I admit that I've struggled with the transition from the having a day job part of the world to being retired.
It has made me think more about my own mortality and it has helped me clarify what is really important in my life. I've tried to shuck off everything in my life that I find unimportant and do with intention those things that matter to me.
I feel that if I didn't do this then I would more than likely start losing traction in my daily life and start looking at the question posed by Michael Hyatt in his blog post, "Why You Aren't Dead Yet." He's the CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers and has effectively engaged blogging and other social media to develop relationships around the world.
In this post, he describes a conversation with an elderly friend who Hyatt describes as being a source of wisdom and as a "living treasure." His friend asked him if he felt that he had anything left to contribute to the world. Were his best days over?
How do you respond?
Hyatt then shares: " I then began to make an argument that I first learned in The Noticer by Andy Andrews. In the book, Jones, the personification of wisdom, makes six points to Willow, a seventy-six year old lady, who had given up hope that she had anything left to contribute. (see chapter 6, pp. 83–85)."
The six points he lists are:
- God has a purpose for every single person.
- You won’t die until that purpose is fulfilled.
- If you are still alive, then you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do.
- If you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do, then your very purpose hasn’t been fulfilled.
- If your purpose hasn’t been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life is still ahead.
- You have yet to make your most important contribution.
Michael Hyatt, thank you for sharing that. As a 63-year-old baby-boomer still trying to grab onto this senior citizen thing and onto my new place in life, I find this post helpful, really helpful. I will check out the book. I hope others do too.
Do you or somebody you know share the same challenge?
