I have not posted a blog in a few weeks. At first the blog running through my head was, “I Have Been Lying To Myself!”. It was about travel. I kept telling myself I was okay with being a homebody and not traveling. It seemed everyone else in retirement was traveling and I kept having … Continue reading Hurricane Number Two
Self-acceptance is an area I am working on this year (link to blog on WOTY). As part of working on self-acceptance, I am very aware of my tendency to rely on external validation. It’s also part of my perfectionism tendency. It shows up in me avoiding conflict and disagreements, often being overly accommodating, and spiraling … Continue reading A Deep Dive Into External Validation
Most folks probably won’t care about my summer research project. But I’m kind of proud of it. Some elements I’ve learned about my true self is I love to learn about new things, l can get lost for hours delving into research on a topic, and I adore synthesizing that research into “so what”. I … Continue reading My 2024 Summer Research Project – Plants!
Back in May, I talked about a new tool I was using called an I-Did-It List (link here to that post ). It’s an end of the month look back at the things I did - a form of self-validation to celebrate my accomplishments (however small), to boost appreciation of my life, and to feel “I … Continue reading August I-Did-It List – An End of Summer Review – A Fall Plan
I began active journaling early in my retirement after reading about Morning Pages from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. That book is her original one on the topic, which I find the best for learning about her creativity tools like Morning Pages. She has other books in the same space, and I’ve read both the one … Continue reading Exploring One of My Quirks – Journaling
One of the continuing challenges for me in retirement has been creating and maintaining connections/friendships. I’ve stated before that when I left full-time working, I lost 80% of my daily connections. While these were not necessarily all close friendships, they were connections that provided me with support, validation, advice, a sounding board, and inspiration. Intentional … Continue reading Additional Thoughts on Friendship
Recently, a newly retired acquaintance commented how she feels bad that she doesn’t want to travel in retirement as that’s what seems to be expected. Unfortunately, the expectations for retirement remain the same for a newly retired professional – consult, travel, high-level volunteer (meaning be on a board of directors), and/or spend time with grandkids. … Continue reading The Things I Thought I Would Do
I scroll Facebook a couple of times a day. (Please don’t judge me!) I enjoy catching up with my friend’s activities & travels, seeing notifications for upcoming events, learning about local places, and reading the positive memes and stories. I often will link onto an article for deeper reading. I’ve started jotting down some of … Continue reading Quotes for Personal Development
I started to title this blog “Mid-summer” until I realized (thanks, Google) that mid-summer is an Olde English term referencing the summer solstice festival in June. The midpoint of summer is more towards the first week in August. Again, it depends on when you consider summer to begin; do you go by the astrological date, … Continue reading Summer Mid-Point
A blogger I followed for a number of years announced her retirement from blogging and, in fact, retirement from almost all use of social media. Over the years, I have seen a number of bloggers leave the blog-o-sphere. And each time I wonder, is it time for me to pack it in? With a blog … Continue reading Happy Anniversary to Me
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