Do it anyway

Adulting classes, instruction on how to be an adult, are gaining popularity with millennials.  They teach skills such as balancing a checkbook, cooking, doing laundry, how to clean an apartment, how to pay bills, and other skills.

While we may scoff at the idea, those classes help the younger generation cope with life ahead. Baby boomers may soon be taking a page from the millennial’s play book. While we may have proficiency in life skills millennials are just learning, baby boomers are facing new life situations that will require new skills.

But here’s the common bond between boomers and millennials:  the majority do not embrace learning new skills and making changes willingly.  Most of us wait until we hit a crisis and then, when we are most vulnerable and least able to make changes, before we deal with situations we have long avoided.

Most of us have areas in our lives where we received deficient instruction in life skills. But we have a choice to wallow in our deficiency and blame others for our plight or to do something about it. We may not want to, but we need to do it anyway.

As we enter our third phase of life, it is time to get life in order. No situation improves without effort on our part. One in three baby boomers have no money saved for retirement. Many actually believe they will fund their later years by winning the lottery.  Now is the time to accurately assess your situation and to make changes.

I need to improve my overall health by exercising more, taking better care of my teeth, and eating a healthy, balanced diet. I am already experiencing the results of not actively addressing these issues. I have expensive dental work in my future because I kept putting it off. I gained weight because I ignored what I was eating and didn’t keep up the exercise.

I my next post, I will look at the dynamics of change and update you on the progress I am making. If you need an accountability partner to make a change in your life, drop me a line. I’m happy to help!

Kathryn Avery

About Kathryn Avery

When Kathryn Severns Avery’s husband, Chris, began contemplating retirement in 2014, she knew they had to quickly come up with a multi-faceted plan. They spent the next year discussing, sometimes heatedly, what they would do once he stopped working. On paper their plan looked exciting. They would head from Colorado to the 1891 sea captain’s house they bought and renovated in Rockland on Maine’s midcoast. But the reality of planning and implementing retirement was much different than expected. Kathryn has worked in radio, television, marketing, and public relations. She is the author of five books and has written articles on interior design and crafts for national and regional publications including Romantic Homes, Log Homes Illustrated, The Rocky Mountain News and Colorado Homes and Lifestyles.