This week, I listened with great interest to the story of Izzy McQueen, an 88-year-old dedicated Santa’s helper in BC.

Thirty-five years of volunteer service! What an achievement! Congratulations for your commitment to sending out thoughtful and compassionate letters to children.

What a shock to be let go from meaningful community work; and with a voice message!

I am impressed with Izzy McQueen’s work and her experiences as a Santa elf. What a dynamo! She thought she could do it, and she did! The postal service should have given her ‘grand’ recognition for her tireless work as a dedicated volunteer to children and adults alike, in Canada and around the world.

Thanks to Daybreak Kamloops with Shelley Joyce for covering this story on Dec 1st, 2020.

Individuals anticipate retirement and envision it as a time for leisure and recreation, travelling and an opportunity to do many things that they have put off. However, once retired, they realize that they are longing for the structure, sense of purpose, and fulfillment of a career.

Or they feel like something is missing from their lives. Perhaps they feel not busy and not useful or not productive enough.

Sometimes something happens to make you stop and think.

Reflect

Right now during the pandemic, you have the gift of time and space to focus on yourself and your redirection. It is an opportunity to ponder the next chapter and next steps.

Use your creativity and out-of-box thinking about opportunities that you would enjoy and find fulfilling. Talk to important loved ones – family and friends – in your social circle and share what you are thinking.

New ideas, new directions – your redirection – can come from the spark of an idea that you discover during this unique time in human history.

Once you have found your redirection, take the time needed to map out and plan it.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is your redirection.

Canada cares. Volunteering and donating are foundational activities in our country. We get involved and support others. We inspire each other when we work together towards important community goals.

And it’s never too late to make a difference. In fact, John Hillman, a 101-year-old Second World War veteran, is walking 101 laps around his retirement home in Victoria, British Columbia in order to raise money for charity.

Hillman was inspired by Captain Tom Moore in the UK. Captain Tom completed 100 laps and raised an incredible £23m.

In turn, Hillman is inspiring others and making a difference in his community — at age 101.

What does Hillman inspire you to do?

2018 – A year of potential and new opportunity

Happy New Year. The best time for new beginnings is now as the new year begins.

New mindset. New shift. New direction. Redirection.

Congratulations on your retirement. Now it’s time to redirect.

Congratulations on intentionally contemplating your future retirement.

Redirection…because you don’t know what is just around the corner.

The time is ripe to figure out your next challenge and your next chapter.

Vital engagement. The time is now.

Mottos to motivate

Incredible motivation, or lack thereof. Motivation is a great strength. It makes a big difference when working towards goals and objectives. As with all things in life, success and achievement take work. High motivation makes it happen.

Searching for the ‘next challenge?’ Strong motivation can be an asset when making this transition – an occupational redirection or change in your life. It takes work to redirect and the pathway forward may not be clear.

Motivation is key

Let’s be honest. Nothing is easy. Work is involved in redirecting. Forethought and effort are required. It is possible to lose motivation, or temporary ‘misplace’ it. Sometimes motivation is ‘low’ or lacking. It is a huge downfall when motivation is absent. This is when motivation must be recaptured.

At other times, success comes more slowly than expected; therefore, motivation needs to be sustained. Transition takes time. In addition, it is not easy to maintain motivation when the going gets tough. Everyone needs a push forward now and again. Using a mantra is one way to increase motivation. The Mottos to Motivate in the image above may help when choosing a new mantra. A motto or mantra can help people to reach toward their goals and keep moving forward.

To stimulate motivation, it often helps to look back on previous accomplishments. Once you have reached a certain age, it is possible to gain greater perspective and realize that many obstacles and hardships have already been overcome in life. This indicates how resilient people just keep trying. They eventually achieve goals and objectives through hard work and perseverance. It is possible to look to previous experiences and see how resilience made it possible to overcome barriers. Being a resilient person helped to keep you motivated and moving forward.

Today, it is important to take steps towards your redirection.

It is up to you. If not now, then when?

I will discuss additional tips for motivation in my next post.

People share with me that they want to continue to be active and engaged in the community. They want to create a retirement lifestyle that they can enjoy for the next few decades. They envision and anticipate spending time in volunteer or paid work roles, engaged in travel or pursuing leisure and recreation activities during their retirement. Some individuals expect to accomplish all of the above, which is wonderful.

Being active and engaged requires good energy to start the day.

With active living, it is especially important to select foods that are healthy and nutritious. In addition, individuals want to take better care of themselves.

Which foods provide good nutrition? After discussing nutrition and diet with my colleague Sandra Crowe, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, we decided to create a joint video blog about healthy breakfasts that individuals can choose for an energetic day. This will assist people who are eager for knowledge and information conducive to an active lifestyle and increased healthspan.

View the video to learn more about the ways to emphasize high protein and low carb healthy breakfast options.

Movers and Shakers and Healthy Breakfasts

It is important to have enough energy for the day. It all starts with a healthy breakfast.

