Explore "secondact" with insightful episodes like "How to Reinvent Yourself to Start Something New with Lynn Smith", "Embracing Change After 50", "E31: How To Live A “Kuel” Life: Normalizing Aging For Women With Jack Perez", "Next Move, Best Move...22 Minutes With Author Kimberly Cummings" and "Your Life Plan Part 2 049" from podcasts like ""The New Mid Podcast with Michelle Newman", "Aging With Purpose & Passion", "Foster Your Passion - Women Entrepreneurs sharing their journey", "Second Act Stories" and "Your Encore Life"" and more!
In today's episode Michelle speaks with Lynn Smith who is a National Media Expert, Anchor Alum NBC News, MSNBC AND CNN Headline News. Lynn talks about how she used her repurposed her skills in media to start her company that helps entrepreneurs gain media influence. In show you'll learn how to repurpose your skills to start a new job or start your own business, how to overcome imposter syndrome and how to move past your fears.
Aging is a topic many avoid altogether with “anti-aging” being promoted so much in media. But there is so much to life in the second act! That’s why Jack Perez is passionate about normalizing the conversation of aging for women. Jack, or Jacqueline, is the CEO and founder of Kuel Life, an online community and curated shopping experience for women 45+. Her mission is to make Kuel Life synonymous to normalizing aging and become the one stop shop for women who need answers and support. Join in as she chats with Hayley Foster about embracing her age and empowering others to do the same.
We sit down for a face-to-face interview with Kimberly B. Cummings. Her first book, "Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning Into A Career You’ll Love," debuts on June 9th 2021.
Kimberly is a career and leadership expert who heads up her own consulting practice called “Manifest Yourself.” We reviewed the book in advance of the interview and asked about a number of intriguing passages and chapters of “Next Move, Best Move.”
As we are coming to the end of 2020 and look forward to 2021, we are going to offer encore episodes about the importance of and steps in writing a life plan. 2020 certainly didn’t turn out like the vision we may have had for it, but we have a lot to look forward to. This past year has dealt a harsh blow to many plans we may have had. Some I know have been able to reboot their plans and move forward with an alternative direction, either changing course entirely or just navigating around the original planned course. As 2021 approaches, we can look forward to a vaccine for Covid-19 and the return to some of the activities that we have been held back from doing as a result of this pandemic.
This is the perfect time to do what I believe is one of the most important steps to avoiding a life of regret by writing down a life plan, and we will spend the next 3 episodes replaying the 3 episodes that covered this nearly a year ago. This also gives me time to take a bit of a break to revisit my life plan and make adjustments based on where I am now and this season of life to chart the course of where I want to be. So don’t miss a single episode of this series. Remember, just listening to teaching and information will get you nowhere unless you act on it, so here we go for part 2 of this series.
Much of the information I am going to share is based on the book, “Living Forward” by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy as I have mentioned in previous episodes. You can find the reference and link to the book in the show notes.
Last week we talked about beginning your life plan with the end in mind, and your action step was to write down what legacy you hope to leave behind once you are gone by reflecting on what you would want people to say about you at your funeral and after.
Today we are going to get down to the specific about several categories, or what the book “Living Forward” call Life Accounts. Examples of categories, or life accounts that you would want to include are:
This list is not exhaustive and you can have different names for the categories that may be more specific to you, for instance “spouse” or you spouses name, your children’s names. You can also add categories such as grandchildren, travel, exercise, etc. I recommend you list them in order of priority, but that it up to you. They do recommend putting categories that are related directly to you near the top, such as spiritual, intellectual, and physical. Although this may feel selfish, it goes along with the thought that you can’t take care of and add value to others until you can take care of yourself.
Hyatt and Harkavy suggest there are four considerations when making your list of life accounts:
You will need to get specific for each account. Each one will need to have the following sections:
Here is an example of my physical life account from my life plan:
Physical:
My physical purpose is to maintain my body as God’s temple through proper nutrition, exercise, and following recommended checkups.
