the same situation, so you can build quite a wide social life quite quickly.
My parents chose to move near us and take part in the life of their grandchildren. With hindsight, it worked very well for us (Mum – the kids are sick, can you come over?), it was good for both the children and the grandparents. My parents met some lovely people near where they lived, and I can honestly say they had an amazing retirement. Far better than if they had stayed where I grew up. It was also good for our children who really bonded with them. For me, it was the mix that I had grown up with – 3 generations in close proximity. For my husband, less so, he never met his grandparents, all had died long before he was born. However, I have to say, he welcomed the extended family, and when unexpected work trips turned up, he would often ring my Mum before me, to see if she could cover the child care! My Mum in later years was to refer to him as her Rock – I can understand why!
For me, Edinburgh is a lovely place to live, it has fantastic public transport (free for 60+), it is small enough to feel like a village, large enough to have every form of entertainment you could possibly want from Opera, theatre, art galleries etc. However, from November to March, bluntly put – it is cold and damp! I have lived here more than 40 years, and I am discovering it is true that you notice the weather more as you get older… While, I mostly just turn up the heating, sometimes I just want to feel warm without putting on several layers just to go out the front door . We are compensating by taking trips to a warmer parts of the world in spring and autumn.
Hence the question is – do I want to live out my retirement in Edinburgh, particularly in the winter? We don’t have strong family connections to Scotland, so we could easily move. The question is where? Just now, I think we’ll content ourselves in Edinburgh, but it is something I will be thinking about as the year progresses.
Money….
I am considering introducing advertising, or at the very least some affiliate links to this blog. Much and all as I hate advertising on other sites, it would hopefully offset the costs of this blog.. It is a good idea for your hobbies to be self-funding! I sell a little of my metal work, just about enough to cover my materials, but not enough to worry the taxman!
I am fortunate in that our family income covers our monthly costs, but it would be good to have a little more, just in case inflation bites in years to come! So I have set a goal to increase our net worth by 10%, a mix of not over-spending and return on my investments. I did well on the spending front as I covered in my 2018 Highlights, but sadly my investments dropped, rather than increased! Here’s to 2019!
Health
In 2018, I managed to lose some weight, and keep 5kg off at year end. I intend to lose a further 8kg this year, which will bring me very close to my target weight.
And an even bigger goal – stay out of the clutches of the doctors! My husband had a minor operation last week, which fortunately went well. The whole thing worked amazingly well. He couldn’t have had better treatment if he had gone privately, so Bless The NHS, but I really don’t want to be a regular visitor to my doctor’s surgery, regardless of how great the experience is! I will consider it a success when I get to the December and I have had yet another year without needing to visit them.
I am extremely interested in the low-carb food movement. While not totally low-carb, I have certainly reduced my intake of sugar, in all forms. Cakes and biscuits, processed foods, many fruits and indeed wine! There is building evidence that sugar is extremely bad for us, and contributes to diseases such as dementia and fatty liver disease. Now my Dad and Gran died from dementia, so that is something I want to be careful about. I am also researching the benefits of a Vitamin B supplement (I am not a doctor, this is not a recommendation, do your own research…)
Metal Work
Those of you who have been following this blog for a while, will already be aware that I do a lot of metalwork. I am embarrassed to note that when I was getting the link for My Showcase, I realised I hadn’t added anything recently. That is not because I hadn’t made anything recently, just that I hadn’t updated the website. I will do so shortly, there are plenty of things to add!
Travel
Well, as I write this we have a blank sheet. February / March will hopefully include a trip to Pune/Goa/Kerala. At the end of March we are off to London for a wedding. I have just booked 2 months in Athens. Then I want a short trip to Malaga or Seville to practise my Spanish (Good excuse!). We also have some air-miles to use, so Istanbul looks like it is on the cards, probably towards the end of April / early May.
Where else, goodness knows?
So these are a snapshot of my goals. What are yours??
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