You can sign up for Sandra’s blog at http://www.fitkitchendiva.com

The seven dimensions of health assist with finding balance for wellness and quality of life

Thanks to our aging population, increasing numbers of people are reaching mid-life. They have made it to a certain age and realize they need step it up a bit to maintain their health. Some decide they need to work harder in order to become healthier.

In fact, people are paying more attention to the benefits of healthier, more active lifestyles across the lifespan. It is possible to improve health by working at it. The objective is for people to have not only increased lifespans, but increased healthspans. The approach of using the seven dimensions of active aging can help.

The seven dimensions of active aging is a model for health and wellness. I often share this model when people are interested in learning more about health, wellness and aging and want to understand how to live fuller, healthier lives. This model helps people to design a rich, well-rounded lifestyle and set goals for health and wellness.

The seven dimensions of active aging are the key areas to be aware of for healthy aging in order to improve the quality of life as individuals age. The seven dimensions of health and wellness are:

1. Cognitive – brain health
2. Physical – body fitness and sexuality
3. Psychological – emotional health
4. Social – relationships and social connections
5. Spiritual – divine, psychic and transcendent
6. Occupational – vocation, work and calling
7. Environmental – the natural and build world

With this holistic approach to health and wellness, these dimensions are interconnected to create the whole person and their life. Being active and engaged helps individuals by stimulating at least one, and often, many of these dimensions. It is important to live a balanced lifestyle so that each of these dimensions are developed or stimulated. This is what individuals strive to achieve.

The Canadian population is aging and there are more older adults than previously. People are also living longer today than ever before. They want to live longer and healthier lives. They want to maintain or even improve their health and are paying more attention to health and wellness in order to achieve health-related goals and objectives. Healthspan is very important. The seven dimensions provide a broad perspective of the best ways to think about health and wellness. In addition, the dimensions indicate the areas for improvement in order to live healthier, more satisfying lives.

Later life has changed

There is a realignment of work and retirement in society as the population ages. It is a growing trend. Older adults are continuing to work past traditional retirement age.

CBC’s The National followed a couple of Canadians as they reflected on their decision to keep working into their later years. They found work opportunities for their ‘next act’ that help generate an income and maintain their lifestyle. Furthermore, their work is personally fulfilling and meaningful to their community.

Benefits go beyond the paycheque; working keeps people active and engaged. It was also nice to hear another perspective on the benefits of hiring mature workers.

I coined the term redirection to refer to the new stage of career as people transition into new pursuits and occupation to stay engaged and continue to work. Redirection is an alternative to retirement. It is an exciting time of life. New possibilities are investigated and explored. Older adults discover that their skills and competencies are transferable. My new documentary film explores five people’s experiences with redirection.

CBC News discusses the trend towards delayed retirement. Provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are already rethinking and implementing policy to address this new trend.

It is time to rethink government policy to consider the ways people are and can work longer and what this means for social structures and institutions in Canada.

Learning together in Sociology of Aging at York

What happens when lifelong learners are invited into spaces and places normally reserved for young learners? You get Intergenerational Education. This new and emerging type of education occurs when you mix passion, dynamic innovation and out of the box thinking and bring it all into the classroom. The results and the benefits are phenomenal.

Dr. Chris Alfano, my colleague in Kingston, teaches high school students and older adults in an intergenerational music program. The vibrancy of this classroom is incredible and it has been my pleasure to observe this class on more than one occasion. Chris and his music class received some much deserved attention for the incredible work they all do to bring music into people’s lives through intergenerational education. Great joy is created when they share what they have learned and bring music out into the community.

I teach Sociology of Aging at York University using an intergenerational education model. I have been thrilled to see this new trend catching on. Recently, I visited two intergenerational education class opportunities. This confirmed the rich learning potential for young and old alike.

Last week, I visited the University of Victoria to observe an interdisciplinary, intergenerational class as well as speak with the professors leading this course (The YUFA Teaching and Learning Development Grant that I received from York University facilitated my visit). The UVic students are enrolled in ‘Exploring Aging through Film’. What an inspired idea for an interdisciplinary university course that brings young and old together while strengthening links between research and teaching. This course is the brain child of Dr. Holly Tuokko and her colleagues. The support for this creative course, the vibrant learning environment and the high student interest were striking. It was wonderful to see the development of intergenerational education and how far it has progressed on the West Coast.

My colleague at York, Dr. Gary Turner, also incorporated intergenerational learning into his class for the first time two weeks ago. Again, everyone was pleased with the results and I have every expectation that he will do it again next year.

These classes use Experiential Education to engage students, both young and old. This model has rich potential.

There is a new brand of education emerging in the field and it demands that we pay close attention to it.

Volunteers have a highly valued role in society. Volunteer efforts are very important from coast, to coast, to coast. This is because they help keep communities, non-profit organizations and charities going.

Volunteering is a great way to stay active and also to contribute and give back to the community. It is socially and mentally stimulating and is good for aging well.

I am always pleased to hear about the ways that older adults volunteer in the community, especially the length of time they have been volunteers and the different volunteer roles they hold.

I recently wrote a short piece about volunteering that appears in the Fall/Winter edition of Revera Living Magazine. Please read it here.