I am at a very ideal weight for me, and I have the energy to accomplish my daily activities and desires. I am exercising daily and loving the activities that are giving me great physical benefits. I have cut my medications to a minimum because of my healthy way of life.
Specific Commitments:
Inspirational Quote:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19
We will get down to more detail about how to write your specific commitments and follow through with making progress with your life plan next week as we conclude the series.
Action Step: Write down your list of between 6 - 12 life categories or accounts. Write your purpose statement for each, your envisioned future of where you want to be, an inspiring quote or scripture for some of them, and the current reality of where you are now. Refer back to the show notes for an example of how I have written one of my accounts, but write it in a way that is most meaningful for you.
Susan Goldfein is 79 years old, in great shape and splits her time between Florida and Connecticut. For most of her professional career, she served as a speech pathologist in a range of different settings. She worked with elementary school students, provided home care for stroke patients and she taught at the university level.
Her last position was with the Alzheimers Association in New York City. But in 2008, the organization faced major funding challenges and had to reduce their staff. So at the age of 68, Susan was out of a job and completely lost in terms of what to do.
After some early struggles, she took an eight-week course in short story writing at a community center. And in the footsteps of Nora Ephron and Erma Bombeck, she found her voice as a successful humorist. She pens a blog called “Unfiltered Wit,” has written two books and her stories are syndicated in eight different newspapers across the country. You can check out her writing on her website.
Concerned about COVID-19, we sat down outside in two folding chairs in a Westport, Connecticut dog park – yes a dog park – for an interview. So enjoy the conversation and a few extra background noises too.
Much of the information I am going to share is based on the book, “Living Forward” by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy as I have mentioned in previous episodes. You can find the reference and link to the book in the show notes.
Last week we talked about beginning your life plan with the end in mind, and your action step was to write down what legacy you hope to leave behind once you are gone by reflecting on what you would want people to say about you at your funeral and after.
Today we are going to get down to the specific about several categories, or what the book “Living Forward” call Life Accounts. Examples of categories, or life accounts that you would want to include are:
This list is not exhaustive and you can have different names for the categories that may be more specific to you, for instance “spouse” or you spouses name, your children’s names. You can also add categories such as grandchildren, travel, exercise, etc. I recommend you list them in order of priority, but that it up to you. They do recommend putting categories that are related directly to you near the top, such as spiritual, intellectual, and physical. Although this may feel selfish, it goes along with the thought that you can’t take care of and add value to others until you can take care of yourself.
Hyatt and Harkavy suggest there are four considerations when making your list of life accounts:
You will need to get specific for each account. Each one will need to have the following sections:
Here is an example of my physical life account from my life plan:
Physical:
My physical purpose is to maintain my body as God’s temple through proper nutrition, exercise, and following recommended checkups.
I am at a very ideal weight for me, and I have the energy to accomplish my daily activities and desires. I am exercising daily and loving the activities that are giving me great physical benefits. I have cut my medications to a minimum because of my healthy way of life.
Specific Commitments:
Inspirational Quote:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19
We will get down to more detail about how to write your specific commitments and follow through with making progress with your life plan next week as we conclude the series.
Action Step: Write down your list of between 6 - 12 life categories or accounts. Write your purpose statement for each, your envisioned future of where you want to be, an inspiring quote or scripture for some of them, and the current reality of where you are now. Refer back to the show notes for an example of how I have written one of my accounts, but write it in a way that is most meaningful for you.
This episode is a bit different (and we love “different” here at Second Act Stories). Today, we'll introduce you to Amy Yontef-McGrath. She lives in Montgomery County, Maryland and is the proud mother of three.
Amy found herself in a bit of a funk as she approached her 49th birthday. She loved her job as a stay-at-home mom. But as her children were getting older and starting to leave the nest, it was clear that she needed something new. As she put it, I needed to “shake-up my life.”
