2026 September 22 Live the life you envision

This week, we're going to be talking about one of my favorite topics, which is life itself. As a reminder, we talk a lot about the five pillars of life here at 7EveryMinute. Identity is all about yourself and how you perceive yourself. Mind covers all the things about your beliefs and your belief systems. Body is everything related to health and your body itself. Curiosity is being inquisitive about things that are visible, but also things that are invisible. And then, of course, there's contribution, which is helping others in some way or another. We have a deeper dive into all of this in our freebie at 7EveryMinute.com/five-pillars-freebie. I'd invite you to take a look and see what's there.

Today's topic relates to aspects of both mind and identity, which is how you perceive yourself and the world around you, and how you choose to frame that world. That's a very important piece, because it dictates the expectations you create of the world, and how you react will be based upon the expectations you've already set.

I'll start with a little story, and it's kind of a fun one: dogs, walking in the woods. What could go wrong?

Rocket and I try to get an evening walk in pretty much every night. It's important for both of us. Tonight we were on our regular medium-length walk in the woods when Rocket suddenly stopped, looking ahead intently. I believe I've mentioned that we have things like bears and coyotes and bobcats and mountain lions out here, not to mention skunks and porcupines. But what I spotted was a young woman way up ahead with a dog, both unfamiliar, and well ahead of us on the trail. I believe she was heading toward us, but then she immediately turned around, and we never caught up with them.

I thought that was kind of interesting, and too bad, because Rocket meets dogs well. He likes to play, and I thought it would have been fun for the two dogs to meet. Possibly he'd have found somebody else to play with on a regular basis. But it seemed that her expectation was that this could only go badly. Maybe her dog was uncontrollable or something, but it wasn't barking or anything. She had that expectation, so she turned around and walked quickly away from us. We never saw her again for the rest of the walk.

We continued on and saw two people heading up the hill. We go on and off trail and roads and everything else. As I got closer, I realized it was a friend of mine and her husband, and that was a lot of fun. He lamented that he wished their dog would walk with him, but it's only interested in playing basketball, which is something you don't hear often, unless there are other dogs to play with.

We visited for a bit, and I asked the woman how her new job was going. She said it was still fantastic. She had been commuting nearly two hours and often staying down in New York City, working hard at a job she wasn't really crazy about, and then she got laid off with little warning. So she took another job in New York City, but it too was very demanding, both in time and energy, and very high stress in every way. Then suddenly she found a job right in the immediate area. Now she has a commute of around ten minutes or less, she's working with a great group of people, she loves the work and the environment, and she's happy as can be.

I mentioned one of the sayings that we use, "life happens for us, not to us," although sometimes it's a process to find the good in a situation. She immediately chimed in that she totally agrees, and that sometimes you have to help life along to provide that new opportunity, but she's always willing to make that effort.

I immediately thought of you, dear audience, since this is a topic close to the center of all that we talk about. As we age, and especially as we change career paths or retire, it's easy to focus on all the things we perceive as things we've lost. As I've said before, as far as you personally go, the only thing you lost was the last title you had, just like every other career change and promotion. And now you have a whole new world of opportunity opening up in front of you.

My friend's response reflected that kind of thinking. I happened to talk to her as she was transitioning jobs. She said the job wasn't great, but she was happy to have it and still looking forward. Because of that attitude, she was open to seeing and receiving, if you will, the new opportunity, and it quickly presented itself. She could have easily been in the doldrums, mad about the commute and another unpleasant job and all those things. Instead, she chose to focus on what other opportunities might be available, to learn what she could on that job, and to just move forward. Because of that accepting and positive energy, she stayed motivated to look for opportunities and energized enough that she could make an obviously compelling presentation in order to get a job much more aligned with her desires.

Which of course brings us to, well, us. As you're nearing retirement, or if you've entered retirement, what are your attitude and expectations? If you start every day either dreading getting older or living in your perceived past glory, your days probably aren't going too well. However, with all else being the same, if you start each day with a plan and a purpose, excited for what might be coming and ready to deal with all the little things that every day presents to us, chances are you're in a far better mood, with far more energy, and, very importantly, with much more resilience to overcome various obstacles and challenges.

As always, this isn't about looking through rose-colored glasses. This is a genuine attitude shift.

One of the women I occasionally sing with, who I believe is in her 80s, still bowls in leagues, still goes on cruises, volunteers, rarely misses a wide range of social events, is almost always upbeat, and is always ready to take on a new project or help someone. Her life isn't perfect. Sometimes there are serious things she's dealing with, just from overhearing things she says. But she has surrounded herself with other people like herself, who are willing to get as much fun, energy, and life out of life as possible while still helping others. She's not Miss Happy all the time, but she's also not always sitting around saying how bad everything is.

There's another older gentleman, from a different choir. I know him well enough to say that at one point he could barely walk. There was a bit of self-neglect, but mostly just a poor attitude. I saw him at a function a couple of weeks ago, and he's a totally different person. He told me he realized he needed a change. He's lost a bunch of weight, he's more active so he's able to get out more, and he isn't totally wiped out by every workday. He was jovial. He was animated. Like I said, he was a whole new person. And the only thing that really changed was his underlying attitude.

Your brain is extraordinarily powerful. It truly can work miracles. I was just recording some shorts that may be airing soon, and one of them is simply "You don't need anything new." You already have all the power within, and that really is true. You don't need to be reinvented. You have decades of experience, and most of all you need to give your brain the permission to continue to be amazing.

So when you're tempted to think about how being older is bad because of, and fill in whatever the complaint du jour is, think about my friend and how she could have easily fallen into that same trap but decided instead to accept life and find the best part of it that she could. Or think about my other friend, who realized he had to make some changes and, working with his own mind, decided, "These are changes I can make." And he did, and his life is on a whole different trajectory.

Frankly, I truly enjoy so many aspects of being older. I'm not upbeat just to make a few other people feel better. This is how I really feel. Every day is exciting. Every day brings new opportunities. Do some days require a bit more searching for opportunity than others? Of course they do. No one ever said a good attitude makes life perfect. There are so many people who have so much less than we do in North America, yet they still find reasons to get up, work hard, play hard, sing, dance, and just live life. And there are also so many places similar to North America where people have, or could have, many of the same things that we have, but have instead decided to be unhappy, to covet their neighbors' properties, or to hate others for ethnic reasons. The only thing separating one from the other is their attitude.

Your brain is an amazing organ, an unbelievable device. So help it help you. Look forward, not back. Look for the good. Work to stay fit when you can, because that helps your brain tremendously. Eat well, which also feeds your brain. Rest well. Get off social media except in small, limited doses. Read or watch classic books and movies. Learn from the rest of the world. Be busy. Be involved. Be helpful to others. Any and all of those things, and hundreds more, prime your brain and outlook so that you'll be more open and receptive to finding the good within you and around you.

As a reminder, our short, engaging video on the five pillars of life is up, with a little course to go along with it, where I explain how our lives are shaped by five major influences and how we can balance and adjust those influences as we age. Check it out at 7EveryMinute.com/five-pillars-freebie. I think you'll enjoy it, and there's a lot of good stuff there.

And remember, one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. Visit UKR7.com to help the people of Ukraine, and WCK.org to support World Central Kitchen. Those are two international sites, but local charities are always looking for help, and just something as simple as a smile can change someone else's day for the better in ways you can't even imagine.

As always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting and useful, please pass it along. Also, please let me know what other topics you'd like us to cover, and of course, always subscribe and hit that like button. Have a great week.

Remember to live the life that you dreamed of, because that's the path to true contentment.