2026 May 19 Be who you want to be

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute, the podcast and website about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me. Today we're talking about how to listen to yourself and just be comfortable with being who you really want to be.

I naturally follow a number of people in the retirement space, and not surprisingly, the advice and perspective varies widely. This is both good and bad, because as human beings, we tend to have a pretty strong negativity bias — and sometimes the advice leans toward that negative side.

Negativity bias, as a reminder, means we tend to remember bad or dangerous things more than good or pleasant things. There's a good survival reason for that, but it doesn't always serve us well in the modern world. A lot of what I see tends to focus on the negative — not overtly negative, but there's a lot of "Here's what they didn't tell you about retirement," or getting older, or whatever it happens to be.

And honestly, I'm not sure life ever told any of us a lot about any phase of our lives. We all just kind of paid attention to some things and missed others, and it mostly went fairly okay. The challenging areas that came up — at least from my own personal experience — can mostly be chalked up to me thinking I could somehow cheat on life and aging. Didn't work out quite like I expected, but actually, mostly it kind of did.

The point is simply this: we all took a different path through life to get to where we are today, no matter how old we are. And we all pretty much had access to the same types of sources — namely, we could look at people older than ourselves and either pay attention to what they were thinking and doing, or not. Nobody was hiding anything from us. Some of us just chose not to listen.

So why does this matter? Because when we blame someone outside of ourselves, it might feel better in the short term, but it also removes the motivation to be honest with ourselves and learn from our experiences.

If you're 60 and maybe just got laid off, you might think, "Well, this is it — the last phase of my life." Here's the good news and the bad news: it's the same answer, because it's not the last phase of your life. Your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond will all be different from each other — just like your teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s were all different. Every phase of your life is different. And here's the really exciting part — and yes, also the kind of scary part — those phases will be what you make of them.

I have an interview I need to finally get around to airing with Ricky West, who is awesome. She was a delight to interview — just a heck of a person. She completely changed the trajectory of her life in her late 50s and 60s, and she's never looked back. Many people might consider her some kind of failure because she isn't sitting around managing a multimillion-dollar retirement portfolio. But if her life is what failing looks like, I want to fail like that too — because she pursued her dreams. She's a successful author, she's living happily, she's riding her motorcycle, and she is so totally upbeat that it's absolutely infectious when you talk to her.

And this really comes to a head when people start telling you to "act your age," to settle down, and all those other ageist things you hear. Ricky took charge of her life, made changes, and is still living it to the fullest. That is totally the message I've been pushing, and you'll see me pushing it a lot harder going forward.

One of our new taglines — this is a description we're using on YouTube — is: "Podcast conversations for the curious older adult navigating what comes next. No reinvention needed, just permission to be all of whom you already are."

Think about that for a second. Just permission to be all of whom you already are.

I keep hearing people say they feel invisible, meaningless, whatever. But if you're feeling invisible, honestly, I think for a lot of people it's because they've told themselves that they're invisible. It doesn't mean you have to go out and start riding a motorcycle — but it does help if you decide to live a life aligned with your own vision.

I also want to mention another person — Toby, from the YouTube channel Simply Retired Toby. She took a whole different path — no huge dramatic changes involved. She did all the right things: she moved to a different area, a warmer area, got involved in local groups, and volunteered. And in the end, she decided she was actually happier where she used to live. So she moved back, settled in, and this year started a YouTube channel encouraging people to retire in a way that fits how they actually want to live — their vision. She had zero YouTube experience, started in January 2026, and by the end of May already has over 18,000 subscribers.

Clearly, while many people are out there trying to become whatever someone else told them they should be, there are also a lot of people who just need encouragement to realize it's perfectly okay to just be the person they're most comfortable being. You don't have to be somebody different. You don't have to change dramatically. You just have to be comfortable with who you are.

If that means becoming an entirely new version of yourself, then that's the right answer for you. If that means being a similar person to who you've always been, maybe with a few new twists — like learning how to share your perspective on YouTube — then that's the right answer for you. And if your idea of later life is simply enjoying the beauty of the world around you and being a positive presence, that's equally correct.

If you're in alignment with yourself, you'll automatically be visible and relevant to all the people around you who really matter. That's the most important thing to remember.

A lot of people are still trying to be important in situations they used to be in — a big corporate environment, the top person in the shop, running the farm, whatever it was. And they're comparing their present selves to that. But this is a different phase of your life — and still a very important one. You can still have as much influence as you want on as many people. But you have to define that for yourself. Once you do, the people who really matter will find you important.

No homework tonight — we're still going over the basics. But stay confident, stay visible, and there are more exciting things to come.

One of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. We have UKR7.com, with links to help the people of Ukraine, and WCK.org, the World Central Kitchen, an international organization that works in disaster areas. Both are wonderful organizations working in the international arena. Local charities are always looking for help too. And even just a simple smile can change someone else's day in ways you can't even imagine.

As always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting or useful, please pass it along — and please subscribe and hit that like button. If not, drop me a comment and let me know what you'd like to hear.

Have a great week. Remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.