In a stroke of creative genius, she came up with “Follow Me To Fifty,” a year-long journey to complete 50 public service projects in advance of her 50th birthday. Amy joined a group of volunteers in kayaks to clean-up the Anacostia River. She helped a refugee family settle into their new home. She did a monthly-long stint as a food coordinator at the local food bank. She placed American flags on the graves of war veterans on Veterans Day. And along the way, she documented each of these projects in her "Follow Me To Fifty" blog.
Amy's choice for the 50th project? She took a fifty mile walk along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. "I wanted to go somewhere I'd never gone before. Exploring new things was the theme of the whole year and I wanted the same for the walk."
Amy Yontef-McGrath giving her "Volunteer of the Year" acceptance speech at Montgomery Serves Annual Awards Ceremony. Last month Amy was selected as "Volunteer of the Year" by the Montgomery County Volunteer Center. In her acceptance speech, she asked the crowd to "Please keep following me. I'm not done yet."
For today’s episode, I traveled to Frisco, Texas and met with Steve Paz. Since he was a boy, Steve always wanted to be a police officer and he got his chance initially as a military police officer in the Marines. He then spent twelve years with the Dallas Police Department, one of the finest police forces in the country. He was on the front lines of crack cocaine epidemic of the 1990s and encountered a number of dangerous situations which he describes in the podcast.
In 2004, a family friend offered him an excellent corporate position – a role that he admits he was completely unqualified for at the time. He took the job which paid more money, dramatically cut his commute and offered his wife and family tremendous piece of mind.
But he also felt a loss of purpose in no longer serving among America’s finest. We talk with Steve (as well as his wife Judy) about his decision.
Special thanks to my friend Dean Barber for suggesting this episode.
This episode takes us to the United Kingdom for an interview with Lizzie Fouracre, a 33-year-old Brit with a sparking personality. Lizzie was living the dream helping to manage a fast-growing technology company in London started by her brother Tim.
And while the pace of a technology start-up was exhilarating, over time she found herself wanting more from life. So she quit, packed up a tent and sleeping bag and decided take a six-week hike around Great Britain. And in a eureka moment at the top of a mountain in Wales, she decided to create a new venture called The Humble Retreat.
She brought on a partner -- her mother Mandy Fouracre -- to help manage this (the two are pictured above). Eighteen months later, this mother-daughter team couldn't be happier working together.
Click here to learn more about The Humble Retreat.
Special thanks to Miriam Christie of Careershifters for connecting me with Lizzie.
A force of nature.” That’s how one person described Judy Cockerton.
Judy’s life changed dramatically when she became a foster parent at the age of 48. She and her husband Arthur took on the responsibility of raising two sisters aged five months and seventeen months – along with their own two kids who were 12 and 18 at the time. And for the first time she saw how flawed the child welfare system was in her home state of Massachusetts — and in America.
She developed a really simple idea to improve the system. Let’s bring together adoptive families and their children with a group of caring elders. And let’s have them live together in the same neighborhood.
So she created an organization called The Treehouse Foundation. She worked closely with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. She found a developer and helped secure $15 million in government funding. And she focused on building a model community that supports adoptive families.
I traveled to Easthampton, Massachusetts and spent a day with Judy Cockerton and the Treehouse Community of 100+ people there. It’s an amazing story.
In her book, Second-Act Careers: 50 Ways to Profit from Your Passions During Semi-Retirement, Nancy Collamer has created a great resource for anyone wanting to take their passion and earn income from it during retirement.
Nancy Collamer is a speaker, career coach, and author who writes a semi-monthly career column for NextAvenue.org (PBS) and Forbes.com. Her home on the internet is mylifestylecareer.com.
Last week, I introduced a great resource to help you find the answer to your retirement questions.
The Library includes worksheets and checklists to help you plan for and live in retirement. Each month new resources are added based on client and reader questions. Together we can build a library to Plan Well and Invest Wisely for retirement.
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