Free Workshop Series Sponsored by BCNA during Seniors’ Month June 2021

It is exciting to share that a new workshop series is beginning June 8th, 2021. The series is entitled Pandemic Recovery Series Conquering Ageism in Employment and is hosted by the Bayview Cummer Neighbourhood Association (BCNA). It will assist mature workers who are looking for work and seeking a meaningful challenge.

Career Coach Ann Marie Gilroy and I are co-leading the series. It runs June 8th, 15th, and 22nd. It is free to attend.

Pre-register through this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdemsrD8oHNfyC0GO44V5lklKB7mrRZTB

For more information visit: http://www.suzannecook.ca/workshops/

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.

Are you on the cusp of retirement and longing for structure, a sense of purpose, and fulfillment?

As individuals approach retirement, they realize how much they get from their paid work just by going to work. Work provides structure to their day, mental stimulation, social interaction and friendships, self-worth and self-esteem, and a sense of accomplishment for a job well done.

Dr. Cook studies second and third careers among people age 50 and over. She coined the term redirection to refer to this emerging stage of career.

Are you ready to make a change? Need some help identifying career opportunities?

Dr. Cook provides workshops focused on the redirection transition to organizations and mature workers across Canada. Based on demand, she is offering virtual career redirection workshops.

Redirection Workshops will provide participants with the following:

1. What is the redirection process?
2. Where do I start?
3. What have other people done during their redirection?
4. What can I do to make this transition easier?

What’s your Redirection? For more information, contact Dr. Cook at Suzanne (at) carpevitam.ca. Please put ‘workshops’ in the subject line.

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.

People are sometimes interested in mentoring opportunities in their community. A mentor is someone with experience, knowledge and skill who provides guidance to someone. A mentor helps others develop and grow to their full potential.

Mentoring may be part of your redirection journey.

Being a mentor is a powerful role because of the possibility of having a large influence on someone and assisting them in a meaningful way. It is very exciting to be a part of someone else’s success and achievement.

Where can mentoring opportunities be found?

It takes time to research and find mentoring opportunities. Here are three tips.

1. First, assess what skills and expertise you have to provide to someone. Where will you be most useful and valuable as a mentor? Find organizations and associations where you can use your skills and expertise. Contact them and find out more about what they do and how they develop and train new members or new hires.

2. Mentoring can provide benefits to both the mentor and protege. It is a teaching and learning opportunity for both individuals. While the mentoring relationship is mutual, usually the emphasis is placed on what the proteges gain. In fact, a common bit of wisdom is that mentors walk three steps behind and keep their protege in the limelight. This is a lovely way of emphasizing the importance of helping the protege to shine. In other words, mentors receive accolades for their skill at guiding, counselling and advising while cheering and applauding the protege. In addition, outcomes related to protege achievement are usually measured in a formal mentoring program. More recent work has begun to examine mentor outcomes and goals. This is an interesting direction for research.

3. It may be possible to leverage a mentoring role into a paid opportunity. This may take time and negotiation; however, sometimes an organization requires a teacher/mentor in a formal role to guide and nurture skills and knowledge development in the younger generation. If you find the right fit and prove your value to an organization, you might find this type of role both personally and professionally rewarding.

You are never too old to learn. In other words, you never stop learning. There is something new to learn everyday.

Moreover, the benefits of learning are many. Lifelong learning opportunities provide social connection, mental stimulation and a sense of purpose.

Learning helps people to expand their horizons. Learning fuels personal growth and development. Furthermore, advances in personal development stimulate learning.

Every community needs to provide lifelong learning options for mature residents. In some areas and locations, there are lifelong learning and Third Age Learning Groups. There are also learning programs offered through municipal park and recreation centres, school boards, seniors’ centres and other community organizations. Furthermore, in Canada, book clubs are a favourite way to learn and connect with others.

Learning is an important later life pursuit. Intellectual and personal growth are a critical for healthy aging.

A mandala can be a touchstone that provides a foundation for reflection and change

People sometimes ask me, “Are there ways to enhance motivation?” It can be difficult to keep trying to find new work opportunities or your ‘redirection’ when there are significant barriers and obstacles in the way.

It is important to find ways to motivate yourself to reach toward your goals and objectives. What are the best ways to enhance motivation?

Here are six tips:

1. Set your Ikigai. Ikigai is pronounced ‘ee-kee-guy’ and is your reason for being, or your reason to get up in the morning. This is a Japanese term that I learned after reading Neil Pasricha’s book The Happiness Equation. An Ikigai is like the ‘la raison d’être’ in French. Write out your Ikigai. Put it where you can see it first thing every morning.
2. Set small, measurable goals or objectives. Write them down. Then, track your progress on a weekly basis.
3. Choose a mantra. Use a mantra, motto or quote that connects to your goals and speaks to you. The mantra can motivate and help spur change. It points to where you are going. Pick a mantra that makes you want to reach your goals and keep moving forward.
4. Select a touchstone, an image to ground and inspire you. Choose a visual image or object that makes you want to keep striving towards your goals.
5. A social network can be a good source of support and encouragement. Share your goals with your family and closest friends, or more publicly with colleagues, friends, neighbours and your broader social circle or network.
6. Get out and spend time everyday with nature. This regularly creates reflective time in your life to help you design, review and evaluate goals and to think about your objectives.

Good luck!

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.